Some timr had passed. Not much had happened in the North, but plenty had happened in the South.
Multiple ships full of Ironborn had been mysteriously poisoned, rapidly depleting their army.
The source had not been confirmed.
But, apparently, it had happened after they boarded an abandoned ship flying a reversed Velaryon sigil.
They looted whatever resources they could find, which happened to be a lot of gold.
But, somewhere on their return to King's Landing, the men had perished. Their bodies were cold, their mouths and noses streaming with dried blood.
It almost resembled a particular poison, the Long Farewell, but this one didn't eat away at the corpses flesh.
No one had heard of any activity from Aurane Waters, so it was presumed he had perished, fighting in the Stepstones, and one of his ships had strayed away.
Nonetheless, this was a large hit to the forces of Cersei Lannister.
Hundreds of men, dead. Further tipping the odds in Daenerys' favour.
[Eastwatch - Great Hall]
Tormund, Jon, Davos, Gendry, Richard and Jorah sat at a table, having a conversation.
Gendry, who against the advice of Richard and Davos, had revealed his true parentage to Jon.
"Isn't it your job to talk him out of stupid fucking ideas like this?" Tormund asked Davos.
"I've been failing at that job of late."
"How many queens are there now?"
"Two." Jon answered.
"And you need to convince the one with the dragons or the one who fucks her brother?"
This drew laughs from the men around them.
"Both."
"How many men did you bring?"
Jon looked around the table. "Not enough."
"The big woman?"
Jon smiled and shook his head, knowing he meant Brienne. Tormund was clearly disappointed.
"We were hoping some of your men could help." Jorah told him.
"I'll be staying behind. I'm a liability out there as you well know." Davos informed him.
Tormund nodded his head. "You are." He turned to look at Jon. "You really want to go out there again?" Jon nodded. "You're not the only ones."
The raiding party walked down to the Eastwatch cells, led by Tormund.
"My scouts found them a mile south of the Wall. Said they were on their way here." He told them.
The men looked into the cells, which were occupied by Sandor Clegane, Thoros Of Myr, and Beric Dondarrion.
"You're The Hound. I saw you once at Winterfell." Jon noted.
Sandor pulled a blanket tight around himself and sat up from the table he was laying on.
"They want to go beyond the Wall too." Tormund told them.
"We don't want to go beyond the Wall, we have to. Our lord told us the great war is coming." Beric corrected.
"Don't trust them. Don't trust any of them."
The men turned to look at Gendry, who walked up and pressed his face to the bars of the cell.
"They're the Brotherhood. And the last thing their Lord told them to do was sell me to a Red Witch to be murdered."
"Thoros?" Jorah called, causing Thoros to sit up from a dark corner. "I hardly recognized you."
"Ser Jorah Mormont-" He began, causing Tormund to turn and look at Jorah, anger evident on his face. "They won't give me anything to drink down here. I haven't been feeling like myself."
"You're a fucking Mormont? Like the last Lord Commander?" Tormund spat.
"He was my father."
"He hunted us like animals."
"You returned the favour, as I recall."
"Here we all are, at the edge of the world, at the same moment, heading in the same direction for the same reason." Beric told them.
"Our reasons aren't your reasons." Davos corrected.
"It doesn't matter what we think our reasons are." Beric stood up and walked towards the bars of the cell. "There's a greater purpose at work and we serve it together whether we know it or not. We may take the steps but the Lord of Light-"
"For f*ck's sake, will you shut your hole. Are we coming with you or not?" Sandor interrupted.
"Don't you want to know what we're doing?" Jorah asked.
"Is it worse than sitting in a freezing cell waiting to die?" Thoros returned, with a question of his own.
"He's right. We're all on the same side." Jon decided.
"How can we be?" Gendry asked.
"We're all breathing."
Tormund handed the cell keys to Jon. Jon opens the door and let the men out.
The ranger gate opened and the raiding party consisting of Tormund, Jon, Gendry, Thoros, Sandor, Jorah and Beric stood at the edge of the true north. There was a blizzard raging and snow blows over the tundra. Jon looks back at the party and the men glanced at each other. Thoros drank from a flask of wine.
Jon looked back to the north and the men begin mqrching into the wild. A group of Wildlings pulled a sled loaded with equipment behind the raiding party. They disappeared into the white of the blizzard.
