Chapter 50: Chapter 45
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***
Damian Blackheart.
Fucking frost!
I remembered my first homeland - Russia, and Earth in general. The same changeable weather and frosts. Not everywhere, but in certain latitudes, but still.
Here, in the Royal Harbour, it was sunny, warm and graceful, except for the typical stench of the capital, from which you can't escape even behind the walls of the Red Castle. And here on the Wall, the snot was freezing in my nose. And there were still those crowds of Viht that ran marathon from one side of the Wall to the other. I've never seen any of the Others, though Jaehaerys and Shira assured me they were near, as were most of the Night King's army. It's just that they're still coming.
At first, when there were only a few of them wandering around, they were shot off by the best archers on the Wall. And then, when really big groups began to appear, we carefully sent one of us on a dragon to burn these crowds of wychs, and at the same time burned the space in front of the Wall, so that the snow would melt and our guys could fight there. We weren't going to send them there, but what could happen?
- I think I'll fly the Viserion and burn that batch of Wychts. - My uncle said to me and went to his dragon after my nod.
I was left with my squires and Oberyn who came up with his squire Damon Sand.
- Will it start soon? - He asked, and as if gazing at the Wychs, he kept his eyes on them.
- A few more days, I think. Then they'll hit an area.
- One or more?
- If I were the Night King, I'd hit several, but really focus on one area. Splitting the enemy forces and hitting the most vulnerable spot is the best option. But I don't know exactly how he thinks, and his army isn't exactly conventional.
- That's true. - He was silent for a while, and then he added. - How's Lieven?
- He seems eager to fight. He wanted to come here with me when I said goodbye to my men. - he answered with a smile. - He's clearly got it in for me.
- You have no idea what Obara was like at his age. Sometimes I regretted teaching her how to hold a spear. I'd never seen such noise and energy in anyone. It was in time that she settled down and became a little quieter and more sensible. As a child, she was the only one you could hear in the Water Gardens.
- She used to tell me that Tiena and Nymeria and Arianna made more noise.
- You little liar. - Oberyn dismissed her.
- Then how about sharing Obara's dirty secrets?
- If we survive, I promise I'll tell you everything I know and have heard.
- That's not an uplifting promise. Are you going to die, Red Serpent?
- You know, I'm even a little afraid of the upcoming battle. - he confessed. - Still, fighting the dead is quite different from fighting the living. The living can be taken by fear, persuasion, poisoning, deception, but these... With them you need to behave differently and fight the same way.
- That's why we worked so hard for this victory and trained so hard.
- That's true. But still, we can never be 100% sure of winning.
- That's true. Something will always go wrong. - I agreed. - That's why we have people here who can improvise.
- Damian?
- I can see that! - I nodded, watching as various birds and bats flew at us from the direction of the Backstage. - "Red Scorpions! Get ready! Attack from the air!
The Red Scorpions are throwing mechanisms that are loaded with Blackheart's Flame. Ten seconds after firing, the little pots either explode or detonate on contact with the target. They were designed specifically for aerial targets, as we only have four dragons and not an infinite number of mages.
We braced ourselves for battle, watching the clouds of wychbirds moving towards us.
- "Fire!" came from the commanders on the Wall.
Shells flew into the undead, which reached their targets. I killed three of the birds that attacked me and one that knocked Deacon Tarly to the ground and tried to peck his eyes out. Oberyn wielded his Valyrian steel-tipped spear quite deftly and killed six of the flying whirlwinds.
The remaining flying whirlwinds were also slaughtered by fire, magic, dragons, dragon glass, and those with Valyrian steel. Our castle had only a dozen dead, who were immediately put to the fire, and the wounded, who were not so many, were put in the infirmaries.
But as soon as we dealt with the first wave of flying viht and scattered the wounded, we were attacked by a second wave, which was many times larger.
That's where I almost lost an eye myself. The creatures were aiming at the exposed parts of the body when they realised they couldn't penetrate the defence. It's a good thing you don't become a wych, or I'd have joined the army of the dead.
