35

I woke up to shouts and warcries, Maggie was in the room with me and it was dark outside, so I restrained my first urge to panic. She had two vials in front on the table next to her as she looked down out the window. "Get away from the window."

She jerked back from it and turned to me, I had woken up suddenly and she had been distracted by whatever was happening below. "Papa you're awake, how are you feeling?"

I thought about my answer. The train had expanded into an entire railyard and I had a headache that almost drowned it out. I wondered briefly if that was a symptom of what my other half called our guest but I didn't have the time to contemplate it. "I'll live, what's going on down there?"

Maggie glanced towards the window, we were pretty far off the ground, twenty or thirty stories at least but I had no idea how high an arrow could go and I didn't want to take anymore risks. "The Ironborn attacked in the afternoon, they tried to take the dock again but Baelor sank the ship you captured in the middle of the entrance so anyone who tried would have to swim." I wouldn't want to be the attackers then, no armor, archers shooting at you from cover and a long swim before climbing out of the water to get stabbed. "That slowed them down a bit but they reformed and tried to climb the wall in a low spot, Oberyn led the defense and managed to fight them back but he has a nasty cut and they know how few we are now. He said they'll try again from more places soon."

It wasn't as bad as it could have been, worst case would have been waking up dead of course, but it sounded like the Ironborn would have a foothold on the island soon. I wished that we could just leave but I'd made a mistake with the spell. All the energy I'd used had to go somewhere and the only option that wouldn't kill a lot of people was for me to lower the walls as planned. Maggie knew this but I was worried she wouldn't leave me behind if that was the only choice. If I really had to I could probably force her to take the escape potion but I didn't control what she'd do with it, she could just stay in the room after dissolving into the wind and we'd be right back where we started. "So do they plan to pull back to the tower then?"

"Oberyn didn't say, I was listening to Lord Hightower and him, and they were both worried about the next stage, even if the Ironborn are pushed from the city they still have all the ships, Lord Tarly's men won't be able to get to us."

"Don't worry about that, once the ritual is finished we're both free to leave whenever we want and we can take people with us."

"But the sun's only just set, we have ten hours at least before you can finish it, they'll be over the walls before then for sure!"

I wracked my exhausted and throbbing brain for a solution, we were a ways up the tower, if they fought floor to floor it could take a long time for invaders to reach us. We didn't have the men though, and the Ironborn were limitless from our point of view, if they got into the tower we were lost. There was some hope though, Maggie had shown some talent in melting and moving the rock, she might be able to seal the entryway beyond all hope of entry. That would leave us in a room that had a wall of molten rock, I didn't want to think about the structural implications and unlike earlier there was nowhere for the heat to go but into broiling us alive. A veil would be perfect except Maggie was terrible at them and I had no energy. What could my barely an apprentice daughter do?

The stairs were key I felt, they were a natural choke point and the only way to reach the upper levels. I was confident that soon after dawn I would be ready to fight with the Mantle's aid, even if not at full strength. At that point Maggie's safety was assured, there was nothing mortal on this world that could take me in a stand-up fight. If she could block the stairs and give me time we would be saved. The stairs curved up through the middle of the outer walls, they were voids in the rock with arched ceilings that transferred the load around them. They were fantastic masonry but I had no idea if bringing the ceiling down would cause a catastrophic failure. There were regular ironclad wooden doors along them but they wouldn't stop determined men with axes for long, they couldn't be relied on. If there was enough free stone in the tower a barricade could be made and Maggie could weld it together without producing enough heat to kill everyone close.

"Get Oberyn or Lord Hightower." She ran to get them and I tried to think of other flaws in the plan. Maggie had my power, or at least as much as I did at her age so I didn't doubt that she could melt the edges of rocks enough that it would take far too long to get through. Moving enough rock to block a stairwell though, she was a thirteen year old girl she'd need help.

She brought back Lord Hightower who was sweating after climbing the stairs in his armor. "Maggie said you had a solution for us? We're going to need one." I explained my plan and he shook his head. "We don't have the men to build it, and what would we do with those on the far side when it was completed? They'd have to be there, the Ironborn won't be waiting patiently for us to finish bricking up the stairwell. Our best plan is to try to hold till dawn. Now if you'll forgive me I need to help at the walls." Hightower left and my mood sank. I didn't know what else we could do, my only plan so far being shot down made my exhaustion and headache even worse and I only barely managed to keep a strong front up for Maggie, who I was sure wasn't fooled.

"What else can we do Papa? I won't just leave you here."

