FicWad

Chapter 39: the death of

I do not own Game of Thrones, Harry Potter or Ice Station Zebra

EDRIC

“We don’t need to March them all the way up the neck,” I told Bran. “We can just send them straight to Winterfell using portkeys!”

“Oh . . . Yeah! That would work!” agreed Bran.

He had arrived earlier today with a good portion of the Riverlands army and we were now trying to get things organized. I had my own people already to go, but, I was drawing troops from a much more local area than he was. Instead of Knights, I had the Free Folk men and spear-wives. Most of them were going with us, but a few were staying behind to guard the castles. My peasant levies were mostly trained to fight in the chaotic style that the Free Folk preferred, as ever since they had come here, the Free Folk had been teaching them how to fight wights, not the style that most lords trained their levies to fight knights.

Since my wife was jealous of how well I got along with Osha, I decided to leave her behind to lead the garrison. If Sansa could see her, maybe she wouldn’t be so afraid of me having an affair with the woman.

But in spite of his training, Bran seems to have forgotten he is a wizard. I kept having to remind him of the easier way to do things, using magic, when we would make plans.

The snow was already knee deep and still coming down. It would be a real bear to try to march an army through this. Finally, everyone was ready. Bran and I turned ropes into portkeys and sent them to Winterfell, a platoon at a time. Bran was in the first group to go. He would be needed to explain what we were doing to his father, Lord Stark. After I sent the last group, I went to say goodbye to my wife:

“I still wish I could go with you!” said Sansa, as I bend forward to hug her without squashing the baby. “It you get in trouble you make sure you apparate back to me!”

“I’ll stay safe,” I told her, before kissing her on the lips, then bending over to kiss her baby bump. “I will come back for both of you.”

I stepped away from them and twisted away.

POP!



TORMUND

The further North we sailed the shorter the days became until there were no days at all, anymore. The snow got more intense as we traveled too. When we arrived at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, it didn’t look the same as I had seen it before. The sea formed a frozen shelf along the shore and it was obvious that they had cut away the ice so that the ships could get close enough to reach the dock.

Stanis took our ship in a wide arc that took us a little North of The Wall, before bringing us into the harbor. It was hard to make out anything through the haze, but it looked like the ground was covered in something black that went as far as the eye could see above The Wall.

When we got off the ship, there was a Crow waiting to meet us.

“I’m Prince Stanis Baratheon,” yelled Stanis, trying to be heard over the howling wind. “Who’s in charge here?”

“I’m Gren, m’lord,” said the Crow. I’m commander of the Night’s Watch here at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea!”

“You’ll address me as My Prince, not My Lord,” growled Stanis, before indicating me. “This is Tormund Bearsbane. He’s in charge of the Wildlings I brought.”

“Nice ta meet ya, Lord Bearsbane,” said the Crow.

“Tormund. Just call me Tormund,” I corrected him. “I’m not a Lord. Now, I need a place to stay for all my people.”

“We’ll find a place for them all,” replied the Crow.

“We also brought dragon glass weapons: daggers, spears and arrows,” explained Stanis. “I gave most of it to the Wildlings, but there’s some left over for some of your men. It supposedly works better against the wights than steel does, but you’ll have to find out that for yourselves.”

“Thank you, My Prince,” said Commander Gren.

“Is The Wall shorter than it used to be?” I ask. “It seems like it used to stick out into the sea more.”

They’re freezing the sea,” replied the Crow. “A little more each day. And the whole army of the dead is standing on the other side of The Wall, just waiting for it to freeze enough that they can go around The Wall.”

“Tormund and his people will help you see that that does not happen,” said Stanis. “Hopefully, I will be back here with the Stormland Knights in time to help you.”
JON

Every day, the snow gets a little deeper and we go a little slower. It helps that the people in front trample down the snow, making it easier for those who come after. I put the cavalry in front because the horses could walk through virgin snow more easily, trampling it down for those that came after. Infantry grumbled a lot about stepping in horse shit. I had left most of my spear-wives guarding the Red Keep, bringing only the toughest ones. Men at war sometimes don’t much care about consent, especially in this era. The spear-wives I brought were tough enough and vicious enough to defend them selves. There hadn’t been rapes yet. But their had been a few maimings inflicted by the spear-wives.