We managed to deal with the second wave, though the losses were heavy. Nearly five dozen dead at Castle Black where I was, Lord Commander Alliser Thorne was also killed, as well as nearly all the officers of the Night's Watch. Oberyn was wounded, his artery was damaged and he was taken to the infirmary. Not fatal, but he'll be out of action for a while.
As soon as we sorted out the problems that had formed to us arrived messages with the help of Morse code, which was transmitted from one castle to another with the help of flags. As well as duplication with crows and even messengers just in case.
It was relayed that attacks by flying wychs were all along the length of the Wall on every castle. Uncle Daniel had gone to the Western Watch-u-more just in case. Jayheiris was with Shira at the Eastern.
Half an hour after the last reports, I began to feel that the concentration of death had clearly increased. And I was not mistaken in my sensations, as crowds of dead began to emerge from the forest, led by three of the Others. Among them, looking through the Myrian trumpet, I did not see a person with a "crown". So they are "ordinary" Inhumans. We also sent messages to the other castles.
The Others stood like pillars on the border. So was their army.
At a guess, there were tens of thousands dead. I had 10,000 in my castle, plus equipment, mages and a dragon.
- Guys! Bring the Scooters down. Let's test them in action.
From the walls began to descend those self-propelled mechanisms, which were filled with explosives and wild fire, worked on by Quibern, Marvin the Mage with the Alchemists Guild. As soon as the four-wheeled wagons descended to the ground, the ropes were dropped and one rope that was attached to a special key was raised, which set the mechanism in motion. We had thirty-five of these things down.
They began their movement towards the rows of the dead, who were still standing and waiting for no idea what to do. The others did not take any action either, sitting on their ice spiders, and just watched our "scooters" rolling towards them. At first we wanted to put a steam engine on them, which is sometimes used in Volantis, Braavos, and even in Asshai, but we thought that the Others with their ice magic could fuck up the whole thing. In the end, we got the mechanics from Myr to come up with a mechanism that would keep us from freezing, thanks to a lubricant that Quibern and I had invented, based on my knowledge of my past world. They weren't moving too fast, but enough to meet the first rows of wychs in a minute and get stuck in them.
Thirty-five powerful explosions erupted all along the line of the Viht army. The explosions were large and so were the craters that formed. The fire that erupted engulfed dozens even hundreds of Wiht and shattered the formation of the army of the dead, though not perfect.
One single "scooter" that reached the group of the Others and crashed into a dead horse thus detonating unfortunately did little good. No, it killed their spiders, even it seems that the Others were wounded, at least two of them were left without one arm, and the third one, which stood further away from its fellows, roared powerfully and after that the Vikhtas rushed to the attack.
And the first to break out in a run were the giants.
The army of the dead came nearer and nearer, it did not stop for a second, and at the sight of this indomitable procession to the Wall, fear came over them. The white icicles that had woken up were driving their dead, though thinned, army forward, and now we stood in their way.
- Archers! Fire! I commanded.
Hundreds and even thousands of arrows from bows, crossbows, scorpions, self-loading crossbows of the Myrians that fired in bursts of five bolts.
We were also supported by mages with their spells and fire magic.
- Flamethrowers! Fire! - I ordered the fire groups that were responsible for fire and boiling oil and water.
Finally reaching the walls of the Black Castle, the dead began trying to climb up. My soldiers responded with a rain of flaming arrows, pouring vats of burning tar and oil over the heads of the Wihtas. And to these mixtures we added crushed, ground obsidian. We didn't know if it would help, but in theory it should, and... it did. When the wychs were hit by these mixtures, they fell to pieces.
The fight was on. Despite their best efforts, the Wychs could not break through the castle gates, nor could they make a "ladder" of themselves so that their fellow mortals could climb up the Wall. The giants were quickly shot by our snipers, so they couldn't help the Others either. And the Inhumans themselves were not yet eager to move to the front lines.
In the first minutes of the battle, I realised that I had misjudged the balance of forces. There were not a few tens of thousands of dead, but at least a hundred thousand. It's just that the rest were in the forests that hid them. They were pouring out of the forest in torrents.
