Thrall - Christie Golden [29]
Then Thrall and Desharin were flying swiftly over the desert of Tanaris, and Thrall could see the jagged teeth of sharp stones, part of a series of hills, jutting upward, and what looked like the tilted ruins of various strange structures. There was an angled tower, a broken domed structure, what appeared to be a typical orcish hut, and … the ragged sail of a ship? Overhead, Thrall could see two bronze dragons wheeling and turning.
“This area,” said Desharin solemnly, “serves as the courtyard to the Caverns of Time. I will land and go in on foot. They will want to find out why we have come.”
“I am sure they will,” Thrall said.
Desharin alighted but remained in his dragon form. Thrall started to dismount, but Desharin said, “Stay where you are, friend Thrall. No sense in tiring your shorter legs unnecessarily.” Desharin began to walk along the soft sand, heading for the arch of a domed building that appeared to manifest half inside, half outside of one of the jutting stones they had glimpsed earlier. Almost immediately, one of the wheeling dragons came to ground close to them.
“This is not your realm, green dragon,” the bronze said in a low, angry voice. “Go, and go quickly. You have no business here.”
“My bronze brother,” said Desharin, with deep respect, “I am here on my lady Aspect’s business.”
The great eyes narrowed, and the bronze turned to glance at Thrall perched atop Desharin’s back. He looked slightly surprised, then returned his attention to Desharin.
“You say you are here on behalf of Lady Ysera,” he said, his voice slightly less intimidating. “I am Chronalis, and I am a gatekeeper of the Caverns of Time. Tell me why you have come, and perchance I may admit you.”
“My name is Desharin, and I am here to aid this orc. He is Thrall, once warchief of the Horde, now member of the Earthen Ring. Ysera the Awakened believes he needs to find and speak with Nozdormu.”
The bronze dragon laughed slightly. “Oh, I know of Thrall,” he said, then addressed the orc directly. “And from what I do know of you, you are a not-inconsiderable personage for a short-lived being. But I do not think you can find Nozdormu, if his own dragonflight cannot do so.”
Having been the warchief of the Horde, Thrall was not surprised to hear that he was known to the bronze dragonflight. What did startle him was the revelation that Nozdormu was missing.
“It may be that he can do what the rest of us cannot,” said Desharin affably.
“She came to you? Ysera the Awakened?” Chronalis asked Thrall curiously.
Thrall nodded and explained his meeting with Ysera. He did not attempt to paint himself as better than he was, admitting fully that he had initially thought the task trivial, but that he now understood the importance of it, having realized that the grove was home to ancients. Too, he told Chronalis about the fire elemental’s response to his plea to cease damaging the trees. Chronalis nodded, listening intently.
“I do not know how I will be able to find Nozdormu where others have failed,” Thrall said bluntly. “But I give you my word, I will do the best that I can.”
Chronalis considered. “We have let others into the Caverns ere now, to assist us in keeping the timeways true,” he said, thinking. “Though the irony amuses me. If you wish to accompany him, Desharin, then you both may follow me.”
“Irony?” Thrall asked, as the two huge dragons strode along a sandy walkway that seemed at first to lead into one of the listing buildings but quickly proved to enter the heart of the mountain.
“Indeed,” Chronalis said, peering back at him over his folded wings. “You see, as I said before, sometimes we permit certain mortals to aid us in restoring the true timeway. The timeways have … come under attack recently, by a mysterious group called the infinite dragonflight. The bronze dragonflight, and particularly the Timeless One, Nozdormu, is charged with keeping the timeways as they are meant to be. If they are damaged or altered, the world you know could cease to exist. For reasons not yet known to us, the infinite dragonflight has infected various timeways,