Chapter 167: The Sally Port

The sun set at the sixth hour of the fifth day.

It set red, behind a long bank of cloud in the west, and for a few minutes, the whole northern killing ground turned the color of old rust.

Then the light went out of the sky.

And on the horizon, the tusks stopped moving.

Encrid saw it from the Fifth Bastion. He had been watching them for the last hour, counting the rises and falls, waiting.

Rise.

Pause.

Fall.

Rise.

Pause.

Fall.

And then nothing.

The tusks did not rise again. They stayed where they were, two pale lines above the dark canopy. Then, slowly, they began to tilt.

They leaned to one side, farther and farther, until only their tips showed above the trees.

Then those disappeared too.

The ground stopped shaking.

Corr let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for a very long time.

"It lay down," he said.

Encrid nodded.

"How far from our estimate?"

Kass had given him the numbers an hour ago, and Encrid had checked them twice since.

"Just under three miles. Two miles past the treeline."

"Close," Corr said quietly.

"Close enough to reach tonight."

"Close enough to reach us tomorrow."

Encrid did not reply to that.

✧ ✧ ✧

The Far-Watch door was a small iron hatch at the bottom of the Wall below the fourth mile.

It was older than the sally port at the ninth mile and far narrower. The Far-Watch had used it for generations to slip their scouts out of the Wall before dawn. On the outside, it was hidden behind a buttress of stone and a heap of old rubble, and the body ramps of the last five days had not reached it.

At the tenth hour, four people gathered in the dark passage behind it.

Ulrich Vance wore no armor. He wore a plain dark coat and carried a sword Encrid had never seen before. It was long and straight, with a grey leather grip worn smooth with use.

Garrick Dane had wrapped the head of his poleaxe in cloth so that it would not catch the light.

Kass had blackened his face with soot.

Rael stood a little apart from the others with his greatsword on his back and his ribs bound tightly beneath his coat. He was looking at the iron hatch, and he did not look nervous. He looked like a man about to go to work.

Encrid had come down with them.

He had great many works to do but he felt like he should be here at the moment.

"Walk where he walks," Encrid said to Ulrich, nodding toward Rael. "Even if it looks wrong. Even if there’s a faster way."

Ulrich looked at him with something that might have been amusement.

"Are you giving the Lord Commander of the Wall orders, Strategist?"

"I’m giving him advice."

"Good. I’ll take it."

Kass began to unbolt the hatch. The bolts were well oiled. They slid back without a sound.

Ulrich stepped aside and gestured for Encrid to follow him a few paces down the passage, away from the others.

For a moment, the old man did not say anything.

"You’ve done well," he said at last. "Better than I expected when I gave you that chair. Better than anyone on this Council expected."

"It wasn’t enough."

"It never is." Ulrich looked back toward the hatch. "That’s the first thing the Wall teaches you, and the last thing you learn to accept."

He was quiet again. Encrid looked at his face and was immediately surprised because on the face of the Lord commander of the wall, who looked as steady as the Wall itself - there was uneasiness and a helpless look.

"If I don’t come back," he said, "Coris will take command. He’s a careful man. He’ll do what the rules say. That’s not a bad thing. But the rules were written for the Wall as it was, and the Wall isn’t going to be that anymore."

Encrid waited.

"The Council will argue," Ulrich said. "They’ll argue about the stone. About honor. About what the men would want. And someone will need to remember what the stone is for."

"What is it for?" Encrid asked.

Ulrich looked at him.

"It’s for the people behind it," he said. "That’s all. The stone is only stone. Don’t let them die for it if it can’t keep them alive."

Encrid did not answer.

He was not sure he could have.

Behind them, Kass swung the hatch open. A breath of cold night air came in from outside, smelling of blood and wet earth and something else, something older.

Ulrich put a hand on Encrid’s shoulder. It was brief. It was the first time the old man had ever touched him.

Then he turned and walked to the hatch.

Rael went through first. He paused on the other side for a moment, listening, then raised one hand. Kass followed him. Then Garrick Dane, bending low to fit his shoulders through.

Ulrich went last.

He did not look back.

Kass pulled the hatch shut from the outside, and Encrid heard the soft click of the outer latch and the far watch men shut the hatch from inside.

Then there was nothing but the dark passage and the sound of his own breathing.

✧ ✧ ✧

Encrid climbed back to the top of the Wall.

He went to the parapet above the fourth mile and looked down, out across the killing ground.

It took him a long time to find them.

Four shapes in the dark, moving fast and low along the foot of the Wall toward the east. They slipped between the edge of the body ramps and the shadow of the stone, and for a moment, Encrid lost them completely.

Then he found them again, farther out, crossing the broken ground toward the ninth mile. Toward the dry creek bed Rael had described.

He watched until they reached the treeline.

One by one, the four shapes stepped between the trees.

And were gone.

Encrid stood at the parapet for a long time after that.

Gus came up the stairs and stood beside him. He did not ask anything. He just waited.

Finally, Encrid turned away from the forest.

"Tell Corr to watch the treeline," he said. "All night. If there’s any light out there, any sound, I want to know about it."

"And you, young master?"

"I’m going to the Mouth."

Gus frowned.

"The Mouth? Why?"

Encrid did not answer right away.

He had received a message from the southern gate half an hour ago. He had folded it and put it in his coat, and he had not had time to think about it since.

It was two lines long.

Lanterns on the southern road. Many wagons. The banner is a black anvil on grey.

"Because," Encrid said, "unless I’m wrong, the Lord of Cold Iron has kept his word."

✦ ✦ ✦