- Deacon! Have them signal to the rear that we need reinforcements. One brigade of three or four thousand men, and more supplies of Blackheart's Flame and arrows. Keep the rest in place for now. Let my grandfather find out if there are similar attacks in other areas. If there are, at least have them forcibly add reinforcements and supplies for artillery and riflemen.
- Yes, sire. - He nodded and ran in a southerly direction away from me.
Meanwhile, the assault on Castle Black continued. I saddled Drogon, handing over command to Asgen over the entire garrison. Lesho, as our best marksman, was given two Valyrian steel-tipped blaster arrows and ordered to take down at least one of the Others. And I didn't leave him on the wall, I took him with me. So I risked the whole dragon, Lesho and myself for the cause.
We took off, and outflanked the Viht from the left flank, burning them down in the process. The others had already approached the Wall on foot and were firing ice spears at the Scorpions' gunners, and they were very accurate. On the right flank, the Viht's fire weakened.
But we were not distracted. Asgen must deal with the problem. We, on the other hand, were incinerating the Viht avalanches, while Lesho prepared to deliver a precision strike on the Ini.
After a minute of flying and burning already dead flesh, we came at the Inys from the rear, I had Drogon hovering in the sky burning the Vihtas beneath us. At this point two things happened. Lesho drew his bowstring and the Inys turned sharply towards us and hurled three ice spears at us. One hit Drogon's fire and melted in flight, one flew just above my head, and the third hit Drogon's wing. And we immediately flew downwards.
The fall was painful, but I survived and didn't even break anything. Unlike Lesho, who broke his neck.
I looked back and realised that Lesho's arrow had found its target, and there were only two of them left. And the army of the Inhumans had dwindled. A quarter, if not a third, of the Wychs were scattered to ashes, but worse, the rest of them were coming at us. Drogon roared like a stung man, though he could understand it, poor wing and all, and immediately started throwing fire at everyone, and I started cursing.
I took the bow and arrows from Lesho's corpse, including the one with the Valyrian steel tip.
I had to unhook the chains I used to attach myself to the dragon and get down on the ground, letting Drogon crawl around and burn everyone and everything.
I didn't take up the sword and dagger, but began firing at the Others with my bow.
At first I used obsidian-tipped arrows, but the Innocent I was aiming at fended them off with his ice sword.
And then, when they ran out, I fired a Valyrian steel tip. It went through the ice sword and into the chest of the Other, which roared and crumbled into ice chunks on the spot.
That made the last Other roar even more. They had friendly feelings, and they were not so "icy", since some social relations existed among the Inhim.
And it was manifested in the fact that after the second Innoy fell from my arrow, half of all the Wiht, and the rest froze in place just looking at me.
But their leader drew his sword and came at me.
- A duel? - I grinned and drew my Truth.
As he approached, it was colder than before, but it was bearable, because I had cleared the area for the battle with the help of the dragon.
We fought.
I'll be honest. It was the hardest and most dangerous fight of my life.
I don't know exactly how long it had been since we fought, but I was getting exhausted. It was really starting to wear me down. I had already pulled out my trump card, a Valyrian steel dagger, and even threw it a few times, but this tenacious and very agile creature dodged at the last moment.
But one moment I didn't notice how suddenly another Inova was behind me. It was a loner who didn't come with his wihtas, but by himself and attacked me from the back. He hit me in the open part of my throat, and managed to hit my left arm, which made me drop my dagger. My first opponent almost killed me, but I tumbled to the side and got away from a blow that would have been fatal to me.
- I thought we were having a gentleman's duel. - I grinned, and was stunned when I saw the other Other.
He was taller by a head, "dressed" a little more than his counterpart, hairless and with a crown of ice on his head.
It was the Night King.
I looked back again, clutching my already wounded hand to my throat, and realised that there were more of them, but mounted. Six of them.
- And why on my shift and on my station? - I complained frankly about fate.
No one attacked me, neither the Night King, nor the Others, nor the Vihtas. The main icicle looked at me studying, and even, it seems, with interest.
- You say? - I turned to the Night King.
- ...
