The eastern flank burned with violence.
Snow burst upward in clouds as Jorund led the giants downhill, their thunderous strides shaking the frozen earth. Each step sent ripples through the ground; each breath from their lungs rolled like distant thunder. The eastern ridge had been chosen carefully—wide enough for the giants to maneuver, narrow enough to bottle the undead advance.
"FOR FROSTSHIELD!" Jorund roared.
Wun Wun answered with a bellow that split the air.
The giants hit the undead line like a falling mountain.
Clubs the size of siege towers smashed downward. Mammoth-bone hammers exploded clusters of wights into shards of ice and bone. Entire ranks were flattened in seconds, their frozen bodies bursting apart beneath the sheer weight of impact.
The mammoths charged next.
Their tusks skewered rows of undead, flinging broken bodies aside as if plowing rotten soil. Their armored heads struck with relentless pace, trampling the fallen under tons of muscle and iron.
For a moment—just a moment—it looked like annihilation.
Jorund allowed himself half a breath of relief.
Then he saw it.
"Hold!" he shouted. "HOLD THE LINE!"
Too late.
The wights didn't retreat.
They reformed.
The crushed bodies beneath the giants' feet began to move again. Broken limbs crawled. Shattered torsos pulled themselves together. Frozen hands clawed up mammoth legs, climbing, biting, tearing.
"Gods damn them!" Jorund cursed.
A giant howled in anger as a dozen wights swarmed his legs. He stamped, shaking them loose—but more replaced them instantly.
Then something else moved in the storm.
The temperature plunged.
Not from weather.
From presence.
A scream rose from the undead ranks—not a mindless cry, but a command. High. Sharp. Intelligent.
The wights responded instantly.
They stopped charging.
They spread out.
Jorund's heart sank.
They're being directed, he realized.
"ARCHERS!" he shouted to the men below. "—NOW!"
Dragonglass arrows flew, black streaks ripping through the blizzard. Wights fell in dozens—but the survivors repositioned with unnatural precision, clearing space.
And then—
The snow split open.
A massive shape burst upward beneath one of the giants.
Ice exploded in a jagged arc as something tremendous tore free from the ground.
The giant screamed.
Not in pain—
in shock.
A reanimated mammoth rose from the snow, its flesh frozen black, eyes burning blue. Entire plates of ice armored its skull and spine. Tusk caps of jagged ice gleamed like blades.
The undead mammoth rammed the giant.
Fifteen tons of death slammed into living flesh.
The giant staggered backward, bellowing, barely staying on his feet.
"DOWN! BACK!" Jorund yelled. "SEPARATE THEM!"
Wun Wun roared and charged the undead behemoth, slamming his massive club down with all his strength.
The impact cracked ice—but did not shatter it.
The mammoth answered with a shriek and swung its head, its frozen tusks ripping across Wun Wun's armored thigh.
The armor held but the force still hurled Wun Wun sideways.
The giants froze.
Mammoths… undead mammoths.
This was not a probing force.
This was escalation.
Jorund felt cold crawl into his bones.
The undead mammoth reared up, trumpeting in a sound that hurt the ears. The remaining wights surged around it again, moving in disciplined waves.
Jorund clenched his jaw and raised his sword.
"Giants!" he roared. "Do not let them turn your dead into weapons! If one of you falls—burn the body! Hear me? BURN IT!"
The giants answered with furious shouts.
Wun Wun dragged himself to his feet, blood steaming against the snow. He locked eyes with the undead mammoth—ancient fury meeting ancient death.
He charged again.
Jorund swallowed hard.
If this flank broke—
Frostshield would be surrounded.
And somewhere out there, the Walker commanding this monstrosity was watching.
Waiting.
Jorund felt it first — a wrongness underfoot. Not the tremble of marching giants. Not the impact of falling bodies. This was subtler. A whisper through the ice, like something moving beneath the snow.
He turned, opening his mouth to shout a warning—
—and the earth split.
Frozen soil cracked open across the battlefield in jagged lines. The snow collapsed inward as if swallowed, and from beneath the surface, hands clawed upward.
Wights erupted from the ground.
They burst forth in every direction — behind the giants, beneath the infantry lines, inside the archer formations. Ice shattered as corpses pulled themselves free, hidden for days, maybe weeks, sealed beneath the battlefield by White Walker sorcery.
"AMBUSH!" Jorund roared. "THE GROUND—!"
Too late.
A Narnian spearman was pulled screaming into the earth, his body vanishing under a surge of blue-lit claws. Another was dragged down by the legs, his helmet bouncing uselessly across the ice.
From the eastern flank to the center of the field, the dead rose everywhere at once.
The White Walkers had not attacked like usual.
They had planned.
Hidden Walker stepped into view through the storm — pale figures emerging from ridgelines, from snowbanks, from behind frozen wreckage. His eyes burned with cold, calculating intelligence as they lifted their weapons.
