Dawn of the Aspects: Part III
Author: Richard A. Knaak
Date: 2013-04-22 03:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy
Description: A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.
Publisher: Pocket Star

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THE LAST GUARDIAN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Maps of Northrend

Part III

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Notes

Further Reading

The Battle Rages On

About the Author

PART III

ONE

PATH OF HORROR

Jaina Proudmoore left her meeting with the Council of Six with the subjects of that convocation only briefly still her focus. Her thoughts quickly turned to a more personal matter, one that had intruded more than once during the gathering.

Kalec. Even before his recent odd—no, unsettling—behavior had begun, he had filled her thoughts more often than not. Jaina still vividly remembered that kiss just after he had asked if he stood a chance not only with the other magi but, more important, with her. She had answered him by lifting her face toward him, and he had responded as she had long hoped. At that moment, all had seemed right with the world.

But since his troubled departure, things had gone awry . . . and now this had happened.

While Jaina knew that she could not take time away from her duties for a personal matter, Kalec was still the former Aspect of Magic and thus privy to many of the secrets gathered by him and his predecessor—especially his predecessor—over the countless millennia. A wealth of magical power that could potentially wreak havoc upon the world was under his control, control that was slipping more and more with each passing day. It behooved her for that reason—so the archmage convinced herself—to find out what was wrong with him.

But he cuts contact off each time I try to find out more. Simply reaching out to him was not enough. If she wanted to find out what was actually happening, the archmage had to take a different course of action, and in her eyes, there was only one course.

Suddenly eager to return to her sanctum, Jaina picked up her pace. She already had a plan formulating, one that made absolute sense to her.

And one that Kalec would probably not like in the least.

•   •   •

He was suffocating. Kalec was suffocating.

It mattered not that it was the Malygos of the far, far past who was actually the one struggling for breath; Kalec experienced everything that the proto-dragon did, and that made him wonder at that dark moment what would happen if Malygos perished. A part of Kalec knew that such a fate had not befallen his host, but another part of him—the part that most dealt with the immediate lack of air—still questioned whether both of them might yet die.

Malygos shuddered as he sank deeper into the cloying tar into which he had been pushed. Kalec expected the proto-dragon to black out, but instead, Malygos startled his unfelt companion by exhaling what air was left in his lungs.

But what at first Kalec took for suicide was instead the proto-dragon’s attempt to save himself. Head pointed up, Malygos used his last breath to unleash frost. The force of his icy exhalation not only cleared the area above his head all the way up but also cooled the sides of the gap solid.

Sucking in the air that filled the narrow passage, the proto-dragon bent his head down and exhaled again. The molten ground froze just enough, exactly as Malygos intended. He broke free and immediately shoved himself up.

Below, both Kalec and his host could already sense the ground shifting again. Malygos pressed harder. The passage was too narrow for him to twist his head down and exhale again. If he was to escape, he had to move even faster.

The opening beckoned. At the same time, a rumble rose from below. Hissing, the proto-dragon dug in his claws and pushed up the last few yards. He thrust his head out of the passage, then dragged the rest of himself free.

The rumble grew thunderous. Although still fighting for breath, Malygos whirled around and exhaled at the opening.

The frost covered the hole just as it filled. The ground sealed. Malygos spread his wings and took to the sky as the frozen pit shook. He rose higher and higher, both he and Kalec hoping that the freeze would last long enough—

The pit exploded. A molten column shot up into the sky.

Malygos managed to dodge the column just before it reached him. He flew as hard as he could in the direction he faced, even though it meant heading in the opposite direction from where he wanted to go.

Only when the proto-dragon hoped he was far enough away did he look back. The column appeared to veer toward him but at last seemed unable to hold together anymore. It collapsed, spilling over the area of the pit and far beyond.

Exhausted, Malygos alighted on a ridge and tried to focus. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled over his body, freezing the tar in most places. That done, the proto-dragon shook hard, sending much of the stiffened tar scattering. The effort cost him, though, and he had to use a few more precious minutes to recoup. Kalec felt every bit of his host’s weariness . . . and the proto-dragon’s increasing impatience. Malygos wanted to follow after Coros, but he still needed to regain his breath. That meant he would risk losing his rival’s trail. As good a tracker as Malygos was, the stench of this region mostly masked the other proto-dragon’s scent, very likely what Coros had intended.

His breathing finally regular again, Malygos leapt into the sky and headed in the general direction of his rival. There was, of course, no sign of the four, but Malygos pushed on. He constantly smelled the air, seeking some hint of any of the other proto-dragons.

But it was another scent that finally seized his attention and gave him a possible trail. It also presented him with the choice of fleeing to safety or racing toward the jaws of death.

Galakrond was somewhere far ahead. Part of Malygos shrieked that he should turn back—a part that Kalec found quite sensible—but another part urged the proto-dragon on. Malygos recalled what Coros had said about Galakrond. If Coros had come this far, he would not stop until he achieved his goal.

And if that happened, the other proto-dragons would become easy prey for Galakrond and his new followers.

Malygos flew low and fast, eyes now seeking any object in the sky. Aware of how swiftly Galakrond himself could fly, Malygos knew that he would have very little chance of escape should the gargantuan proto-dragon spot him. Everything Malygos planned revolved around seeing the behemoth first.

Kalec searched his host’s mind for details of what he planned and quickly discovered that Malygos’s strategy consisted mostly of finding Galakrond and taking it from there. While Kalec was well aware of how adaptable the future Spell-Weaver could be, seeking out the monster terrorizing the land was, to the blue dragon, insane. However, as always, the choice was not Kalec’s. He could only pray that history would be as he recalled it—and he was questioning those recollections more and more with each vision—and that Malygos would survive.

Survival did not seem a trait of his host, as the proto-dragon pushed harder and harder, almost as if eager to confront Galakrond face to face. The landscape changed more than once as Malygos followed the behemoth’s odd and unnerving scent. In addition, the fresher the trail, the more Malygos began to notice the wrongness in that scent. There was a sense of decay, as if Galakrond himself were dead and yet was not. Moreover, there was something else inherent in the scent that to the proto-dragon felt twisted, frightening. Evil was not a concept understood much by Malygos’s race, but Kalec recognized that it was that very notion that his host sought. Whatever Galakrond had once been—and Malygos’s memories indicated a past in which the leviathan had been thought of as almost benevolent—he had crossed to a darker path at some point.

Much like Deathwing, Kalec thought with growing horror. But in some ways worse and more primal.

Why this had never been passed on to the blue’s own kind plagued Kalec despite his own trials. What had made the original Aspects and the other first dragons agree to keep this terrible era a secret from the generations to come?

Malygos came to a sudden halt. Kalec belatedly sensed that mixed in with Galakrond’s ever-fresher scent was a trace of another scent Malygos recognized. Not Coros but one of those with him. The blue-and-white proto-dragon banked, following that scent.

Although the essence of Galakrond still prevailed, the other scent began to take on more freshness. Other smells joined it, among them Coros’s.

Then another, fouler odor caught Malygos’s attention. He immediately descended.

A pair of undead proto-dragons dropped down from high above. Their claws just missed rending Malygos’s wings. With ragged hisses, they pursued him to the ground.

Through his host’s eyes, Kalec sought out someplace from which to better defend himself—only to bitterly recall that he was not in command of the body he inhabited. Had he been, a natural stone arch to the west would have been his choice of destination.

Malygos headed for the arch.

Kalec could not be at all certain whether Malygos had made the same choice on his own or whether the proto-dragon and he somehow had been for a moment as one. Kalec settled for hoping that the arch would prove the correct decision. The two undead were right on their tail and gaining.

Malygos darted through the arch, then immediately rose. Spinning in the air, the proto-dragon landed hard, paws first, on the arch. Kalec felt every bone shake from the impact and hoped that his host had not badly injured himself.

The arch collapsed. Tons of rock rained down as the two undead, relentlessly pursuing, passed underneath.

The rubble pressed the foremost pursuer to the ground below, where it reduced the corpse to pulp. The collapse did not entirely catch the second undead, but it did throw the fiend out of control. The animated corpse crashed into one of the fragmented arch walls.

Already inhaling, Malygos dived after his pursuer. As the undead attempted to right itself, Malygos unleashed the frost.

The undead’s movements slowed. Malygos increased his velocity. He tore into the fiend before it could recover from the blast, biting into the throat and tearing at the chest.

The dry scale and flesh gave way easily, but that did not mean that the corpse ceased its assault on Malygos. The effects of the frost faded. Even with its throat nearly torn out, the undead tried to bite into Malygos’s wing. Claws sought his own throat.

Thrusting his head into the chest cavity, the proto-dragon clamped down and ripped out everything he could. As he pulled out, the upper part of the body collapsed into the ruined chest. The undead’s flailing head snapped up.

Malygos finished decapitating the creature, letting the head fall to the side. The ravaged body continued awkwardly seeking him. The proto-dragon shifted, and the body stumbled past.

But as Malygos did that, a sharp pain coursed through his left hind paw. He roared in anguish as he fought to shake free the tightened jaws of the head. Blood poured from where several teeth had punctured the proto-dragon’s hide.

Seizing the jaws, Malygos finally pried them loose. He threw the head as far away as he could.

His injured paw throbbed. Blood continued to flow. Malygos studied the wounds, then carefully exhaled.

A finer stream of frost blanketed the injured area. The coolness eased the throbbing and helped slow the blood flow, which finally stopped on its own a few moments later.

Kalec felt the pain every bit as much as Malygos did. As it was, he was grateful for whatever the coolness did to ease matters.

The wind coursed through the region. Malygos sniffed the air. Both noted the clear scent of Coros and some of his followers. Why they had diverged from their pursuit of Galakrond, neither Kalec nor his host could say, but the two were of one mind in wanting to find out.

Not desiring to fall prey to another trap, Malygos took a circuitous route that also prevented his own scent from drifting back to his enemies. As the proto-dragon neared, a new, very powerful scent joined that of Coros and the others. The scent of blood.

Very fresh blood.

That disturbing scent was followed by the snarling voice of Coros. What the other proto-dragon said was not clear, but he was obviously angry.

With great caution, Malygos peered around the rocks. His eyes widened.

Coros and his followers were not alone. Between them lay a juvenile male of Alexstrasza’s family. There were also two more members of Coros’s family, one of them a female slightly smaller than the group’s leader. She had a look of sly pride on her countenance that appeared to both Malygos and Kalec to have nothing to do with Coros’s anger, which was evidently focused on two of the other males.

“Do it!” their leader growled. “Must be done this way! Galakrond did it this way!”

The juvenile tried to rise, then slumped. His savage wounds now revealed themselves. His chest had been torn open and his wings ripped apart. Malygos’s gaze shifted to the new pair, where he saw that both had claws stained crimson.

“Brought him here for you!” interjected the female, taking up Coros’s cause. “Now eat!”

Malygos recoiled, and if Kalec could have done the same, he would have. Neither could believe what he had heard.

The other proto-dragons remained hesitant. The female looked at Coros, who hissed. In doing so, Coros revealed that his teeth were as red as her claws.

Without warning, she lunged at the wounded juvenile’s throat. As the other males except for Coros recoiled with as much shock as Malygos had, the female ripped out a monstrous chunk of flesh from the side. With great gusto, she tossed it up, then let it fall into her gullet. She swallowed it whole and sneered at the rest of the party.

Malygos wanted to go to the aid of the juvenile but knew not only that it was already too late but also that he would simply be throwing his own life away. Kalec understood that but suddenly wished that he stood beside his host. The two of them together could have taken Coros and his party, of that he was certain.

And yet he could do nothing more than Malygos, who shared his frustration and horror at watching the butchery.

One of the hesitant males finally lunged. He ripped a mass of flesh from one of the juvenile’s arms. As he swallowed it, the rest finally joined in.

