Chapter 218: Hindsight Is A Bitch On Wheels
By midmorning, dragons were in the air headed to Lunaris, Luminari were mobilized, and a wolf king was running towards a summit he called with no idea she would be attending it.
But everything really started at dawn.
EVENT 1: PEE-PEE PRINCE REBELS
LUNARIS DUNGEON - 4:30 AM (MID-BATTLE)
Cassian Lunaris heard the battle from his cell the way a man hears a house party from the basement he’s been locked in: loudly, helplessly, and with a growing suspicion that nobody was coming to get him.
He listened to the fighting get worse.
Cowardice was a strong word. Strategic patience was a better one. He was going with strategic patience.
"Keys," he said into the darkness, aiming an Alpha command at whatever prisoner still had them. "Throw them to me. Now."
The fact it took him that long to realize an Alpha command could have gotten him the keys was not the flex he thought it was. The prisoners had known this for hours.
Three of them had placed bets on when he’d figure it out. The over/under was forty-five minutes. Cassian had blown past the over by two goddamn hours.
Metal scraped stone. A hand shoved the keys through bars six cells down. They hit the corridor floor and slid.
"Bit further, Your Highness. Your arms are shorter than your sister’s ambitions."
The prisoner delivered this line with the calm of a man who had watched Cassian’s sister rob him, outrun him, and humiliate him in front of forty witnesses, and had been saving this observation for exactly the right moment.
"SHUT UP."
Cassian crawled across the cell floor, reached through the bars, and got the keys by the tips of his fingers.
But the prince did not unlock his cell. The keys went into his pocket.
He waited.
He had keys. He had an Alpha command. There was a battle going on. Strategic patience.
EVENT 2: IF ONLY THE WOLF KING HAD COFFEE FIRST
SHADOWFELL KEEP - 5:45 AM
DISTANCE TO GREYHALL CROSSING - 1200 MILES
PACK WOLF SPEED -100 mph
If only Nicholas had his coffee first.
The man was a king. Kings make decisions. This particular king made the decision to leave his Keep before the most important piece of intelligence in three kingdoms walked through his front door. If that isn’t a case for caffeine, nothing is.
The wolf king and his men departed at dawn for Greyhall Crossing because he had called the damn continental war summit.
Twelve hundred miles wasn’t going to run itself. He was running in formation with his men, so he couldn’t go at Alpha speed. This was going to be a day. His Master Mage also wasn’t a wolf and therefore could not run with them to make a portal back to Shadowfell. So they would be stuck there without any information, doing this the old-fashioned way.
Brennan was back at Shadowfell having a snack with absolutely zero awareness that his portal skills would prevent something like this from ever happening again and change an entire continent’s landscape over the next century. But that’s another story. Currently, Sandwich Boy was living his best goddamn life and about to take a nap.
If Nicholas had stayed twenty minutes longer, one Luminari soldier would have told him where the woman three kingdoms were searching for was located. The difference between ’perfect timing’ and ’timing is a bitch’ was twenty goddamn minutes.
When Nicholas found out, and he would find out, the expression on his face was going to be worth the twelve hundred miles it took to deliver the news. Some men aged from stress.
Nicholas was going to age from hindsight, and the hindsight was going to hit him like a freight train full of cold coffee.
EVENT 3: WOMAN-WHIPPING ROGUE CAMP
WESTERN NYROS - 6:00 AM
DISTANCE TO LUNARIS - 850 MILES
LUMINARI FLIGHT SPEED - 100 mph
Landon Solveil heard Guinevere say Lunaris right before face-planting in a rogue camp that whipped women for sport.
Yes, the Luminari King was on his knees in the mud surrounded by men who beat women while glowing like a fucking nightlight. Subtle reconnaissance this was not.
Hours of tracking and the grand finale was a Luminari King having a spiritual seizure in the mud while rogues stared at him like he’d lost his goddamn mind.
Fortunately for Landon, the rogue camp was closer to Lunaris than Shadowfell was.
So his Master Mage created a portal back to Shadowfell, using a temporary Luminari anchor because that was headquarters and his Master Mage said he did not believe in Sandwich Boy, and one Luminari soldier was sent through the portal to relay the information to the dragons and Nicholas Shadowfell.
The dragons got the message. Nicholas did not.
EVENT 4: THE DRAGON KING’S TANTRUM
SHADOWFELL - WAR ROOM - 9:30 AM
DISTANCE TO LUNARIS - 2,000 MILES
DRAGON FLIGHT SPEED - 175 mph
The dragons returned to Shadowfell midmorning to report back and regroup using a temporary anchor created by their Master Mage who also was skeptical of Sandwich Boy.
When word reached them that Guinevere Lunaris had been located, the response was immediate, loud, and involved at least one table being flipped.
In Maddox’s defense, he was worried sick about his wife and brother. He was also fully prepared to kill Renwick, Cassian, or both if his wife had lashes on her back. Judging by the ones on his own, the evidence was already in.
The Dragon King was out for blood.
EVENT 5: THE RESCUE TARGET GOES IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION
LUNARIS KEEP - 11:00 AM
DISTANCE TO GREYHALL CROSSING - 800 MILES
WOLF SPEED - 100 mph
Guinevere took off mid-morning for a summit the big boys hadn’t been informed she was invited to, completely unaware of a few things:
1) Cassian had fallen asleep in his cell waiting for the battle to finish with the dungeon master key in his pocket.
2) She was about to make history on the run itself. Greyhall Crossing was a long trip meant for heavy-hitter warriors. The distance and speed were thought to be physically impossible for female wolves. Not anymore.
3) Two kings were on their way to rescue her while a third was about to be in for a big surprise when he arrived at Greyhall Crossing.
The coordination was a shitshow.
And yet.