"No!" Ner'zhul raced toward the portal. He was still several feet away when the shimmering curtain of light flickered, contracted, froze — and then exploded. Stones and dust erupted from the archway. Ner'zhul was tossed into the air like an old bone, and struck the earth hard. Dentarg let out an angry bellow and rushed to his master's side, scooping him up as if he weighed nothing. The old shaman lay limp, head lolling, eyes shut, a trickle of blood along his right side. For a wild moment energy screamed and shrieked about them all, howling like angry spirits. Then as abruptly as they had come the lights vanished, the cur­tain disappearing utterly leaving only an empty stone portal behind.

The Dark Portal had been severed.

Gratar stared at that stone archway and at all the Horde warriors who had escaped back through it one last time. Then he glanced over at Dentarg, and the el­derly shaman cradled in the ogre's surprisingly gentle grasp.

In the name of the ancestors… what would they do now?

CHAPTER ONE

“Ner'zhul!" Gorefiend and Gaz Soulripper strode into the village as if they owned it, booted feet moving swiftly over hard-packed dirt. Curious villagers poked their heads out of the doors and windows of their simple huts, only to shrink back inside as the in­terlopers fixed them with a baleful stare from unnatu­rally glowing eyes.

"Ner'zhul!" Gorefiend called again in a voice that was both cold and commanding. "I would speak with you!"

"Don't know who you are,” a voice growled behind him, "and don't much care. You're trespassing on Shadowmoon territory. Leave or die."

"I need to speak with Ner'zhul," the death knight replied, turning to face the powerful orc warrior who had stepped threateningly behind him. "Tell him Teron Gorefiend is here."