WORLD
of
WARCRAFT

NIGHT of the DRAGON

RICHARD A. KNAAK











POCKET BOOKS New York London Toronto Sydney
CONTENTS
prologue
ONE
TWO
THREE
four
FIVE
six
seven
EIGHT
NINE
ten
ELEVEN
twelve
THIRTEEN
fourteen
fifteen
SIXTEEN
seventeen
EIGHTEEN
nineteen
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
twenty-three
twenty-four
ABOUT THE AUTHOR


PROLOGUE
He was trapped...trapped...trapped...
The darkness of his prison closed in around him. He could not breathe, could not move. How had this happened? What were the foul little creatures who had somehow managed to ensnare him? Vermin capturing a leviathan! It was impossible!
But it had happened...
He wanted to roar, but could not. There was no sound here, anyway. The silence drove him mad. He needed to be free! There had to be some escape-
A blinding emerald light enveloped him. He shrieked as it painfully ripped him from his prison and thrust him into the beyond.
But that shriek turned into a mighty roar of relief mixed with fury. He spread wide his magnificent, shimmering wings, his gargantuan, teal form filling much of this new place in which he found himself. Jagged, almost crystalline protrusions erupted along his spine and head, the latter creating an impressive crest akin to those worn on a warlord's helm. Huge, glittering white orbs-more like pearls than eyes-swept over a massive cavern filled with toothy projections thrusting from both the rounded ceiling and the rough floor.
And then his baleful gaze fell upon the vermin that had dared-somehow!-to trap his greatness. A subtle magenta aura suddenly radiated from him as he bellowed his righteous
fury.
"Foul little worms! Foul little gremlins! You would dare make of Zzeraku a caged pet?" As Zzeraku cried out, his already ethereal body grew more translucent. He fixed on a small party of his captors. They were ugly little things that moved like squashed draenei but were scaled in some places and furred in others. They had vicious little mouths filled with sharp teeth and wore hooded and armored garments. Their eyes were red like molten earth and despite his obvious threat to them, they did not appear properly frightened.
It was clear to Zzeraku that they knew very little about nether dragons.
"Foul little worms! Foul little gremlins!" he repeated. His body suddenly crackled with lightning the color of his wondrous self. He reached out a taloned paw as if to wipe away the creatures, the lightning suddenly shooting forth from it.
The first bolts went oddly astray, turning from the little creatures at the last moment. At the same time, the foreheads of each briefly revealed a strange, glowing rune.
Without hesitation, the captive nether dragon cast again. However, this time the lightning struck the ground around his tormentors. Rock and dirt exploded everywhere, the snarling little beasts thrown with the rest. Their hissing bodies scattered through the air with pleasing effect. "Foul little worms! Zzeraku will squash you all!"
He summoned more of his power. Veins of dark azure suddenly crisscrossed his chest. The lightning crackled more violently.
From somewhere to the side, a long, sinewy strand of silver energy looped around his left forelimb, tightening painfully.
Startled, Zzeraku forgot his own intended attack. The nether dragon was a creature of energy; the strand should have slipped through him. He snapped at it, only to receive a vicious jolt to his jaws. His limb dropped, suddenly bereft of all strength.
As that happened, his other forelimb was likewise snared. Zzeraku tugged in vain, the slender magical strand so very powerful.
The nether dragon's body swelled, the blue veins that distinctly marked Zzeraku now nearly black. He took on an even more transparent appearance, as if fading away to mist.
The silver strands flared.
Zzeraku let out a pained roar and fell forward, crashing on the cavern floor as if made of flesh and bone. Cracks ran across the stone. A crevasse opened up, into which two of the tiny creatures tumbled to their doom.
The others ignored the fates of their comrades as they set into motion two more silver strands. Five of the vermin at a time wielded the sinister threads of energy as if gigantic whips. The strands soared unerringly over Zzeraku to the opposing side, where the ends were seized and guided into the ground with small emerald stones.
"Release Zzeraku!" the nether dragon roared as the strands flashed and his body suffered renewed agony. "Release me!"