I sat up and grabbed her shoulder. "You might have to, you're what matters most to me in this entire world, if it's a choice between me or you living, always choose you." Tears were starting to shine in her eyes and I cursed accepting that stupid invitation to come to this feudal hellhole. "Hey, hey, don't cry." She buried my head into my shoulder and I could hear and feel her start to sob. "We're both going to make it out of here, if a million vampires and a bunch of necromancers couldn't kill us what chance do Vikings have? Just promise me that if things go bad you'll take the escape potion." She kept crying with the sounds muffled, she hadn't said anything but I didn't want to press her further. I passed out with her still silently weeping.

The next thing I knew Maggie's weight was off my shoulder and a frantic soldier was at the door. "They've taken the outer walls, we're falling back to the tower!"

I stumbled to my feet, Maggie was had been asleep next to me and after checking on her as she blinked awake and the escape potions I turned to the soldier. "What time is it? How many men remain?"

"Lord Hightower fell, Ser Baelor and Prince Martell managed to rally half the men back to the tower and bar the gates. We have archers, but it's only a matter of time until they get a ram and get in." The man they'd sent was swaying badly, I wasn't the only one exhausted and he'd probably been up for the last twenty four hours, many of them fighting.

"What time, how long until sunrise?"

"At least an hour, the eastern sky is only just beginning to lighten."

An hour. The defenders had to be keep them back for at least that long.

Well not quite, we were on a tower, I tried to think of how much getting to the top would get me, it had to be a few minutes at least. The map table wouldn't be needed all the way up there, I'd have the actual city walls at my feet. Best of all it would be further for the Ironborn to climb. "I might need you to help me up, we need to get to the beacon level." The soldier gaped at me but he was well enough trained to obey even dumb orders. I had Maggie grab the escape potions and began the stumbling climb towards the tower.

We were pretty high up, at a walking pace it took fifteen minutes to reach our height, the steps were shallow and the curves around the structure made it take much longer than a regular flight. Now with me stumbling along I thought it would take at least half an hour to reach the summit. I was reasonably fit, I didn't jog like I used to, mainly because no one had invented sneakers yet, but I walked a lot. Exhausted like I was though the idea of climbing forty stories daunted me. It needed to be done and I reminded myself that every step climbed brought Maggie a little further from the Ironborn. I knew I was forgetting something as we went, potions, check, coat, check, taser chain, check, sword check, horn? No horn, goddamnit. "Soldier"

"Ser?"

"In the room with the map there's a horn, go and get it and bring it back to me." He nodded, still confused and ran back down the stairs. Youth, wasted on the young. I turned back and kept climbing. We had forty stories or so to climb, call it four hundred feet. I was pretty confident this planet was similar sized to earth but I didn't really know. I tried to distract myself from my decreasing energy by calculating how much time this would get me but I didn't know any of the dimensions that would be needed.

About halfway up I heard a dull thud and then another, "That will be the ram then." Maggie threw a glance down the stairs and we all increased our pace. The hammering set a beat for climbing and as long as it kept going I knew the tower was still secure. As we got higher the stairway abruptly emerged from the wall and began climbing up the inside. They also turned to wood, if all else failed Maggie would be able to shatter the landings now that they weren't structural, she and I were safe now, no matter what. The end was in sight, a few more minutes of climbing and we'd be at the top.

We exited onto the beacon's level as an ominous quiet overtook the tower. The gate was down. I looked to the soldier, he was pale, the climb hadn't been any easier on him and reached for the horn. "You can go down there if you want, I won't think any worse of you if you stay though."

He gulped, his adam's apple bobbed and I was struck by how young he was. I'd gotten old without noticing at some point. "It's my duty Ser, farewell to you both." He turned back towards the stairs, and something in me twisted, courage like that deserved to be rewarded.

"Wait," I shucked off my coat, it wouldn't last long on anyone but me or Maggie, but the enchantments should hold longer than the tower would. "Wear this, it'll stop arrows and blades at least." He took it and looked at it, he had been one of the guardsmen at the docks and had seen my power.

"Why not fight Ser? We could use you down there."

"If I succeed the city will be saved, Lord Hightower valued that more than the tower. Good luck and Godspeed." He pulled the coat on looking at it doubtfully, saluted and then was gone.

The eastern sky was definitely brighter now, we still had a little time until sunrise and I hoped the extra height would let me save more than just ourselves. "Maggie, go to the stairs, if anyone comes up who you don't recognize drop a few flights." She nodded and stood in the door looking down. I stumbled around to the city side of the tower, I could see the ships docked on the island, the plunderers in the city sleeping in their camps and out beyond the walls Tarly's camp was stirring. I held up the horn, examining it. It was just a ram's horn, I'd scratched some runes into it but it was just a carved and hollowed out piece of keratin, the same thing as fingernails. It was a small thing to be the focus of so much power, it didn't carry the same metaphorical weight as the athame on Chichen Itza, but then, it was about to.

There was nothing more to do, I stood on the east edge of the tower and waited for dawn.