Despite the obvious approach there was no call yet from the lookouts on the Wall parapet. Crimm wasn’t surprised. You didn’t last long at sea without sharp eyes, and the lookouts would do no better than a couple of fishermen, stranded since the loss of the Sabet. And of course there was always a chance of snow blindness on a bright day like this. To the south, as he looked out now, all of Northland to the far horizon was locked under a covering of ice and heaped-up snow, a panorama in white and black and blue and streaks of silver-grey where ice lay on deeper water. Across a world locked in ice the Wall itself strode, its tremendous face frost-cracked and strewn with icicles, yet standing against the winter as it had defied the sea for millennia. But perhaps it had all been for nothing, Crimm thought, for those whom the Wall had been built to protect were now preparing to attack it.

Ayto stirred. ‘It’s them all right. It’s not just more nestspills. You can see the organisation. They’re moving as a pack. And there’s metal glinting.’

‘Weapons.’

‘That would be my guess,’ Ayto said drily.

The lookouts woke up at last. Calls went up all along the Wall, from the roof scouts, across the balconies and galleries. People emerged to take their places at the rails, grim-faced, scared, shivering with the biting cold, and yet determined to play their part in saving the Wall.

Ywa joined the fishermen, coming out from the inner Wall to the balcony. The Annid of Annids’ quilted coat was open to the waist so that her bronze chest plate could be seen, a very ancient and battle-scarred relic. She allowed herself one glance at Crimm. He took her arm, squeezed it, out of sight of the rest. They rarely had time alone nowadays.

‘So they come,’ she said. ‘The scheme is working. They’ve ignored the other Districts and are heading straight for us, for Etxelur.’

Ayto said, ‘They’re cold and they’re hungry, and even if they’ve got anybody with military experience they aren’t much more than a starving mob. They’re heading for the obvious signs of life—’

‘Which we kindly provided for them,’ Crimm said.