[Beyond The Wall]
A raiding party consisting of Jon Snow, Tormund, Gendry Waters, Jorah Mormont, Sandor Clegane, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros Of Myr and several Wildlings were ranging beyond the wall of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. The men trekked through a frozen valley filled with jagged rocks. The Wildlings were pulling a sled loaded with gear and provisions. They began climbing a steep mountain covered in snow.
"Are you all right?" Jon asked Gendry faced him, grunting.
"You evr been North?" Tormund followed.
"Nevr seen snow before." Gendry told them.
"Beautiful, eh? I can breath again. Down south the air smells like pig shit." Tormund remarked
"You've nevr been down south." Jon told him.
"I've been to Winterfell."
"That's the north."
But, to the Wildlings, anything north of the Wall was South.
The group of men continued north. A Wildling scout was ahead of the group surveying the area.
"How do you live up here? How do you keep your balls from freezing off?" Gendry asked Tormund.
"You have to keep moving. That's the secret. Walking is good, fighting is better, f*cking is best."
"There's not another woman within one hundred miles of here." Jon replied.
Tormund turned to look at Jon and Gendry. "We have to make due with what we've got."
Jon glanced at Gendry who backed away from him and Tormund.
"This one is maybe not so smart." Tormund told him.
"Davos says he is a strong fighter."
"Good. That's more important than being smart."
Tormund looks at Jon as they continue to walk. "Smart people don't come up here looking for the dead. So, you met this Dragon Queen, huh? And?"
"She'll only fight beside us if I bend the knee. So I did, or so she believes."
"You spent too much time with the free folk and now you don't like kneeling. Mance Rayder was a great man, a proud man. The king beyond the wall nevr bent the knee. How many of his people died for his pride?"
The men were walking across broken slabs of ice and tundra. Mountains and a lake of ice were in the distance.
Gendry was walking along with Thoros, Beric and Sandor.
Thoros was carrying his wine flask. "Are you still mad at us, boy?" He asked Gendry.
"You sold me to a witch."
"Priestess. I'll admit, it is a subtle distinction."
"We're fighting a great war. Wars cost money." Beric added.
"I wanted to be one of you. I wanted to join the Brotherhood but you sold me off like a slave. Do you know what she did to me? She strapped me down on a bed, she stripped me naked-"
"Sounds all right so far." Sandor quipped.
"-and put leeches on me."
"Was she naked too?"
"She needed your blood." Thoros told Gendry.
"Yes. Thank you. I know that."
Sandor stepped in front of Gendry to halt him. "It could have been worse."
"She wanted to kill me. They would have killed me if it wasn't for Davos-"
"But they didn't, did they? So what you whinging about?"
"I'm not whinging."
"Your lips are moving and you're complaining about something. That's whinging." Sandor motioned to Beric. "This one's been killed six times. You don't hear him bitching about it." He walked away to join the rest of the group.
Beric and Thoros smiled to each other. Thoros held his wine flask out to Gendry who took a large gulp and handed it back to Thoros.
"Good lad." Thoros told him.
At the head of the line. Jon is walking with Jorah. He suspected Daenerys had told her advisor to keep him in his eyesight.
"The first time I went north of the wall was with your father." He told Jorah
"He was a good man. He deserved a better son. Were you with him at the end?"
"I was a prisoner of the Wildlings. But we avenged him. I want you to know that every mutineer found justice."
He might not necessarily care for the man or the woman he served, but he did care for and trust Jeor Mormont, Jorah's father.
"I can't think of a worse way for him to go. The Night's Watch was his life. He would have died to protect every one of those men, and they butchered him."
"I hate that he died that way. My father was the most honorable man I ever met. He was good all the way through. And he died on the executioner's block." Jon told him.
"Your father wanted to execute me."
"I heard."
"He was in the right of course. It didn't make me hate him any less."
Jorah and Jon glanced at each other.
"I'm glad he didn't capture you."
At the very least because he wouldn't be there as one of Daenerys' advisors to help him gather proof to both her and Cersei that the army of the dead is not just some story conjured up by Northerners to frighten children.
"Me too."
Jon stopped walking and loosened the belt, holding his sword. "Your father gave me this sword. He changed the pommel from a bear to a wolf, but it's still Long Claw." He handed the sword to Jorah, who slowly took it, looking it over in his hands. "Lord Commander Mormont thought you'd nevr come back to Westeros."
