The Knights of Dragonwatch by Eric T. Knight
Author:Eric T. Knight [Knight, Eric T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-07T22:00:00+00:00
Chapter 26
In the morning, Pythas seemed subdued. Jarryd had the sense that he was feeling bad about what had been said the night before, but he couldnât be sure. The manâs emotions were as inaccessible as theyâd been that night at the tavern.
âHereâs what weâre going to do,â Pythas said, handing over another piece of dried meat. They had packed their gear and were getting ready to move out again. âIâm going to take you to Rensfire. Itâs a big enough city that you should be able to disappear.â
âAnd then what will you do?â
Pythas gave him a look of disbelief. âIâll go back to surviving, is what Iâll do. The same thing Iâve been doing for twenty years.â
âThe Emperor isnât going to stop. Heâs going to keep killing people. Donât you care about that?â
âI donât.â
âYou donât mean that.â
âBut I do. Look, I donât know where you got all this enthusiasm from, boy, but itâs going to get you killed. Let me explain some things to you about the world. Kings and emperors are always popping up. Study a little history and youâll see itâs true. They rise up, make a splash, kill some people, take some territory. You want to know what they all have in common?â
âWhat?â
âThey all die eventually. Sometime in the following generations one of their offspring screws it all up and the empire or kingdom falls. Or another king takes it. Then he puts himself in power and the whole show repeats itself. The only constant is that someone, somewhere, is always trying to rule. Thatâs something the Knights never understood. Trying to stop the bad ones is a never-ending task. Itâs like trying to bail out the sea. The water never stops. And thatâs assuming you can even tell which are the bad ones and which are the good ones. One manâs tyrant is another manâs hero.â
âIt canât be that hard,â Jarryd said stubbornly.
âItâs harder than you think. You sound like Hollis now, you know. He was so sure he knew who the good guys and the bad guys were. Did you know at first he was a supporter of the beast kings? He saw them as a better alternative to the lawlessness of that region. Look how that turned out.â
âI donât know who the beast kings are.â
âNo, you wouldnât. They were the reason Skrellis ended up doing what he did, which led to his banishment and the destruction of the Knights. Thatâs not important here. My point is that itâs best to keep your head down and let these things run their course. The Emperor will die eventually, and his empire will collapse. The difference is whether or not you survive.â
âWhat happened to make you so cynical?â
âIâm not cynical. Iâm realistic. It happens to you if you live long enough.â
âI hope I never get that way.â
âIf you live long enough, youâll understand. Nowââ
Pythas broke off suddenly. When Jarryd started to speak, he gestured him to silence. He drew his sword.
Then he shoved Jarryd. Jarryd fell backwards, fighting to keep from falling down.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Never by Ken Follett(2842)
Machine Learning at Scale with H2O by Gregory Keys | David Whiting(2188)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King(2036)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J. K. Rowling(1995)
Will by Will Smith(1989)
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl(1638)
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr(1414)
The Becoming by Nora Roberts(1306)
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry(1288)
A Short History of War by Jeremy Black(1287)
New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp(1251)
HBR's 10 Must Reads 2022 by Harvard Business Review(1241)
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon(1218)
The Complete Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski(1205)
515945210 by Unknown(1200)
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson(1197)
Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds - Clean Edition by David Goggins(1196)
Fear No Evil by James Patterson(1088)
This Family Does It by Kevin Sellers(1068)