Son of the Dragon (The Netherworld Gate Book 3) Read online

  The seraph choked and stumbled back into the statue and its flaming wings died down.

  The sword drank of the seraph’s blood and Talon felt a surge of power much stronger than anything he had experienced from the sword before. He left the prayer room and moved on to the next one, repeating the process he used in the first until he came within striking distance. This time, he was able to close in undetected, driving his blade through the seraph’s neck and killing it silently.

  He exited the second room and checked to ensure all of his warriors were still waiting. Leflin was there, waiting for him as he emerged. The others were in the same places they had been when Talon had started his work of death.

  Talon could see the expression on Leflin’s face. The clan leader had begged Talon to let them help dispatch the seraphim with him. He argued that a simultaneous strike would be best. Talon had refused, not ready to trust the success of something so delicate to anyone else. The seraphim were largely unknown creatures on Terramyr. That made them unpredictable. Talon didn’t want any mistakes made.

  He moved on to the third prayer room.

  No sooner had he skirted around the statue than he realized that a mistake had been made.

  There was no seraph inside this prayer room.

  Talon looked up, searching the ceiling and studying the small room.

  Perhaps this one had gone to the astral plane?

  A shout sounded from the main hall and Talon knew where the seraph was. It was in the temple, in a different room and only now making its way to its proper chamber.

  Talon rushed for the door and ran out into the chaos.

  He crossed out into the main hall to see eight dead priests, their bodies strewn around the long table.

  The telltale fiery wings of a seraph spread, throwing a couple of drow warriors out into the main chamber. Talon’s warriors sprang into action. Some channeled their fire spells, but others used their weapons.

  The first seraph was killed quickly, but not before it howled and woke the entire temple.

  Suddenly, two of Talon’s warriors were thrown into the center of the main chamber by a great explosion of fire. Talon watched as a large figure rushed into the room. Wings of fire carried the creature to the fallen elves, and a wickedly curved sword came chopping down furiously, severing the two warriors in half at the same time.

  Talon took the fang in his hand. The great black cat leapt out from the tooth and tore at the large, winged creature.

  The assassin then summoned his fog from the sword. He rushed in, hoping to take the winged creature by surprise, but somehow it saw Talon. Throwing the gorlung from its shoulders, it wheeled around and blocked Talon’s sword with its own. Then it lashed out with a kick that forced Talon back. The creature followed that with a clap of its wings. A great thunder deafened Talon momentarily as he and the gorlung were thrown across the room where Talon thumped against a column.

  “I am a seraph,” the creature said with a voice that echoed against the walls of the temple hall. “Your dark magic has no effect on me!”

  At that moment, a drow warrior rushed in to Talon’s aid. He threw a fireball at the seraph. The spell hit the creature in the chest, but it did no damage at all. The seraph turned and its eyes glowed hot and fierce. A second later, great beams of golden light shot out and vaporized the drow.

  Talon pushed to his feet and managed to dodge around the column just as the seraph turned its deadly eyes toward him. The column exploded into shards of jagged stone and dust. Talon covered his head and hunkered down low until the pieces had all passed, then he leapt up and sent a bolt of lightning at the seraph.

  Having already feasted on seraph blood, Drekk’hul was stronger. The purple bolt streaked furiously toward the seraph’s chest, crackling and burning a hole straight through the seraph’s chest.

  “That’s four,” Talon noted to himself.

  Another seraph rushed out, but it was cut down quickly by a group of drow.

  A sixth seraph emerged, blasting through its door with golden beams of light that incinerated several nearby Sierri’Tai warriors.

  A drow lunged in from the side with a scimitar. The seraph countered with a lightning-fast swat of its right wing. The flames of the wing burned the drow badly and the force of the blow sent him hurtling through the air.

  Talon took a dagger and threw it at the creature, taking advantage of the opening it had created by extending its wing. The seraph moved his forearm in to block the dagger, letting the blade sink into its arm, and then shaking it out as if it were nothing more than an annoying briar.

