Chapter 164: The Parapet Council

The Council of the Wall had never met on a parapet before.

For two hundred years, it had met in the Council chamber, around a long table of black oak, with the doors closed and the lamps lit. That was where votes were taken. That was where the Wall decided what the Wall would do.

But the Lord Commander had not asked for the chamber.

He had asked for the Fifth Bastion.

So the Council came to the Fifth Bastion.

They arrived one by one over the next hour, climbing the inner stair and stepping out onto the platform. Each of them did the same thing the moment they reached the top.

They looked north.

Garrick Dane came first, his poleaxe resting on his shoulder. He looked at the tusks for a long time, and his heavy face did not change at all.

Halvic Ostrand came next, with Pell trotting behind him. Then Tolm Bree, with ink still on his cuff. Then Serapha Lund and the Vice-Commander, Coris Danel, together from the Main Gate.

Wilm Trask arrived out of breath, apologizing to the sergeant at the top of the stair for bumping his shoulder. He looked north and let out a low whistle.

"Well," he said. "Somebody’s going to have to write that down."

A few men laughed. It was the first laugh on the bastion all morning, and it died quickly.

Erol Vask came without saying anything. Neriah Fold came with her lips moving silently. Bastian Ryn came last among the Watch commanders, and for once, he did not send a lieutenant.

Captain Kass was already there. Vess arrived with a satchel of ledgers. Elder Wode’s deputy, a tired woman named Helsa, came in his place and apologized that the old man could no longer climb stairs.

The last to arrive was Iolan Vire.

The Head of the Lampwrights stepped onto the platform in his leather apron, looked north once, and then walked to the far corner and stood there quietly with his hands folded.

Ysolde Marr did not come up the stair.

She was already there. She had been standing at the parapet since before the first commander arrived, and she had not said a single word to anyone.

When everyone was present, Ulrich Vance turned around.

"You have all seen it," he said. "So I will not waste time describing it."

Nobody spoke.

"Captain Kass."

Kass stepped forward.

"The Slumbering Elder is heading towards us," he said. "Its the same one Captain Corr found in the basin. Its current pace is that of a walking man. But it has not stopped since dawn."

"How big is it?" Bastian Ryn asked.

"The tusks stand a hundred and forty feet high. We have not seen the body yet."

Ryn opened his mouth and then closed it again.

"And what happens if it reaches us?" Serapha Lund asked quietly.

Kass looked at the Lord Commander.

Ulrich answered for him.

"If it reaches the stone, the stone breaks," he said. "Not a section. Not a parapet. The Wall. It will open a hole in us wide enough for everything behind it to walk through."

The silence on the platform grew heavier.

"Then we must stop it before it reaches us," Garrick Dane said.

"Yes."

"How?"

Ulrich turned to Encrid.

"Strategist."

Every head on the platform turned toward him.

Encrid had been thinking about the question for two hours. Since the moment Ulrich had told him to start thinking.

He had gone through every option he could come up with.

And he had crossed out almost all of them.

"There are four things we can do," Encrid said.

He held up one finger.

"The first is to fight it from the Wall. The ballista, the Boxes, the catapults, the oil. Everything we have."

"Will it work?" Tolm Bree asked.

"I don’t know," Encrid said honestly. "But I don’t think so. A ballista bolt can glance off an old Gorehorn’s skull-plate. That thing is a hundred times the size of a Gorehorn. By the time we learn whether our weapons can hurt it, it will already be standing against the stone."

Nobody argued.

He raised a second finger.

"The second is to abandon the Wall."

The reaction was immediate.

"No," Garrick Dane said flatly.

"Absolutely not," Neriah Fold said at the same time.

Even Wilm Trask shook his head.

"Not while there’s still a fight to be had, Watcher," he said. "The men wouldn’t have it. Honestly, I wouldn’t either."

Encrid had expected that.

"I agree," he said. "It is too early. I only said it so that no one can say later that it was never considered."

He raised a third finger.

"The third is to wait and hope it turns away. It has no reason to come here. It might pass us by."

"You don’t believe that," Ysolde said without turning from the parapet.

It was the first thing she had said.

"No," Encrid admitted. "I don’t."

He lowered his hand.

"The fourth is to go out and meet it before it reaches us."

For a moment, no one said anything.

Then Erol Vask spoke. His voice was flat and dry.

"Five miles into the forest. Through a horde of forty thousand Roamers. To fight a thing none of us can see the whole of."

"Yes."

"That’s not a plan. That’s a way to die somewhere other than the Wall."

Encrid nodded.

"It would be," he said. "If we went during the day."

He turned to Corr.

"Captain Corr. When you found the Elder in the basin, what was it doing?"

Corr understood what Encrid was asking immediately. His eyes widened slightly.

"Sleeping," he said. "For two days. It didn’t move once."

"And how did it wake?"

"It didn’t wake in front of me. I only know it was lying down when I arrived, and lying down when I left."

Encrid turned back to the Council.

"It’s called the Slumbering Elder for a reason. Everything we know about it says it sleeps. It slept in the basin while forty thousand Roamers gathered around it. It is walking now, but it walks slowly, like something that has not fully woken up."

He pointed north.

"When the sun goes down, I believe it will lie down again."

Kass lifted his glass. He did not say anything, but Encrid could see him thinking it through.

"If it sleeps," Encrid continued, "then a small group, moving quietly through the forest at night, might reach it without fighting the whole horde to get there. And a strong enough group might be able to hurt it badly enough that it never gets up. Or at least turn it away from the Wall."

"You said might," Halvic Ostrand said.

"I did."

"That’s a great deal of might."

"It is," Encrid agreed. "But it’s the only option on the list where the Wall is still standing tomorrow."

Ulrich Vance had not said anything the entire time.

Now he walked back to the parapet and looked north at the tusks for a long moment.

"The Strategist is right," he said at last. "We go tonight."

He turned around.

"And I will lead it."

The platform erupted.

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