Son of the Dragon (The Netherworld Gate Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I saw it before. Why do you think I am after him?”
    Jahre held a finger up. “Then you agree he had no right to kill both armies just now?”
    Talon narrowed his eyes. “Are you trying to play upon my conscience?”
    Jahre shook his head. “No, I am trying to ply logic. You saw what Basei is wont to do. What do you imagine he will choose when the End War comes? Will he side with the world, or will he destroy it all just for the sake of having something to fight?”
    Talon didn’t answer, but he didn’t have too. They both knew the truth of it.
    Jahre moved in close. “Now, the question is, what would you do in his place?”
    Talon turned a puzzled look on the elf.
    “If you had Basei’s power, where would you stand in the End War?”
    “You said that the council would send the four horsemen to destroy the world. Maybe I would side with them, and ascend to a higher throne.”
    Jahre nodded. “But how would that sit with your conscience?” he asked. “Could you live with that reality? After all, to side with the four horsemen would mean that you would have to help them destroy everything. Young, old, male, and female.”
    Talon shook his head. “Maybe I wouldn’t side with them,” Talon began. “Then again, I wouldn’t have to stop them either.”
    Jahre pointed an ethereal finger at Talon. “No, I know you better than that, boy. You would yearn to protect the mothers of this world. You have, after all, one rule that you must live by. You don’t kill women. Standing by while monsters killed them would stain your hands as much as if you were swinging the sword yourself.”
    Talon looked down and shook his head. “You would stake all of your hope in me?”
    Jahre moved in closer still and nodded emphatically. “I have seen what you can do if you come down on the right side. I have already paid the price to give you another chance. So has your father.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I saw that you would kill Basei,” Jahre replied. “When your mother and father became pregnant, I saw that you would grow to slay the horrid demi-god. I saw that with his power you would heal much of the suffering in this world. That is the Talon I fight to save, even now.”
    “But you also saw a version where I become something ‘worse’ as you called it. Where I use the position of a demigod for something else, becoming something even more powerful,” Talon pressed.
    Jahre backed away and nodded solemnly. “I did. There are more than one such versions of the future, in fact. Some show you storming Hammenfein to release your father’s soul, thereby bringing the council down upon Terramyr centuries before it otherwise would. Other versions show that you become as bloodthirsty as Basei. Others show that you simply fade away, turning your back upon a dying world.” Jahre stopped then, his spirit trembling as he seemed to be fighting the words that came next. “There is one even more terrifying than any of those though. A vision of death and destruction that eclipses all known catastrophes conceivable in this world. In that vision, I saw—”
    Talon didn’t need to wait for the explanation. He had seen it in his dreams during the first night of his death. “I use the Sierri’Tai army to destroy all of the gods.”
    Jahre nodded. “It would mean the end of all life.” The two stood there for several moments before Jahre looked up and put on a forced smile. “That future is far from you, I think. You and I know you have a conscience, even if you won’t admit it to yourself. Otherwise you would kill women as easily as men.” Jahre leaned in for added emphasis. “Additionally, now that we are spirits, I have had the opportunity to look over your history in its entirety. Not only have you a rule against killing women, but you have never slain a child either.”
    Talon smirked. He was not about to let Jahre win the debate so easily. “You are forgetting something, elf.”
    Jahre knit his brow and tilted his head to the