King Robbert had a very short attention span. I had to constantly coax him not to stop at this inn or that brothel. The grain silos I had placed along the King’s Road helped speed us up, as we had no need to send out foraging parties.

At the Ruby Ford, we found the Knights of the Vale, led by the Blackfish and Yohn Royce. They joined our line and we continued on to the Neck. At Moat Cailin, we found Ser Edric Peverel of the Twins waiting for us. He had portkeys to magically whisk the entire army to Winterfell. I didn’t like that, but saw the necessity, even if I would have to go meditate on arrival so I don’t kill anyone.



MARGAERY

It was lucky for me that there was someone here who was the exact same size as me. Cat’s clothes fit me perfectly. But she didn’t think it was right for an important Lady like me to go around dressed like a servant. She offered to make me some new clothes that were fit for a great Lady. But it was far too cold to go around in a dress. So I asked her for pants to wear under the dress and for her to shorten it to mini-dress length so I could move enough to fight. I think I scandalized her! As a compromise, she made me a floor length overskirt to wear over the dress that had a quick release clasp so I could easily remove it if i needed to fight. But it would take her a while to make such a thing. So today, I had borrowed some old clothes from Dacy to wear in the practice yard.
I was a little afraid they wouldn’t let me spar with them because of my gender. But Dacy told me she used to regularly spar with Robb before the baby. When I arrived, Robb was teaching Rickon how to use a spear and shield.

“Something I can help you with, Lady Margaery?” asked Robb.

“I thought I might be able to spar a few rounds with you?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t want to hurt you, my lady,” said Robb.

Yes, I thought this might be his attitude. I was pretty good at unarmed martial arts. No where near Jon’s level. But in my past life, I might not have been able to beat Batman, but I could last long enough that he couldn’t take me out with a single punch. I grabbed Robb’s hand in an akido hold and twisted so that he dropped his spear and went to his knees.

“Shall you yield? Or should I break your wrist?” I asked.

“Ow! Ow! Yield! Yield!” groaned Robb.

I released him and let him get to his feet.

“Now then, do you want to give me a real spar? No holding back?” I asked him.

“My apologies for underestimating you, my lady,” said Robb. “We’re preparing to do battle with the wights. Dragon glass works against them, we tested on the wight we used to have here. So we have made the dragon glass into daggers, spears and arrows. Which is your preferred weapon, my lady?”

“ . . . dagger, I think,” I replied.

“Then we’ll spar with daggers,” said Robb as he handed me a practice dagger and took one for himself. “Only stabs count, not slashes and we’ll go best out of five hits.”

I could tell from his face that my ‘en guarde’ position was not one he’d seen before. I made a feint and let him attack first. When he lunged, and I did a triple backflip away from him and when he charged, I stepped in and blocked with my left hand on his forearm while stabbing with my right. My knowledge of Wing Chun was serving me well. He gave me a tough fight, but only got in one stab to my four. I think that it really messed with him that I compensated for his longer reach by moving in too close for him be able to hit me easily.

I had arrived around noon, so I was surprised at how quickly it got dark. The days are really short up here. It had been overcast and dark all day, anyway. But even if you couldn’t see it, you could tell when the sun went down. I wondered what kind of wobble did the planet’s axis have to produce such long winters. Astronomy was really not my field of expertise. The only person I knew who really knew anything about it was Edric and even he didn’t have a better explanation than: ‘magic’.
I spent several days here. Lord Stark was cool to me. My little display when I first arrived only confirmed his ill feelings about me that he’d gained when he found out about what I had done with Trystane Martell before I had married his son. Cat was cool to me too. As much a servant could get away with being to a Lady like me. Perhaps a little more as the Starks gave her more leeway than a servant would normally get. Especially now, since the secret of her being the former wife of Ned was out.

It was normal for great Lords and their Ladies to have separate bedrooms. In my case, I always slept in Bran’s room and had turned my room into an office and botany lab. It was mostly filled with plants. When I started my affair with Edric, I had added a small single bed. If Bran couldn’t bring Meera to our bed without me, I shouldn’t bring Edric to our bed either. Here at Winterfell, Cat had given up the Ladies bedroom when she ‘died’. She’d taught Sansa to take over the role of Lady of Winterfell and after Dacy had married Robb, the role and room of the Lady of Winterfell went to her. Cat spent her nights sleeping in her former Husband’s bed with him. While she had a servant’s room that she used as a large closet to hold her clothes. And she had a lot more of them than a servant would usually own. So there were plenty that she could lend me. And after a few days, the first of the outfits I had asked her for were done.

