Page 236 of Night's Fall
A long hesitation (very long), and he asked dubiously, “Whatdo you want to know?”
“You could start by explaining why the dragons flew last night, and the wolves howled, the bears roared, etcetera.”
“Someone shot a stream intended for theTrueHeir’smate and killed her bodyguard,” he said likeIwas a dim bulb.
“Yes,Iget that, butI’mnot their mate.”
“Do you not know history?” he asked, again with the dim-bulb tone.
“Of courseIknow history,”Ianswered, thinking maybeIwasn’t the brightest, considering it was clear using this to try to make inroads with him was not a sterling idea.
His head tipped to the side as he muttered, “Dofemales not get this?”
“Get what?”
It took him about twenty beats, throughout all of them,Ididn’t know if he’d march away or stay.
Finally, he said, “Followme.”
I wanted to crow in victory that maybeI’dmade a break in the walls aroundPrinceTimothee.
I didn’t do that.
I followed him.
He took me into a cavernous room on the first floor that had its walls covered entirely in a magnificent mural.
This included the ceiling.
I’d heard about this mural.Itwas famous.
ButIhadn’t gotten to this wing of thePalacebeforeIgot sidetracked by the gardens, soIhadn’t seen it yet.
He went to a corner and pointed at the wall.
“This isBattleof theChasm, which happened about a hundred and fifty years before theTrollInvasion.Andthis”—he did a circle, his finger still pointing, indicating the entire room—“is the history of theStarknightClan.”
SlowlyIturned, taking it all in, knowingIwas going to be in that room for hours, inspecting every inch ofAleksei’sfamily history in mural form.
“You know shifters adapted from humans before recorded history?”Timotheeasked asIstudied the dragons flying with eagles, hawks, ravens, owls, all of these clearly battling demons who were on the ground trying to stave off wolves, bears, snakes and a variety of big cats.
“Yes,”Ireplied.
“TheBattleof theChasmis the first resounding defeat of the demons who populated what’s nowSky’sEdge,” he shared.
I looked to him. “Iknow that too.”
“Do you know the reason we won is becauseCaelynKnightstardevised a strategy that’s known now as the first militarized bank of dragons?”
I nodded.
Even so, he continued his history lesson.
“He synchronized this with land-based creatures.Before, the different shifter creatures battled among themselves.Wewere not united as one species but broken up into clans of the beast we carried.Further, war tactics were not that advanced.Itwas race into the clash, kill or be killed, and the leader with the most standing at the end won.Inother words, it was chaos.Casualtieswere always huge.Caelynnot only amassed all the species together, he ordered reconnaissance and did not attack unless he knew everything he could about his enemy.Hedevised the first aerial sorties.Heorganized battalions, created flanks, trained commanders, planned battles to the last warrior, with secondary and tertiary strategies that could be called if he saw one failing.Inessence, he created modern warfare.”
“He was also the first to treat all species of beasts equally, in battle and out of it,”Iadded.
Timothee nodded and pointed again to the wall. “Hewasn’t made chieftain until after that victory.Andthe reason that war was fought was because his mate had been captured by a band of demons.”