The feast proved too much even for the stalwart Malygos. He turned away and quietly retched. Kalec experienced every raw emotion as Malygos fought to come to grips with the atrocity Coros had led his followers to perpetrate. Proto-dragons did not devour proto-dragons. Yes, they tasted the blood of their rivals in duels, but even when a duel ended in death, it did not continue with the consuming of the dead.

Not, at least, until Galakrond.

Malygos stiffened. Galakrond.

Neither Kalec nor his host could have imagined the situation worse than it was, but now it came to both of them that what Coros intended was for him and his followers to become like Galakrond.

Shuddering, Malygos forced his gaze back to the scene. The fire-orange juvenile had mercifully died and no longer suffered as bite after bite was ripped from him. Coros’s followers quickly left little beyond bones and torn skin.

It was Coros who brought an end to the hideous tableau. Muzzle soaked, he raised the ruined head by the jaw and tossed it aside. “Done! All done! We grow stronger! We see it soon!”

“Soon!” the female echoed.

“Soon!” the others repeated.

Coros stretched his wings. “Now . . . now you see how Galakrond will not eat us! We are like Galakrond! We will be with him! He will not eat us now!”

This encouraged even the most reluctant of his followers. The gathered proto-dragons raised their heads and hissed as one. Coros then took off, the female immediately joining him. The rest followed, leaving in their windy wake the jumbled remains of their victim.

Malygos almost gave chase but suddenly found himself drawn to the ravaged corpse. The pungent odor of a fresh kill filled his nostrils. For reasons clear to neither Malygos nor Kalec, the proto-dragon bent to investigate the grisly pile. Kalec’s host sniffed the juvenile’s remains and then, on impulse, seized one of the bones in his jaws.

Barely had Malygos done so than the proto-dragon spit the bone out. Even then, though, there was a desire to take it or another piece and work what fragments of meat remained off of it and into his gullet. Both Kalec and his host recoiled at the idea, yet Malygos had to fight hard to pull back from the corpse. Hunger filled him, a hunger that revolved around more than merely the eating of flesh. Malygos yearned to taste something else, something that Kalec first recognized.

Malygos hungers for the juvenile’s lingering life essence. The blue dragon could feel the proto-dragon straining not to tear at the remnants in search of what little had not faded away.

Stifling a roar of anger, Malygos turned and flew from the spot. At first, he simply flew as far as he could from the corpse, even though that took him in the wrong direction. Only after the wind in his face cooled Malygos enough did the proto-dragon finally arc back toward the path Coros’s band had taken.

Their scents were strong, but both Malygos and Kalec noted something different. A hint of the wrongness that pervaded wherever Galakrond flew now tinged their spoor. It stirred the disquieting desire in Malygos again, but Kalec’s host fought it down, although the strain was greater this time.

Malygos picked up his pace. Kalec understood that the proto-dragon still did not know what he would do, but he at least had to find out what happened when Coros made his offer to Galakrond. Images of Coros leading the other proto-dragons into a trap where Galakrond would then devour them all flashed through Malygos’s—and also Kalec’s—mind over and over.

A flash of blue-green below caught Malygos’s attention. The sharp-eyed proto-dragon spotted movement near a small creek. While Kalec tried to make sense of what his host saw, Malygos landed a short distance away from what he had seen.

A rasping sound echoed from ahead. Malygos crept toward it.

Something gulped a great amount of water. Seconds later, Kalec saw through Malygos’s eyes the familiar figure of one of Coros’s family. While Kalec had no idea which of the band this was, his host recognized the male as among those most hesitant to partake of the gruesome repast.

The other proto-dragon did not look very well. His eyes had turned a pale yellow, and his breathing was ragged. He swallowed another mouthful of water, then coughed up half of it, along with some undigested flesh.

Malygos’s stomach churned in turn. Perhaps he made some noise or movement that neither he nor Kalec noticed, for suddenly, the other male whirled in his direction.

With a savage hiss, the blue-green proto-dragon lunged at Malygos. The sickened male moved with a speed his condition belied, falling upon Malygos.

Kalec’s host barely pulled back enough to keep from having his throat ripped out. His attacker fought with an almost mindless fury that more than made up for any cunning. The slavering maw seemed everywhere. How Malygos managed to avoid being slaughtered, neither Kalec nor his host could fathom, and yet the icy-blue male succeeded, if barely. Within seconds, Malygos sported a half-dozen slashes, fortunately none of them more than superficial.

But the number of wounds and the strain of the struggle began to stir anew the throbbing where the undead had bitten Malygos. The proto-dragon’s head pounded. Kalec felt the intelligent, adaptable Malygos give way to a beast as unthinking as the one that attacked him.

A beast that struck with more rage than the sickened male.

Now it was Malygos who bit and tore and ripped mercilessly. His great hind claws cut deep scarlet ribbons in his opponent’s hide. His smaller forepaws clung tightly to the other male, keeping Malygos’s foe where he desired him. Even when the second male finally began to try to pull away, Malygos gave no quarter. Kalec could only watch in growing dread as his host fell upon his weakening adversary. Spittle dripped from Malygos’s jaws as he loomed over the other proto-dragon. Malygos was eager for the kill, eager for that and for something else that Kalec only now recognized but could not stop.

With one last lunge, Malygos bit through his opponent’s throat, tearing off almost half of it in his frenzy. Yet he did not simply toss it aside, as Kalec hoped, but rather eagerly threw it above his head in order to swallow it.

However, as he caught it in his gullet, Malygos came to his senses. Hacking, Kalec’s host disgorged the gobbet of flesh. The proto-dragon stumbled back, as dismayed as Kalec at what he had been about to do.

The bite from the undead pounded harder than ever. Malygos glared at it, then stared wide-eyed. Within, Kalec also realized what had overcome his host. The bite had infected Malygos, urged him toward the same foul course that Galakrond followed, the same course that Coros now also desired to pursue.

And although Malygos continued to fight the desire, it remained strong. The nearby body, still fresh, radiated traces of the victim’s life essence, which continuously enticed the proto-dragon.

With an anxious hiss, Malygos launched himself after Coros again. The proto-dragon concentrated as hard as he could on his rival and the expected encounter with Galakrond. Malygos dared not think of anything else.

But Kalec was thinking long and hard, making a further connection that his host had not. A single bite had nearly driven Malygos beyond saving.

How many other proto-dragons had been bitten? How many others would be?

And how many of those bitten would fail to fight off the effects as Malygos had done so far, paving the way for a tableau of horror even greater than Coros’s betrayal portended?

TWO

THE BETRAYERS

Time had come to have little meaning for Kalec anymore—at least, the more he remained caught up in the past. Indeed, as things progressed here, he felt less inclined to return to his own era. Even though he was but an unnoticed, incorporeal companion to the young Malygos, Kalec could not help but feel as if, in some ways, he now had more purpose here. He experienced all Malygos did—both good or ill—and the two progressively appeared in harmony when it came to the proto-dragon’s course of action.

We are becoming one, Kalec finally decided, as Galakrond’s growing stench gave every evidence of the gargantuan beast’s nearing presence.

Not at all disturbed by the esoteric path his thoughts were taking, Kalec urged Malygos to use greater speed, and Malygos did just that. Yet with Kalec’s increasing satisfaction at his growing part in these visions, there also came the determination that Galakrond and the corruption he spread had to be stopped. Kalec no longer felt certain just how the future was supposed to turn out; it was possible that the Azeroth he knew was only a delusion of his own mind.

Galakrond must be stopped, Kalec kept insisting to himself, that mission more real to him at the moment than his own life. Galakrond . . . and Coros.

Malygos suddenly dived for the ground. At the same time, through his eyes, Kalec caught a glimpse of Coros and the others rising higher into the sky just ahead. Kalec could only assume that the band had paused for some reason before continuing on.

And even though Malygos reacted quickly, the female with Coros turned her head back as if sensing something. Belatedly, both Kalec and his host realized that she looked for the missing member of their party. Unfortunately, instead, she had discovered their lone pursuer.

There was no need to hear the sharp cry to know that she warned Coros and the rest. Malygos continued to descend until he was just feet above the ground. The tips of his wings scraped the rough soil more than once as he sought out some cover. He darted through a narrow pass, gaze constantly judging which of the various pathways ahead might be the best. He veered through one after another, risking a glance back and above whenever it was safe for even a moment to do so.

And so he did not see Coros come at him from around the next bend.

The other proto-dragon rammed into Malygos. The pair crashed into one of the rock walls. Malygos gasped as the air was forced from his lungs. He tried to regain his breath, but Coros shoved his hind paws deep, keeping Kalec’s host from inhaling.

A second attacker—the female—dropped down on Malygos, pushing him to the ground. She and Coros sought his throat.

The land shook. Rock and earth tumbled down on the three. Malygos, nearly on his back, received the brunt of the collapse. Coros and the female thrust themselves away, vanishing behind the falling debris.

A heavy rock pinned Malygos’s wing. He struggled at first, then swung his body over the trapped appendage. The pain in twisting shook Kalec and his host hard, but it enabled the proto-dragon finally to slide the rock off despite the continued deluge.

It seemed forever before Malygos managed to draw a breath, even if it was filled with dust that made him choke. Malygos immediately exhaled, sending a strong wave of frost above him. It slowed the collapse, giving him a few vital seconds to cover himself better with his wings and take another breath.

The collapse at last ended. Malygos struggled to free himself but at first could barely breathe, much less move. The frost he had exhaled had begun to break up, and more rock threatened to come down. It was clear to both that they needed to push free fast.

While Malygos’s forepaws were small in comparison with the hind ones, they still had strength enough to help him claw forward until his larger appendages could better push him on. With his snout, the proto-dragon shoved the rocks ahead. The stones shifted around him.

He managed to shove another rock aside, and a puff of air touched his nostrils. With more effort, Malygos kicked himself toward the small gap. His head thrust through, and for a moment, he hesitated, certain that Coros was waiting for just this to happen.

But when his rival did not snap his head off, Malygos dug himself out the rest of the way. His wing now vied with his leg for which pained him more, but a short test proved the former was still functional.

The collapse had left his hearing all but gone for the time being. He could not make any sense of what was happening except for what he saw and felt—which was more than enough, considering the second tremor that forced him to retreat from his location.

As Malygos paused again, his hearing slowly returned. Both he and Kalec heard what sounded like either thunder or another tremor beginning, only to realize that, instead, they were hearing the wary rumble of a very large creature. It was then that Kalec and his host understood that what they had both taken for the shifting of the ground had been the simple landing of Galakrond.

With the utmost caution, Malygos wended his way up. He could hear another voice then, the voice of Coros.

“Many will be there! All waiting like grazers to be eaten!”

“So very many . . .” Each word Galakrond spoke reverberated in Malygos’s still-tender ears. It was doubtful to both him and Kalec that Galakrond could speak at anything less than a roar.

“We will feast well!” Coros assured him. “We will grow strong!”

Malygos carefully poked his head over the edge. Coros obviously assumed that he was buried beneath tons of rubble, but the icy-blue proto-dragon remained wary of sentinels arranged just in case some other foolish creature dared spy on Galakrond. Indeed, through his host, Kalec observed at least one of Coros’s band clearly acting as a lookout, although, fortunately, not glancing Malygos’s way at that moment.

Coros and the female hovered before Galakrond, who appeared larger than ever to Malygos and Kalec. Even more disturbing was that the various protuberances pockmarking the behemoth’s skin were more distinct than before. Full limbs dangled everywhere. There were even wings that fruitlessly flapped, as if seeking to lift Galakrond in the air.

But most disturbing were the eyes. Scattered about, the singular orbs stared with the same malevolent intent as the two original ones now fixed upon Coros and the female. The scores of extra eyes blinked randomly, as if each was from an individual and not part of the same beast.

One of the nearest turned its baleful gaze toward Malygos.

He ducked immediately. The icy-blue male held his breath and waited. There was no outcry from Galakrond, though. The only sounds were the voices of Coros and the female.

Still full of trepidation, Malygos raised his head again. The eye now looked past him to the small band facing the gargantuan fiend.

“Great Galakrond will lead us!” Coros continued almost gleefully. “Great Galakrond will rule all!”

