Night of the Dragon

chance to shield himself against his own magic. He was struck so hard he flew into the air and battered against the rocks. As he landed, the ground exploded, another aspect of the attack with which he had intended to at least distract the nearby elemental.

Again, Krasus was tossed about. Under normal circumstances, nothing that he faced would have done him much harm.... But there was nothing normal where Grim Batol was ever concerned.

He landed on his back, stunned beyond his belief. He had been careless, very careless. Worse, he had been guided like a bull to the slaughter.

The drakonid looked over him. The black fiend held out a clawed hand to show Krasus something held within.

Though his vision was blurred, the dragon mage recognized it immediately. It was a tiny, golden shard... but not the same shard that he himself had earlier wielded.

The drakonid grinned wider. His long red tongue darted in and out as he cheerfully said, 'The mistress has been expecting you for a long, longtime...'

ELEVEN

Iridi opened her eyes wide. She rose to a sitting position, crying.

'No! Don't send me away!'

Only after she finished screaming did she notice that she was no longer with Krasus or the young blue. Instead, the priestess lay in a torchlit tunnel surrounded by dwarves.

No... dwarves and a more familiar form.

Certain that she was a prisoner, the draenei summoned the staff. Yet, even as she raised it, the elven figure seized her wrist.

Iridi leapt to her feet... or tried to. The top of her head struck the low ceiling. Stunned, she fell back.

The silver-haired figure grabbed the staff, only to watch in amazement as it vanished in her grip. 'What sort of magic is this?'

'One that you'll not add to your arsenal, blood elf—'

'Use your eyes and call me not by so accursed a name as that, draenei!' the other female snapped. 'I am of the high elf people....'

The differences finally registered with Iridi. She had met others of that race and berated herself for not having immediately noticed the difference. The eyes alone should have told her otherwise, for there was no evil green glow here.

'A high elf... forgive me for my outburst. My teachers would be dismayed.'

'You are a priestess, then.'

'I try to pass for one, you mean,' the draenei replied with some regret for her deficiencies.

The high elf shrugged off such a remark. 'I am Vereesa. The dwarf to your side is Rom, leader of these fighters.'

'My lady,' the squat, older dwarf grunted.

Iridi eyed him longer than should have been necessary, but only because she began to notice that Rom was not as old as he looked.

Then, realizing how impolite she was now being to him, the draenei looked away.

'And your name?' Vereesa prompted.

'Iridi.'

'Why are you near Grim Batol, Iridi?'

'I came in search of—' The priestess stopped, recalling the last thing that had happened before she blacked out. 'Krasus! No! They need my help! Where are—'

The high elf seized her before she could continue. 'What did you say? What name did you just call?'

'Krasus! We were attacked by—by scaled, dwarven-looking beasts—'

'The skardyn!' Rom growled. 'The ones we heard! They were after you and your friend, eh?'

'Never mind that!' Vereesa interjected. 'You said 'Krasus'! Tall, pale, of some unidentifiable elven look and with eyes that speak of an age far greater than his appearance even justifles?'

Iridi nodded. Rom's brow wrinkled deep. 'The name. I'd forgotten it. It cannot be...'

The ranger leaned close to the draenei. 'And from your own eyes, I can tell that you also understand what he truly is....'

'Yes.' The priestess said nothing else, her gaze shifting surreptitiously from Vereesa to the dwarves and back again.

The high elf evidently read her thoughts. In a low voice, she said, 'Rom, I've already said far too much. Can the three of us speak alone for a moment?'

'Off with the lot of ye,' Rom ordered the others. 'You, too, Grenda. You've all got duties, haven't ye?'

Vereesa waited until the last of the fighters had gone, then quietly said to Iridi, 'It is best that you keep your voice very loweven now. Sound travels well in tunnels such as these, and dwarves are very nosy.'

The last was said with a ghost of humor. Rom chuckled at her remark, but did not deny it.

'So, is it true, my lady?' he finally asked. 'Is this Krasus the one and the same my old memory's stirred up? That would be too fantastic!'

''Fantastic' is the appropriate word for him, Rom. I do not recall how much you knew, but you knew quite a lot.'

'Krasus of the Kirin Tor,' he returned. 'And, aye, I know him for what else he is... the red dragon.'

'The others...would any of them know?'

'No and we'll be keepin' it that way. You've my promise on that.'

Vereesa frowned. 'You sound and look different, Rom. There are changes I do not understand '

'If you mean my speakin', for a time after I was asked to be liaison to your folk and some of the humans. Tried to learn their manner better. Been away from that for awhile, so now my words slip back and forth. Sometimes, I wished I'd stayed with that task, maddening as it was.' He gestured at his face. 'And if ye—if you mean my appearance, I'll blame Grim Batol on it. I've been poisoned by it from too much time spent furrowing around the damned mount. I've not pointed this out to the others, but a good number of those who fought to free it from the orcs have passed over earlier than they should've. They all aged quicker. Guess I was just a more stubborn cuss, but it's eating at me, the evil.'

'You should not have come back.'

'I couldn't let anyone else come in my place....' He waved an angry hand. 'But that's neither here nor there! If Krasus—Korialstr —Krasus is around, then we'll finally be able to put an end to whatever's stirred up Grim Batol again!'

Iridi had stayed silent, but more because her head had begun pounding. Now, though, she used her studies to focus that pain away... and finally say what she should have said earlier.

'Krasus and Kalec are in danger! There were the skardyn and dragon men—'

'Aye, Rask the drakonid and some dragonspawn, to be sure...'

'But there was also something Krasus called a mageslayer....'

Vereesa did not seem concerned. 'A mageslayer should be little trouble for him—'

The priestess recalled Krasus's concern. 'There was something different.... And Krasus suffered from some other injury or ailment that seemed magical in nature.' Now she had their full attention again. 'He also seemed to suspect what power was behind it all. He seemed very familiar with it, from the way he acted.'

'Gimmel's blood...' Rom blurted. His gaze met Vereesa's. 'Ye don't suppose...' he added, momentarily slipping back to his older ways of speech again.

'It cannot be!' she replied with equal dismay. 'Although, perhaps... no!'

'What?' the draenei demanded. 'Of what or whom do you speak?'

The dwarf used his stump to rub his cheek. 'That's right, ye— you aren't from here...or anywhere on Azeroth. You might not know the black beast.'