CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Ho, lads!"

Turalyon glanced up, surprised. It was over­cast, and a shape had just dropped out of the heavy clouds, plummeting through the dark sky. The shout was all that stopped Alleria and her rangers from loosing arrows at the descending figure, and prevented Turalyon from ordering his men into defensive posi­tions. Instead he stepped back and waited, hands at his side, a small smile on his lips, as Sky'ree spread her wings and swooped in for a landing.

Kurdran was already climbing down from Sky'ree's back while her talons were still digging into the earth, and strode up to Turalyon where he and Alleria and Khadgar waited. Turalyon's pleasure at seeing the dwarf was dampened, however, by the dwarf's stiff, slow gait, and changed to confusion by the strange, hunched figure that dismounted and scurried after him. "Ah, I'm glad to see ye all," Kurdran said, clasping hands with Turalyon and Khadgar in turn and kissing Alleria's hand. '”An' it were a near thing, too, for those green beasts captured me, they did."

Turalvon frowned and studied his short friend. "I'm glad you escaped."

"Nay, rescued, I was, and healed up right proper," Kurdran corrected. "The lad Danath sprung me, an' stormed their great ruin ta boot. Called Auchindoun, it were. Found ourselves a strange-looking friend there who might teach even ye a thing or two about healing wi' the Light. Good thing too — I, cr, wasn't at me best."

Turalyon looked with fresh admiration at his friend. What Kurdran had said amounted to a confession of being at death's door. "I'm glad," he said fervently.

"Eh, ye'll nae be so glad about the next part. Ner’zhul got away. He and his pet death knight cast a spell tha' took them straight ta a place called th' Black Temple, an' we couldna stop them."

Turalyon sighed and placed his hand on Kurdran's shoulder. "Don't worry, Kurdran. I know you and Danath did your best. I'm grateful you're all right." He ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "Black Temple — sounds ominous. What do we know about it?"

"Naу much, but yon feathered creature here will take us ta it," Kurdran jerked a thumb at the figure who had accompanied him atop Sky'ree. It bowed ob­sequiously. "This is Grizzik. He led Danath into Auchindoun, an' then Danath found his way ta me."

"Grizzik knows!" it stated, its voice high and reedy. "I tell you of Black Temple. I know what and where!"

"Is this your benefactor?" Alleria asked. "The one who healed you?"

"Nay, nay, that's a draeneei. It does get complicated."

"Then what are you?" Alleria asked softly, and Tura­lyon realized her elven eyes had pierced the shadows of the heavy cowl that hid Grizzik's face.

"I arakkoa," Grizzik answered, flinging back his cowl, and Turalyon tried not to start at the stranger's long beak and feathered hair. "We born of this world, as are orcs. Long have arakkoa kept to ourselves. Little have we to do with orcs or draenei. Then orcs rose up, banding together, forming Horde. Slaughtered draenei."

"Auchindoun was a draenei burial city," Kurdran ex­plained. "So Grizzik's told me."

"And Black Temple, theirs as well," Grizzik added. "Though it was not called that then. There draenei made their last stand, and there my brethren and I, too, came to fight orcs." His eyes glittered with what Tura­lyon took for rage, though there seemed something malicious in them as well. "We failed. Though not from lack of arms. Orcs have sorcerer, Gul'dan. He very strong. He alter earth itself, raising great volcano in our midst." Now his small eyes clearly blazed with anger.

"Gul'dan, eh?" Khadgar swung the sack down from his shoulder, opened it, and pulled out the skull. "Here's all that's left of him. He won't be causing you any more trouble," the young-old mage told the arakkoa before dropping the skull back inside with a quickly concealed look of relief.

Grizzik's eyes were wide. "You slew Gul'dan?" he asked, his voice a breathy whisper.

"No," Turalyon admitted. "Someone else got to him first. But we have destroyed the Horde's power and broken one of its major strongholds. Now we just need to reach the Black Temple, find Ner’zhul, and kill him as well."

The arakkoa bobbed his head. "I can show you way." he assured them.

Turalyon caught Kurdran s eye, and the Wildhammer leader shrugged. Turalyon understood — the clever dwarf wasn't sure whether to trust Grizzik either, but what choice did they have? "Thank you," he told the arakkoa. "We welcome your help." He turned to Kur­dran. "We'll draw up a rough map tonight, based on Grizzik's information," he said. "Tomorrow I want you to head back to Danath. We'll decide where to meet up for the final assault."

Kurdran nodded. “Aye, lad, tha's a fine plan," he agreed. "Now, who's got ale for me, and some food? Once I'm refreshed I'll tell ye the full o' our trek, and the battle at Auchindoun."

Turalyon smiled. "I can't wait to hear it," he told the dwarf, and it was true. He caught Alleria's eye and smiled as she slipped her hand into his. Tomorrow they would begin the march again, but for tonight, at least, they could sit and drink and listen to the Wildhammer's no doubt colorful tale.

Several days later they rode between two low mountain ranges and saw a wide valley stretching out before them. Kurdran had found them when they were almost level with what Turalyon now knew the orcs called Hellfire Citadel and the Dark Portal. Grizzik had led them far farther south and then east, skirting the waters the arakkoa had told them were called the Devouring Sea. There, at the very edge of the land, stood the Black Temple, where the Shadowmoon Valley ran up against the mountains that dropped off into the raging sea. And it was there that Danath and the rest of the Alliance army were waiting for them.

Danath and the others had not been idle. Turalyon saw as he reined in. A crude but effective camp stood near the southwest edge of the valley, and thick log walls were already half-erected around it.

"Kurdran's idea," Danath said as he approached them, clasping Turalyon's hand in greeting. "He felt we'd need a place where we could keep an eye on things across the valley, and this struck us both as a good van­tage point." Turalyon nodded. It was indeed that — from there they could see alt the way across to the land's edge, including the massive volcano rising up in the center and billowing smoke and ash and lava in every direction. "Aye, and it's best it were someone as didn't need ta set foot on tha' ground." Kurdran added as he joined them. "That lava's green, if’n ye canna tell from here, an' the very ground's saturated with it."

Khadgar nodded and Turalyon noticed the pained expression on his friend's face. "Fel magic," he whis­pered hoarsely. "The purest I've ever seen." The archmage shook his head. "I don't even want to know what sort of spells Gul'dan worked to cause this. It's a viola­tion of nature itself — no wonder this world is dying." He frowned at Kurdran. "Keep your people as far from that thing as possible." he warned, "and don't enter the valley any more than necessary."

"Och, aye, we'll steer well clear," Kurdran assured him. "The good news, though, is that we've already scouted the valley for ye." He produced a roll of parch­ment and showed them the map he'd sketched out. "The Black Temple be there, at the far east end," he said, gesturing toward where a massive dark structure could be clearly seen across the valley. “An' there's no easy way out from it. Eeither, 'cepting through this val­ley. It's a big horseshoe, it is, and its open end points this way."

"Any sign of Ner’zhul?" Alleria asked.

"Aye, he's there," Kurdran answered. "An' those death knights as well. Plus some orcs, though not many." He grinned. "We've got them pinned in — they'll nae be goin' anywhere."