This Coros is mad! Kalec thought, well aware that Malygos thought the same of his rival. Still, they both saw that Galakrond listened with interest to the words.

“Where will they gather?” Galakrond finally asked Coros.

“The jagged valley! Soon!”

Although Kalec did not recognize the description, Malygos evidently did. His low hiss marked the truth of Coros’s words and the depths of the other proto-dragon’s betrayal.

“I know this place,” Galakrond remarked, his gaze looking inward. “Hunted there when I was small . . . when I was nothing. . . .”

“But you are great now!” said the female, the others adding their agreement with a chorus of hisses.

Some of the vestigial limbs twitched, paws snatching as if seeking prey. Several more of the eyes followed Galakrond’s gaze.

“Great I am,” the gigantic fiend rumbled. He studied Coros in particular. “You would be great, too.”

“Not so great as Galakrond!” Malygos’s rival immediately replied, as the female swiftly nodded her agreement. “Not so great as Galakrond!”

“No . . . never so great as me. . . .” Galakrond stretched his wings, which quickly shadowed the land for some distance. One forepaw—small in comparison with the rest of him but far larger than the full form of any normal proto-dragon—scraped at the hard ground, ripping through stone as if it were sand. “There can be only one me. . . .”

An unsettled expression fell over the lookout’s countenance. He suddenly took to the sky. Malygos and Kalec both believed that they had been discovered, but instead, the lookout continued higher and higher as fast as he could. There was no doubt now that he was abandoning the others. The fleeing proto-dragon raced off, vanishing into the distance.

And at the same time, Galakrond roared and rose into the air just above Coros and the rest of his band. Coros and the female leapt back as the darkness that Galakrond’s vast shape created now enshrouded them.

The remaining two members of Coros’s band sought escape but in doing so only drew Galakrond’s attention to them. Despite the speed with which they flew, it was easy for the behemoth to catch up to them. The smaller proto-dragons separated, but even that was not good enough. As Galakrond banked toward one, he brought his wing around. The massive appendage swept up the second of Coros’s followers.

Coros and the female took flight, heading over where Malygos hid. In their haste, they did not notice Malygos, who remained flattened against the shielding ground.

Shrieks filled the air. Malygos dared to peer over. The proto-dragon caught up in Galakrond’s wing had now been tossed up before him. With an eager roar, Galakrond swallowed his victim.

The monstrous proto-dragon’s remaining prey used his comrade’s doom to try to slip past the leviathan. He darted to the left side of Galakrond’s head and continued to the shoulder.

One of the extra limbs seized the fleeing proto-dragon’s wing. The male let out a frightened squawk as the paw held him.

Galakrond shook, letting the paw toss its victim forward.

The shrieking male vanished down Galakrond’s gullet.

Barely had the monster finished when he veered toward Malygos. Kalec felt the urge to seek escape fill his host, but somehow Malygos kept his position. The wisdom of that decision revealed itself a moment later, as Galakrond soared over and past him.

The ease with which the gigantic proto-dragon had taken his other prey meant that neither Coros nor the female had gotten very far. Kalec and his host could still make out both tinier proto-dragons desperately trying to keep the gap between Galakrond and them from closing. However, a few flaps of Galakrond’s wings brought him right behind the pair.

Without warning, Coros rammed the female in the side. She lost control, her speed faltering in the process.

He’s sacrificing her for his own hide! Kalec realized, both he and Malygos stunned at the betrayal.

The female righted herself just in time to see Galakrond almost upon her. In desperation, she exhaled. However, what worked well against a foe the size of Malygos only futilely draped one of the behemoth’s huge yellowed fangs.

Galakrond swallowed her without even slowing in his pursuit of Coros.

Malygos’s rival strained to keep ahead, but even his treachery with his own family could not keep him from Galakrond’s endless hunger. The mighty jaws opened wider.

In what seemed madness to the onlookers, Coros abruptly turned directly toward the gaping maw. But before the jaws could shut, Coros darted up and attacked the underside of Galakrond’s mouth. Claws tore at the softer, unprotected flesh.

Galakrond reared back. Neither Malygos nor Kalec believed that Coros had actually hurt Galakrond, but the attack had certainly caught him by surprise.

Coros used that surprise to begin his flight anew. With a swiftness that even Malygos could not have matched, the blue-green dived toward the ground, where he maintained his tremendous velocity despite having to navigate one change in terrain after another.

Galakrond pursued. Malygos finally rose from his hiding place, which gave him one last glimpse of hunter and prey.

And in that moment, he and Kalec both saw that despite Coros’s cunning, Malygos’s rival could not escape. Keeping low briefly kept Galakrond from easily snapping him up, but a rise in the land finally forced the speeding Coros to overestimate his path. Momentum sent him high above the security of the ground, and the leviathan swallowed him whole.

The abruptness with which Malygos’s rival perished did not in the least disturb Kalec’s host. Both had seen that all that mattered to Coros in the end was his own existence, not even that of those closest to him. Malygos’s only concern was that Galakrond would suddenly turn about and spot him before he could make his escape.

Fortunately, Galakrond instead alighted in a vast plain farther ahead. The macabre behemoth landed with as heavy a thud as earlier, sending a tremor through the region.

Quickly descending again, Malygos waited. Galakrond settled his head on the ground. A few moments later, a low, steady rumble escaped the enormous proto-dragon.

When the rumble continued, Malygos dared to take off again. How long Galakrond would rest, neither Kalec nor Malygos could guess, but the icy-blue proto-dragon could not assume that he would have much time. Following Coros’s tactics, Malygos kept low as he flew with as much speed as he could muster. Even when the rumbling faded into the distance, Kalec’s host did not slow.

One notion began dominating the proto-dragon’s thoughts, and thus Kalec’s. While Coros had paid for his betrayals, he had still in the end performed one more misdeed. Galakrond knew where Talonixa had the others gathering for her charge. As suicidal as the female’s plan seemed to both Malygos and Kalec, at least it offered some chance. However, if Galakrond struck while they were still coming together, there would be utter disaster.

The proto-dragon pushed harder. If Malygos could warn Talonixa before Galakrond awoke—and if he could make the female listen—then there was hope.

Renewed rumbling sent Malygos dropping, but almost immediately, he recognized the sound as thunder, not Galakrond. The exhausted proto-dragon finally paused in his flight. The effort thus far had taken a lot out of even the sturdy Malygos.

It started to rain. The storm was not a strong one, but there was the fear that if the rain continued on its present course, it would soon reach Galakrond. If it woke him, he might decide to fly in Malygos’s direction—

Kalec’s world turned upside down. The vertigo struck him as if he were experiencing it for the first time. To his surprise, the blue dragon found himself struggling to remain with his host. He could identify with this battle for survival more than with the growing number of questions that represented his existence in the present.

And yet, as ever, Kalec had no choice. Malygos and the past vanished . . . and Kalec awoke on his back and in half-elven form somewhere in the Nexus.

There was no immediate hint to how much time, if any, had passed. It was dark, and that also disturbed Kalec, since there should have been some illumination. Rising from the floor, he summoned a sphere of light.

He bared his teeth in frustration as he discovered that his surroundings were not where he had last been standing but rather a chamber deeper in the Nexus. He looked around, seeing nothing but emptiness. Even the artifact was nowhere to be seen, not that the fact encouraged him at all. By this point, he knew that it mattered not where the physical form of the relic sat; its power could reach him anywhere—

Kalec spun around. For a moment, for just the briefest of moments, he thought that someone had been standing behind him. Someone wearing a voluminous cloak and hood.

But a short search of the passage in that direction revealed nothing. Still, Kalec found himself drawn that way and continued on. As he moved, the former Aspect wished that somehow he could just return to the young Malygos. Better the sanity that the madness of the past brought him than the madness his own era offered.

Yet despite his growing willingness to accept what the artifact appeared to be demanding of him, he remained conscious. His disappointment was magnified by the fact that he was nearing his original location without having discovered any reason for the feeling that he had again been watched.

But just before he would have entered, he sensed the presence of another. Whoever he was kept himself well cloaked from most magi’s abilities but not Kalec’s yet considerable powers. He could not tell who or what had invaded the Nexus, but the intruder was very near.

Kalec dismissed the sphere, then cautiously proceeded. A faint illumination immediately spread through the area around him. It was a sign that the Nexus still responded readily to his will, which gave him a formidable line of attack. Any thief seeking the Nexus’s collection would soon rue the day.

Shadows filled the great chamber, which seemed natural considering the faint illumination remaining, but there was a very slight wrongness to one area that made him wary—

“Kalec? Are you there?”

As the voice echoed through the chamber, the wrongness vanished. Instead, the Nexus alerted him to the obvious fact that someone he knew very well now called to him from the more accepted entrance to his sanctum.

Someone who was none other than Jaina Proudmoore.

He turned just as she entered. Jaina did not see him at first, but when she did, her expression went from open apprehension to relief. “There you are! Praise be! I was beginning to think you’d either left or . . .”

Her voice trailed off without her explaining what fate she had imagined might have taken him, but Kalec did not care. There should have been no difference between seeing her actually standing before him and viewing her through the tear he had earlier created, but now the scents that Kalec had come to identify with Jaina and only Jaina reached the blue dragon. Even in his half-elven form, his senses were more acute than those of the being he resembled and, in this case, more acute than Jaina’s. She did not know how she smelled to him . . . or how welcome those scents were to the former Aspect.

“Forgive me,” she went on at last, approaching him at the same time. “I tried to contact you again, and when I didn’t even sense you, I finally had to travel here myself.”

His brow furrowed. Kalec was well aware just how much effort Jaina would have had to put in to journey here so quickly. While a part of him was very grateful on a number of levels at this tremendous show of concern, he reminded himself of the potential danger facing her if she came into close contact with the artifact. Even if it only cast her mind into the visions, that might prove too much for her. The artifact had taken enough of a toll on him; while very powerful, she was still human.

“You should not have concerned yourself, Jaina. I did hear you call to me, but I was in the midst of trying to revitalize some of the wards and could not risk halting the work at that point. I intended to contact you as soon as I could.”

“Kalec, you should really have some help, even if it’s me and me alone.”

Kalec knew that even if he did agree to her aiding him, no good would come of it, especially for Jaina. He remembered too well the distrust with which some of the other magi had begun to look at their leader because of her growing relationship with a blue dragon.

“I’m grateful for the depths of your concern,” he began carefully, not only hoping to avoid offending her but also praying that the artifact would not choose this moment to cast him back. “But you have so many other matters you need to worry about. The others—”

“I know about the others,” Jaina interjected just a bit sharply. “I need no counsel from them regarding what I can and cannot do! They wanted me to be their leader; now they can accept my choices.”

For the moment, Kalec forgot his troubles. The last thing he wanted was for Jaina to jeopardize her position. In addition to his own concerns, he had hoped that by leaving, he would cause no more harm to the archmage.

“But as leader, you also have responsibilities to your people,” the blue dragon reminded her. “And I am not part of your people. I’m sorry I have added to your worries, Jaina. Please trust me that your place is with your own, not assisting me here.”

It came out colder than he had planned. Jaina’s expression did not change, but there was a subtle shift in her gaze.

Finally nodding, she looked away. “Perhaps you’re right. Forgive me for being impetuous. I just had to come myself to see what was happening.” Her eyes returned to his. “But I take your word that you’re well, Kalec.”

He kept his own eyes steady despite the guilt growing within him. “All is well.” He started to reach for her but put his hand down before she could notice the movement. “Thank you.”

Where he had held back, Jaina chose to act. One slim hand touched his arm, remaining there long enough to make an unspoken point. Then the archmage stepped back and, with a brief smile, began her teleportation spell.

When at last he was alone again, Kalec exhaled sharply. He hoped that Jaina would take to heart his reluctance to have her near and would not try to attempt any further contact. At least then, one fear of his would be no more.