It rised its hand.
And the buried dead responded.
Wights surged upward in disciplined waves, striking with perfect coordination — grabbing ankles, dragging warriors down, swarming giants' legs in numbers too great to shake loose.
"Giants! BACK—!" Wun Wun bellowed.
A monstrous arm reached up, gripping a giant's calf.
Then another.
Then many.
The giant howled as the dead began climbing him like vermin, hacking, biting, clawing at joints and exposed flesh. He stamped, smashed, roared — but they did not stop.
One dragged itself up his back.
Another shoved an obsidian blade away from its chest, sacrificing its own arm to clear a path.
Jorund felt fear sink its claws into his gut.
The undead mammoth trumpeted again, answering a silent command. It lunged forward, smashing through a line of Narnians already overwhelmed by the rising dead.
A giant fell.
The impact shook the battlefield.
And the White Walkers did not hesitate.
The fallen giant twitched.
Its blood froze mid-flow.
Its eyes snapped open—burning blue.
"No—NO!" Jorund screamed. "Burn it! BURN—"
Too late.
The dead giant rose.
Snow fell from its shoulders as it stood, towering and terrible, a weapon reborn against its own kind. The White Walker who commanded it raised both arms — a puppet master pulling strings — and the monster turned toward the living giants.
Wun Wun froze.
For the first time, genuine fear crossed the giant leader's face.
"They adapted," he rumbled. "They adapted too much."
Across the field, the Narnians fought desperately. Obsidian weapons flashed, shattering wights left and right — but the numbers were crushing. Five rose for every one destroyed. The ground itself became an enemy, swallowing bodies, hiding death beneath ice and snow.
Arrows fell short. Orders were drowned by screams.
And above it all, the White Walker watched.
Patient.
Cold.
Triumphant.
Jorund staggered back, slipping on frozen blood.
They cannot win this way.
Not like this.
This was no longer a battle of strength.
The horn call came too late for warning and too early for hope.
Jorund heard it through the chaos — a long, sharp note cutting through screams and the thunder of giant footsteps. At first, he thought it was another signal of retreat, another doomed command swallowed by battle.
Then the wind shifted.
And from the western rise, Queen Lyanna came.
She did not charge blindly. She struck like a blade slipped between ribs.
Her force emerged from the storm in perfect formation — skinchangers flanking wide, archers already loosing obsidian-tipped arrows, infantry moving in tight wedges. Helga burst ahead of her like a living shadow, her howl ripping through the undead ranks.
The White Walkers had not expected it.
Their focus had been forward — on the giants, on Frostshield's gates, on turning death into momentum. Their rear guard was thin, almost careless.
It was a mistake.
"FOR NARNIA!" Lyanna's voice rang out, clear and terrible.
Her warriors slammed into the exposed flank of the undead with ruthless efficiency. Obsidian blades shattered frozen spines. Arrows took out wights mid-command, dropping them before they could even turn.
Jorund felt the pressure around him ease.
"THE QUEEN!" he roared. "HOLD! HOLD THE LINE!"
Wun Wun bellowed in answer, ripping a dead mammoth's head sideways with a strength that cracked ice like glass. Living giants rallied, smashing into their undead kin with renewed fury.
The battlefield shifted.
Snow sprayed as Lyanna cut her way toward the heart of the enemy force. Her armor glowed softly with Harry's runes, deflecting claws and blades alike. She moved without hesitation — slide, strike, pivot — always advancing.
Brandon fought at her side, bleeding but unbowed, hacking down anything foolish enough to bar their path.
"East flank stabilized!" Jorund shouted hoarsely as she reached him.
"For now," Lyanna answered. Her eyes were already searching. "Where is the Walker?"
Jorund pointed with his blade. "Behind the ridge. He stayed back — commanding."
Lyanna nodded once. "Then that ends now."
They surged forward again.
The White Walker stood apart from the chaos, pale and unmoving, its blue eyes tracking every shift of battle. Ice curled lightly around its feet, the ground obeying its presence.
The moment it saw Lyanna advancing, it raised one hand.
The fallen wights twitched. Frozen corpses tried to rise again.
And then Oberyn Martell broke from the flank.
He ran straight at the Walker.
Smiling.
"Seven hells," Brandon muttered. "He's mad."
Oberyn spun his spear once — weirwood shaft humming, obsidian blades catching the pale light — and hurled himself forward like a viper.
The White Walker reacted instantly.
It lunged.
Its sword of ice clashed against Oberyn's spear in a shriek of frost and stone. The impact sent both sliding across the snow.
Oberyn laughed as he rolled, coming up on one knee. "You're fast," he admitted. "But so am I."
The Walker struck twice more — precision incarnate. Oberyn danced between the blows, spear flashing, obsidian carving shallow wounds along frozen flesh.
Blue light leaked.
The Walker hissed.
