Chapter 137: The Ten Thousand Beast Calamity Horde

The Wall was still being worked on.

The mounting work was almost complete. The great machines Encrid had ordered were being assembled on the bastions, their timber frames secured with iron and their mechanisms checked again and again.

The trenches outside the Wall were still being dug.

Repairs were still going on.

Weapons were still being carried up the stairs and placed along the parapets. Old spears, fresh spearheads, bundles of javelins, arrows, oil barrels, and everything else that could be useful had been moved from the storehouses and spread across the Wall.

There was still work everywhere.

Too much work.

"Who decided we needed another trench?"

A worker standing waist-deep in the earth wiped sweat from his forehead and looked toward the Wall.

"The Watcher."

"Of course it was the Watcher."

Another worker laughed.

"I swear that man wakes up every morning and asks himself what else he can make us dig."

"He probably has a list."

"He does have a list."

The men groaned.

They had been working for days, and none of them had been spared. Every gang had been given something to do. The Works Office had barely slept, and the workers had begun treating Encrid’s name like a curse.

One of them drove his shovel into the ground.

"Ten thousand Roamers are coming, and somehow we are the ones doing all the work."

"Ten thousand?"

"That’s what they say."

The older worker beside him snorted.

"Let them come."

Several men looked at him.

He leaned on his shovel.

"You all act like ten thousand Roamers are the end of the world. We have the Wall. We have the Watch. And we have the Lord Commander."

"That is true."

"The Lord Commander could probably kill half of them himself."

"Half?"

The men laughed.

"Fine. All of them, then."

"He would."

Another worker nodded seriously.

"I saw him tear through a massive roamer with his bare hands once."

"You were not there."

"I was."

"You were carrying wine for the officers."

"I was still there."

More laughter followed.

For a few moments, the work felt almost ordinary.

Then the ground moved.

At first, nobody understood what they were feeling.

A shovel trembled in the dirt.

One of the wooden support beams gave a soft creak.

A bucket sitting beside the trench slowly tipped onto its side.

The workers stopped talking.

Someone looked down.

"Did you feel that?"

Nobody answered.

The ground moved again.

This time, it was stronger.

The earth beneath their boots trembled with a slow, heavy rhythm.

It was not an impact or a collapse but something else.

The older worker slowly lifted his head.

"What in the-"

The third tremor came stronger.

Several men stumbled.

One of them lost his balance completely and fell backward onto the ground.

"Earthquake?"

"No."

"How would you know?"

"Because it stopped."

They all stood still.

Then someone looked toward the north.

His face changed.

"What’s that?"

The others turned.

At first, they saw nothing unusual.

The forest stretched across the horizon like it always did.

Dark trees.

Grey sky.

Cold morning light.

Then one of the men climbed out of the trench and stared harder.

"There."

"What?"

"There!"

More men turned.

Far beyond the tree line, something covered the horizon.

It looked like smoke.

A long, low brown band stretched from one side of the northern forest to the other.

But it was not smoke.

Smoke rose.

This did not.

It remained close to the ground, thickening as it moved.

The man who had been laughing about the Lord Commander took one step backward.

"What is that?"

Nobody answered.

The dust was spreading.

It was moving south.

Toward them.

And it was so wide that nobody could see where it ended.

The worker who had fallen earlier slowly pushed himself upright, then stared at the horizon again.

His mouth opened.

He said nothing.

The jokes about the Lord Commander stopped.

So did the laughter.

So did the work.

✧ ✧ ✧

Inside the Third Office, Encrid was checking the latest mounting report when the papers on his desk shifted.

He frowned.

The lamp beside him trembled.

Then the entire office gave a slow, almost gentle shake.

The shelves rattled.

A cup moved across the table.

Encrid froze.

The movement came again.

Slow, heavy, and regular.

His eyes lifted.

He understood immediately.

It was not an earthquake.

Something was moving.

Something large enough that the ground itself was carrying the sound before the sound reached them.

Encrid pushed away from the desk and ran for the door.

"Young master?"

Gus looked up from the corridor.

He had been carrying a bundle of papers and nearly dropped them when Encrid rushed past.

"What happened?"

"Come."

Gus followed without asking again.

They ran through the office and into the stairwell.

Encrid took the stairs two at a time.

Gus followed behind him.

"Young master!"

There was no answer.

"What is happening?"

Still nothing.

They reached the upper level.

Encrid climbed higher, pushing through the men already gathering on the Wall.

Someone tried to speak to him.

He did not hear them.

He reached the parapet.

Then he looked north.

And stopped.

For a moment, Encrid simply stood there.

The Wall stretched beneath him, filled with men who had spent the last nine days carrying weapons, building machines, digging trenches, repairing stone, moving supplies, and cursing his name.

Now every one of them was looking in the same direction.

The northern horizon was gone.

There was only dust.

It covered the forest from end to end, rising into the grey sky and rolling southward in a vast, unbroken front.

And beneath it were thousands upon thousands of moving bodies.

Even from this distance, Encrid could see the forest breaking apart before them.

Trees fell.

The ground moved.

The dust grew thicker.

The sound had not reached the Wall yet.

But it would.

Soon.

Gus reached the parapet beside him and stared.

His face went pale.

"Is that..."

Encrid did not answer.

He did not need to.

They had spent six months preparing for this moment.

Now the reason was standing on the other side of the forest.

The horde had come.

Not a thousand, and most could say that it was more than even ten thousand.

Not even close.

There was no way to see its full size.

The Wall could see only the front of it.

And the front was already too wide for the eye to measure.

The Ten Thousand-Beast Calamity Horde had finally reached the Wall’s edge.

✦ ✦ ✦