And as for the greatest of his fears, Kalec could think of only one course of action to take with the relic. While he could not yet prevent it from affecting him, he could make certain that it bothered no one else. That meant that more than ever, the wards had to be strengthened. At this point, no one—not even other blue dragons—could be allowed to enter the Nexus. Not until he had dealt with the situation. Kalec felt fortunate that Jaina had not come any earlier. If she had, she might have discovered the truth and endangered herself by trying to help him.

The task giving him renewed focus, Kalec headed back to where he had been working when the visions had last taken him. He prayed that he would be given the time at least to do this, if not for himself, then for the sake of Jaina or anyone else who sought entrance to the Nexus.

There was no hint of anything wrong when he arrived, for which he was grateful. He considered confronting the artifact first but chose to remain with his decision. If the powers of the relic were for the moment dormant, he preferred to keep it that way.

Kalec prepared himself for his work just as he had before. The ley lines appeared before his veiled gaze. He began manipulating the power, growing more satisfied with each step he completed. Within minutes, the first ward had been strengthened enough that he decided to go on to the next.

The second proved even quicker to fortify. Kalec felt a rare moment of pride. It had been a long time since he had accomplished anything. He reached for the third ward.

There was something attached to its spellwork, something neither he nor any blue dragon had cast.

The artifact’s magic had insinuated itself in the ward.

Kalec immediately withdrew for fear that he would stir up whatever the artifact intended. An unease crept over him, and he sought out the next ward.

That, too, was now linked to the artifact.

The former Aspect frowned, then returned his attention to the one he had just finished strengthening.

Like the others, it was also linked . . . linked when it had not been a few seconds before.

Quickly dismissing the rest, he focused on the first and, not at all to his surprise, found that the artifact had also connected its power to that ward.

The uneasiness swelled. Kalec took a deep breath, stepped back, and without hesitation, brought forth the entire array that formed the Nexus’s network of defensive spells.

The hiss that escaped him was far more suited to his draconic form than to the half-elven one he currently wore. The former Aspect glared.

The power of the artifact was now a part of each and every ward in the Nexus.

THREE

THE AFFLICTED

Jaina Proudmoore reappeared in her chambers, her exhaustion having more to do with Kalec than with her magical efforts. She knew that he was hiding much from her, and while she appreciated his obvious worry for her, she also resented it. Kalec was a blue dragon, and yes, that meant that he understood aspects of the magical arts in a way that even she did not, but Jaina also considered herself more than capable of facing most such situations and using human adaptability to ferret out solutions that perhaps a dragon might not think about.

She summoned a chair to her. Taking a minute to gather her thoughts, the archmage relived her visit to the Nexus. With those thoughts came guilt of her own. She had held back some of the truth from Kalec, too. Jaina had not arrived just before he had noticed her; in fact, she was the one he had almost discovered. Only a quick manipulation of magic had enabled her to focus his attention elsewhere long enough for her to shift her location to where it would seem she had just entered the area.

And even that might not have been necessary if Jaina had not been concerned that Kalec would realize just how long she had been there.

Long enough to discover the relic.

The archmage had no more precise name for it. Artifact. Relic. Jaina suspected that Kalec thought of it in the same terms. It was like nothing she had ever seen, and that included personal knowledge of a variety of powerful magical objects comparable to the collection stored in the Nexus.

Yet if it was like nothing she had ever seen, it was not entirely a mystery to her. She did identify one significant factor, possibly something that even Kalec might not recognize.

She had come across such spellwork in the past. Only twice and of a much lesser degree, but she had definitely seen its like before. It was a spellwork older than dragons, spellwork that bespoke of a unique knowledge lost to magi of her time.

Spellwork that Jaina, at least, believed had ties to the legendary keepers or even the titans themselves.

The archmage had certainly not journeyed to the Nexus with such a discovery in her mind. All she had truly had to go on was her suspicion that there was something in the Nexus tied to Kalec’s strange behavior. It had been her intention to speak with him and find an excuse while doing so to use her power surreptitiously to seek anything amiss. Jaina had believed that she could do this without even Kalec sensing it.

And had that opportunity not presented itself, she had plotted other ways by which she would have had some time alone to try to decipher the truth. However, all of her planning had proved unnecessary, for there had been no hint of Kalec upon her arrival. The weakened wards had made it easy to gain entrance, and once she had verified that Kalec was nowhere to be seen, she had begun to investigate her surroundings.

To her surprise, finding the relic had been quite easy. It had radiated a unique magical trace. In addition, it seemed that Kalec had not even bothered to secrete it in one of the many arcane prisons or other caches designed to hold such powerful magical items. The artifact had simply sat out in the open in the first major chamber she entered.

Some might have been unnerved by the thing, but Jaina had only been fascinated. She studied its aura, admired its design, and delved as deeply as she cautiously could into its core.

But in the end, Jaina had learned little. So significant was this find that she had actually considered taking the artifact with her, even despite the near disaster created by her intention to use another relic—the Iris—in revenge for Theramore’s destruction by it at the hands of the orc Garrosh. However, before Jaina could bring herself to seize the artifact in the Nexus, the archmage had suddenly sensed Kalec nearby. Not sure how he would react to her obvious intrusion, Jaina had masked her presence as best she could, then worked to make certain that Kalec did not know she was there while she quickly shifted her location. Even then, he had almost noticed her.

Yet if Jaina did not have the artifact with her to study, she did have access to other avenues that might give her a clue to what it was and how it might be related to the changes in Kalec’s personality. Jaina was convinced that he was in desperate danger, perhaps not only to his mind but also to his body.

Jaina summoned a thick silver tome from the highest shelf. As it neared her, the book opened, and pages began flipping. A narrowing of the archmage’s eyes caused the pages to cease turning. With the book still hovering at reading level, she surveyed the contents.

The archmage who had written these pages had marked the two items she was particularly interested in as remnants of the period shortly after order had been brought to Azeroth. Jaina had sought these because something in the artifact’s appearance had reminded her of something the archmage had read when first she had combed through this book for other reasons.

To her frustration, the two pages before her presented Jaina with nothing. There were details of where the items had been found and who had been involved in discovering them. There were also notations on previous studies of the titans and keepers believed to have been identified as having influenced the regions where the finds had been made. While such notes were interesting to Jaina in a scholarly way, she sought more.

The page turned. Theories about the titans and the keepers dominated, some concerning the extent of their ties to one another. Jaina started to skip farther ahead, then recalled something mentioned within the theories.

She found it: . . . as the young mage Rulfo insisted. The vision he claimed to have had from touching it suggested keeper influence in its design. Archmage Theolinus had his own theory on keeper influence in other regions . . .

Jaina let out a grunt of exasperation. She skipped down past theories that she normally would have had more interest in, hoping to find what she thought she recalled.

“Ah!” The name Rulfo finally came up again. It had been so long since Jaina had read through this part that she could not remember what else Rulfo had told his masters about the vision, but surely it had to be in this section.

But scarcely had she begun reading when the archmage stepped back in such shock that she accidentally canceled the spell holding the book in place. The ancient tome dropped with a loud thud on the floor, the pages now askew.

Her heart pounding, Jaina knelt by the damaged book. Her concern was not for what she had allowed to happen to it but for rereading the passage. With a wave of her hand, the other pages flew by until the one she sought once again faced her.

“Rulfo . . . Rulfo . . .” Jaina muttered, seeking his name.

. . . Rulfo might have had the answer to that. His death is a sad footnote to an otherwise intriguing expedition into a study of the past . . .

She had gone too far. The archmage went back a few paragraphs. Once there, Jaina read more carefully.

. . . the third day after the find. An entire afternoon of searching revealed nothing, not even with the finest spells at work. Only after dark, only when one last attempt was made, did someone find his body.

“Body,” Jaina murmured, praying that she had read wrong.

According to reports, at first glance, the consensus was that he had somehow lost his way and fallen off the peak. Certainly, that explained how mangled Rulfo’s corpse was said to be. However, later conversations by the representative of the Kirin Tor with those who knew him best give indication of a peculiar and sudden madness that descended upon Rulfo prior to his disappearance. The ultimate conclusion was that this vision the young mage mentioned was the start of his insanity. . . .

It ended there, the next paragraph continuing on with matters Jaina found for the moment tedious. Still certain that she had read more than this previously, she desperately searched the succeeding pages but to no avail. She returned to the ones she had read and studied them closely, but quickly verified that she had missed nothing.

And yet . . . somewhere she had read more.

The archmage cast her eyes upon the many tomes, scrolls, journals, and other writings before her. Within one of them, the details she hunted for surely existed. She just had to recall which one or keep looking until she found what she sought.

But staring at the imposing collection, the archmage wondered if after she managed to locate the information, it would already be too late for Kalec.

•   •   •

The artifact was as bound to the Nexus’s wards as if it had been so set since the latter were first cast. Kalec doubted that Malygos could have weaved the accursed thing’s power into the array with such mastery. It again bespoke the great skill of whoever had created the relic, a being the blue dragon could only assume was the cloaked and hooded form of which both he and the young Malygos had caught glimpses.

A being Kalec had already come to hate deeply.

For what seemed the hundredth time, Kalec followed a magical trail in the array in the hopes of finding some flaw that he could exploit. He did not want to leave the Nexus at the mercy of the artifact, even though thus far, it had done no visible harm to the place. Still, considering what it had done to Kalec, the blue did not want to take any chances—

Tainted! Tainted!

With a pained roar, Kalec pulled back from his work. He clutched his head, trying to keep the voices at bay, but they shouted so loudly that all else was drowned out.

Must destroy them!

No! They are us!

No! They ate one of us!

The Nexus became a maelstrom. Kalec lost his balance, spun around, and fell.

But before he could strike the floor, he suddenly hovered above the ground, surveying what appeared to be the start of a civil war among the proto-dragons Talonixa had gathered. At least seven individual combats caught his eye—or, rather, Malygos’s eye—and one of them included both Neltharion and Nozdormu.

Despite the fight being two against one, the pair was very tentative in its attacks against the silver-green female before them. She, on the other hand, snapped and clawed at them with abandon, eschewing tactics of any sort. As Malygos landed nearby, she lunged at Neltharion.

Malygos knew well by now the charcoal-gray male’s eagerness for battle and so was surprised when Neltharion sought desperately to avoid her sharp but smaller teeth. Neltharion scuttled back as the jaws neared his throat—

—and Nozdormu leapt in at the perfect moment and tore out the preoccupied female’s gullet. He struck so artfully that he had already withdrawn before the female even realized that she was mortally wounded. Her chest quickly soaking with her blood, the stricken proto-dragon started to turn toward Nozdormu, then fell on her face.

As Kalec and his host struggled to make sense of events, the other seemingly mad proto-dragons were herded together. Some of those facing the prisoners appeared to be barely able to keep from trying to rip them apart. One of those preventing that was Ysera, who was issuing a warning.

“Be careful! Watch teeth! Stay back!”

Beyond the scene, Talonixa watched with an unreadable expression. Kalec wanted Malygos to keep an eye on her, but his host was more interested in what Ysera was attempting to do. The more the tableau unfolded, the more it appeared that Alexstrasza’s sister was every bit as concerned for the afflicted as she was for those surrounding them.

While both Malygos and Kalec could appreciate that she was trying to prevent further bloodshed among proto-dragons when the true threat was clearly Galakrond, the blue dragon and his host were in agreement that this could not end well. The surrounded band snapped at their captors and seemed not to recognize those whom Malygos knew they should.

Malygos noticed something about each of the captured proto-dragons. Every one of those whom the icy-blue male could see sported bite wounds from some previous but still recent fight.

Bite wounds . . . Malygos started to glance down at his paw, only to be interrupted by Alexstrasza.

The fire-orange female looked relieved to see him. “You live! We thought you dead!”

“Almost. Coros . . . he is dead.”

Before he could relay to her the full tale and its import, Alexstrasza looked back at where her sister still worked to keep the two groups from converging on each other. “She does not understand! They must die! Even I know that!”

That drew Malygos’s attention from the need to tell his story. “Must die? Why?”

