Chapter 142: Day One (1)

Gorehorns were among the most commonly sighted Roamers in the Great Green Forest.

Along with Reevers, they were one of the few creatures that almost everyone on the Wall had seen at least once, even if what they had seen had been nothing more than a dead specimen dragged back by a Far-Watch party.

Most soldiers had seen a Gorehorn before.

Very few had seen hundreds of them moving together.

A Gorehorn was an enormous four-legged creature, roughly the size of a large cart, with a short, thick neck and a body built around its front half. Most of its weight was carried forward, giving it a heavy, almost hunched appearance as it walked.

The most recognizable feature was the bone plate covering the front of its skull.

The plate began growing from the time the creature was born and continued throughout its life, thickening and widening until it became a massive shield of bone that covered most of the front of its head. Two horns grew from either side of it, curving forward before turning downward at the tips.

The older the Gorehorn, the larger the plate and horns became.

Its hide was almost as troublesome.

Along the flanks, the hide could be as thick as a man’s hand, and it was not simply one solid layer of flesh. It was layered, toughened by years of growth until the creature carried what amounted to natural armor beneath its skin.

A spear thrown into a Gorehorn at anything less than a full run could disappear halfway into the hide and still fail to reach anything vital.

That was why Gorehorns were usually avoided by hunters.

They were dangerous enough when encountered alone.

Fortunately, they were rarely encountered in numbers.

Gorehorns were solitary creatures more often than not. When they did gather, it was usually in small groups of two or three, and even that was uncommon enough for Far-Watch parties to record it in their reports.

Nobody on the Wall had ever expected to see hundreds of them together.

Yet that was exactly what was happening.

The Reevers had covered most of the killing ground by then.

Their bodies had filled the first two trenches and covered the third in a tangled mass of fur, broken limbs, and stakes. Thousands more were still rushing forward, spreading across the ground and pressing toward the Wall in a grey-black wave.

That movement had hidden what was coming behind them.

Now, as the first wave of Reevers reached the final defenses, the men on the Wall could finally see beyond them.

Something larger was moving through the horde.

At first, the soldiers mistook them for boulders.

Then one of the shapes moved.

A Gorehorn emerged from behind a cluster of Reevers, its massive head lowered as it pushed through the bodies in front of it. Another appeared behind it, followed by another, and then another.

There were hundreds.

The sight spread along the Wall faster than any command could have carried it.

Men on the parapets pointed toward the northern fields.

"What are those?"

"Gorehorns."

"How many?"

"I don’t know."

"Look properly."

"I am looking!"

Nobody had an answer.

There were simply too many.

They moved more slowly than the Reevers, but their size made up for it. Each step crushed whatever happened to be beneath their feet, and when a Reever tried to run between them, the larger creatures barely seemed to notice.

The horde had changed.

The Reevers were still at the front, but the men on the Wall were beginning to understand that they were only the first layer.

The creatures behind them were larger.

Much larger.

At the fourth mile, Garrick Dane watched the approaching Gorehorns from the parapet.

As the commander of the First Watch, Dane had spent more time looking at the northern killing ground than most men on the Wall. He knew every section of it, every tower, every weakness in the stonework, and every place where the Works had changed the ground during the preparation.

He had watched the trenches disappear.

He had watched the Reevers cross the remains of them.

Now he watched the Gorehorns coming behind.

The first wave was almost at the Wall.

Dane glanced along the parapet.

His men were ready.

The archers had already withdrawn from the forward positions where the larger creatures would soon come into range, and the soldiers assigned to the heavier weapons had taken their places.

The atmosphere had changed.

When the Reevers had arrived, the Wall had felt like a battlefield.

Now it felt like a siege.

The Gorehorns were too large to deal with in the same way.

Dane turned toward the young aide standing beside him.

"Go and tell the Strategist that the Fourth Mile will begin engaging in defense."

The aide nodded immediately.

"Yes, Commander."

He turned and hurried away.

Dane watched him disappear among the soldiers before turning back toward the killing ground.

The Reevers were almost at the Wall.

Some were already reaching the outer defenses, while others had begun slipping between the final obstacles.

The Gorehorns continued forward behind them.

Dane looked toward the covered positions along the Wall.

For the past several days, the crews had kept the machines covered beneath heavy sheets.

They had been built for this moment.

They had been assembled, tested, repaired, and checked again and again while the men of the Wall prepared for the arrival of the horde.

Until now, there had been no reason to reveal them.

Dane sighed.

"And somebody take the sheets off these bloody things."

The order was repeated immediately.

Men ran toward the covered machines.

Canvas was pulled loose.

Wooden frames appeared beneath them, followed by iron mechanisms and the enormous arms of the siege weapons that had been waiting in silence.

Across the fourth mile, soldiers moved into position.

The Reevers were now close enough that their bodies could be seen clearly from the parapet.

But nobody was watching them anymore.

The men were looking beyond them.

Dane rested one hand against the stone parapet and watched the creatures approach.

Then the first of the siege machines was uncovered completely.

The Wall was about to answer with something heavier than arrows.

The mounts were about to be unleashed.

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