It raised its free hand — and the ice beneath Oberyn fractured, cracking open in jagged lines.
Oberyn fell.
The spear slipped from his grip.
For a heartbeat, death stood ready.
Then Lyanna hurled her dagger.
The obsidian blade struck the Walker's wrist, breaking its focus. Ice shattered. The ground stilled.
"Oberyn!" Lyanna shouted.
Oberyn didn't look back.
He surged upward, caught his spear mid-fall, and drove obsidian point forward — straight through the Walker's chest.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the Walker screamed.
Not like any living thing.
Its body fractured, cracks spiderwebbing outward, blue light pouring from every seam.
Oberyn twisted the spear and kicked free as the Walker exploded into shards of ice.
Silence followed.
Then, all around them—
Wights collapsed.
The undead army fell instantly, dropping where they stood — arms slack, weapons clattering, bodies lifeless once more.
Oberyn planted his spear in the snow and leaned on it, chest heaving.
"Next time," he said between breaths, "I demand easier opponents."
Lyanna let out a short laugh — the first on the battlefield.
"You did well, Dornish prince."
Brandon clapped Oberyn on the shoulder. "Very well."
Jorund approached, eyes shining with relief. "If you'd arrived moments later—"
Lyanna cut him off. "But we didn't."
She looked across the field — at the fallen giants, the wounded Narnians, the scorched ice.
"This war isn't over," she said quietly. "But today… we live."
The battlefield grew quiet in the way only death could make it quiet.
The wind still moved, whispering across broken ice and trampled snow, but the clash of steel was gone. What remained were bodies—too many of them—lying where they had fallen beneath a sky the color of old iron.
Lyanna stood with her helm removed, her gloved hand resting on the direwolf's neck. The beast was streaked with frost and blood, his breath coming out in heavy clouds, but he stood alert, ears flicking at every sound. Beyond him, the Narnians were already moving—not celebrating, not boasting—only working.
They always worked after battle.
The fallen were gathered first.
Men and women moved through the snow in pairs, lifting bodies with the care one might give a sleeping child. Even the dead giants were honored—too massive to move whole, they were laid where they fell.
Within minutes Narnian soldiers were reduced to ash. When it was done, Lyanna stood amid the aftermath — breathing hard, blood frozen along her blade.
Jorund approached, helm tucked beneath his arm. His face was streaked with soot and frozen tears. " Four hundred seventy eight dead. Over a hundred wounded. Three giants."
Lyanna closed her eyes at that. Even with Harry's armor, even with enchantments, giants still fell.
She exhaled slowly. "Mark every name. Every clan. Every family."
"They'll be remembered," Jorund said, voice rough. "As they should be."
The burial fires burned only briefly.
Narnian rites did not favor flame, but against the cold ones, some bodies could not be left whole. Wights could rise again if not destroyed properly. Dead bodies burned until nothing remained but blackened bone.
At the edge of the encampment, a shaman leaned on his staff and whispered.
"Odin take their strength.
Frigga take their pain.
May winter guard them, not claim them."
Lyanna stepped forward when the final name was spoken.
She did not speak loudly.
"They died so others might live," she said, voice carrying across the snow. "Frostshield still stands. Telmar still stands. And Frostfang yet breathes."
A murmur rippled through the warriors.
Lyanna's gaze hardened. "We do not stop."
Within the hour, the army was moving again.
Not the full host—too many wounded remained—but a fast-moving column formed under Jorund's command. Sleds were loaded with food, furs, dragonglass weapons, and medicine. Giants volunteered without hesitation, shouldering supplies with massive hands.
Oberyn watched as men and women stepped forward eagerly, despite blood still crusted on their armor.
"You don't even know who you'll face," he said to a young archer stringing his bow.
The archer smiled faintly. "We know."
That answer disturbed him more than any war cry.
Lyanna rode at the head once more, eyes scanning the horizon. Helga paced beside her, while half a dozen skinchangers slipped quietly into animal forms and vanished ahead—wolves, ravens, catamounts—eyes and ears stretching into the white.
"They're still out there," Brandon said grimly, riding close. "Not all of them were here."
"I know," Lyanna replied. "The cold doesn't retreat forever. It only waits."
One of the skinchangers returned swiftly, breath fogging in human form. "Tracks ahead. Old magic. The ice itself hides them."
Oberyn stiffened. "An ambush."
"Possibly," Lyanna said.
She turned to the troops. "Stay close. No stragglers. If the snow moves—cut it. If the ice whispers—burn it."
A murmur of acknowledgment followed.
As they marched deeper toward Frostfang, the land itself seemed to watch them. Snowdrifts shifted unnaturally. Shadows lingered too long behind ice-crusted stones. Somewhere far away, a horn sounded—too distant to hear clearly, but enough to make Helga growl low in her throat.
Oberyn tightened his grip on his spear.
He had thought the worst was over.
He understood now that it had only begun.
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