“The bites . . . the bites of the not-living! They make a hunger . . . they make these want to eat one another! They make them like Galakrond!”

Her words shook both Kalec and his host. Malygos could not keep from shivering as he remembered his struggles after being bitten. He looked past Alexstrasza to the maddened proto-dragons, recalling his own growing bloodlust and how he had barely kept from doing just as these apparently desired.

Alexstrasza mistook his reaction for disgust at what the captives had turned into. She hissed. “Ysera thinks of our clutch brother. She thinks him out there still.”

This further dismayed Malygos. “Would be not-living!”

“Clutch brother long dead,” Alexstrasza reminded him. “Long dead when Malygos finds him . . .”

That should have reassured him, but so many things had happened that even a clever proto-dragon, such as Malygos considered himself, had doubts. True, other old corpses had remained dead, at least, the last time Malygos had seen them. Now the icy-blue male wondered whether those corpses would still be there if he went to find them again.

And then his thoughts returned to just how these other proto-dragons had been changed. They had all been bitten. They had all succumbed to the monstrous hunger that Malygos had fought more than once.

Kalec sensed his host considering fleeing before someone recognized the wound and added him to the mad. Still, Malygos held his ground and watched as the tableau played out.

Talonixa finally acted, shoving past smaller proto-dragons to face Ysera and the afflicted. Despite their growing madness, the imprisoned proto-dragons remained cowed by the powerful female.

“Kill them. . . .”

“No! Must help them!” Ysera insisted, staring defiantly.

“Kill them, or they bite us.” As she spoke, Talonixa pressed Alexstrasza’s sister back, forcing her closer to the mad. “They bite you. . . .”

Whether a bite from one of the afflicted would affect a proto-dragon the way a bite from the undead did was a question Kalec doubted any there knew the answer to yet, but Talonixa’s words stirred fear in several of those in attendance. Even Alexstrasza’s sister looked uncertain.

Without warning, one of the afflicted hissed and started toward Ysera. Before Alexstrasza could go to her sister’s aid, Ysera, her uncertainty vanishing, turned her steady gaze on her would-be attacker.

The madness faded somewhat. The other proto-dragon let his head drop low, then shuffled back. To Kalec, he seemed ashamed that he had tried to harm the smaller female.

Ysera again faced Talonixa. “Must help them. . . .”

“No time! We must fight Galakrond!” the larger female declared. She looked to those watching the argument. “We fight! Yes?”

As they had before, the majority of the other proto-dragons hissed their agreement.

Even in the face of such a lack of support, Ysera pressed. “These are us! These are us!”

The gathering quieted.

Alexstrasza’s sister moved toward the crowd, beseeching. “These are us! We help them, we help us!”

Some of those listening looked at one another in thought.

Talonixa’s eyes narrowed more. “Yes . . .” she hissed quietly, suddenly very agreeable. “Yes . . . we help them. . . .” Talonixa eyed the afflicted. “But must keep them safe. Must keep us safe. Help them when we can. . . .” She turned and studied the west. “Must keep them safe, yes. Come! Bring them!”

Clearly confident that she would be obeyed, Talonixa took flight. Several of the proto-dragons surrounding the afflicted looked warily at Ysera.

Alexstrasza’s sister stared at them with defiance, then glanced at the captured figures. “Come . . .” she murmured soothingly. “Come . . .”

Slowly, Ysera rose into the air. As she did, she gestured with her head after Talonixa.

The surrounded proto-dragons reluctantly followed Ysera. They were flanked by Talonixa’s ardent supporters. The rest of the assembled proto-dragons looked more than willing to stay behind, but to Kalec’s surprise, his host suddenly leapt after Ysera. Even Alexstrasza was not so swift. Out of the corner of Malygos’s eye, Kalec saw Neltharion and Nozdormu follow suit.

The scene abruptly shifted, but Kalec sensed that only a short time had passed. Now Talonixa led the band toward a narrow valley.

“There!” she roared, indicating with a dip of her wing another pass. Talonixa descended.

As the proto-dragons landed, the large female strode toward what initially looked simply like a rock wall. However, as they followed Talonixa around, a narrow crevice revealed itself.

At first, Kalec thought it was the entrance to the cave from the one disturbing vision. However, almost immediately, too many details gave indication that it was otherwise. Still, Kalec could not help feeling that he knew the reason Talonixa had brought them to this place.

“Why here?” Ysera asked with a hint of suspicion.

“These ones you defend, they go in here and wait.”

The pale yellow female peered at the narrow entrance, her suspicion growing. “In there?”

“All . . . or we must slay.”

The finality of her tone brooked no argument. With reluctance, Ysera at last nodded.

“They stay here,” Talonixa commanded. She indicated some of those guarding the afflicted. “Four here, they guard. Entrance narrow. Four enough.”

It was clear to Kalec and his host that Talonixa would have gladly had the afflicted slaughtered there and then, and Ysera obviously also saw that. She finally acquiesced, then led those she had championed toward the narrow entrance.

One by one, the trusting proto-dragons entered the cave. Some had to struggle to get inside, so restrictive was the entrance. Ysera had to keep calming both those waiting to enter and those already inside.

The last finally entered. Ysera backed away in order to let the guards take their places.

But as the first began to move, Talonixa rumbled, “Wait.”

Ysera hissed. Malygos and Neltharion started toward Talonixa, only to have some of the golden female’s most ardent followers block their path.

Talonixa exhaled. Lightning shot from her maw.

Three bright silver bolts struck the rock face above the entrance. As that happened, a calm Talonixa fluttered back a few short yards.

The entire rock face collapsed, spilling over the cave.

Ysera leapt toward the avalanche, but before she could sacrifice herself in a vain attempt to save those within, Malygos lunged for her. To his surprise, Nozdormu reached her first, seizing one of her wings with his jaws and carefully but firmly pulling her back just before she would have been crushed to a pulp.

Despite there being no doubt regarding Nozdormu’s or Malygos’s intentions, Ysera snapped at both of them. Her rage undiminished, she whirled on Talonixa.

Four other proto-dragons blocked her path. Two opened their mouths, but Talonixa’s hiss rose above the confrontation, stilling their attack.

“It is done,” she proclaimed, her massive wings stretched to enhance her size and, thus, her dominance. “No taint among us! All tainted must die!”

Ysera exhaled. The two guards directly in front of her blinked and nearly collapsed. Stunned, they proved no impediment to her charge. She burst past them and sought Talonixa.

But the larger female awaited this foolhardy act. She shifted as Ysera neared. Her long, powerful tail struck her much smaller adversary across the head with a loud crack.

Alexstrasza rushed by Malygos and the others in time to reach her sister, just as Ysera fell back, stunned. The two crashed into each other, ending in a heap.

“It is done,” Talonixa repeated, acting as if she had not even noticed Ysera’s impudence. “Come . . . must be ready for Galakrond. . . .”

With that, Talonixa and all except for Malygos and his friends silently departed. The males moved in to aid the sisters, only to have Ysera roll to her feet and rush to the buried cave. Ignoring the small bits of stone and dirt still raining down, she used her hind paws to try to rip away at the tons of rock.

However, as Ysera tore at the avalanche, additional stones loosened above. They fell down, not only more than replacing what she dug away but also battering her enough that Alexstrasza, at last righted, risked injury to herself and pulled her struggling sibling to safety.

“Save them!” the smaller sister insisted, her frantic gaze darting from Alexstrasza to the males. “They still live! Hear them!”

Malygos listened but detected nothing. Yet both Kalec and his host—and also the other future Aspects—knew that Ysera spoke the truth.

There was just nothing they could do. A hundred proto-dragons digging without pause would not have been able to reach those within in time. Malygos understood that as well as Kalec, and so did the rest, even Ysera. Still, despite her awareness of the futility of what she attempted, Ysera again rushed to the fall and tried digging. She kicked away rock after rock, only to have more fill the momentary gaps.

The others finally shoved in front of Ysera and forced her away. She continued to stare at the buried entrance, and at one point, through Malygos’s ears, Kalec heard her say, gasping, “Dralad . . .”

After several tense moments, Alexstrasza’s sister stilled. However, now there was a distant look in her eyes, as if her mind remained elsewhere.

“We must go,” Malygos at last suggested quietly.

Neltharion added, “The hunt for Galakrond will begin soon! We must be there!”

“The hunt for Galakrond?” Nozdormu mocked, startling both Malygos and Kalec by even speaking. From what Kalec gathered from his host, young Nozdormu spoke only when he seemed to have something significant to add. Otherwise, some might have taken him for one of the less advanced, more animalistic proto-dragons, unable to talk. “Hunted by, it will be.”

Yet, despite saying that, the brown male was the first to leap into the air. To the surprise of the rest, Ysera immediately followed. Alexstrasza joined her sister, leaving Malygos and Neltharion to find themselves bringing up the rear.

However, as they ascended, Kalec—but not Malygos—noticed Ysera surreptitiously glancing back at the ruined cave, where some of the afflicted proto-dragons likely still struggled to survive before the air gave out. She then glanced at Malygos, but not directly at his face. Rather, Kalec noted that she eyed his lower leg.

The same leg where the one undead had bitten Malygos’s paw.

FOUR

THE WATCHER

Kalec’s view shifted again. Ahead of the five, Talonixa and her gathered host hovered in the air. He realized that they were already setting out to find Galakrond. Several of the other proto-dragons noted the small band’s arrival, which in turn alerted Talonixa.

She soared toward the five, her attendants flanking her. As Talonixa confronted Ysera and her companions, the attendants spread out in obvious battle formation. Malygos and the others instinctively did the same, even against the greater odds.

“These can join the hunt,” Talonixa decreed. “You, runt, will not.”

“I will come with!” Ysera insisted.

“Why? Talk to Galakrond? Make a tiny bite for him!”

Recalling Coros—whose fate Malygos had still not yet told to Talonixa—the icy-blue male shuddered. Kalec shared his unease and wished that Malygos would quickly tell everyone in the hopes that perhaps it would deter them from this mad attack. However, his host didn’t speak, at the moment only concerned with the safety of his friends and not thinking of the potential repercussions of saying nothing.

“Will not go,” Alexstrasza said. “Will stay with my sister.”

“I stay also,” Nozdormu briefly added.

Neltharion momentarily looked frustrated, his natural tendency being to go wherever a fight could be promised. Still, he grudgingly nodded his agreement with the other two.

Malygos added his voice to his friends’, not that Talonixa seemed to care at that point. She started to turn from the five. Only then did Kalec’s host finally recall what he should have told everyone at the first chance. “Wait! Must speak of Coros!”

A suspicious Talonixa looked back. “Coros?”

As best he could, Malygos quickly related to her and the rest the fate of the treacherous proto-dragon, leaving out only those details where his own struggle with the infection from the undead’s bite were concerned. The far simpler language of his host frustrated Kalec, who knew that he could have explained much more clearly, but the essence of what Malygos sought to tell was evidently understood by Talonixa and the others.

But rather than be daunted by the savage tale, the imposing female simply sneered. “Coros fool . . . but gives us victory!” She peered at her loyal but confused followers. “Galakrond knows where we are, where we go! We fool him! We attack before! We attack in different place!”

“Not good,” Nozdormu muttered, his words going unheard by the increasingly confident Talonixa.

“Must strike now!” She spun from Malygos again. “Come! We attack!”

The gathered proto-dragons left the five behind.

Neltharion fluttered back and forth, obviously desiring to be a part of the coming battle but in the end choosing his comrades over his desires. Still, he could not help expressing himself. “Why we not fight? Not like Talonixa, but we fight our way! We fight our own plan—”

“And die as stupidly as they,” Nozdormu, proving quite talkative this day, interrupted calmly.

“There must be peace.”

Even Alexstrasza eyed her sister with something close to exasperation. “Ysera—”

Without warning, the smaller female darted off. There was no doubt about her intentions. She still hoped to change the course of events, however mad that seemed to both Kalec and his host. Worse, Alexstrasza immediately chased after her sister, which caused the increasingly impatient Neltharion to do the same.

