Inferno (Talon #5)(36)
Opening my eyes, I raised my head, pushed back the doors and strode into the chamber, smiling as I did.
Six pairs of ancient, all-knowing eyes turned on me. A round stone table stood in the center of the room, surrounded by pillars, candle stands and a half-dozen Adult Eastern dragons, all in human form. They wore long flowing robes of various colors and billowing sleeves, and the weight of their combined stares nearly knocked the air from my lungs.
As the doors groaned shut behind me, I faced the roomful of dragons and bowed, feeling their gazes on the back of my neck. “Please forgive my tardiness,” I said, holding the bow. “The climb up the mountain was…steeper than I first imagined. I hope I have not kept you long.”
“You,” one of the females said, her smooth voice tinged with anger. She was an older woman, smaller than me by several inches, with silver-gray hair braided down her back and piercing dark eyes. “How dare you come here, demanding an audience with the council, mere days after Talon brutally attacks our kind for no reason? You slaughter our people, burn our temples to the ground, send those… abominations to destroy us, and now you have the audacity to stand before us in the name of peace and cooperation.” Her eyes started to glow an ominous yellow as the outline of her true form—a massive red dragon with a golden mane and horns—flickered overhead for a split second. “Tell me, hatchling, why shouldn’t we kill you here and now? What can you possibly do to stop us?”
I kept my voice polite, nonthreatening. As if this were a perfectly normal meeting, and I felt no fear whatsoever. “There is nothing I can do, should you decide to end my life,” I said calmly. “However, that course of action is not advisable. If you kill me, Talon will show you no mercy whatsoever.”
The woman gave a brittle laugh. “That is supposed to frighten us?” she mocked. “Talon has already shown us the extent of its ‘mercy.’”
“Forgive me, but I have to disagree,” I said, joining them at the table. “Everything you’ve seen so far? That was only the tip of the iceberg. Right now, Talon’s attention is dispersed—our operations in the US and England are taking much of our time. If you kill me, it will turn the full force of its gaze on this temple and everyone in it.” I met the woman’s eyes, unchallenging, but unafraid. “I am the blood of the Elder Wyrm and the heir to the most powerful organization in the world,” I stated calmly. “You do not want the Elder Wyrm to make this personal.”
“Enough,” said one of the others, an old man with a white beard and thin mustache down the front of his chest. Ancient black eyes gazed at me across the table. “You did not come to us simply to test our patience,” he said. “If Talon sent you here alone, they must be very confident in whatever you are about to say. Speak, then, and let us be done with it.”
I bowed my head respectfully. “Thank you.” Facing them all, their expressions ranging from anger to distrust to calm indifference, I took a furtive breath.
“You have all seen the power Talon now commands,” I began. “The Night of Fang and Fire struck not only here, but at all St. George bases around the world. Our forces took them by surprise, and the dragonslayers fell before the might of Talon. The Order of St. George has been wiped out. The war is finished, and the dragonslayers are no more.”
If the Eastern dragons felt surprise or dismay at the news, they hid it perfectly. “Our enemies have been put down,” I went on. “St. George will no longer threaten us. The rogue dragons will no longer threaten us. The only opposition Talon has left…is right here.
“We shouldn’t be enemies,” I continued before they could mount an argument, or accuse me of threats. “We are the same, and all dragons should be united under one banner. Join us. Accept the gift the Elder Wyrm is offering your people. With your wisdom and Talon’s power, we can make our race even stronger.”
“And if we do not?” Another dragon spoke, a beardless man with his hair pulled into a long tail that reached the small of his back. He was the youngest dragon at the table, and probably older than me by several centuries. “If we refuse this ‘gift’?”
“You’ve seen what Talon can do.” My voice didn’t falter; I could not falter, even in this. “You know that our power rivals even yours. The Elder Wyrm does not want this to be a fight. She believes we can come to an agreement that will benefit both sides. But if you refuse, you declare yourselves enemies of Talon, and we will respond accordingly.”
“And you will have ‘no choice’ but to destroy us,” the old male dragon said, and smiled humorlessly. “So, it is the most ancient of ultimatums—join us or die. That is what you are really saying, is that not correct, hatchling?”
“Yes,” I said, no longer willing to sugarcoat it when the intent was obvious. “It is.”
No one seemed surprised by this. Most of them simply nodded, as if that’s what they’d figured all along. “We will need time to think on your offer,” the male dragon said, and gestured to a door off to the side. “If you would give us a few minutes to speak among ourselves, we will call for you when we have an answer.”
I bowed and stepped away. “Of course.”
“Before you go, Dante Hill,” another dragon said, the younger male with the ponytail down his back. “I believe this is for you.”