- Come on, I already think you're dead, I've killed a couple of your kids and a lot of wychs in your army. So why don't you respect your future possible suitor and answer one question? Why are you so intent on destroying humanity and the children of the forest? Well, I'm not gonna believe that your programming is off and you just want to kill everyone and everything. Tell me, why now and why is Jaehaerys the catalyst? Is it the magic? But it was before.
He didn't answer. He just walked up to me and swung his sword. But he didn't have time to strike.
- "Gra-a-a-a-a-ah!" I heard a familiar roar, and I was glad.
It was Jaehaerys on Jaehaerion, and behind him were Shira and Daniel on theirs.
Drogon also realised that his rider was about to be killed, and rushed to save me. He ended up burning a group of six Others, and I, while the Night King stared at Jaehaerys in the sky, forgot about me, rolled away and approached my dragon.
The blood had stopped flowing. My little regeneration helped a little, but the frost also played into my hands and the blood that was on my neck was covered in a frozen crust, stopping the bleeding.
Drogon had successfully killed the six of the Innocents.
At the same moment I saw three more dragons in the sky, only they weren't ours, but ice dragons that were closing in on our boys.
I had a hard time getting Drogon to pull out his spear, which had half-melted from the heat of his body, and he was able to fly into the air. We were almost hit by a couple of Night King air defence shots, but we ducked and went to help our guys.
Unfortunately, Uncle Daniel dropped dead with his dragon, but his opponent was tangentially hit by Jaeheiris on Jaeheirion, and Shira was narrowly defeated by an ice dragon. I, on the other hand, flew up from below the free opponent and shouted:
- Dracarys! - and Drogon immediately covered his ice relative with flames, which soon killed him.
We then swooped down on Shira's opponent. The dragons clashed, and I noticed on the ice dragon's back the Other that was controlling it. I had grabbed my dagger when I escaped from the Night King, and threw it at him in flight.
And I hit it. The Other disintegrated into ice flakes with the familiar screech, and his dragon briefly lost its orientation in space, enough for both Shira and I to tear apart and burn the dragon.
With signs, I showed Shira to burn both her uncle and the fallen dragon so that the Night King would not pick it up. She followed the instruction, and I went to Jayheiris's rescue. And soon enough, the two of us finished off the third dragon, and then went straight for the Night King and the last Other that was near him.
I was anticipating victory, but...
From the Night King's raised hands, white rays and a hurricane of wind and snow rushed towards us. At the same time Jaehaerys hit him back with his magic, which was mostly fire and lightning, but there was also a purple glow. And then... I blacked out.
***
I didn't wake up until ten days later. Tired, exhausted, wounded, hungry, dehydrated, and with a lot of, as they say, "debuffs".
There were people around me, which was nice, but everything was blurred in front of my eyes and I fell asleep very quickly. Then I woke up again after some time, again everything was blurred, I was told something, but I did not hear the words, only sounds. And I blacked out again...
Thus I woke up and fell asleep several times, until eventually I woke up finally and saw familiar faces around me, who breathed a sigh of relief upon my awakening.
Our Jaehaerys, Shira, Varick, Asgen Barry, both of my squires, Oberyn Martell, Rex, Gerda, Larry, Daren One-Eyed, Mendon Moore, Thoros, and Vel and Tormund.
Some of them were injured, Jaehaerys had his arm injured, it was strapped to his shoulder, Asgen had scratches on his cheek. Oberyn had a broken arm in addition to the claw scars on his neck, Larry lost an eye, Tormund also had a couple of scars and a bandaged head.
- How long was I asleep? And where am I? I asked them.
- Almost eight days of sleep before I started to come round. And then I was delirious for a couple of days before we got here. And we're in Winterfell. - Shira explained. - When you and Jhaerys attacked the Night King, he used a lot of his magic to fight Azor Ahai, and Jhaerys had to do the same. But then he just had to instinctively drain a bit of power from you and it made you pass out in flight. Thankfully Drogon didn't throw you off and just went sideways and carried you South of the Wall. During that magical battle between the king of the living and the king of the undead, many died. I miraculously survived, thanks to my amulets and the power of the Night Lion.