Jorah stopped examining the sword and looked up to Jon.
"But you are back and it's been in your family for centuries. It's not right for me to have it."
He was sure he could a sword just as suitable, if not more, for himself.
Jorah paused, then nodded at Jon. "He gave it to you."
"I'm not his son."
Jorah pulled the sword halfway out of the sheath and inspecting the blade, turning it in his hands. "I brought shame to my house. I broke my father's heart." He resheathed the blade, handing it back to Jon. "I forfeited the right to claim this sword. It's yours. May it serve you well and your children after you."
Jon had fallen to the middle of the group when he was approached by Beric Dondarrion.
"You don't much look like him." Beric told him.
"Who's that?"
"Your father. I suppose you favor your mother."
Yes, he did. And, perhaps he was lucky for it. If he had inherited Valyrian features like the Princess Aelinor, hiding his parentage would have been virtually impossible and King Robert would have killed him.
"You knew him?"
"Of course I did. When he was Hand, he sent me off hunting for The Mountain. Your Wildling friend told me the red woman brought you back. Thoros has brought me back six times. We both serve the same lord."
"I serve the North."
"The North didn't raise you from the dead."
"The lord of light nevr spoke to me. I don't know anything about him. I don't know what he wants from me."
"He wants you alive."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"That's all anyone can tell me, I don't know. So what's the point in serving a god that none of us knows what he wants."
"I think about that all the time. I don't think it's our purpose to understand except one thing. We're soldiers. We have to know what we're fighting for. I'm not fighting so some man or woman I barely know can sit on a throne made of swords."
"So what are you fighting for?"
"Life. Death is the enemy. The first enemy and the last."
"But we all die."
"The enemy alwys wins. And we still need to fight him. That's all I know. You and I won't find much joy while we're here. But we can keep others alive. We can defend those who can't defend themselves."
"I am the shield that guards the realms of men."
"Maybe we don't need to understand any more than that. Maybe that's enough."
"Aye. Maybe that's enough." Jon concluded.
The motley brotherhood struggled through the harsh snow storm, lead by a wildling scout ahead.
"Look!" Tormund said, catching Jon's attention.
In the distance, a shadowy shape was barely visible.
Sandor: A bear." Sandor noted.
"Big f*cker." Tormund swore.
"Do bears have blue eyes?" Gendry asked.
The bear charged towards the party, and they drew their swords. The scout ran back to the party in panic, but the bear intercepted him, tackling him to the ground. Jon and the brotherhood runs to where the scout has fallen, only to find a bloody patch of snow.
The bear grunted nearby, and they readied themselves for battle, searching with their eyes, forming a tight circle.
The bear leapt from the snow, roaring and holding the scout in his jaws. The scout screamed in pain as the bear mauled him.
Tormund attacked, but the bear threw him aside. The Hound checked on him while Beric and Thoros ignited their swords and advanced towards the bear, who savaged a watchman with his jaws and threw him through the air. Beric used his sword to hew into the bear, who caught fire.
The bear set its eyes on Sandor, who hesitated. It lunged forward, but Thoros threw himself in front of Sandor, bracing his flaming sword in the bear's mouth, while falling to the ground. They struggled, and Tormund appeared, wildly swinging his axe. The bear kicked him aside and returned to his battle with Thoros.
Sandor watched, while the bear wrestled the sword from his grasp, and bit viscously into Thoros' chest, and thrashes him against the ground. Thoros screams in agony and the burning bear tears into him. Sandor begins to rise, but Jorah runs past, plunging a dagger into the bear's neck. The bear collapses.
Beric and Gendry pulled Thoros away. Jorah and Sandor look on.
Sandor: We have to get him back to Eastwatch.
Thoros shook his head. "Flask."
Beric brought a flask to his lips and Thoros gulped repeatedly, desperately.
"Go on." Thoros told him.
Beric cauterized Thoros' wounds with his flaming sword, causing Thoros to groan.
"You alright?"
"I just got bit by a dead bear."
"Aye. You did."
"Funny old life. Alright then."
Beric helped Thoros to his feet, then extinguished his sword in the snow.
