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DON’T MISS THESE OTHER TALES IN THE
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by Christie Golden
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TIDES OF DARKNESS
by Aaron Rosenberg
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by Keith R. A. DeCandido
WAR OF THE ANCIENTS: BOOK ONE—THE WELL OF ETERNITY
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WAR OF THE ANCIENTS: BOOK TWO—THE DEMON SOUL
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WAR OF THE ANCIENTS: BOOK THREE—THE SUNDERING
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DAY OF THE DRAGON
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LORD OF THE CLANS
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THE LAST GUARDIAN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Maps of Northrend
Part IV
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Notes
Further Reading
The Battle Rages On
About the Author
PART IV
ONE
UNDEATH IN THE SKY
As Malygos dived in what he—and thus Kalec—knew to be a futile attempt to warn those below, the proto-dragon tried to think of what could be done to avoid the disaster looming. Tried and failed.
The catastrophic scene in which Malygos found himself was even worse than Kalec and he imagined. Above a suddenly scattering legion, the undead spread out with a precision their mindless forms were clearly incapable of on their own. Galakrond controlled them all, even from a distance.
Malygos searched the front of the growing disarray and saw to his shock that Talonixa and her closest followers did not yet know of the catastrophe developing behind them. Talonixa herself flew with utter confidence, and Malygos, very familiar with the arrogant female, had no doubt that she still exalted her cleverness. Big Galakrond might be, but proto-dragons had taken down larger prey than themselves by working together. Galakrond was just very large prey. All Talonixa’s followers had to do was stay clear of his jaws, and they would eventually slay him. True, several of the others might perish accomplishing that feat, but as Talonixa no doubt did not think she would be one of those, the great golden female was willing to accept the sacrifices.
But before Malygos could fly within calling distance, the rising hisses and roars from behind Talonixa at last shattered her reverie. With a reprimanding expression on her face, she looked over her shoulder, just as the shriveled corpse of a proto-dragon of a hue that had once matched her own attacked.
Surprise did not keep Talonixa from reacting. She exhaled immediately. The lightning bolt burst through the undead’s dry hide, the cadaverous body exploding into flames.
Twisting, Talonixa evaded the fragments, and in doing so, she found herself facing the collapse of her great charge. Curiously, her gaze cut through the chaos to fix upon the swiftly approaching Malygos. The glare she gave him almost made it appear to both Kalec and his host that the female blamed Malygos for all this.
“Beware!” Neltharion shouted, barreling past his friend. Two undead just dropping down upon Malygos from the side collided with the charcoal-gray male. Roaring cheerfully, Neltharion ripped through one undead, sending the pieces scattering, then exhaled on the second. The shock wave he emitted literally shook the corpse apart.
But for all the ease with which both these and the one attacking Talonixa perished, there appeared to Malygos to be far too many of the not-living in the sky, and surprise had given them a savage advantage. Neither Kalec nor his host could imagine that Galakrond still completely controlled his cadaverous servants. Now they simply followed the one urge remaining in them: to engulf the living.
A brown female, turning too late, became caught in the clutches of a blackened corpse that then exhaled on her. Thick green fumes enveloped the female’s head and throat. She shrieked as the affected flesh dried and crumbled. Her anguished cry became a fading gurgle as her head first dropped to the side, then broke off. Even this did not stop the undead, which then began with its teeth to rip apart the bloody area at the base of the neck and swallow large gobbets of still-warm flesh.
To Malygos’s far right, two undead caught a fire-orange male between them. The male let loose with a brief blast of flame, which set one of the undead ablaze. Unfortunately, it was not enough to keep that corpse from continuing its own assault, forcing the flames on the male even as the second undead snapped at his neck from the opposite direction.
Malygos raced to aid the other male, but before he could reach the battling trio, the flames from the burning corpse spread to the living proto-dragon and his other foe. Trapped within the fire, the male succumbed quickly.
Outraged at his own failure, Malygos ignored the risk to himself and joined the fray. He exhaled on the undead’s victim, with the faint hope that the other male still lived urging him to cover the trio with his icy breath.
His impetuous attack only served to smother many of the flames eating at the undead, enabling them now to turn on Malygos. Realizing his mistake, Kalec’s host raised his hind paws and ripped at the wings of the nearest, even as it opened wide its withered maw. The dry, scorched wings readily tore, sending the undead falling before it could unleash a blast of the sinister, decaying gas.
The body of the fire-orange male also dropped as the second undead focused entirely on Malygos. Yet barely had it done so when another familiar form came in from behind and ripped through the animated corpse’s back. Nozdormu gave Malygos a short nod before moving on.
Kalec knew that Malygos could have dealt with the second undead, but the timely act by Nozdormu freed his host for what they and the other male knew was a priority. Malygos continued on down to Talonixa, who hovered in place, blasting at one rotting figure after another.