Nozdormu looked to Malygos. “If this—”

The scene suddenly shifted. Even though Kalec was better prepared for it, he still raged at being ripped from the moment before he knew how it would continue to play. There was a very real feeling running through him that despite the fact that all of this took place in the past, it had a relevance to his time that he dared not ignore.

He—as much as Malygos—darted among the frosty peaks of the northern regions in great haste, searching with more and more desperation for someone whom at first Kalec could not identify from the proto-dragon’s racing thoughts. The only thing that Kalec could tell was that something had caused a change in events. What it was finally flashed through Malygos’s mind as he dived to investigate a shallow cave in one frosty area.

Talonixa’s great host had been unable to find the gargantuan Galakrond.

How a creature as huge as the twisted proto-dragon could suddenly vanish was a question that greatly plagued Kalec’s host and also bothered Kalec. However, it was not the reason for Malygos’s mad hunt in this obscure place far too near the misshapen leviathan’s known haunts.

Malygos was hunting Ysera.

A shadow crossed Malygos. Neltharion dropped down.

“Nothing!” the charcoal-gray male bellowed. “I smell her . . . but nothing!”

Her scent pervaded the area but was not strong enough to be identified as very recent. Ysera might have passed this way as long ago as two days. Kalec understood now that it had been four days since the shift in the vision. Indeed, the last time anyone had seen Ysera was shortly after that scene had changed for Kalec. The weaker female had risen into the thick clouds, whereupon her trail had somehow faded. It had taken a frantic Alexstrasza another day and a half to locate a trail, but only after the four had already confronted an angry Talonixa leading a befuddled force in search of the absent Galakrond.

“He is scared!” Talonixa had roared at the top of her voice for any to hear, perhaps even Galakrond himself. “He knows we hunt! He flees us!”

This had hardly been the opinion of Malygos or his friends, but their voices had not been of interest to Talonixa. She had led her army off to the east, leaving the four to continue their own search.

But why Ysera had abandoned the others when she had was still not apparent. Malygos had his suspicions, and from what Kalec divined, his host believed—not unreasonably—that Alexstrasza’s sister had sought out Galakrond to plead again for a stop to the carnage.

If so, there was a very good reason she had thus far remained unfound, a reason that none of the three males dared speak out loud in the presence of Alexstrasza. Ysera might already be a victim of Galakrond, foolishly placing herself in the mad behemoth’s maw as easily as Coros had.

“Saw nothing,” Malygos informed Neltharion now, his pulse still pounding from his own swift search. Another proto-dragon soared above. Seeing that it was Nozdormu, both calmed. The third male appeared to have had no better luck than they. Of Alexstrasza, there was no sign, although Kalec understood that Malygos had a fair notion where she could be found. Once arriving at this place where Ysera’s scent had grown stronger, they had divided up to cover certain areas where a proto-dragon could more easily be hidden from sight.

But thus far, they had discovered nothing.

“She is not here,” Neltharion suggested. “Was . . . but is not.”

His tone echoed Malygos’s own concerns about Ysera’s fate. Neither wanted to be the one to approach Alexstrasza with what seemed more and more the truth.

“Maybe search more,” the charcoal-gray male recommended with some hesitation. “Maybe flew too fast. I do that.”

They both knew that they had scoured their respective areas thoroughly, but being reluctant to face a dismayed Alexstrasza, they split up again. Malygos banked, then dropped lower. He did not expect to find anything, Kalec knew, but the only other choice was to report his failure to the fire-orange female.

The sharp eyes of the hunter surveyed the icy soil and frosty rock walls ahead. Malygos quickly recognized the few places where Ysera might have been able to secrete herself. However, he already knew that she could not have possibly slipped by him, and sure enough, the first three locations were as empty as he recalled them—

Something moved near the mouth of the last cave. It was such a brief glimpse that neither Kalec nor his host could identify just what it was.

The proto-dragon dived to investigate. He slowed when he neared the cave. There was the danger that whatever lurked within was not only not Ysera but a threat.

Malygos squinted. The cave was utterly dark. That in itself unsettled the proto-dragon; his sharp eyes should have been able to penetrate the blackness for at least a few feet. Kalec’s trepidation matched Malygos’s as the proto-dragon first sniffed the air, then, scenting nothing, chose to enter.

Visibility remained almost nonexistent as Malygos progressed. The icy-blue male hesitated. Kalec’s host sensed something amiss, but it was nothing that his mind could identify. However, Kalec, able to feel the ancient world, noted the hint of some great power nearby.

“Welcome, clever hunter,” came a deep voice with an otherworldly quality that made Kalec want to gasp and made Malygos instinctively retreat a step from that direction.

A low silver light arose from the darkness.

Within, a cloaked and hooded form already familiar to Kalec coalesced.

Hissing, Malygos retreated again. Yet if the proto-dragon sought the way out, he was not to find it, nor was even Kalec able to note where it was. Only darkness prevailed except where the tiny figure stood.

Curiously, though, despite the fact that Malygos loomed over it, the mysterious figure unnerved the proto-dragon. It had little to do with what was to Malygos a very odd two-legged shape and more to do with the tremendous power Kalec had earlier felt.

But while Kalec had come to grips with the fact that through his host, he confronted the form he had caught out of the corner of his eye in the Nexus, the dragon began to notice something else amiss with the being before them. Although by Kalec’s estimation, the murky figure was barely taller than a night elf, the more Kalec studied it, the more the blue dragon could not help thinking that what he saw was not what actually stood there. He had the feeling of a being far more imposing than this, a being that instead of gazing up at the proto-dragon, should have been gazing down.

“Who are you?” Malygos demanded. “Who?”

“Follow the strengthening wind when you depart,” the figure answered, at first making no sense to either Kalec or his host. “You will find your friend there.”

Another hiss escaped Malygos. “What thing are you?”

“A friend . . . I hope.” From the cloak emerged the strong hand of what Kalec judged to be a warrior. It pulled the hood back.

For the proto-dragon, it was yet another revelation of just how strange the creature was. For Kalec, though, what stood revealed was enough to identify the figure for what he was, even though the dragon had never himself seen such beings in the flesh.

A keeper . . . it can only be a keeper, Kalec thought with awe. The keepers were creatures of myth and legend to most other races. Even as the Aspect of Magic, Kalec had learned little of them beyond their work overseeing the refinement of Azeroth after the titans brought order to it and the fact that several of the keepers had built temples in the Storm Peaks. Evidence of their achievements could also be found in obscure places around the world, but the full effect of their great task remained a question.

The skin was a brilliant silver. A thick, long mustache stretching down to the chest matched the golden hair framing the sturdy, broad-jawed face. Under a heavy brow, eyes the color of the sun and like those of night elves, outwardly seeming to lack pupils, studied the proto-dragon with not only interest but what appeared to be pride.

What does he find of so much interest in Malygos? Kalec wondered.

“You may call me Tyr,” the keeper finally answered the proto-dragon’s original question. “And you are, of course, Malygos.”

Kalec’s host understandably flinched. Baring his teeth, the proto-dragon growled, “How do you know my name?”

“I have watched you. I have watched others. I see much potential in you, in these friends of yours . . . and I say that as someone who has watched many of your kind since the first of you began to stir toward self-consciousness.”

His answer only made Malygos shake his head in bewilderment and growing mistrust. Tyr was not a huge creature. Malygos believed that he could bite Tyr in half, but he also believed that attempting to do so would for unknown reasons be something that the proto-dragon would regret.

He turned away, once more seeking the missing entrance. This time, it revealed itself. However, Malygos made no move toward it, as aware as Kalec that it had reappeared too conveniently. Malygos, of course, did not yet understand magic as Kalec did, but he was clever enough to link the odd happenings with the being who already knew his name without asking.

Malygos peered over his shoulder at Tyr.

“If it is your wish to leave, I will not stop you,” Tyr said.

With a reptilian grin, Malygos chose to take him at his word. He darted through the gap, clearly expecting to be prevented at the last second.

Instead, the open air greeted the icy-blue male. The moment he was fully outside, Malygos swung around to face the cave. Kalec understood that he expected to find Tyr following, but of the keeper, there was no sign.

“You see? I did not lie.”

Snarling, Malygos gazed up at the top of a low ridge. There, an innocent-looking Tyr stood patiently waiting.

The proto-dragon rose into the air until he hovered over the cloaked figure. Tyr calmly spread both hands wide, a sign of peace. Despite that display, Malygos did not relax, and even Kalec wondered what exactly such a formidable being wanted with a proto-dragon.

“Not funny!” Malygos snapped, rearing his head. He prepared to exhale, something that Kalec thought would only lead to disaster.

But at the last moment, the proto-dragon changed his mind. Instead, Malygos veered from the tiny figure and headed on.

He did not get far before discovering Tyr standing atop another ridge ahead of him.

While this hardly surprised Kalec, the young Malygos proved a hardheaded sort. He immediately turned in another direction and flew as hard as he could from the spot where Tyr stood.

The cloaked figure reappeared a short distance ahead.

This time, Malygos did not hesitate to exhale. Kalec sensed that his host wished not to slay Tyr, only to keep him from following.

The stream of frost shot toward Tyr, then split, spraying the rocky surroundings but not touching him in the least.

“Please,” Tyr quietly began again. “I wish only to talk with you . . . about Galakrond.”

Malygos’s mind struggled between attacking, fleeing, and hearing the strange creature out. To Kalec’s relief, his host chose the last.

“What do you want? Where is Ysera?”

“You will find her . . . and you will find other things, but those I cannot change.” Tyr did not elaborate, instead returning to his original subject. “But for the moment, we must speak quickly and about Galakrond.”

The continued mention of the sinister behemoth made the proto-dragon anxiously glance around, but of course, there was no sign of the gargantuan fiend. Malygos peered expectantly at Tyr.

“We never intended this path,” Tyr continued, his own gaze turning inward. A shadow crossed his features. “Galakrond should never have journeyed in the direction he did, and we did not prevent it. Now . . . now this young world faces annihilation.”

While Malygos did not understand all of the complex words, he understood enough to catch that there was some tie between Galakrond and this thing. Kalec understood even more than Malygos, but in the end, his thoughts finished the same. This being—this keeper—knew why Galakrond had become the monster, and felt some fault at that happening.

Before Malygos could press the questions that Kalec and he shared, Tyr cut him off. “I have been observing so many of you, seeking an answer. I thought for a while . . . but Coros proved as focused in his obsession as Galakrond but with more foolhardiness than even Galakrond contained, it seems.”

“Coros? You watch him? Why?”

For the first time, a hint of frustration passed across Tyr’s sturdy face. Kalec, though, saw that it was frustration not with Malygos but with Tyr himself.

“A good question with no good answer. I leave it at that. What matters is that you might be the key to salvaging this situation . . . if we can turn this mad charge from disaster to victory.”

The proto-dragon continued to hover, but Kalec felt his patience quickly fraying. Proto-dragons did not have the patience of dragons, although even Kalec knew his could be very short at times. Malygos was coming close to trying to flee again.

Tyr obviously saw that also. He smiled briefly as if to reassure the proto-dragon. “In our seeking to guide Azeroth’s growth as a whole, we have been too long removed from the daily aspects of the world, too long from interacting with the life of that world. Without guidance, events somehow brought us Galakrond. With guidance, we and your kind might be able to set Kalimdor back on its destined path.”

“We fight Galakrond?” Malygos’s tone made clear his questioning of the sanity of Tyr’s suggestion. “Talonixa fights Galakrond! I—we—do not fight!” He shook his head. “Foolish creature you are!”

This time, Malygos did attempt another escape. He flew around Tyr, going such a great distance to the side of the cloaked figure that Kalec could not help but wonder if the proto-dragon also sensed that while Tyr appeared tiny, he was in actuality something far larger, far greater.

