Zendarin approached the nether dragon. He appeared as if he did nothing but observe the prisoner, but the priestess sensed that more was at play.
A skardyn came up to Zendarin, growling and hissing something that apparently he could understand.
"Then next time see to it that it doesn't happen!" Zendarin snapped peevishly. "Would not want to get another of your stinking little ilk swallowed up, would you?"
Only then did she notice that four of the creatures were adjusting crystals near the nether dragon's great maw. That now explained one of the tremendous roars that she had heard. Something had clearly happened that undid those particular strands. She eyed the skardyn's work close, trying to discern just what. Perhaps there would the the key to freeing the leviathan.
But would she actually free it? That was a question for debate, debate Iridi had been having since the beginning.
There is only one way. I must try to judge this nether dragon....
Even Krasus would have looked at her in disbelief had he known of her decision. The draenei knew well that there was not one of her recent companions—and few of her own following—who would have chosen such a course. What there was known of nether dragons did not urge trust in them.
But still Iridi felt she had no right to do otherwise.
The blood elf departed, his mageslayer behind him. The priestess glanced around, but saw only more skardyn. Those, she believed she could handle. The runes that protected them did not appear to work against the staff, although she would use that as a last resort. For now, the draenei trusted in the teachings of her order.
Think their gaze away. Let them look around you, notat you. A seemingly impossible thing, on the surface, but with those words herteachers had also taught her techniques to better blend with her surroundings. She had used them to her advantage outside and even in the corridors, but here there were more skardyn than ever.
Nevertheless, the draenei stepped out. She kept herself close to the nearest wall, letting her cloak help mask her.
The skardyn continued with their tasks. They were eager to keep the crystals in place. Iridi could sense their anxiousness whenever they got very near the nether dragon.
One of them happened to glance her way. The priestess froze.
The skardyn gnashed its teeth, then resumed its task. Iridi waited a moment more, then started to descend. Then, a dragonspawn entered.
It pointed at the nearest several skardyn. "Come. Mistress commands...."
Half a dozen of the creatures followed the dragonspawn out. Iridi gave thanks; their departure left the area near the head virtually devoid of skardyn. The rest were farther away now. This was her chance.
With great nimbleness, the draenei descended to the level where the nether dragon lay bound. She waited there for a moment as two skardyn climbing along the wall passed into a side tunnel, then slipped toward the massive prisoner.
Even the nether dragon did not appear to notice her, although his condition likely had much to do with that, too. Iridi frowned. She knew that the staff might help her, but feared to summon it.
In the end, there was again no choice. Looking to see where the nearest skardyn currently were, the priestess called it forth and focused it on the captive leviathan.
The eyes of the nether dragon opened wide.
In that instant, a flood of memories and emotions flowed from the behemoth's mind into hers. She saw him in Outland and saw the evil that he had done. Yet, that evil came in part from misunderstanding and as the emotions and memories continued to pour into the priestess, she sensed his regret over his betrayals and the hope to make up for them.
Iridi also sensed that there was something redeemable in this dark giant...and, knowing that, determined that it was freedom, not death, she sought for the nether dragon.
The priestess glanced around at the skardyn. Thanks to her efforts, they still paid her no mind. She kept the staff low, hoping to be swift.
Can you understand me?'the draenei anxiously thought. Zzeraku... hears... you....
Iridi breathed just a little easier. The naaru had given some indication that the staff would help her communicate with some creatures, but she had doubted that it would be of use with a nether dragon.
But the link was faint, the reason for that either her wielding of the staff or the nether dragon's obvious weakness or both. Iridi concentrated harder.
Do you know how these bonds can be removed?
The nether dragon visibly stirred at this question. The draenei realized that he had expected her to be yet another of his captors. His hope and gratitude radiated bright in her thoughts, solidifying the priestess's beliefs that she was doing the right thing. This was not an evil creature, only a creature who had mistakenly done evil. He had the potential to be so much more.
The crystals... he finally answered. The frequency...Zzeraku is not... not strong enough to change them....
But he had tried, she sensed, and in his most agonizing moments had been nearest to success. Yet, even then all his might had not been enough.
Not being restrained herself, the priestess had hope that she would be more successful. Iridi looked around, debating what she should first attempt to free. A paw would have made much sense, but the maw was closest and possibly the simplest to do without being seen.
Yes... Zzeraku said.
The nether dragon had chosen for her. The draenei went to the nearest crystal.
A skardyn dropped down from the wall to the side. It stared at her in surprise.
Iridi released the staff, which vanished. She seized the monstrous dwarf by the arm and pulled the creature forward. As he flew into her, the priestess struck the skardyn at a predetermined point on the side of the neck.
The skardyn collapsed. Iridi hurriedly shoved the body behind part of the wall's natural formation. The skardyn would be found, but she hoped to be finished before then.
Recalling the staff, the priestess focused the point on the first of the crystals keeping Zzeraku's jaws sealed. She felt the crystal's vibrations and understood what the nether dragon had meant. Concentrating, Iridi tried to do as he had suggested.
The crystal resisted. Sweating, the draenei pushed herself to her limits. If she could not do even this one, then there was no hope whatsoever of freeing the immense captive.