  Talon clenched his jaw, but then a great, black mass of fur and fangs leapt up and bit the seraph in the back of the neck. The seraph howled and tried to swing its sword upward at the phantom beast, but the gorlung hung from the seraph’s neck, dragging the winged creature down. Talon rushed in and thrust his sword deep into the seraph’s exposed chest. The flames on its wings died out, and the seraph jerked and twitched.

  The gorlung snarled and released the bloody and broken neck. Blood dripped from its sneering maw as it turned to search out its next victim.

  Talon pulled his sword free and felt another great rush of energy as Drekk’hul drank the seraph’s blood. Another seraph stumbled toward him, three Sierri’Tai warriors clinging to him and stabbing him violently as he tried to stay upright. Talon leapt out of the way as the seraph fell to his face and the flaming wings went dark.

  There was only one seraph left.

  It blasted two drow with beams from its eyes, then it leapt into the air and hovered above the floor with its wings as it stretched out its hands and poured fire down. The drow warriors joined together, countering the fire magic and pushing it back up toward the flying seraph.

  It was a battle of wills at this point, the seraph desperately trying to push the wall of flame down while the Sierri’Tai used their mastery of fire magic to hold it up and push it back toward the seraph.

  In any case, there wasn’t any easy way to reach the winged demon. Talon didn’t have a bow, and he couldn’t throw his sword that far and hope to be accurate. He fired lightning spells, but the distance between Talon and the seraph gave the creature enough time to react and dodge the spell. Then Talon caught sight of the gorlung. It was circling around behind the seraph. Could it jump that high?

  The beast stood proudly and arched its back as it directed a mighty roar at the seraph. In addition to the thunderous sound, a wave of pale yellow light came out from the beast’s mouth. The wave crashed into the seraph, pinning its wings against its back and dropping it from its flight. The seraph lost its concentration, falling through the wall of fire unharmed and crashing to the floor. A moment later, a score of drow warriors pounced on the seraph, each stabbing and thrusting their blades into the creature.

  The wings went dim and the battle for the temple was over.

  Talon looked around and made a quick head count. There were forty Sierri’Tai warriors left. It wasn’t nearly as many as he had hoped to have at this point, and fewer than half of what he had left the Netherworld with, but they had made it this far. Perhaps it was enough to help Talon take down Basei.

  Leflin approached Talon. “How do we reach the astral plane?”

  Talon nodded and pointed to the large statue of Basei in the back of the room. “This is not the High Temple by accident,” Talon said.

  Rampant knocking came from the front door of the temple.

  “What’s going on in there?” someone shouted.

  Talon looked back to the drow. “Have the others seal the back door, now!”

  The warrior turned and interpreted quickly. Four drow rushed off to close the exit.

  The assassin then ignored the incessant shouts and pounding on the door and led the drow to the statue. “This statue marks the very spot were Basei first transcended this plane and found his way to the astral plane. There are many connections to Terramyr, but according to the information I have, this is the one way that any mortal
can access Basei’s realm.”

  “Do we destroy the statue?”

  Talon shook his head. “Bring the bodies of the priests. Meet me in the prayer room over there.”

  Talon moved into a side chamber and sneered when he saw the smaller, yet still larger than life statue of Basei sitting upon a throne of bones. He moved in close and inspected the statue, looking for the telltale grooves where the blood was supposed to run. He didn’t find any. All he found was a bucket of ashes behind the statue, and a large brass gong.

  Talon emerged from the room and asked the drow to wait before bringing the bodies. He had to find the right room. He inspected seven more prayer chambers, looking for the grooves that would mark the statue he needed to use for the ritual. Each of the prayer chambers had a statue, but none of them had any grooves for directing blood.

