Kevin McLaughlin
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Chapter 176 The Second To Last Error
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 01:06:12 +0000 UTCA gentle touch on my shoulder roused me to wakefulness. Everything was still pitch black. Even the moon was hiding. I was on my feet and reaching for the sword at my side before I realized it was Kara. She flashed me a worried smile.
"Jumpy today, huh?"
"A little," I admitted. "But I figure there's good reason for that. Sorry for nodding off."
"You needed the rest," she replied. "We're ready to go. Everyone's loaded up all their supplies. Alfred is going to bring the rest of our people down south with him, while you drop off Clay, Patches, and I."
I shook my head to clear it, wishing for coffee. Even if we had any with us, which seemed iffy at best, starting a fire would only get us caught. Everything we were doing relied on us remaining under the metaphorical radar.
"Alfred had some questions about the non-combatants, after you fell asleep. We've got kids here, Selena. The Farm had families, not just warriors." Kara shouldered her backpack as Clay came over to join us.
"Shit, we can't send kids into danger, but we can't leave them without protection, either," I said, trying to think my way through the problem. My head felt muzzy, my thoughts unclear. "Okay, best plan is going to be to keep the bulk of our people together with Alfred. They can flee, if need be, and his warriors can protect those who can't fight."
I headed over to where Alfred was working to muster the bulk of our people and hashed out the details with him. He was taking all the bikes and bike trailers, which would let him move fast. His job was to get everyone safely ensconced somewhere just east of KingsHaven. Find somewhere out of the way that he could use to hide our people while we fought. Once he was there, he would take about three quarters of the able fighters and bring them forward as a quick reaction team. I didn't know what we'd need them for, or even if we would. But I wanted to have some warriors in place, just in case.
If things went horribly sideways, and the infiltration team or I were captured or killed, Alfred was to take our remaining people and leave the area entirely. Head east, ideally, and keep going until he found someplace relatively safe to stop. I gave him my parents' address.
"If you make it that far and give them my name, they'll take you in, even if I'm not there," I told him. "We're close enough to winter at this point that getting the supplies together to keep this many people fed won't be easy. They can help you make that happen."
"I'd really rather not have to explain why you aren't there," Alfred replied. "Please do us all a favor and try to not die?"
I laughed. What other response could you offer to something like that?" "I'll do my best not to inconvenience you!"
"Good, I'd appreciate that," he told me, then reached out and collected me into a hug. "Stay safe out there. And if it's possible, try to bring my fiancee home in one piece too, okay?"
"I will do everything I can."
"That's all I can ask." He let me go, then shrugged into his backpack and picked up a bike. "We're going to get moving. If we're to be down there in time to be any good to you, we need to motor."
He rode his bike toward the crowd still getting their gear together, shouting orders as he did. His presence got things organized ten times faster, and in just minutes, he had them all ready to roll out. As they prepared to leave, I turned back to the small crew coming with me.
"You all ready for this?"
"About as much as we can be," Kara replied.
"Patches ready."
"Feels like every other mission I've been on," Clay answered. "It's always ragged right when you start out."
"But then it gets better, right?" Kara asked.
Clay looked at her and just started laughing. I rolled my eyes and elbowed him in the ribs. "That's not inspiring confidence, dude."
He dropped back from the hearty laugh to a light chuckle. "Sorry. It's just... You know that old saying, right, about no plan surviving contact with the enemy? It's true. Things start off ragged, but then they get worse from there. Not better. Battles aren't about organization and structure. They're about mistakes, as much as anything else. When the odds are pretty even, it's the side that makes the fewest mistakes that usually wins. Sometimes, a battle or even a war comes down to whoever makes the second to last error."
"Because whoever made the last error loses?" I asked.
He nodded. "Got it in one."
Those were deep thoughts for this time of day. We saddled up, all four of us clambering aboard Tenebris. It took some doing to find seats for everyone, and I cursed under my breath again that there wasn't time to build a saddle.
"I've got rope," Kara said. "Figured it might come in handy."
Clay pulled out a knife and chopped chunks of the rope off, which each of us used to tie ourselves to the bones of Tenebris's spine and ribs. It wasn't perfect, but the odds of any of us tumbling off in mid-flight were a lot less, now.
"You going to be able to manage all of us?" I asked the dragon.
Absolutely. I'll be slower than I would be with just yourself, but I can carry the four of you without issue.
We took to the air a few minutes later, the dragon making lazy circles as he worked to gain altitude. We were definitely rising slower than we had when it was just me, but he managed okay. In the distance below I watched as Alfred started the rest of our people on their journey. He led from the front, his bike leading the way.