The crystal's frequency altered. It was very slight and not enough as far as Iridi was concerned, but it was a start. Just a little more effort, she believed, and this one would be finished—
A howl of alarm echoed through the chamber.
Iridi had been discovered.
The priestess made one last concentrated attack on the crystal, then stepped back. Skardyn came at her from all sides.
She used the staff to fling the nearest pair away, then dismissed it and fought the ones that followed with her hands and feet. While the skardyn outside had used whips and pikes, those here for the most part wielded no weapons. Why should they have? They had obviously never expected a foe to appear in this particular chamber.
But that one advantage was short-lived. Iridi caught sight of more skardyn emerging from holes above. Some of them had whips bound around their waists; others carried a large piece of mesh... a net for her, no doubt.
One of the dwarves leapt onto her back, its sharp claws ripping at the cloak. The draenei slipped free of the travel cloak, at the same time using it to entangle both that foe and another just reaching for her.
But they were continuing to swarm from everywhere around her. Iridi struck another in the chest with the hard part of her palm. The skardyn had hard, muscular torsos like their cousins, and the draenei's own bones shook.
She quickly looked up. The skardyn with the net were nearly in position to toss it on her and the ones surrounding the priestess kept her from moving out of the way.
Then, the skardyn suddenly hesitated. Several glanced past Iridi.
She felt a wave of energy fill the chamber and feared that. In addition to the skardyn, the blood el
f was now upon her.
But the skardyn scattered, forgetting her as if she were nothing. Even those above quickly crawled like spiders back into their holes, dragging the net with them.
She turned... and faced not Zendarin... but the monstrous mageslayer.
Vereesa and Grenda hunched together as the skardyn watched over their captive cousins. They had no idea why they had been taken alive, only that it behooved them to find some manner by which to quickly escape. Clearly, whatever fate the creatures’ mistress had in mind would not be a pleasant one.
"No one's seen Rom anywhere," Grenda murmured. "He and five others are missing. One of those, I know for sure is dead and there's those that can claim seein' two more slaughtered out there."
The ranger nodded. They both assumed the worst. Now what mattered was what to do next and, with Rom no more, Grenda was in charge of the dwarves.
"We are inside," the high elf said.
"I'd be happy with that if we weren't locked up in here like pigs waitin' to be slaughtered."
Indeed, the band was sealed in a set of cramped holes dug into the side of the dimly-lit cavern. Old but still reliable iron bars hammered into the rock kept the prisoners secure. More than half a dozen skardyn acted as guards, with one bored dragonspawn overseeing them.
Rask had been thorough in having the captives searched. None of the Bronzebeards could volunteer anything useful to deal with the locks, much less the guard beyond.
But Vereesa was still not sad to be inside. She was close now to her quarry and, she hoped, also close to wherever Krasus was being held.
"Keep watch for me," she whispered to Grenda.
As the dwarf obeyed, Vereesa reached to her right boot. She slowly and casually felt for a small depression near the calf area....
"The guards are straightening!" Grenda hissed. "Someone approaches!"
Vereesa moved her hand away just as a shadow passed across the bars. Her eyes widened as she saw who it was. "Hello, my dear cousin...."
"Zendarin." The ranger did not rush to the bars, which she hoped at the very least would disappoint the blood elf, who no doubt desired such a reaction.
"Ever the calm, calculating ranger." he mocked. "Are you still that much one of us, anymore? With so much human taint in you, it would be a surprise...."
"One should not speak of taint who has taken to draining the foul magic of demons."
"You find that distasteful? We are doing more for Azeroth than all the Alliance combined! We are the most feared of foes the Legion has!"
Still seated, Vereesa shook her head. "You are becoming the Legion, Zendarin... and the only reason any of you do this is because you hunger for that magic. You need it. Without it, you would wither...."
He sneered. "Not all of us have such a ready source with which to indulge ourselves daily...and nightly, cousin...."
"I have been free of the hunger for quite some time, Zendarin... thanks especially to my husband, the human. He did more for me than any of my own kind could have. My children are a sign of my freedom, for I would never have dared bring them into this world if I had remained sickened like you...."
Zendarin scowled, then snapped his fingers. A skardyn stepped up to the cell door.
The blood elf opened his hand. A staff akin to Iridi's materialized in his grip.
"Step out, cousin," he ordered as the skardyn unlocked the door. "Unless you'd like to watch one of these others skinned alive."
Vereesa had no choice but to obey. Waving off a silent protest from Grenda, the ranger left the cell.
Her cousin looked her up and down. "Still fit. You must revel in your human pet. Good! The stronger you are, the better you'll serve her."
"What do you mean?"
"She's in constant need of laborers, the death rate running very high...." Before Vereesa could retort, Zendarin suddenly ordered, "Still your tongue and put your hands behind you." He emphasized the order with a thrust of the point of the staff at her throat.
The ranger did as she was told. Zendarin pulled the staff back, then brought the crystalline point up to the top of her head. Slowly, he lowered the point until it finally aimed at the floor beneath her feet.
"Ah." He raised the staff a little higher, the point now leveled with her calf.
