The Sundering (16 page)

“With your permission, then, I’ll have things arranged at my tent and begin gathering the rest.
”
Blackforest nodded once more, then turned his mount around and rode off.

“Looks—looks like—you’ve come up in the world,
”
a voice rasped.

He glanced down to see Rhonin conscious. The wizard still looked pale, but not so much as before. Jarod quickly bent down and gave him water from a sack. Rhonin eagerly drank.

“I’d feared that the spell had done damage to your mind. How fare you, Master Rhonin?
”

“I feel as if a regiment of Infernals are battering my skull from the inside…and that’s an improvement.
”
The human sat up straight.
“
I gather there was trouble after I was struck down.
”

The captain told him, keeping it as brief as possible and downplaying his role. Despite that, however, the wizard looked at Jarod in obvious admiration.

“Looks like Krasus was right about you. You did more than save the day, this time. You likely saved the world, at least for the moment.”

Cheeks darkening, the night elf vehemently shook his head.
“
I am no leader, Master Rhonin! All I did was try to survive.
”

“Well, nice of you to help the rest of us survive while you were at it. So, Stareye’s dead. Sorry for him, not so sorry for the host. Glad to see some of the nobles have come to their senses. Maybe there’s hope yet.
”

“Surely you don’t think I’m going to meet with them?
”
Jarod had a vision of Blackforest and the others surrounding him, their eyes all staring.
“
I’m only a Guard officer from Suramar!
”

“Not anymore…” The wizard tried to rise, finally signaling his companion to help him. As he straightened, Rhonin met Jarod’s gaze. The human’s unique eyes seized his.
“
Not anymore.
”

Korialstrasz had not yet learned the patience of his elder counterpart, Krasus, and so it was that he began to fidget. The red dragon knew well that it would be some time before the party would return—assuming that they did return—and although he tried to find peace during his wait, he could not. There were too many things running through his thoughts. Alexstrasza, the Burning Legion, the implications of Krasus’s presence, and more. He also recalled too well the punishment he had taken at Neltharion’s paws. Now his other self was fast approaching the sanctum of that fiend and there was more than a little concern that Krasus might fall prey to the Demon Soul.

In frustration, the red giant began scratching at the mountainside with one talon. Massive chunks of stone and earth that were no more than pebbles to the dragon dropped into the valley below. This, however, entertained Korialstrasz only for an hour. More agitated than ever, he started eyeing the dark sky and wondering if perhaps it was safe to take to the air for a few minutes.

A low roar echoed through the mountains.

All frustration thrust aside, a now alert Korialstrasz slipped down from his perch, planting his huge body on the side of the peak. He peered up, seeking the source of the sound.

A dark form slowly flew overhead. A small black dragon. The pace at which the other leviathan flew marked him as a sentinel.

Korialstrasz quietly hissed. Had the other simply been flying off somewhere, there would have been no cause for worry. However, that the black prowled this particular region meant danger to the plan.

Yet, he was crossed up as to whether he should remain hidden or seek out the guardian. If the others had not been noticed, then attacking the black might prove a fatal mistake. The sentinel could escape and warn his master. Then again, if left alone, the other dragon might discover Krasus and the rest, anyway, on his return flight.

Korialstrasz clutched the mountainside tight as he attempted to come to some quick conclusion. If the black flew too far away, the red might not be able to catch up to him—

The rock face under his claws gave way.

Caught unaware, Korialstrasz tumbled from the mountain as the entire side collapsed. The dragon instinctively spread his wings and righted himself, suffering only a few hard pelts from the massive avalanche he had inadvertently caused. He shook his head, clearing his tangled thoughts.

The roar in his ears was the only warning he had before the black struck him from behind.

Despite being slightly smaller, Korialstrasz’s attacker hit with powerful fury. The red was thrust toward the jagged ground at a ferocious speed. His left wing scraped painfully against the rocks.

Korialstrasz managed to stretch one forepaw against another peak, digging his claws deep. His momentum tore tons of rock from the other mountain, but slowed his descent enough to give him time to think. The red dragon tipped to one side, startling his foe and causing the black to lose hold.

As the second dragon tumbled back, Korialstrasz righted himself. He tried to rise up again, but his adversary still had one pair of claws on his back. The added weight made the strain terrible, but Korialstrasz would not give in.

Flapping as hard as he could, he twisted in mid-air. Using his tail, the red swung his rival against the nearest peak.

The black collided hard, sending a storm of rock below. His claws came free, but not before tearing off several scales. Korialstrasz roared. He felt blood trickle down his leg.

For a moment, both giants forgot the battle as they recovered from their injuries. Then, Korialstrasz’s foe made a lunge for his neck. The larger dragon got his wing up in time, literally batting away the black.

The strike knocked the last bit of fight out of Neltharion’s servant. With a last defiant roar, the ebony leviathan veered away from Korialstrasz.

“No!” Now that they had joined in battle, he dared not let the other dragon flee. The sentinel would alert his master, who would, in turn, suspect that more than a single red dragon lurked in the vicinity.