That was around the time that Bran showed up with the first of the Riverlands army. Lord Stark was totally flummoxed at that. I don’t think he realises all that his children can do with their magic. It was completely ‘outside the box’ for him. I was happy to be re-united with my husband and he liked my new clothes, not least because it helped him tell me and his mother apart at a distance.

EDRIC

After I arrived at Winterfell with the last of the troops from the Twins, I gathered up all the portkeys and apparated them to Moat Cailin. The rest of the Riverlands troops and the King’s army were spread out all over the Riverlands. But they’d all come through here. I waited here for them and sent them to Winterfell via portkey when they arrived.


JON

After meditating to bring myself back from the Dark Side, I made my way into the Great Hall. The Lords were arguing about strategy, each trying to persuade the King to do things their way.

“Ah! There he is now!” boomed the King. “Jon! Come beat some sense into these idiots!”

I took control of the meeting. When the other Lords protested, the King made it clear that I was in charge of strategy. My plan called for Renly to join the Stepstone Wildings at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea with the Stormland Knights. Yara Lannister was bringing the Ironborn and the Westlander Knights to stop the Army of the dead from going around the Wall in the West. The Northerners would go to the nearest flashpoint, East, center or West. While Robert’s Army would go up the center to Castle Black and spread out there to defend The Wall. My Father, Lord Stark, was leading the Northern contingent to Castle Black with the King. Robb Stark was staying here to be the Stark at Winterfell and I was staying to co-ordinate things when the Reachlanders and Dornish arrived. Bran’s Riverlands army would be the reserve force to be used where it was needed and would act as couriers, as the ravens were no longer returning from The Wall.

Since metal weapons were of more limited use against the wights, before he left, our father left his greatsword, Ice, with Robb.



TORMUND

The ice kept growing and growing, each day getting a little closer to the end of The Wall. And it was thick Ice too. Men had no trouble at all walking out on the ice without fear of it breaking. We kept an eye on it as the ice daily grew and the blizzard raged non-stop, cutting visibility down to near zero. It was also an endless night. We had no way of telling when one day ended and another began. The sky was black with no hint of a sun of moon or even starlight. When The first wight came round The Wall, it caught us by surprise! We quickly killed that one, but it was not alone! Three more came after it! We formed a line to stop them as they came around The Wall and poke them with our dragon glass spears and daggers. I used The Sword of Icy Fire on them, which worked just as well. But I only had the one of them. While we were killing wights that came round The Wall, they were returning the favor with their own weapons. We had to constantly stay at the end of the Wall defending it. But they never tired and just kept coming! The sea continued to freeze and the shelf they could use to go around kept getting wider, forcing our line of warriors to be longer in order to stop them all! They were wearing us down! I might be able to heal fast, but there were so many that I frequently needed to step back and give my self time to heal up while I watched my friends die. It was during one of those times that the Wight Walker came and started throwing around and carving away my friends until one of them managed to poke him with a dragon glass spear and he shattered into a thousand pieces taking with him most of the wights near him. But then, a new wave of them came running around The Wall. A few ranks behind them was another Wight Walker, who raised his hands causing the fallen wights to get back up, turned my fallen friends into wights and reassembled the Wight Walker that had been destroyed! By now the shelf was so wide our line was a single man deep in places. This was it. We were all about to die. Suddenly I hear Karsi’s voice call out:

“The Kneelers are coming! The Kneelers are coming!”

I glanced behind me and out of the blinding snow charged a bunch of men in armor. And one of the ones in front was the biggest, most beautiful woman, I had ever seen in my life! Even in her armor I could tell that!


TRYSTANE

I had not noticed it before. but every one of the Silence’s crew had a weapon that was made of valerian steel. We were just passing the Iron Islands when Arya finally let me see what was in that special hold with the big lock on it. When she opened it, I couldn’t believe my eyes! The place was packed to the ceiling with treasures and most of it was made from valerian steel! There was even a suit of armor made from the stuff. She let me have a spearhead, that I used to replace the one I had on my spear before.

