Linker script - Location counter and discard sections

I am following this hello-world boot sector program, which has the following linker script :

ENTRY(mystart)
SECTIONS
{
  . = 0x7c00;
  .text : {
    entry.o(.text)
    *(.text)
    *(.data)
    *(.rodata)
    __bss_start = .;
    *(.bss)
    *(COMMON)
    __bss_end = .;
  }

  .sig : AT(ADDR(.text) + 512 - 2)
  {
      SHORT(0xaa55);
  }
  /DISCARD/ : {
    *(.eh_frame)
  }
  __stack_bottom = .;
  . = . + 0x1000;
  __stack_top = .;
}

Following is the entry.S :

.code16
.text
.global mystart
mystart:
    ljmp $0, $.setcs
.setcs:
    xor %ax, %ax
    mov %ax, %ds
    mov %ax, %es
    mov %ax, %ss
    mov $__stack_top, %esp
    cld
    call main

Following is the main function

void main(void) {
    int i;
    char s[] = {'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '', 'w', 'o', 'r', 'l', 'd'};
    for (i = 0; i < sizeof(s); ++i) {
        __asm__ (
            "int $0x10" : : "a" ((0x0e << 8) | s[i])
        );
    }
    while (1) {
        __asm__ ("hlt");
    };
}

I was expecting the __stack_top to take the value of 0x8E00 (0x7C00 + 0x200 (512 bytes of boot sector) + 0x1000 (16 MB stack) ), but when I check the program in gdb, the instruction

mov $__stack_top, %esp

pushes 0x8c93 into %esp.

Why is this happening? Does eh_frame impact in any way or am I missing something here? Please help.