The blacksmith remained on the city wall, directing the Night's Watch to hurl stones, barrels of oil, and spears toward the city gate. Meanwhile, Dany, Barristan, Jon, and four or five Night's Watch members took the elevator down to intercept the wildlings in the gate tunnel.
On the inner side of the Wall, there was a wide groove where the Night's Watch had constructed a steel scaffold in the shape of a "well." Using a system of pulleys, they had built a manually operated elevator.
The group climbed into the large iron cage at the mouth of the shaft. Jon pulled the rope connected to the summoning bell three times.
Then they simply stood there dumbly inside the iron bars, buffeted by howling winds—yet the cage didn't move at all.
Just as Dany was about to ask what was going on, the cage suddenly jolted and began to move horizontally. It swayed unsteadily from the Wall to the hollow shaft. Then the ropes creaked loudly as the iron cage began to jolt and descend.
Clank clank! Creak creak!
Dany frowned. "Is this thing safe?"
"Your Grace, don't be afraid. I've been at the Wall for two or three years and there's never been an accident. Actually, the view here is pretty good—you can almost see half the world," Jon said, brushing the snow from his bearded cheeks to reassure her.
"Pretty good, my ass," Dany muttered inwardly. As if I can't see farther and higher riding a dragon. But below, the view was of windowless keeps, crumbled walls, and a courtyard strewn with rubble—utterly dull and lifeless.
In the distance lay an endless wasteland of wind-swept hills, jagged rocks, and snow-dappled wildlands.
What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?
"How did you survive all these years?" Dany couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for this pitiful lad.
But Jon Snow misunderstood her, and started recounting his career path. "When I first arrived, I was a new recruit. In the morning, I trained with the master-at-arms, and in the afternoon, I worked. Sometimes I'd take Ghost—oh, that's my direwolf—hunting, to provide something extra for the Lord Commander's dinner.
If there weren't any wildling attacks, Maester Donal would also send a few brothers to hunt deer or antelope for Your Grace.
Besides hunting, I mostly did odd jobs in the forge—helping Maester Donal turn the grindstone or pump the bellows. There was always plenty to do: standing guard, running errands, cleaning the stables, brushing the warhorses, making bows and arrows, caring for the ravens, bookkeeping...
Later, I became the Lord Commander's scribe and helped him with Night's Watch affairs, until we ventured beyond the Wall. But now, I serve as Your Grace's guard."
A gatekeeper guard?
Dany chuckled inwardly but asked aloud, "What about your direwolf, Ghost?"
"Lost him," Jon said glumly.
"Uh… how does someone lose a direwolf?"
"I was captured by wildlings. When we climbed the Wall, Ghost got separated on the other side."
"What I mean is," Dany hesitated and glanced at the other Night's Watchmen, who all looked a bit uneasy, "can't you sense where he is?"
"Sense him? Why would I be able to sense him?" Jon looked puzzled.
"Jon… do you know who you really are?"
"A bastard of House Stark. But I'm a man of the Night's Watch now!" Jon said stiffly.
"No, those are identities given to you by others. Do you understand who you truly are?"
"Your Grace… what are you trying to say?"
Creaaak—BOOM!
The iron cage came to a stop. Barristan and 'Dolorous' Edd worked together to open the gate. Dany was the first to step out. Nearby, an old black-clad man leaning on the winch gasped for breath, and the young boy helping him looked lost and confused.
Clap, clap, clap! Dany clapped her hands toward the King's Tower and called out, "Big Black, Little White, come here!"
HSSSSK—!
HSSSSK—!
The two dragons immediately glided down with flapping wings, landing in the courtyard before the gate tunnel.
"The ice is indeed thick."
The gate tunnel wasn't spacious—only wide enough for a single rider to pass. Even two horses side by side would struggle. Inside, the passage twisted and turned rather than running straight.
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the stone tunnel were all rock, but near the entrance lay a dozen meters of grayish-white glacier ice. If scorched by dragonfire too fiercely, it could very well collapse.
Of course, even if the ice layer caved in, it wouldn't affect the Wall itself. The real issue was that the entrance would be blocked, rendering the only passage in or out for hundreds of miles useless—especially when the broken gate on the far end couldn't be repaired.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—the grating sound of steel warping came from within the tunnel. Dany knew the giants were pounding against the iron bars.
Besides the outer and inner entrances each having a 30 cm-thick spiked oak door, there were three additional iron grates within the tunnel.
"Why don't we let them into the courtyard and roast them there? The tunnel is too narrow—only one giant can come through at a time. Can two dragons really not burn a single giant to death?" Barristan said.
Dany thought for a moment, then asked Jon, "Do you have chains strong enough to bind a giant?"
"You want to capture the giants?" Jon looked horrified.
"Giants are wild and hard to tame—why would we capture them?" asked 'Dolorous' Edd, confused.
The gray-haired youth came from a noble family and had once served as a squire to the Lord Commander. Within the Night's Watch, his status was nearly equal to Jon's.
"To farm, build, labor, be a display piece—why not? The Wall you all guard—wasn't it built by giants?"
"The Wall was built by Brandon the Builder of House Stark," Jon corrected her.
"Brandon only drew the blueprints and maybe added some magic circles. The 'construction workers' must've been the giants."