Kalec and his host both expected Tyr to materialize before them, but there was no sign. While Malygos took heart from this, Kalec could not fathom why Tyr would simply let the proto-dragon go.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a wall stood before the racing Malygos. He managed to bank at the last moment, and as he did, something unsettling about the wall registered with both the proto-dragon and Kalec.

It was not a wall but the torso of some gigantic two-legged form.

But as Malygos spun back, he found no giant . . . only Tyr.

Still, even the young proto-dragon understood that he had caught a glimpse of what Tyr truly was. That glimpse was powerful enough to make him eye the tiny creature once more standing before him with something near awe.

But Tyr’s expression extinguished Malygos’s obvious hope that what the proto-dragon had momentarily seen could mean Galakrond’s defeat. “We are not tied to this world as your kind is. The others . . . the others of my kind cannot be urged anymore to face this danger. We have grown too weary from our past battles. We—I—need your kind, Malygos. I need you.”

Still hovering, the proto-dragon finally nodded. “What we do?”

Tyr looked vastly relieved. “First, we must gather your friends. Together, I think they could be the answer. Nowhere else have I seen this immediate and intricate bonding among those of different proto-dragon families. Perhaps it might ironically even have something to do with Galakrond’s coming. I do not know. Whatever the reason, this bonding may be the key to the only chance of victory still left to us.”

Some of the words were, again, more than Malygos could comprehend. However, he could easily detect Tyr’s uncertainty that even Malygos and his kind would be enough to prevent Galakrond from ravaging Azeroth.

“Gather the others, Malygos. They trust you. Lead them here. I will be waiting—”

A warning roar echoed from the east, a roar so thundering it could only belong to Galakrond.

Tyr turned at the cry. Malygos’s gaze swept past him to look in the same direction, and in that moment, the cloak swung aside, revealing something that only Kalec noticed and only Kalec would have recognized.

Attached by netting to a thick silver belt was nothing less than the artifact itself.

Even as Kalec saw this, the scene turned on its head, and its elements shattered, scattering in all directions. The blackness held sway for but a second before the elements regathered and formed a new scene.

Proto-dragons filled the sky. By the scores, they roared their challenge at the horizon before them. As Kalec sought to identify what was happening, Malygos joined the others in seemingly challenging the empty air.

And the sky answered.

Galakrond, still so distant that he could not be seen, answered.

Kalec silently swore. Somehow he—or, rather, Malygos—had become part of Talonixa’s grand and likely doomed charge after all.

FIVE

THE DEAD AND THE UNDEAD

Jaina woke with a start, her head snapping up from the pages of the musty book she was reading when exhaustion had claimed her. The archmage eyed the faint moisture on one page and gestured with some slight irritation. The page dried, none the worse for the wear.

Another waste of time! She pointed her finger at the wall of books and parchments. The book fluttered to the spot from which she had summoned it.

Thoughts other than her own abruptly filled her head, messages sent by various magi seeking her advice or reminding her of tasks she should have been working on instead of this increasingly futile quest. Jaina knew that her position demanded that she deal with these other matters, but she rose from her chair and once more approached the trove of magical knowledge.

Before she could make a decision, another voice overwhelmed the rest.

Jaina . . . come quickly. . . .

“Kalec?”

The contact broke, but not before she sensed from where he was calling. The location surprised her, but the archmage did not hesitate. She exhaled and cast.

Her arrival did not go as expected. She appeared not only many yards from where she had intended but also more than a foot above the ground. The archmage landed hard on her heels, the collision vibrating through her bones.

Biting back an epithet worthy of her naval father, Jaina focused. Regaining her equilibrium, she surveyed the dark land before her, wondering why Kalec would call her to, of all places, the Dragonblight.

Moreover, the archmage wondered why he would summon her not from the temple but from the shadows of the incredibly vast skeleton ahead.

Jaina knew of the huge bones that had once been a behemoth called Galakrond, but there her knowledge faded into what myths and legends the Aspects had passed along over the millennia. When they did speak of Galakrond, dragons made vague comments honoring him as the Father of Dragons. It was supposedly why so many of those dragons who came to die in the Dragonblight chose to set their bodies, if not facing Galakrond, then certainly in the vicinity of his skeleton.

Jaina concentrated on Kalec, silently calling his name and awaiting a link with his mind. When that did not happen, she sharpened her call by directing it toward the monstrous rib cage.

But although there came no answer, Jaina could not help feeling that the skeleton was where she needed to go. A fear abruptly arose in her that Kalec might now lie injured and unconscious—or even worse—somewhere within the half-buried bones.

A haze draped over the region, making it impossible for the archmage to see anything inside the ribs. She probed with her power but found nothing—

No. For just a moment, Jaina thought she sensed Kalec.

Without hesitation, she transported herself nearer. This time, the archmage appeared where she desired. The ribs loomed over her.

But of Kalec, there was still no sign.

Jaina finally called his name. The only answer was the growing wind blowing through the bones. Aware that her destination had been this desolate place, using magic, she had shielded herself from the expected cold, and so the chill that ran down her spine had nothing to do with the elements. Despite that, though, the archmage did not hesitate to enter.

The moment she did, she sensed something else. A faint magical trace that reminded her of the artifact’s aura.

The source of the trace proved to be a hole dug deep into the frozen ground, a hole that also radiated hints of Kalec’s unique magical signature.

This is where he found it, Jaina realized. He went to a lot of trouble to dig it out. Why?

She looked over her shoulder, suddenly certain that she was not alone. Even though the archmage saw nothing, she could not shake the feeling. Still, she returned to her inspection of the hole.

Searching beyond Kalec’s trace, Jaina studied the residue of ancient magic continuing to permeate the area. It grew stronger the more she delved into the hole itself. The archmage marveled at the efforts Kalec had used to free the artifact.

And again came the question of why. . . .

The shadows around her deepened. Jaina created a small golden sphere and sent it into the hole the better to see . . . anything.

An exasperated sigh escaped her. She glanced around again, seeking either Kalec or some other figure. Jaina now knew that she was being led, but whether this was all a trap or something far different, the spellcaster could not say. Thus far, she detected no threat, but she also detected no reason for her being there.

Her sphere changed color without warning, turning from gold to a deep blue, and in that blue light, Jaina Proudmoore saw something not evident before. It was not a physical object but a force somehow tied to the relic that had been buried there.

It was also something that she had seen once before and that she knew was recorded in the very tomes through which she had been burrowing before thinking she heard Kalec’s summons.

The artifact itself at last began to make some sense to the archmage, but this only fueled her concern. If what she sensed about the magics involved in its creation was true—if what this radiant force meant to her study of the artifact was true—then there was something terrible going on that—

Again, Jaina felt as if someone watched her. This time, she quickly cast a spell behind her, and for her efforts, she was rewarded with a slight grunt.

Spinning around, she discovered a female taunka standing only a few feet from her.

“Who are you?” the archmage demanded.

“Buniq . . . my name is Buniq,” the taunka rasped. Jaina’s spell held the creature in place. The taunka was armed with a spear, but Jaina saw that the weapon was held casually and had not been readied for throwing.

“What are you doing here?”

“Hunting. Saw the light. Thought it was another hunter.”

The archmage could detect nothing amiss and finally released the taunka. Buniq exhaled and stretched her arms, although she was also careful to keep her grip on the spear loose at all times.

“You’re free to go,” Jaina remarked, her tone indicating that she would prefer Buniq did as she suggested.

The taunka started to turn, then glanced past the spellcaster at the hole. “He searched there, too. The blue one.”

The blue one? Kalec? Jaina’s mind raced.

Before the archmage could ask, the hunter abruptly added, “He found something. I think.”

While the information was of some relevance to Jaina, it did not resolve anything for her. She nodded her thanks, her interest in the taunka fading.

“Saw something else . . . after he left.”

Jaina stared at her. “What else did you see? What?”

Buniq hesitated. “Saw another. All covered.”

“All covered? A cloak?” After Buniq bent her head forward in what was evidently a nod, the archmage, now very much interested again, asked, “You could make out nothing else about this figure?”

“Tall. Taller than you. It looked into hole, just like you.”

There had been no magical trace from some other spellcaster, at least not that Jaina had detected. With her skill, it was unlikely that she would have failed to notice that another mage had been there . . . unless . . .

She needed to know more. “Did this figure do anything?”

“Yes.” Buniq thought for a moment, then carefully passed the spear from one thick hand to the other. She raised her now-freed hand and began to draw something in the air. Once finished, the taunka stilled again.

Jaina tried to make sense of whatever Buniq had done but could not completely recall it. “Draw it again, but slower.”

As Buniq began, the archmage cast a simple but useful spell. Immediately, the air flared silver where the taunka had started drawing. The hunter hesitated.

“Go on, please, Buniq.”

Exhaling, the taunka obeyed. The silver fire followed as she completed the symbol. Jaina watched with ever-increasing interest, all the while hoping that Buniq had a very sharp memory.

The taunka stepped back. Jaina summoned the glowing pattern to her, examined it for a second, and then, with a grimace, turned it around so that she saw it as Buniq had. A crescent star overlooking a stylized bird greeted her, both bound in the center by three simple but significant runes of triangular shape.

The archmage gasped. She had seen this symbol before, and she recalled just where.

Returning her attention to Buniq, Jaina asked, “Was there anything else—”

The taunka was gone. Jaina squinted and saw a few tracks leading off beyond the rib cage. She should have expected that a hunter would be skilled in moving stealthily, but not only had Buniq evaded the archmage’s enhanced senses, but she had done so with astonishing swiftness. Moreover, Jaina had no idea why Buniq had left without warning, although perhaps the simple fact that Jaina was a spellcaster was answer enough.

She dismissed the taunka from her thoughts. Jaina needed to return to the books immediately. It was possible that this clue would be nothing more than a dead end, but from what the archmage already recalled of the pages she intended to hunt down again, she doubted that would be the case.

Her hopes rising, Jaina silently thanked the absent Buniq for having still been in the region hunting, then cast a spell to return herself to her sanctum.

But had the archmage chosen to glance one more time at where the taunka had stood, she might have this time noticed that there were no hoofprints anywhere.

•   •   •

Kalec did not recall so many proto-dragons collected at the previous gatherings. Their numbers were staggering. Through Malygos, he saw more family patterns than he had known existed among the proto-dragons. Even Malygos appeared somewhat awed by the legions around him, although it quickly became clear that he was there not because he wanted to be but because Tyr had asked him to be.

The others were also present but scattered among the many. Even Ysera was there, having been located by Alexstrasza in a narrow ravine riddled with small caves. Malygos’s thoughts constantly went to Ysera, who appeared to be a tremendous question mark in whatever Tyr had planned with the five. Malygos’s concern over Ysera overwhelmed Kalec’s ability to understand what the plan involved.

From what Kalec could sense about Ysera, the others believed that she hid some secret from them, something she would not even speak of to Alexstrasza. Ysera had too readily agreed to come with them, as if eager to be away from the area in which they had found her. All of that left Malygos wondering if the pale yellow female would suddenly abandon the attack at just the critical moment for whatever she kept from them.

Fragmented memories concerning Tyr revealed a surprise to Kalec: his host was still the only one who knew of the cloaked figure. Tyr wanted to work through Malygos, believing that it would be best if the others thought that it was the icy-blue male who had come up with the plan. Kalec gathered that the reason for the secrecy had to do with something Tyr had not revealed even to Malygos, perhaps some portion of the plan that Kalec’s host might have rejected.

And not at all to his surprise, Malygos suspected something similar.

Talonixa roared again, her cry the signal for a new chorus of challenges focused on the yet-unseen Galakrond. In truth, the collective roar seemed as impressive to Kalec as that of the distant behemoth, and he began to wonder if perhaps Talonixa had chosen the right course of action after all.

Out of the corner of his eye, Malygos watched Ysera suddenly drop below the rest. He immediately dived after her.

She looked up as he neared, her eyes narrowed. Malygos’s suspicions of trouble heightened.

“Stay with us!” he called. “We must lead the others high!”

“Only resting! Tired!”