“Must beware!” he roared. “Galakrond does this! Galakrond does this!”
Talonixa managed to sneer at him even as she exhaled again. Another corpse exploded. “Galakrond still dies!” she declared. “He still dies!”
Kalec had never seen true madness in a proto-dragon before, but he could describe the intimidating female’s attitude as only that, and Malygos’s opinion leaned in that same direction. Talonixa could see nothing but her imminent triumph. The attack by the undead was, to her, simply a delay.
As if to emphasize this, Talonixa utterly dismissed Malygos from her attention and darted up to seize a foe that had just finished biting through the throat of a smaller male. Talonixa first ripped off the wings and then, for good measure, clamped her mouth around the rotting jaws and pulled the head fr
om the top of the neck with little effort. She almost seemed to revel in her act, which to Malygos was an unnecessary waste of precious time.
In frustration, he looked in search of Neltharion and instead noticed Ysera moving on from the struggle. After a moment, Malygos realized what Kalec had known immediately: Ysera was headed in the direction of Galakrond.
With an aggravated hiss, Malygos raced after her. Of Alexstrasza there was no sign, but neither Kalec nor Malygos expected that Ysera had left her sister in danger. Indeed, Alexstrasza would have been in more trouble if she had also to concern herself with the nearby presence of the weaker Ysera. Unfortunately, that meant Alexstrasza was ignorant of what her sibling intended.
Ysera sought to speak peace with Galakrond.
Reason demanded that Malygos leave her to her fate, but loyalty urged him on. Wings beating hard, he began to catch up to the smaller sister. Malygos knew that he still did not fly fast enough. Galakrond was surely near and drawing nearer. He had to know that his creatures had done their work and that bedlam reigned. And while several proto-dragons had perished, there were many, many more left to feed Galakrond’s tremendous appetite.
And this was the monster Ysera sought to reason with.
Kalec urged his host forward, even though Malygos not only could not hear him but also was going as fast as possible. Ahead of them, Ysera vanished over a low rise, and when Malygos reached that same point, he discovered her trail suddenly gone.
The male paused in confusion and then saw Ysera darting around another low hill. Relief combined with the fear that she was nearing her goal and thus soon to face the same fate as Coros. Malygos pushed hard, but now the gap did not close.
To both Kalec’s and Malygos’s surprise, Galakrond still did not appear. While in one obvious way that was to Malygos’s benefit, in another it did not bode well. The gargantuan proto-dragon would certainly not have abandoned his plan at this point.
Whatever the reason for Galakrond’s absence, Malygos knew that he could not count on it for very long. Unable to catch up to Ysera, he finally dared call out to her.
And no sooner had Malygos done so than the ground ahead erupted. Yet here was no place of volcanic pits. The ground in this region was rocky, uneven. . . .
Kalec once more recognized what it took the young Malygos a moment more to understand. The landscape was rocky and uneven for one very good reason: Galakrond had burrowed deep—no doubt beginning from some more distant cavern—and had secreted himself just below the surface, waiting.
He waited no longer.
Tons of rock and dirt flew up as the malformed leviathan burst free. Malygos gazed at Galakrond with new dismay; not only was he larger, but he was also more misshapen. His entire body was covered in growths, some of them simply lumps, others fully formed parts. Many of the latter twitched. Eyes surveyed the world in every direction, but most fixed upon the tiny figure now heading directly toward Galakrond.
But another proto-dragon, sleek and fire-orange, suddenly dived from above and seized Ysera just as Galakrond took a snap at the yellowish female. Alexstrasza, her sides heaving from effort, continued to push her sister farther and farther from Galakrond.
The behemoth turned after the sisters, in the process shaking more stone and dirt from his gigantic body. Malygos and Kalec both knew that in rising now, Galakrond would be visible to Talonixa and the rest, assuming that the defenders had any chance to pay mind to anything other than the undead. Galakrond obviously had planned to fall upon the embattled proto-dragons, but at the moment, his attention was taken by Ysera’s seemingly suicidal act.
Galakrond left a wide valley where once there had been a shallow cavern. As he took to the air, a rain of fragments battered the ground in his wake.
Malygos hesitated. Ysera and Alexstrasza were in desperate straits, but this was the one opportunity to try to save those under assault. Not for the first time, loyalty struggled with other considerations.
This time, those other considerations won. The fate of many was in the balance, as opposed to that of the two sisters. Malygos turned around.
He found Neltharion and Nozdormu closing with him. The pair hovered as he neared, Neltharion looking perplexed and Nozdormu looking contemplative.
“The not-living!” Malygos called. “Must destroy them now! Quickly!”
If it involved a fight, Neltharion was all for it. Nozdormu mulled it over for a second, then responded, “Yes. Must be now.”