  The assassin returned to the large chamber fuming and swearing under his breath. Perhaps the information had been wrong. It was wrong about the exit doors after all. Talon moved to stand before the large, central statue of Basei in the main hall. The monument was beyond huge. It barely had space for the head before it struck the ceiling. It was carved of brown stone and showed the same image as each of the prayer rooms. Basei was seated upon a throne of bones. The only difference was that actual bone was used as mosaic tiles over the stone.

  “Where is the door, you clever snake?” Talon asked. His eyes traced the central statue, but even as he did so he knew that would have been too obvious. Still, he inspected all the way around the statue just to be sure. He found nothing.

  The assassin circled back around to the front of the statue and kicked the base of it in anger. Talon turned away from the statue, but stopped when he heard a strange, high pitched clank like pottery falling and striking stone. He turned back to the statue just as a piece of white stone fell from the statue and shattered on the floor. Talon moved in closer and bent down to pick up the thin fragment and discovered it wasn’t stone at all. It was some sort of plaster.

  Talon stood and looked for where the piece had broken out from. He found a section roughly two inches long, half an inch wide and half an inch deep. It was a groove. The plaster had been added to seal the blood grooves and hide them.

  The assassin grinned as he took his knife and chiseled more of the plaster away. A few of the drow moved in to help. They dug and worked at the new plaster until it was all removed. Talon discovered that there were several grooves atop the seated statue’s lap that gathered the blood from sacrifices into one pool and then let them course out through the grooves and into the floor. More than that, the groove in the floor went all the way to the strange bowl in the floor where the priests had built their fire.

  The drow used their magic to clear the stone bowl, discovering that there were grooves in the bowl that formed an ancient rune, the likes of which even the Sierri’Tai had not seen before.

  “This is the doorway,” Talon said. “Take the bodies and drain their blood over the statue until this rune has enough to be activated. Go, now.”

  Talon stepped aside while the others did the gruesome work of opening the seal.

  It took a long time, but eventually there was enough of the crimson liquid that it ran into the rune and filled the grooves. The rune began to glow and a vortex opened as the stone in the floor fell away. Talon stepped to the edge. A few of the stones remained, spiraling down like a set of floating stairs that dropped into a void of blue and purple.

  Talon looked to his followers. “This it is,” he said. “Follow me.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Talon cautiously stepped onto the first stone. It dipped down slightly under his weight, but didn’t fall. A strange, warm wind gathered around Talon as he made his way down. A pale blue light shot up through the opening, nearly blinding Talon with its intensity. It then faded as the light hollowed out, forming a tube-like structure around Talon. Lightning shot over the surface of the blue tube of light, preventing Talon from retreating, or the others from following him.

  Talon’s stomach knotted once he realized what was happening. He was making the journey to the astral plane alone.

  A fleeting thought came into his head as he watched the distorted shadows and figures of his warriors try to penetrate the magical barrier and come after him. Did Basei sense the intrusion? Was the demi-god waiting at the base of the stairs?

  Talon steeled his nerves. He knew that if Basei didn’t yet know, he would discover Talon’s presence sooner or later. It was best to keep moving.

  The assassin quickened his pace and held his sword at the ready. He dropped down the spiraling staircase until there were no more stones to step upon. There was only blackness below him.

  The assassin peered down into the void and then took one more step.

  Instead of falling, as he had expected, he plopped his foot down on black stone. He looked up and saw that the spiral staircase and the magical blue light of the portal were hundreds of feet above him. The portal closed and he was acutely aware of how alone he was. The black stone seemed to stretch for miles around him. Jagged shadows jutted up from the floor, obscuring his view. He might have felt entirely swallowed in the void, had he not caught sight of the faint, blue line across the horizon that was littered with small, white lights that resembled stars.

  Talon walked carefully, turning his head this way and that, watching for any sign of life in this strange plane. What he wouldn’t give for his warriors to be at his back.

  Then he remembered his bracelet. He summoned the gorlung beast to this plane, taking the tooth in hand and calling for his companion with his mind.

