The night was deep. After confirming the existence of the secret passage, the exhausted group did not continue onward. Instead, they climbed out through the well and rested for the night.
Early the next morning.
They finally passed through that face.
Beyond it lay a narrow underground tunnel that sloped gradually upward.
Step by step, they drew closer to the surface. The light ahead grew from a grain of rice lying on its side, to a crescent moon, to the sun, to the entire world.
They walked straight into the Haunted Forest.
Benjen turned to look around. "The trees have grown so fast. Are we already this close to The Wall?"
The Night's Watch had once forbidden even a single tree from growing within a thousand meters of The Wall. Yet outside the abandoned Nightfort, the Haunted Forest had nearly spread to the foot of the ramparts.
Joffrey saw countless Weirwoods.
No wonder this was where the crows roosted. There were far too many eyes.
He sighed, then leaned against a Weirwood, tilting his head back against the bark as he sifted through the countless images flooding into his mind.
Someone had indeed come through here. And not just humans.
A Night's Watchman searching ahead suddenly shouted, "Chief! There's so much blood here, and the bodies of our brothers!"
Benjen turned and disappeared into the woods in two or three strides. The other brothers of the Night's Watch followed him.
It was an old trick, but an effective one.
Joffrey mounted Rainwater. "Uncle, Jon, let's go take a look too. Be careful."
The scene was gruesome.
At first glance, it was impossible to tell how many corpses there were. They had been reduced to chunks of flesh of all sizes, discarded across the snow and frozen into colored ice.
"At