Malygos led them back. Kalec was nearly overwhelmed by the thoughts racing through the supposedly primitive mind of his host. More than ever, Kalec saw the Malygos to come, the planner and calculator. Malygos thought of and discarded more than half a dozen viable plans before the trio reached the chaos, and only made his final choice when he could think of nothing better to do.
A quick glance at the battle verified what the icy-blue male had assumed. There was no visible sign of any remaining control on Galakrond’s part. The undead attacked with the relentless urge with which Kalec was familiar. There was no coordination, not even as much as when Malygos had left.
“Come!” he roared to his two companions. “Fly high! Lead others to the clouds!”
As they obeyed, Malygos veered off toward another male proto-dragon. Malygos slammed into an undead with which the other male was fighting, then had the rescued proto-dragon join him. The pair successively freed a third and a fourth proto-dragon—females—from the struggle.
Malygos shouted, “Tell all, fly high! Fly into clouds until almost top, then fly north ten beats! Drop!”
The rest soared away, shrieking for all to hear as they separated. Within seconds, living proto-dragons everywhere began to head up into the clouds. Close behind came the hungry corpses. A few proto-dragons did not make good their escape, but there was nothing Malygos could do but hope that their losses would mean that others would arrive at the clouds.
There were some proto-dragons who did not fly as Malygos suggested. Far in the distance, Talonixa hesitated, her chief followers awaiting her decision despite the precarious circumstances. She glared at another proto-dragon who approached her and who, by her gesture upward with one wing, was clearly informing the lead female of Malygos’s suggestion. However, after scanning the chaos one more time, Talonixa let out a commanding bellow and soared after the rest of the defenders.
Seeing that there was no more that could be done below, Malygos himself surged into the clouds. He estimated the pace of the defenders as a whole and thought he had guessed correctly. Kalec could find no major fault with Malygos’s estimates, although they would certainly not be perfect.
Another live proto-dragon flew past Malygos. Three wing beats later, the other flier dived. Malygos counted his own tenth beat, then did the same.
As he broke out of the bottom of the cloud cover, Kalec’s host saw that a good many survivors were in the process of following suit. A few of the undead still hovered among them, but proto-dragons led by Neltharion were making short work of them. That had not been part of Malygos’s plan, but Neltharion’s effort only increased the chances of success.
The moment he was far enough below the clouds, Malygos roared loudly. He had the attention of nearly all those gathered. Without another word, he faced the clouds above and opened his maw wide. He took one more quick glance at the others. Both Malygos and Kalec were pleased to see understanding spread across the rows.
Another proto-dragon dropped out of the clouds, but this one was skeletal and had vacant though somehow still hungry eyes.
Malygos exhaled as hard as he could, aiming foremost for the wings. As he had hoped, the stiffening appendages sent his would-be attacker hurtling to the ground.
All around, other defenders struck as soon as an undead reappeared. Malygos had turned Galakrond’s original plan around to his advantage. Without Galakrond, the undead could only follow their urge, which meant that they could not understand that a trap had been set. They chased their prey into the clouds, then followed back d
own, but more slowly.
This time prepared for attackers above, the waiting proto-dragons decimated the unliving. The defenders exerted themselves as much as they could, amplifying their attacks. Columns of sand, spouts of water, plumes of flame, and other proto-dragon weapons shattered the dry, emaciated forms.
Despite incurring terrible damage, some undead managed to evade complete destruction long enough to attack. But as they did, Neltharion led those who had earlier followed him into a new assault on the remaining corpses. Malygos observed this out of the corner of his eye, even as he took on another undead. Kalec’s host first focused on the head and then, before his horrific foe recovered, bit through the neck.
As Malygos let the pieces fall their separate ways, Kalec sensed the insidious urge filling the young proto-dragon. Malygos quickly fought it down again. Still, Kalec could feel how much the effort cost Malygos and knew that if something did not happen soon, the proto-dragon might yet succumb.
Victorious roars began to resound through the ranks of the survivors. Talonixa’s roar was loudest of all, as if she were the one who had brought about this triumph. Malygos snarled, wondering how they could not see past this moment. Nothing had been won but a reprieve. Indeed, if not for Ysera’s foolhardy act—
Kalec’s host hissed. The sisters were probably dead now, and Malygos felt in great part responsible. Even though he knew that they would have expected him to do as he had, the deep regret still remained.
Nozdormu rose before him. “Good plan! Quick! Done well!” The other male’s exuberance faded. “But Talonixa claims victory is hers!”
Much to Malygos’s surprise, not only did Nozdormu speak the truth, but also many of the other proto-dragons appeared to believe her. More and more began flocking near her, the golden female’s grand and reckless crusade taking shape despite Malygos’s disbelief.
“No!” he cried, streaking down toward Talonixa. “No! This is not right—”
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