Jon joined Tormund by the dead scout. They followed the bear's prints in the snow with their eyes.
Tormund led the party, followed by Jon. They heard metal clanking. The two of them peered over the edge of the cliff to see a line of undead soldiers walking slowly.
"Where's the rest of them?" Jon asked.
"If we wait long enough we will find out." Tormund responded.
Jon nodded.
The undead come upon a burning fire. The White Walker seemed to consider the situation. The brotherhood rose to ambush them, and a battle ensuea. Jorah was being choked by an undead soldier.
Jon slayed the White Walker, and the band of undead crumbled and fell to the ground. A single Wight remained, snarling and confused. The brotherhood surrounded him.
Tormund threw down his axe as the Wight charged, and he punched it on the chin. The Wight fell and Sandor tackled him. The Wight screeched horribly as the brotherhood continued to subdue him.
Sandor tried to silence him, but the Wight bit through his gloves. He yelped, shaking his hand in pain.
When they finally got the Wight under control, Jon heard a distant rumbling, both footfalls and thunder. They quickly tied up the Wight.
"Go back to Eastwatch. Get a raven to Daenerys, tell her what's happened." Jon told Gendry.
"I'm not leaving you." He argued.
"You're the fastest. Go! Now!"
Gendry turned to leave, but Tormund grabbed his weapon. "You're faster without the hammer. Give it! Give it!"
Gendry ran off while the others hustled together, looking for a better position.
"Come on! Run!" Jon shouted.
"Come on!" Tormund joined.
The landscape opened up, but the ice cracked under Jorah's feet.
"Stop!" He shouted.
The brotherhood stops, and the ice continues to crack. They turn to see a horde of undead pouring down the valley that the came from.
"Go!"
The brotherhood ran to a rocky island in the middle of the frozen lake, while the horde surrounded the frozen shore. The undead that pursued them onto the ice caught up with a wildling, but when they tackled him, the frozen lake gave way under their weight and they began to topple into the frigid water. The undead army circled in tighter, many of them continuing to fall through the ice. They formed an impassable perimeter around the brotherhood.
Gendry continued to run, panting and exhausted when he caught sight of the wall.
Night had fallen and the brotherhood remained under siege at the middle of the lake. Their undead captive grunted and shrieked, struggling to undo its bonds.
Finally having reached the wall, Gendry collapsed, exhausted. The gate opened and four men ran to meet him.
Davos took him in his arms. "What happened? Where are the others?"
"Raven. We need to send the raven." Gendry muttered.
"Get the maester! Now!"
[The Frozen Lake]
The brotherhood sat in a circle, exhausted, the captive wright still screeching and struggling. Sandor got up and kicked him. The others stood as well. They were still surrounded by the undead.
"Thoros?" Beric called.
Thoros lied with his eyes open and empty of life.
"Thoros!" Beric covered his dead friend with a cloak.
Sandor knelt beside him. "I say it's one of the better ways to go." He took the flask from Thoros' body and drank.
"Lord of Light, show us the way. Come to us in our darkness and lead your servant into the light." Beric chanted.
Sandor moves to take another sip, but Jon grabs the flask away from him.
"We have to burn this body." Jon emptied the flask on Thoros' body.
"And all the clothes behind him. Unless the Lord of Light is kind enough to send us a bit of fire." Beric lit his sword. "Come to us in our darkness. For the night is dark and full of terrors." He set Thoros' body ablaze.
"We'll all freeze soon. I saw the water. When you killed the white walker, almost all the dead that followed it fell. Why?" Jorah noted.
"Maybe he was the one who turned them."
"We can go for the walkers. Maybe we'll stand a chance."
"No. We need to take that thing back with us. There's a raven flying for Dragonstone now. Daenerys is our only chance."
"No. There's another." Beric pointed his sword toward the Night King, who sat astride a horse in the distance. "Kill him. He turned them all."
"You don't understand-"
"The Lord brought you back, he brought me back. No one else, just us. Did he do it to watch us freeze to death?"
"Careful, Beric, you've lost your priest. This is your last life." Sandor told him.
"I've been waiting for the end for a long time. Maybe the Lord brought me here to find it."
"Every Lord I've evrr met it's been a cunt. Can't see why the Lord of Light should be any different."
They still a long way to go if they wished to bring the Wight past the Wall. Would they succeed?