There was nothing more to say. In silence, Kalecgos leaped upward and flew out into the cold, snowy day, following the gentle tug that whispered this way, this way. Kirygosa had said she thought Kalec knew Azeroth better than any other blue dragon. He could only hope she was right.
2
Baine Bloodhoof looked about uneasily as he and a small retinue entered the city of Orgrimmar. The sole progeny of the late, much beloved and mourned tauren high chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof, Baine had only recently stepped into the position his father had occupied for so many years. It was a responsibility he had never actively sought, and he had accepted the duty with both humility and regret at the time of his father’s death. Since then, the world had changed in every respect.
His personal world had shattered the night of his father’s murder. Cairne had been slain in a mak’gora, a ritual duel, by Garrosh Hellscream. Garrosh, who had recently been named warchief of the Horde by Thrall, had intended to fight honorably, but someone else did not wish him to. Magatha Grimtotem, a shaman who had long harbored a hatred of Cairne and a desire to lead the tauren, had painted Garrosh’s axe, Gorehowl, with poison rather than simple anointing oil. And so the noble Cairne had died by betrayal.
Garrosh had stayed out of the ensuing conflict that arose when Magatha made a blatant bid for conquest of the tauren. Baine had defeated the would-be usurper, banishing her and those who refused to swear loyalty to him. Afterward, he had vowed his own loyalty to Garrosh in the orc’s role as warchief for a reason that was twofold—because his father would have wished it, and because Baine knew he had to do so in order to keep his people safe.
Since then, Baine Bloodhoof had not come to Orgrimmar. He had no desire to. Now he wished even more heartily that he could have stayed away.
But Garrosh had sent a summons to all the leaders of the various Horde races, and Baine, having pledged his support to Grom Hellscream’s son, had come. So had the others. To disobey would be to risk open war.
Baine and his entourage rode their kodos through the massive gates. More than one tauren stared, ears flicking, at the towering scaffolding and the massive crane that moved above them. While Orgrimmar had never been as pastoral as Thunder Bluff, it was now actively martial. Looming iron construction, heavy and black and ominous, had replaced the simple wooden huts, “to prevent another fire,” Garrosh had said. And, Baine knew, to evoke the so-called glory days of the Horde. To remind everyone after the chaos of the Cataclysm and the subsequent terrorizing of Deathwing that the orcs, and by extension the Horde itself, were not to be trifled with. To Baine, the ugly changes did not represent strength. The “new Orgrimmar” represented domination. Conquest. Subjugation. Its hard, jagged metal was a threat, not a comfort. He did not feel safe here. He did not think anyone who was not an orc could feel safe here.
Garrosh had even moved Grommash Hold from the Valley of Wisdom, where it had been under Thrall since the founding of the city, to the Valley of Strength—a decision, Baine thought, that reflected the nature of each warchief. As the tauren approached the hold, they were joined by a cluster of blood elves in their red and gold regalia. Lor’themar Theron, his long, pale blond hair in a topknot and his chin decorated with a small patch of beard, caught Baine’s eye and nodded coolly. Baine returned the gesture.
“Friend Baine!” called an unctuously cheerful voice. Baine looked over to his right, then down. A sly-looking, obese goblin with a slightly battered top hat chomped a cigar and waved boisterously at him.
“You must be Trade Prince Jastor Gallywix,” Baine said.
“That I am, that I am indeed,” said the goblin with enthusiasm, giving him a toothy, somewhat predatory grin. “And delighted to be here today, as I am sure you are. My first official visit to Warchief Garrosh’s court!”
“I don’t know that I’d call it a court,” Baine said.
“Close enough, close enough. Delighted, yes. How are you all doing in Mulgore?”
Baine regarded the goblin. He did not dislike goblins on principle, as some did. Indeed, he owed a great debt to Gazlowe, the goblin leader of the port town of Ratchet. Gazlowe had been of tremendous help to Baine during Magatha’s attack on Thunder Bluff, providing zeppelins, weaponry, and warriors of a sort for (by goblin standards) a paltry fee. Baine simply did not particularly care for this goblin. Nor, his sources told him, did anyone. Not even Gallywix’s own people.
“We are rebuilding our capital and fighting back the quilboar who are encroaching on our territory. The Alliance recently destroyed Camp Taurajo. We have erected the Great Gate so that they will come no farther,” Baine said.
“Oh, well, sorry and congratulations, then!” Gallywix laughed. “Good luck with all that, eh?”
“Er… thank you,” Baine said. Despite their small size, the goblins threaded their way through the flow of other Horde races to be first to enter Grommash Hold. Baine flicked an ear, sighed, dismounted from his kodo, handed the reins over to a waiting orc, and entered the hold himself.
This incarnation of the hold was, like everything else in the “new” Orgrimmar, more impersonal and martial—even the throne of the warchief of the Horde. Under Thrall’s leadership, the skull and armor of the demon Mannoroth—whose blood had once corrupted the orcs and who was valiantly slain by Grom Hellscream—had been displayed on a massive tree trunk at the entrance to the hold. Garrosh had taken the symbols of his father’s greatest victory and adorned his own throne with them, taking what Thrall had erected for the entire Horde to see and making them instead a personal tribute. He even wore part of the demon’s tusks as shoulder armor. Every time he saw Garrosh, Baine’s ears flattened slightly at the affront.
“Baine,” said a gruff voice. Baine turned and felt the first surge of pleasure he had experienced since departing Thunder Bluff.
“Eitrigg,” he said warmly, embracing the elderly orc. It seemed this honorable old veteran was the last who remained here of Thrall’s original advisors. Eitrigg had served Thrall well and loyally, and had stayed behind at Thrall’s request to advise Garrosh. It gave Baine hope that Garrosh had not concocted some reason to dismiss Eitrigg. It had been Eitrigg who had first noticed the smear of poison on Garrosh’s weapon, Gorehowl, and who had told the young warchief that he had been tricked into slaying Cairne dishonorably. Baine had always respected Eitrigg, but that deed in particular had made Baine the orc’s steadfast friend.
Baine narrowed his brown eyes at Eitrigg’s expression. Keeping his voice as soft as possible—not an easy task for a tauren—he asked, “I take it you do not approve of the topic of today’s gathering?”
Eitrigg made a sour face. “That is a pale statement. And I am not alone in my thoughts.” He clapped the young leader on his arm, then stepped back, indicating that Baine should proceed to his people’s traditional place on the left of the warchief’s throne. At least Garrosh had made no effort to demote the tauren. Baine noted that Lor’themar was now on the right side of Garrosh, and next to the blood elves’ sea of gold and red was the green skin of the goblins. Sylvanas and her Forsaken were directly opposite the orc, and Vol’jin and his trolls sat next to Baine. The orcs given the honor of being present—most of them Kor’kron, the formal guardians of the warchief—stood at attention, ringing the entire gathering.
Baine recalled his father telling him of similar meetings in Orgrimmar. At those gatherings, there were feasts, laughter, and revelry as well as debate and discussion. Baine saw no signs that anything resembling a feast had been prepared. Indeed, he thought as he took a tepid swig from the waterskin that hung at his belt, it had been a good thing that he and his people had brought their own water. Otherwise, in this desert city that baked under the sun, the iron buildings absorbing the heat, the tauren would even now be collapsing.