Thrall - Christie Golden [95]
They came freely now, her weeping as natural and pure as breathing. Tears rolled down her face and dropped onto the acorn she held, onto the soil beneath where they sat.
And as the first one splashed gently down, a flower began to push its way through the crust of the soil.
Thrall looked about, disbelieving. Before his eyes, ten thousand times more swiftly than it should have happened, he saw plants appear: flowers of all shades, small shoots that stretched into saplings, thick, soft green grass. He could even hear the sound of growing things, a vibrant and joyful striving and crackling.
He recalled that the druids had been working hard to bring back life to this place. Their efforts were successful from time to time, but always temporarily. He knew deep in his bones, though, that the new, lush life he beheld would not fade with time. Not when it was born of the Life-Binder’s tears of reawakening compassion and love.
Alexstrasza stirred against him, pulling back gently. He lifted his arm from around her shoulders. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and moved, slightly unsteady, to kneel on the earth. Thrall did not assist her; he sensed she did not want him to. Gently, Alexstrasza scraped at the newly verdant soil, pressed the acorn deep, then covered it reverently. She rose and turned to face him.
“I am… chastened,” she said quietly. Her voice was still thick with hurt, but there was a calmness to it that had not been there before. “You have reminded me of things that, in my pain, I had forgotten. Things… he would not wish me to forget, ever.” She smiled, and though it was a sad and haunted smile, it was sincere and sweet. Her eyes were red with weeping, but there was a clarity in their focus, and Thrall knew she was all right.
And indeed, when she stepped back and lifted her arms to the sky, her beautiful face was set in an expression of righteous fury. There was more grieving to be done for all that had been lost, and he knew she would do so.
But not now. Now the Life-Binder was using her pain to fuel action, not tears. And Thrall almost felt a twinge of pity for those who would feel the heat of her fury.
Almost.
As he had witnessed her doing once before, Thrall again watched as she leaped upward, transforming from slender elf-like maiden to the most powerful of the Aspects—arguably the most powerful being in the world. This time, though, he knew he had nothing to fear from her in this shape.
She looked down at him, her eyes kind, and then the Life-Binder lowered herself so that the orc could climb atop her broad back.
“We will go to join my brothers and sisters, if you wish to come with me,” she said quietly.
“I am glad to be of service,” Thrall said, yet again humbled and awed by the sheer magnificence of the crimson dragon before him. He carefully and respectfully climbed atop her, settling himself at the base of her neck. “With their defeat, I believe the blues will have retreated to the Nexus.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “We will either find them there, or else Kalec will have joined the other flights and be assembling near Wyrmrest.”
“The twilight dragons will see them,” Thrall said, thinking aloud.
“Yes,” agreed Alexstrasza, gathering herself and leaping into the air. “They will. What of it?”
“The element of surprise will be gone,” Thrall replied.
“We no longer need it,” Alexstrasza said. Her voice was strong and calm, and Thrall found himself relaxing as she spoke. “Our success or failure depends upon something much more important than military strategies or advantages.”
She craned her neck to look at him as her wings powerfully and rhythmically beat the air. “It is time for the dragonflights of Azeroth to put aside their quarrels and unite. Or else, I fear we are all lost.”
NINETEEN