  At first, nothing happened. There was no answer. No black mist emerged from the tooth. There wasn’t even a growl from the gorlung. Talon nearly gave up, but then he felt a rustle next to him. The beast stood on his right.

  Takes longer to come here.

  Talon nodded and set his hand on the gorlung. “I am just glad you could join me,” Talon said in a whisper. The two of them wandered for hours. There was no sign of life anywhere.

  Then a terrible sound erupted and shook the entire plane. It was like a gong, but thousands of times louder. Talon and the gorlung both crouched low to the black stone and watched the sky overhead as a seraph flew into view.

  “I thought we killed all of them,” Talon whispered.

  We killed those at the temple, but perhaps there are other temples where they serve Basei.

  Talon nodded. “Let’s follow him.” Talon mounted the great beast and the two of them made haste along the rocky ground as they kept an eye on the seraph. Eventually the flying creature led them to a vast expanse of black stone that floated in the void. Talon’s heart sank.

  For the second time, he needed a rope and was unprepared.

  The seraph landed on the mass of rock and disappeared from view. Several minutes later, the seraph left again, flying off in the direction it had approached from.

  Talon slid off the gorlung and kicked at the ground. What was he to do? He could call out to Basei, but what if he sent more seraph down to fight Talon? Worse still, what if he used magic to attack Talon from the floating rock? No, Talon had to think of something that would not announce his presence. He began walking closer to the expanse of rock to see if perhaps the lowest portion that hung down might be close enough to reach, but the gorlung ran in front of Talon and stopped the man.

  Can your eyes not see?

  Talon cocked his head, but then noticed that the ground he was walking upon dropped off just a few feet beyond the gorlung. Had he kept walking, he would have fallen into an endless abyss.

  “So I am trapped here?” Talon spat angrily. He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest.

  Trapped? Why not call the other phantom?

  “What other phantom?” Talon asked. “I know only of you. If you are speaking of Jahre’s ghost, he is long gone.”

  The gorlung shook its head and looked to Talon’s sword.

  Drekk’hul is like me. You have a
piece of him, and yet you have never called upon him.

  Talon looked down at the sword. “No, this was just a cursed sword, but the demon has been cleansed from the blade now. It is not like the tooth.”

  The gorlung snarled impatiently. How is it one like you could defeat me in life? You know nothing of the order of things.

  Talon threw his hands up and then drew the blade. “Fine, tell me how I am supposed to summon a phantom with a sword. How does that work?”

  The sword is made from a piece of the dragon.

  “How would you know that?” Talon asked.

  The gorlung emitted a sound somewhere between a purr and a growl. Because, the dragon who forged that sword is the creator of the Netherworld. The Patron of Chaos is my father. All who walk the Netherworld know of his power. Give me the sword, and I shall show you Drekk’hul’s true power.

  Talon hesitated, but only for a moment before he offered the blade to the gorlung. The beast took it in its mouth and closed its eyes. A moment later and the sword began to glow purple and blue. The gorlung offered it back to Talon.

  Immediately, an old, familiar voice entered Talon’s mind.

  Ah, yesssss. The hero who used me to vanquish the Svetli’Tai Kruks has called me back once again. I see you have been busy, assassin. The sword has drunk of human, elf, and… seraph blood! Oh how lovely! It is so good to reunite with you!

  Talon moved to sheathe the sword, not ready to allow the demon back into his head.

  The gorlung snarled. Don’t! It can help you.

  Talon shook his head, but the voice from the sword reached out to him again. I can help you, young warrior. The beast speaks true, though you are wise to fear me. When you held me in your hand previously I was a shade, a portion of my true self. Your foolish grandfather thought he could banish me from the blade I created out of my own body, ha! They may have cleansed the shade from the blade, but now it is I that call to you, the master of chaos, the father of deceit, and the cunning viper that plots in the shadows of death.