I’d been let into her trust so completely because our marriage was going well, especially the marriage bed, which she lured me into more often than I did her. I think as she grew to trust that I was serious about letting her continue to have her adventures as a pirate captain, and that I really was willing to wait until she was ready to have children, that little by little she began to relax and come to trust me. Showing me her treasures was a sign of that trust. As we continued North, we began to encounter chunks of ice floating in the water. A couple of crewmen had to be assigned to push them away from the ship as we approached them and we had to slow down.

One morning, we awoke to the sounds of alarm from the deck. Part of me was tempted to just grab my spear and run out there naked to defend the ship. But it was quite cold this far North, so I followed Arya’s example of getting fully dressed before going out. When we reached the deck, I saw that the ship was frozen into ice that stretched as far as I could see. Which wasn’t very far, because the snow was coming down pretty hard! And climbing over the rail of the ship was a group of mobile dead men with glowing blue eyes. I shifted into the wereworld, but it didn’t help there. They existed there too, only just as skeletons with blue flames in their eye sockets. One world had an army of zombies, the other had an army of skeletons. I shifted back to the normal world to help fight them. I poked one with my spear and it instantly died. Arya was not having as good as luck with her sword, needle. She’d poke them through the heart and they didn’t react at all! Most of the other crewmen did not have that problem and most of the time their attacks succeeded. But there were so many that they were still coming aboard. When it got too bad, Arya noticed that they were only coming up on one side of the ship.

“Abandon Ship!” yelled Arya, as she leapt over the other side. The surviving crew and I followed her. She led us in a long arc that took us away from the ship and towards shore. The Zombies chased after us and took down a few more crew members before we made it to shore. As soon as she was certain that we were in the clear, Arya stopped and made a count of who was left. Of the twenty crew members she had last night, eleven were left. Her first mate, Toreg, who had been the only one besides us who could talk, was not amongst the survivors.

“Where do we go from here?” I asked.

“We need to find the road and go North up it to Deepwood Motte” commanded Arya. “From there, we can catch a boat to Bear Island. But from the look of the sea back there. we might not need a boat to get there.


JOFFREY

The blizzard was still blowing and I can’t remember the last time I saw daylight. Every day, the wights make another climb up The Wall. Every hour we scrape the Wall with the anchor. But it seems to do little good. Does the rest of the world even know what’s going on here? For years, our leadership had denied the existence of wights. And now that we have to fight them, will anyone believe us if we tell? The wind was howling so much, I didn’t even hear the elevator arrive. But when a large figure stepped out of the haze and came close enough to see him, I immediately recognized the familiar figure of:

“Father? I mean, your grace?” I gasp. “What are you doing here?”

“You can call me father if you like,” said the King. You don’t have to say: ‘your grace’ all the time. As for what I am doing here: the Night’s watch called for the aid of the Seven Kingdoms, so here we are! Armies from all over are on their way up here to help you fight the Others! And we have weapons! It turns out dragon glass kills the wights and we brought enough for-”

Suddenly we were charged from both sides by two different large groups of wights. They must have climbed up somewhere else and walked along the top of The Wall to here! I hit one with my torch and it burst into flames. The King hit one with his war hammer hard enough to explode it’s head and knock it off The Wall! There were two other men with him that I hadn’t seen because they were dressed all in white armor with white cloaks, King’s Guards! The each took down a wight with a single thrust of a black stone dagger.

“Your, Grace! we must retreat!” yelled one of the King’s Guards.

The King gave a roar as he hit one with his war hammer and stabbed another with his own black stone dagger. A wight knocked the torch out of my hand! In desperation, I drew my dagger, the valarian steel one I had stolen from my father just before I got send here to The Wall. To my great surprise, when I stabbed a wight with it, It instantly fell to the ground, immobile! Valerian steel works against these things!?! I should have been paying attention. Because a wight chopped into my shoulder with an axe! Then another stabbed me in the gut! As I fell to the ground, bleeding out, I saw three of them at once stabbing my ex-father the King. The darkness grew deeper . . .