Thrall - Christie Golden [72]
Thrall realized that he, too, was laughing in delight. He could not tear his gaze from the figure of a blue-white dragon dancing in the night sky. Dragon laughter, bell-like and oddly sweet, rose around him. Thrall’s heart was unspeakably full, and as he looked around, feeling a kinship with the great dragons in this enchanted moment, he saw tears of joy glistening in their eyes as well. His heart felt light and settled at the same time, and he thought if he jumped up, he, too, might be able to fly.
“You fools!”
The fury and affront and shock in Arygos’s voice shattered the moment into a thousand pieces. “You stupid fools! You are the ones who have betrayed the flight, not I!”
Before Thrall had the wherewithal to even digest the words, Arygos threw back his head and let out a terrible cry. Thrall felt it buffet him almost physically. There was more than air and voice to the cry; there was magic to it as well, and it thrummed along Thrall’s blood and bones and brought him to his knees.
You are the ones who have betrayed the flight, not I. …
He glanced upward to where Kalecgos, the new blue Dragon Aspect, still bright with arcane magic, hovered. Kalecgos was now visibly larger than his former rival, who looked less like a magnificent being and more like an ugly smudge against the night sky. Still radiant, still glorious, Kalecgos was no longer a joyful thing but an avenging god. He folded his wings and dove toward Arygos.
“No, Arygos! I will not let you destroy us!”
At that moment the air was full of a dreadful sound: the sound of dozens of powerfully beating wings. Thrall’s eyes widened at the approach of the twilight dragons—for although Thrall had never seen one, he knew it must be they. They were like dark ghosts, living shadows in the shape of dragons, bearing down upon the blues’ stronghold.
The blues exploded into action with startling speed for such gargantuan creatures. Before Thrall even realized it, they were leaping skyward and rushing to meet the enemy, and the night sky was brightening with white and pale blue tendrils and eruptions of arcane energy. Thrall glanced up to where Kalec and Arygos were engaged in combat.
“Kalec!” Thrall cried, thinking that it was impossible for the new Aspect to hear him over the sounds of battle but knowing he had to try anyway. “Look out!”
For a terrible moment, it did not appear as if Kalecgos had heard. Then, at the last minute, he released Arygos and hurled himself to the left. Three of the twilight dragons headed straight for Arygos. At the last instant, to Thrall’s shock, all three turned incorporeal, passing harmlessly through their blue ally, then wheeled to join the fray.
Thrall felt rather than heard the dragon behind him. He whirled, pulling out the Doomhammer and gripping it with both hands, his teeth clenched. He would swing with his whole heart, protecting the dragonflight he had come to like and respect. Had come to help heal.
He would defend it with his life.
The twilight dragon was beautiful, and terrifying. She opened her mouth, revealing teeth almost as large as Thrall’s entire body. Her forelegs were extended, claws open, to capture and rend and tear, if the gaping maw did not do the job first.
Thrall’s battle cry of For the Horde! came to his lips, but he did not utter it. He did not fight only for the Horde, not anymore. He fought for so much more: for the Alliance, and the Earthen Ring, and the Cenarion Circle, and the broken and scattered dragonflights.
He fought for Azeroth.
He raised his hammer. The twilight dragon was almost upon him.
And then suddenly Thrall was fifty feet up in the air, something strong and implacable and secure folding around his torso. He glanced down to see talons encircling him. Kalec’s voice came to him: “On my back, quickly! You will be safer there!”
And Thrall knew he would be. As Kalec moved the orc to his massive winged shoulders, he opened his