Vereesa gasped. Her calf felt as if on fire.
"Surely you are stronger than that," her cousin remarked coldly. "You don't know what it is like to truly burn...."
There followed a tearing sound—and the slim, metal blade that the ranger had kept secreted in her boot flew out. It landed next to Zendarin, the metal still orange-hot.
Favoring her other leg, Vereesa simply stared at the blood elf.
"I knew that there would be something. Not only is a ranger versatile, but so is the line of Windrunner...."
"You are a stain on the line, Zendarin."
He scoffed. "Any more than one who sleeps with a human, even breeds with them? Any more than a banshee, perhaps? I am far from the darkest stain on our family; in fact, I am its future!"
She said nothing, still bitter about his comments. The ones concerning her were not so terrible; she had faced the prejudices toboth her kind and Rhonin's and, for the most part turned those with the prejudices into believers. No, it was more his comment about something so accursed as a banshee.
A banshee, like her sister, Sylvanas.
But Sylvanas was a situation for another time, perhaps another life.
"Silence becomes you." Zendarin gestured for her to return to the cell. He briefly pointed the staff at the dwarves while Vereesa rejoined Grenda. "Ah. Everyone else is being good, I see. No other hidden blades..."
The skardyn had been good about searching their cousins, but not with Vereesa. Now, Zendarin had dealt with that situation.
"Your poor, poor children," he added, staring at her through the iron bars. "How will they feel when they discover that their mother has abandoned them? Well, soon they will have their uncle to console them...and raise them after their father, too, falls to return."
This time, Vereesa let out a cry of rage. She leapt back to the bars, her hands seeking Zendarin, who had already stepped back. He laughed, the skardyn and the dragonspawn joining In.
"I have enjoyed this family reunion," he finished. "It makes me more eager than ever to renew my acquaintance with my nephews...."
Dismissing the staff, he left the prisoners. The dragonspawn moved to the cell, whipping Vereesa back.
"Sit!" the behemoth roared. Then, satisfied that they were under control, the dragonspawn returned to its post.
The ranger scowled at her captors, then grudgingly returned to Grenda.
"I'm sorry about all that," the dwarf whispered. "Maybe your male will be able to stop him, being a wizard and all...."
"Rhonin's skills aside, I have no intention of placing all my hopes on that," Vereesa answered, her expression far more calm than moments before. "We will be escaping and I will face Zendarin again... of that I will at least swear."
Her hand slipped to her other boot. There, she carefully slid out of another slot another small blade. However, where the other hadbeen crafted of metal, this one appeared to be of iridescent pearl.
"Gimmel's blood!" Grenda murmured. "But how did you hide that from your cousin?"
"He searched for weapons, seeking those made as one might expect. Rhonin crafted this for me, a simple but strong blade made from the bounty of the sea. There is no magic in it. Unless he knew to look for the blade in particular, the chances were small that he would find it, for his spell would simply think it part of the boot's crafting."
The Bronzebeard shook her head. "What wizards'll conjure up!"
"The suggestion was mine. The crafting his." A moistness escaped one eye. "Together we are stronger than each is separately." Steeling herself, she continued, "We must escape at the first opportunity—"
They were interrupted by another arrival...this time a drakonid. Vereesa studied the creature, but it was not Rask.
>
"Take one!" the drakonid ordered.
The skardyn unlocked the door. With whips they drove their cousins back, then cut off a lone warrior from the rest. Two skardyn dragged him out.
The moment the rest of the guards had retreated, the dwarves charged forward. Unfortunately, they were not able to keep the cell from being locked again, nor could they do anything for their comrade except shout angrily as he was taken away.
Skardyn began whipping at the bars. The dwarves finally fell back.
The drakonid laughed. "Your turns. They will come. All serve the mistress."
With that, the black beast followed after the others.
"What'll they do with Udin?" asked a younger dwarf.
"Torture 'lm to see if there's any of us still out there, most likely!" answered another fighter.
Grenda turned on the second dwarf. "Are you daft, Falwulf? Didn't you hear what that blood elf said before? They're not interested if one or two of us are still out there; they want to make us into slaves...."
An uneasy rumbling spread through the prisoners. Dwarves were fighters; give them an enemy with a weapon, and they woulddo battle even to their deaths. There was no honor in slavery.
Grenda looked to Vereesa. "If you've got an idea of how we can escape and escape fast, now would be a good time to start on it...."
The ranger's gaze went from her companion to the skardyn keeping watch. "It may cost some lives...."
"Better that than what we're lookin' forward to."
"As you wish, then." Vereesa hid the blade in her palm. She leaned back so as to not stir the guard's interest. "Get everyone prepared to act on my signal. We must all move together... even if only in the end we buy ourselves a quick death."
"Aye." Grenda casually turned to a comrade. As the high elf watched, the dwarf began to pass on word. There would be no hesitation from any of the Bronzebeards. As Grenda had indicated, what other choice did they have?
From beyond the chamber where their cells lay, there came a hideous cry. It was mercifully short, but the sound remained burned in all their minds.
"That was Udin",uttered the younger warrior who had asked about the other prisoner earlier.
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