The black was smaller and, therefore, very swift, but Korialstrasz was sleek and cunning. As his adversary slipped around a passage, Korialstrasz took a different route. He had spent enough time staring at the landscape while he waited to know where some of the different valleys remerged.

Through the mountains, he flew. Ahead, the left side of a fork offered an enticing turn, but Korialstrasz knew that it was the one favoring the right that would lead him back to his quarry.

In the distance, he heard the hard flapping of his enemy’s wings. The red dragon grew concerned. He should have passed the other by this point, but the sound gave indication that the black one was instead widening the gap.

Pushing himself to his limits, Korialstrasz neared the point he had been seeking. Only a short distance more. He could not hear the flapping, but felt certain that he had finally gotten ahead.

He crossed back into the other valley—

There was a near collision of wings. Both dragons roared, more from surprise than fury. Korialstrasz spun around twice and the black dragon rammed sideways into a small peak, shattering the top.

But momentum was now with the smaller of the two. The black pushed ahead, regaining precious air.

Shaking his head and damning his poor luck, Korialstrasz pursued. He would catch the other dragon, no matter what it took. Too much had already been lost in this struggle
…

His determination hardened, Korialstrasz roared once more and continued the chase.

But in pursuing the obvious, the red leviathan had missed something smaller below. Eyes watched—those who had eyes, that is—as the two huge beasts vanished in the distance.

“An impressive aerial display, don’t you think, Captain Varo’then?
”

The scarred night elf snorted.
“
A fair enough fight, though too short.
”

“And not enough bloodshed for you, I’d wager.
”

“Never enough,” responded Azshara’s servant.
“
But more than enough prattle, Master Illidan. Is this proof we’re close at last?
”

Illidan casually adjusted the scarf across his ruined eyes. For him, the battle between two such titans had been far more interesting, for these great creatures were of magic origins and so the sky had been filled with astonishing energies and brilliant colors. Malfurion’s brother had come to admire his new senses, they revealing to him a world such as he had never realized existed.

“I’d think that obvious, captain, although don’t you find it interesting to have not only a black dragon but a red one near here? Why do you suppose the second was in this area?
”

“You said it yourself. This is a place where the beasts live.”

The sorcerer shook his head.
“
I said this was where we’d find the lair of the huge black one. That red was here for a specific reason.
”

Varo’then’s marred face grew uglier as he realized just what his companion meant.
“
The other dragons want the disk! Makes the only sense!
”

“Yes…” Illidan urged his mount along, the officer following. Behind them marched the demon warriors. “But they’d be so easily caught. You saw how they were beaten.
”
He considered further.
“
I think I recognized the markings on that red.
”

“What of it? All those beasts are the same!”

“Spoken like a Highborne.” Illidan rubbed his chin as he mused. “No, I think that is the one I’ve met
…
and if that’s so, we might just have some familiar company ahead.
”

M
alfurion watched the goblin wend his way through the narrowing cracks and while he understood that Krasus had needed to animate the body, it still unnerved him. Even the mage’s reassurance that this was a spell little used and even less desired by his kind did not completely assuage the night elf.

Yet, he gave no outer sign of his emotions save to stand as far as he could from the creature. Curiously, the goblin’s movements grew more adept as time passed, almost to the point where he seemed to have actually come back to life.

To the druid’s surprise, it was Krasus who first mouthed what the others had been long thinking.

“How much farther?” muttered the pale, robed figure. “This abuse of the tenets of life disgusts me more and more…”

As if in answer, the goblin suddenly bent over. Malfurion glanced at Krasus, thinking that perhaps the mage had become so sick of what he had been doing that he had finally just released the body from the spell. However, the contemplative expression his companion wore said otherwise.

“Watch…” Krasus murmured. “Watch…”

The animated goblin touched a stone lying near the base of the mountain. To Malfurion’s eyes, the stone appeared to be just a random one that had no doubt fallen from the peak some time back.

Yet, as soon as the creature turned it slightly to the right, the entire rock face shimmered—and more than half of it disappeared.

Brox let out a grunt. Krasus nodded.

“Very cunning,” he remarked. “Look, where once there was stone, to the left is now a narrow passage cut through the peak itself.”

They followed their macabre guide for several more minutes, then Krasus suddenly had the goblin come to a halt.

“Listen…”

Somewhere far away, they heard the chitter of goblin voices and the constant hammering of metal.

The druid stiffened.
“
We’ve reached it.
”

“And so we can put an end to this obscenity…” Krasus waved his hand and the goblin turned. The animated figure crawled over a rock, vanishing from sight. A moment later, the dragon mage made a cutting action. “He will be found…but after we are through here.”

Krasus started forward, but Malfurion suddenly seized his arm.
“
Wait,
”
the druid whispered.
“
You can’t go in there.
”

He was rewarded with a rare glimpse of the mage caught off guard. Krasus stared deep.
“
You have a reason for saying this at such a late hour?
”

“I didn’t think of it until a short time ago. Krasus, of all of us, he’ll notice you easiest. You’re one of his own kind. He’ll be expecting the dragons to try to steal the Demon Soul away from him.
”

“But my kind is most susceptible and so we would be more likely to stay far from it. Besides, I have shielded myself well.”