Chapter 127: What’s the plan?

Nobody was talking when Encrid entered the Council chamber.

That was the first thing he noticed.

It told him more than any report could have.

Every member of the Council had been called away from whatever they were doing with barely an hour’s notice, yet not a single person was asking what had happened. Nobody was whispering to the person beside them or trying to guess why they had been summoned.

They already knew.

Or, like Encrid, they had guessed.

Encrid walked to the sixteenth chair and took his seat.

Lord Commander Ulrich Vance was already sitting at the head of the table. He did not look up when Encrid entered. He simply waited until the last person had arrived.

Once the doors were closed, he spoke.

"Captain Kass. You called this meeting. Tell them."

Odrin Kass rose to his feet.

The Far-Watch Captain looked considerably older than he had a year ago. There were more lines around his eyes now, and more grey in his hair.

More importantly, he had no papers in front of him.

That was unusual.

Kass always brought reports.

This time, apparently, he did not need one.

"The horde has started moving," he said.

The words were simple.

The chamber became even quieter.

"My men have confirmed it. The arrangements we made helped. We stationed observation parties at two-mile intervals, so we were able to track their movement without sending a single party too deep into the basin."

Kass looked toward Encrid.

"They are coming south."

He paused.

"Exactly as the Strategist said they would."

Nobody reacted.

Not because they were surprised.

Because they had been expecting this for six months.

Everyone sitting around the table had known that a massive horde was gathering northeast of the Wall. Ansel Corr had brought them that information when he returned from the forest, half-dead.

What they had lacked was confirmation.

The Wall had tried repeatedly to obtain it.

Since spring, the Far-Watch had made eleven separate attempts to put eyes on the basin.

Four parties had returned with nothing because they had never managed to get close enough.

Three had returned with men missing.

Two had returned with men so badly injured that they could no longer be sent into the forest. One of them was still in the Healers’ Hall.

And two parties had never returned at all.

"When did they confirm?" Ulrich asked.

"The observation was made four days ago."

Kass glanced around the table.

"Thanks to the arrangements we made, the information reached us in four days instead of the twelve it would normally have taken. The party leader is downstairs now. He has not slept properly since returning, and I would rather not bring him into this room. He has already told me everything twice."

Garrick Dane of the First Watch leaned forward.

"How many roamers have gathered by now?"

Kass looked at him.

"More than ten thousand."

The words settled heavily over the chamber.

"And that is the lowest honest estimate," Kass continued. "My men said they could not see the other end of the horde."

No one spoke.

Ten thousand was not an army.

It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Garrick’s expression hardened.

"What about the thing Corr described?"

Kass knew what he meant.

"The Slumbering Elder has also been confirmed."

Several people shifted in their seats.

"It is moving with them," Kass continued. "It is at the center of the horde, and my men watched it for as long as they dared."

His jaw tightened.

"The party leader said it has two tusks. Both rise above the treeline."

He paused.

"They could see them from four miles away so that should give you an estimate of how collosal the roamer is."

Serapha Lund of the Fifth Watch slowly raised two fingers to her mouth and left them there.

Danel, the Vice-Commander, was the first to speak.

"How long until they reach the Wall?"

"That depends on how quickly something of that size can move."

Kass shook his head.

"I don’t have a reliable answer. What I have is an estimate, and I want it recorded as an estimate."

"Give it to us anyway, Captain."

Kass looked toward Ulrich.

"Considering the size of the horde, I expect them to reach the Wall in two weeks."

He paused.

"In the worst case, ten days."

The chamber remained silent.

For several seconds, Encrid simply watched the people around the table.

Fifteen people.

Fifteen different reactions.

Fifteen people arriving at the same conclusion separately.

Garrick Dane placed both hands flat against the table and left them there.

Neriah Fold of the Eighth Watch closed her eyes.

Ysolde Marr did not move at all.

Coming from Ysolde, that was the equivalent of everyone else moving.

Steward Vess had gone pale. His face was nearly the same colour as the paper lying in front of him.

"Ten days," Dane said.

"At the worst," Kass replied. "It may take a fortnight."

"And how many people are on this stone?"

Vess answered quietly.

"Eleven thousand and some."

He swallowed.

"I can give you the exact figure in the morning."

Nobody seemed to care about the exact figure anymore.

Eleven thousand defenders against a horde more than ten thousand strong.

And that was only what the Far-Watch had been able to see.

There was also the Slumbering Elder.

Ulrich Vance had said nothing for several minutes.

He had sat in the Lord Commander’s chair for nineteen years.

He had stood on the Wall for forty-eight.

He had faced monsters, Roamers, winter famines, and more deaths than most men could count.

Yet right now, the strongest man on the Wall did not know what to do.

Slowly, Ulrich raised his head.

He did not look at Kass.

He did not look at the Steward.

He did not look at any of the Watch commanders.

Instead, he looked down the length of the table.

Toward the sixteenth chair.

Toward the man who had spent six months sitting in that room and a year and a half living on the Wall.

The man who had predicted that the horde would come south.

The man who had spent months preparing them for a disaster nobody else had been willing to believe in.

Ulrich’s eyes settled on Encrid.

"Strategist."

Encrid looked back at him.

Ulrich’s voice was calm.

But for the first time since the meeting began, there was something unfamiliar in it.

"What’s the plan?"

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