I had Tenebris turn back west before heading south again. I wanted to collect those orc zombies I'd created and stashed up at the mall. We couldn't fly them south. The weight would be way too much. But as soon as I got into range to send my zombies mental commands, I ordered them to break out of where I'd hidden them and begin marching their way south as well. I figured it would be better to have them somewhere nearby KingsHaven and not need them than it would be to wish they were down there.
Once the order was given, we turned south, toward our enemy and whatever final reckoning was coming.
I had Tenebris veer east again as we flew. Peter and his dragon were still out there, somewhere, and the last thing we wanted was for him to spot us right now. The second diversion cost us a little time, but even heavily laden, the dragon flew fast. My watch said it was about four in the morning when we first spotted the lights of KingsHaven. We were almost to our destination.
It turned out the diversion was a really good idea. I'd no sooner spotted those distant lights than I got a sense of eminent danger from my Domain. Peter was there, and he wasn't alone. He'd just arrived at the head of a large body of troops and workers.
"Selena, everything okay?" Clay asked.
"Not sure. Peter just arrived back at the Farm with a bunch of troops."
"That sounds like good news for us," he replied.
"Yeah, I think so," I said.
I tried to envision what was going down, back at the Farm. I couldn't literally see it, but I could imagine. Peter would show up, expecting to see his pack of orcs still digging me out of the rubble. Or maybe having already caught me.
Instead, he'd find another battlefield and a whole lot of freshly killed orcs. What would he do next? I pondered. Peter was methodical. He'd examine the dead, try to piece together what happened. He'd see the burns on the bodies of the orcs Tenebris killed. Then he'd see Sue's bones were missing, and probably assume I'd just brought the dinosaur back somehow.
I doubted he would guess what he was really up against. He was in for a shock!
"Kara, how well can you screen us with darkness?" I asked. The city was growing larger by the second, and while there weren't a ton of torches lit, there were enough. I knew they'd have guard posted on the walls, too.
"Well enough," she replied.
I can also manipulate shadows to assist, my dragon rumbled to me.
"Tenebris can help, too. Okay, now for the hard part," I said, turning to everyone. "We'll cross the threshold to his Domain soon. With the way the alert system works, his Domain will absolutely alert him."
"What we do?" Patches asked, eyes wide.
"Intent is what matters. My Domain doesn't tell me when every person wanders in or out of it. It only alerts me when the reason for their visit is something that ought to alarm me. Since we're here to mess Peter up, it's definitely going to tell him company is here," I said. "The good news is, Peter isn't here. It ought to take him close to an hour to get back from the Farm. You guys have that long to find those eggs and shoot a signal arrow. We'll be waiting for you."
"What if we can't find the eggs or baby dragons before he gets back?" Clay asked.
"Then Tenebris and I will do our best to hold him off for as long as we can. But try to hit the deadline, hey?" I said, flashing him a smile that had more confidence than I actually felt.
We'd slipped over the edge into Peter's Domain for sure by then. He'd know where we were. He wouldn't have any way of knowing precisely what we were up to, but for all his many failings, he wasn't stupid. It wasn't hard to figure out where his weak link was. If we worked it out, so could he.
Kara and Tenebris cooperated to wreath us with shadow, so that we blended perfectly with the night sky as we soared over the walls, past the guards. There'd been some discussion about where to drop them off. The safest drop point would be in one of the fields. There shouldn't be anyone out there at night, so we could drop them without worry about being spotted.
But with as little time as we had left, getting the team inserted closer to where the target should be made more sense. Peter would keep whatever gave him his hold over the dragon at the castle, ideally somewhere as secure as possible. With only an hour to play with, they couldn't be spending half of that trying to break into a castle.
Instead, we formed the shadows up around us as intensely as possible, and then dropped down while inside the ball of shadow, directly over one of the castle towers.
There were two guards on the tower. One of them got out the briefest yelp before Kara's arrow took him down, while the other didn't even have time for that before Patches javelin punched through his throat. My team jumped down from Tenebris and was moving across the tower roof in seconds. And we were airborne again, flying higher, still shielded from view by Tenebris's magic weaving the bits of darkness around us.
By the time I was able to glance down toward my friends, they were already gone. They'd darted down the staircase into the tower. Shit, I hoped they'd all be okay. There were three of them, all alone in the middle of a castle bristling with enemy fighters. If they were caught, I couldn't imagine Peter would treat them well.
They will fight well, Tenebris said. We must remain vigilant and ready to do our part, if it becomes necessary.
"Good point. If Peter shows up before they escape, we're gonna have a hell of a fight on our hands. You ready for that?"
Tenebris made a scoffing sound in my mind. Of course. Our battles together will become the stuff of legends, Selena. Wait and see!