It was true that Ysera did not have the stamina of the others and that there had been little time for her to rest since Malygos had gathered his companions and told them of his plan, but the male remained distrustful. Fortunately for him, Alexstrasza chose that moment to join them.

“You are well?” she anxiously asked her sister.

“Just . . . tired . . .” Ysera seemed no happier to see Alexstrasza than she had been to see Malygos.

“I will stay with you until we need to rise higher.” Alexstrasza gave Malygos a glance of dismissal. The male quickly veered away from the sisters. The fire-orange female would keep a proper eye on Ysera. The plan Tyr had suggested could still—

A roar a hundred times more resounding shook both the land and the air. The great formation created by Talonixa briefly lost order. She snarled furiously at her followers, bringing them back in line.

Yet still there was no sign of Galakrond. Talonixa laughed. “You see? He fears us!”

It was the moment that Malygos had been waiting for, and thus, it was also the moment when his thoughts on the plan grew clearer for Kalec. Height. The plan involved height. Tyr knew something about Galakrond that the proto-dragons did not. The higher up, the thinner the air. That much even Malygos knew. However, the limit to how high Galakrond could fly for more than a few minutes was lower than that of the smaller fliers. The key to victory lay in drawing the monster up where he would grow more sluggish, be forced to gasp for the air needed to fill his massive lungs. At that point—and perhaps only at that point—Galakrond would be vulnerable.

The icy-blue male came up beside Talonixa. “Must fly high! Very high! Galakrond cannot fly high long! Cannot breathe well there!”

The imposing female snorted. “Away!”

“Fly high!” Malygos insisted. “Galakrond cannot breathe well there! Will tire! Will fail!”

This time, Talonixa appeared to consider his suggestion. Tyr and Malygos had counted on her cunning to enable this plan to work. Malygos exhaled in relief.

It was a mistake. Talonixa’s expression hardened. Both Kalec and his host realized that she took Malygos’s reaction for satisfaction at her having to bow to his wisdom.

She snapped at Malygos. Simultaneously, two of her lieutenants dived in to aid her.

As if out of nowhere, Neltharion and Nozdormu joined Malygos. Neltharion let out a challenging roar, which was answered by both of Talonixa’s followers. Behind the six, the rest of the proto-dragons faltered, uncertain whether their charge had now turned into a war among their own members.

“Retreat!” Nozdormu hissed to Malygos. “Retreat!”

Neltharion also heard the other male’s warning. “No! Fight her! Become alpha! Command all!”

Unlike Nozdormu, Neltharion had not bothered to be quiet. His words sent Talonixa into a rage. She unleashed a bolt not at Neltharion but at the trio’s apparent leader, Malygos.

Kalec’s host twisted but still received a painful scorch on one wing. As he did, more of Talonixa’s most loyal followers joined.

“Retreat!” Nozdormu urged once more.

Malygos did not dive, as might have been expected, but rather pushed higher. His comrades followed without question, and behind them several of Talonixa’s acolytes pursued.

But the pursuers stopped short at an abrupt snarl from the female. As Malygos continued rising higher, he glanced down to see the formation tightening again. He had hoped that Talonixa and her lieutenants would give chase, possibly leading the rest of the proto-dragons upward after all.

Momentum pushed Malygos into the clouds. Flying became more of a strain as the air thinned. He paused, waiting for the other two to catch up.

“Knew this would fail!” Neltharion rumbled. “Told you!”

Malygos did not answer. Kalec sensed that there had been more complexity to Tyr’s plan and that Malygos silently berated himself for misplaying the situation. Based on what he could read of his host’s thoughts, Kalec could find no fault in the proto-dragon’s actions, but the blue dragon knew that there were things still hidden from him.

“What now?” Nozdormu asked.

“Follow from above!” Malygos told them. “Alexstrasza! Ysera! They join soon!”

In truth, Malygos had some doubts about Ysera’s resolve, but he was certain that Alexstrasza would bring her sister along. Kalec saw that his host also had a secondary plan in mind, still based on Tyr’s original notions. Already aware that Talonixa might not listen to reason, Malygos had suggested that the five of them could yet lure Galakrond up by attacking him from above. It was a more desperate hope but still a hope.

Glancing down, Nozdormu muttered, “They move on.”

As he warned, the proto-dragons below were already far ahead. Malygos saw no sign of the sisters but could not delay. He would have to trust in Alexstrasza.

“Come!” Not bothering to wait, the icy-blue male flew through the clouds after Talonixa’s legions. In order to keep her followers together and not too exhausted to fight Galakrond, the female had to set a pace that some of the slower fighters could keep. Malygos soon not only caught up to those below but also began to pass them.

The clouds thickened ahead. Malygos did not fear finding Galakrond among them; the gargantuan fiend could have never hidden his bulk in the clouds, no matter how dense they became.

Unfortunately, as he pressed, Kalec’s host began to flag for the very reason that he had tried to convince Talonixa to lead the others up. The thin air had his breathing becoming more and more ragged. He had not intended to fly this much above the ground until almost upon Galakrond, but now he wanted to avoid being seen by Talonixa or her followers.

Neltharion caught up to him. He, too, looked to be struggling for air. “Must—fly—lower—”

Something collided with Neltharion.

The proto-dragon went flying backward, the momentum of the thing that had flown into him sending the charcoal-gray male hurtling uncontrollably. Malygos immediately turned about, hoping that it was not too late to help his friend.

Only then did he see that what had struck Neltharion was one of the not-living. Indeed, its stench spread even through the thin air as it and the living proto-dragon tumbled together.

Curiously, Malygos noticed that the undead seemed to have collided with Neltharion at an angle that made any attack of consequence initially impossible. It dawned on both Kalec and his host that the animated corpse had not actually attacked Neltharion but, rather, had simply run into him by accident in the dense clouds.

In fact, the undead almost seemed more interested in flying on than in fighting. Neltharion evidently noticed this, too, for he pushed himself away from the monster and let it move on. The undead slowly began circling back the way it had come . . . or it would have, if Neltharion had not taken advantage of its ignorance of him by ripping its neck out from behind, then tearing both wings with his powerful hind claws.

The charcoal-gray proto-dragon watched with amusement as the sundered parts dropped, and Malygos and Nozdormu rejoined him.

“Stupid creature!” Neltharion mocked. “Brain all rot! Not even see or fight now!”

“Strange,” Nozdormu murmured.

Malygos—and Kalec—very much agreed with Nozdormu’s succinct assessment. Malygos’s gaze followed the estimated path the undead would have taken had Neltharion not destroyed it. An uneasy feeling filled Kalec’s host.

“Follow!” he hissed.

Quickly but carefully, Malygos pushed higher despite the increasing desire to drop to thicker air. So pressed was the proto-dragon that Kalec could not at first fathom what so bothered him.

And then, as they reached a slight break within the cloud cover, what Malygos had feared became evident to his unseen companion.

The sky was filled with undead. They circled constantly, as if that was the only desire left in their putrefying brains. Over and over, they circled, some in great arcs, some in tight ones. One flew much too near Malygos but did not take any notice of him.

Neltharion and Nozdormu caught up with him, and even the charcoal-gray male appeared stunned. “So many, almost as many as us!”

There had been a few sightings of the undead, but in the growing anticipation of battling Galakrond, the living proto-dragons had not paid that much mind, not even Malygos. Now that lapse was coming back to haunt them.

“Why here? Why do they just fly circles?” Nozdormu asked.

Kalec knew, and so did Malygos. “They wait . . . for us. For all of us.”

“They wait?” Neltharion shook his head. “They not smart! No thinking!”

Malygos nodded. The undead proto-dragons had no true minds, but something they were bound to did. “No. Galakrond smart. Galakrond thinks . . . he thinks very well.”

It was a frustratingly uncomplicated way of phrasing it, but Kalec saw that somehow the other two understood what Malygos tried to convey. As for the dragon, he shared both his host’s astonishment and his growing fear.

The undead were circling because they were indeed waiting for the living to pass underneath them. They had not planned it themselves—Galakrond had.

Through the same foulness that mutated him, the monstrous proto-dragon also now appeared to control his victims, and he was using them to set a trap of his own that would engulf everyone.

“Must warn all!” Malygos shouted as best as the air permitted. “Must—”

As one, the undead ceased their circling . . . and dived.

Malygos and Kalec could only watch in horror. The discovery had come too late.

The trap had been sprung.

NOTES

The story you’ve just read is the third in a five-part serial adventure, based in part on characters, situations, and locations from Blizzard Entertainment’s computer game World of Warcraft, an online role-playing experience set in the award-winning Warcraft universe. In World of Warcraft, players create their own heroes and explore, adventure in, and quest across a vast world shared with thousands of other players. This rich and expansive game also allows them to interact with and fight against (or alongside) many of the powerful and intriguing characters featured in this serial novella.

Since launching in November 2004, World of Warcraft has become the world’s most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The latest expansion, Mists of Pandaria, takes players to a thrilling and never-before-seen corner of Azeroth: the mysterious continent of Pandaria. More information about Mists of Pandaria and previous expansions can be found on WorldofWarcraft.com.

FURTHER READING

If you’d like to read more about the characters, situations, and locations featured in this serial novella, the sources listed below offer additional information.

* Kalecgos—also known as Kalec—has been involved in many influential events in Azeroth’s recent history. His heroics are chronicled in World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War and World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden; World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak; Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy and World of Warcraft: Shadow Wing, volume 2, Nexus Point by Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim; and the short story “Charge of the Aspects” by Matt Burns (on www.WorldofWarcraft.com).

* Details of Jaina Proudmoore’s life, including her relationship with Kalecgos, are depicted in World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War, World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, and World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden; the monthly World of Warcraft comic book by Walter and Louise Simonson, Ludo Lullabi, Jon Buran, Mike Bowden, Sandra Hope, and Tony Washington; World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred by Keith R. A. DeCandido; and Warcraft: Legends, volume 5, “Nightmares” by Richard A. Knaak and Rob Ten Pas.

* You can find more information about Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, Malygos, and their respective dragonflights in Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden; Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy, Warcraft: Day of the Dragon, World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon, and World of Warcraft: Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak; and the short story “Charge of the Aspects” by Matt Burns (on www.WorldofWarcraft.com).

* Deathwing nearly destroyed Azeroth during the great Cataclysm. His long history of betrayal and brutality is featured in Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden; the Shadow Wing series by Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim; War of the Ancients Trilogy, Night of the Dragon, and Day of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak; World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal by Aaron Rosenberg and Christie Golden; and the short story “Charge of the Aspects” by Matt Burns (on www.WorldofWarcraft.com).

THE BATTLE RAGES ON

The Cataclysm changed Azeroth and its myriad peoples in many ways. Dawn of the Aspects depicts the uncertainty that now plagues the ancient dragons. But what lies ahead for the world’s other races?

In World of Warcraft’s fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria, you can help shape this next chapter in Azeroth’s history. Become one of the first members of the Horde or the Alliance to explore the mysterious and exotic continent of Pandaria. Or take on the role of a noble pandaren (WoW’s latest playable race) and join the Horde or the Alliance, depending on which faction aligns more with your ideals. Regardless of the side you choose, your adventures will impact Azeroth in the years to come.

With the dragons forging new destinies for themselves, the task of safeguarding the world from evil has fallen to mortal hands—your hands. Will you rise to the challenge?

To discover the ever-expanding realm that has entertained millions around the globe, go to WorldofWarcraft.com and download the free trial version. Live the story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard A. Knaak is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly four dozen novels and two dozen shorter pieces, including the World of Warcraft books Wolfheart and Stormrage, The Legend of Huma for Dragonlance, and his own Dragonrealm series. He has also scripted numerous manga and written background material for games. His novels have been published worldwide.

In addition to Dawn of the Aspects, his most recent releases include Shade—the latest novel in Legends of the Dragonrealm. He is currently at work on other projects. More can be found out at his website: www.richardaknaak.com. Please also join him on Facebook and Twitter.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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ISBN 978-1-4767-0862-1