- I'm sorry. I didn't do it on purpose. - Jaehaerys apologised.
- It happens. - I nodded, and my neck ached even more.
I looked down at myself and realised that I had broken a lot of things... again! My left arm was weighted down, it was completely bandaged and had various needles and rings inserted in it, Quibern must have worked on its integrity. The left leg appeared to be broken as well, the right leg was simply bandaged, but not because of cuts, but because of burns that showed through the edge of the bandages. The chest was obviously damaged, ribs were broken.
- I'll live, I take it?
- Yeah. You made it. - even with a hint of respect, Shira spoke to me again. - I thought you would die, after the exhaustion and trauma you suffered after Drogon landed, but you survived. They didn't find you until the next day. Amazing survivability.
- You can't kill me, especially after all I went through to get what's mine. - I wheezed. - Give me some water, you bastards!
Vel lifted my head and gave me a drink from a jug.
- How are things with the Others?
- Jaehaerys killed the Night King. Along with him, a good half of all the Wychs under the Wall, the whole length of it, were scattered. - Rex answered me. - When those Others died, the Wychs they'd converted also crumbled. But then they weren't the last. Back in the Western Watch-by-the-Sea and in the three castles, a number of Inns had appeared, leading large forces of dead men and even taking the castles. The fanatical Orglorians and the sparrows and our sisters eventually reduced them to ashes, but some made it beyond the Wall. And we've been clearing the land of the dead. A couple of days ago, we killed the last White Walker. The war is won, and we didn't even have to follow phase two of your plan. Though our losses were great - we lost half of the entire force we had on the Wall, plus a few thousand from the reserves. But we won.
- I see. Why the fuck did the Night King come to me instead of you, the Chosen One? And why did I have such a breakout of the dead? - I asked Jay.
- We didn't have a definitive answer. Maybe he got us mixed up. - Jayhaerys shrugged. - We were resurrected by the same god, and the way and blood in our veins runs common Targaryen, and the Black Dragon was. There may have been a coincidence, though it seems to me that perhaps you were his target as well, and there was no coincidence here. And about that number, for example, Shira and I had the same number of dead men, but only four of them, and even four ice dragons. And when we were done with them, we got a signal that you had similar shit going on, and Shira and I headed to you. Danielle did the same. But from his position, he eventually fell with his dragon.
But the Night King was a warg like all the Starks, or am I wrong? How could he be so wrong? Eh! I guess that's another question I'll never get an answer to....
- How many of our people died?
- Lesho died with you. - Asgen answered me. - Half of our "green cloaks", also Ser Robar Royce died from the royal guard, the Maid of Tarth also died covering the withdrawal of the last defenders of one of the castles captured by the Wychs, she blew it up with her. Then in Westeros, your ex-wife's hubby is gone, so is Wendell Manderly, the Glovers are gone. Lord Bainforth, Lord Ironwood, Lord Redforth, a few Freys, half the wildlings and their leaders are gone. Well, and many more equally honourable sparrows and rglorists. We even helped the last two categories a little. So that they won't be a problem in the future. His Sparrowhood has already been poisoned. So when we get to the capital, we'll appoint a new Grand Septon.
- That's good. When will I be back to normal? When will I be well?
- Quiburn says a month or two. - shrugged his shoulders. But then he smiled. - But I think you'll get better sooner than that.
- I see. Soon, I suspect, there will be a victory party?
- That's a given. But it's in a fortnight.
- I'll be in shape. - I assured them. - After all, I am one of the victors and survivors.
- Ha ha ha. And it seems to me you'll enjoy this celebration more than the rest of us put together. You have the will of the Free People in you, Damian. - laughed Tormund.
- Well, I am rather willful and proud, but your interpretation is close. - I smiled, and then we began to share recent events and emotions.
That day we talked a lot, joked, some mourned for the fallen, but at that moment I realised that despite all the pain, the difficulties, the broken bones, the lost blood, the people and non-humans I had killed, the head-butting.... I was happy to be reborn in this world. And only here, it seems, did I really start to LIVE!
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