Dany waved her hand, ending the topic. "Anyway, do you have chains for binding giants?"
"Will the chains used to move the elevator work?" Jon asked.
Dany glanced toward the elevator shaft. The chains were as thick as her wrist, and Jon had just said they hadn't broken once in all these years.
"They'll do. Edd, take these brothers and go fetch the chains. Ser Barristan, Jon, you two stand guard. Later on—"
BOOM!
A thunderous bang from the gate interrupted them.
"RAARGH! ROOOAAAR!" The roars of giants echoed through the door cracks, nearly bursting their eardrums.
"Giants! Giants are here!" Night's Watchman Grenn turned pale, unable to speak properly.
Dany glanced nonchalantly at the thudding oak door and said calmly, "Don't panic. Don't worry. Everything is under control. Big Black!"
WHOOOSH— Big Black poked his head over just in time, his cold black-red slit pupils sweeping over the Night's Watch, casually exhaling two thin streams of flame like serpent tongues from his nostrils.
"Ugh…" Grenn and Todder both shivered. Indeed, they were no longer afraid—not of giants, at least. Now, their fear had simply shifted… to dragons.
"We'll go get the chains right away!" The men breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ran off.
The barrels, rice sacks, wooden stakes, and other debris that had blocked the Wildlings' assault last night had all been cleared out. The courtyard was now wide open.
Hmm, several towers had been built on either side of the gate passage. Each stone tower stood on a three-meter-high stone foundation, beyond which lay a vast, open space.
Jon and Barristan stood on the stone steps in front of the King's Tower, staring at the oak gate that now bore several fist-sized dents. The roars of the giants grew louder, and the blacksmiths on the Wall were still perched on the battlements, peering down.
After waiting nearly ten minutes, a breathless Edd and his team finally arrived, hauling two large baskets of iron chains to the base of the King's Tower steps. The giant had at last smashed a hole through the oak gate, and they could now see his furry arm.
The gray-white fur, even longer than Jon's hair, made him look like an oversized, long-haired gorilla.
"Rooaar—" The giant at the gate shouted excitedly in an ancient tongue Dany couldn't understand. A chorus of roars and cries echoed through the corridor from the other giants and Wildlings.
"There are quite a lot of them," Jon said with concern.
"Don't worry. Look at their arms—so much hair. One breath of dragonfire and they'll be torches," Barristan replied.
Of course, the "Frost Giants" living in the far north had to be covered in thick fur. How else would they survive the freezing climate?
Boom!Wood splinters flew as a nearly four-meter-tall, long-haired giant stumbled through the gate. He ran a few steps into the courtyard before crashing into the muddy ground.
"Rooaar—"Ignoring his own sorry state, he burst into laughter, mouth wide open in a bloody grin. His joy and smugness were so obvious that even Dahei and Xiaobai could tell.
Then—Bang!
The laughter was cut short!
Just as the giant began to rise from the muddy ground, Dahei, who had been waiting impatiently by the gate, swung his tail. It struck the back of the giant's head, sending him tumbling across the ground like a ball. He rolled over ten meters and landed in front of Xiaobai—who promptly gave him another tail strike.
Bang!
The long-haired giant didn't even have time to scream before collapsing in a bloody heap, his fate uncertain.
Dany saw that the giant's head had caved in, and blood was gushing out like a broken faucet, hissing with pressure. She winced and said, "Easy, easy! Don't kill them!"
Roar—Another giant, about three and a half meters tall, charged in. He roared once and then froze at the sight of the white dragon ahead.
Even though he was stunned with fear, Dahei didn't spare him. Bang!
Bowling time.This time the tail didn't hit his head but slammed into his back. The giant rolled along the ground, wailing in pain.
The Night's Watch hesitated with the chains, not daring to approach and bind him.
"Leave him for now. Cripple them first—then we'll force them to kneel and surrender," Dany shouted.
The third to rush out wasn't a giant, but four or five Wildlings wielding bronze axes.
"Surrender and you'll be spared!" Barristan shouted from the stone steps, using a loudspeaker.
"Kill—Boom!"
One of the Wildlings, face twisted with rage, raised his axe and charged at Dahei. But a burst of bright red dragonfire rained down on them. The five Wildlings let out a brief, sharp cry before melting like candles thrown into a steel furnace.
Hmm, Dahei's dragonfire was hotter than before.
When a dragon breathes fire, it's actually casting magic. There's no "flamethrower fuel tank" in its belly.
In fact, when they breathe fire, their mouths are empty—nothing inside. The fire appears in the space between their jaws, not ejected as some kind of chemical liquid.
A purely magical phenomenon.
After the vortex of meditation appeared in Dahei's soul sea, his chaotic power became ordered, his instincts became precise control, and his strength increased manyfold.
"By the Seven, dragonfire is this terrifying? Thank the gods it didn't blast into the gate passage!" Jon and the others were stunned, their faces pale at the horrific scene.
"Ahhh! What kind of monster is this?!"The Wildlings in the rear were horrified by the fate of their comrades. They skidded to a halt, crying and struggling in the tunnel. "No, no! Not so hard! Ahhh! Don't be so rough! Go back, go back!"
Uh-oh—the giants behind were impatiently pushing them forward.
(End of Chapter)
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