Ragnaros's face darkened. With a wave of his hand, two agile subordinates immediately leaped over the rail like cheetahs, wading through the water toward the Goblin vessel to investigate.
A moment later, they returned and reported in low voices, "Boss, the ship's empty. No living people. There are some crude Horde-style supplies, and the traces are fresh—no more than two days old."
"Someone... got here before me." Ragnaros forced the words through clenched teeth, his fingers unconsciously tightening.
He had always regarded himself as the "sole, pure Black Dragon Prince," viewing the inheritance of his father, Deathwing, as already his for the taking.
The appearance of this wreck of a ship was like a resounding slap across the face, ruthlessly reminding him that Neltharion's "inheritance" might have more than one claimant.
He abruptly turned to Deren, his eyes flashing with affronted rage and a trace of barely perceptible anxiety. "Advisor, what do you think?"
Deren smiled bitterly inwardly. What could he think? Was he supposed to directly say, "The gears of fate have already begun turning. Your brother Blackhorn, Ebyssian—the one raised by Tauren—has probably already beaten you to the island"?
Deathwing had been incredibly thorough with this "casting a wide net" business, somehow delivering the news to several scattered offspring at once.
Deren suspected that Deathwing might have possessed some kind of long-distance sensing ability for his descendants.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why "Blackhorn" Ebyssian had appeared here ahead of time.
By the timeline, if Ragnaros had not gone to Theramore to kidnap him, then that edgy Black Dragon might have reached the Forbidden Reach even earlier than Ebyssian.
Ebyssian—the Black Dragon raised by the hero Huln Highmountain, who had always considered himself Tauren and remained apart from Dragon Race conflicts—had actually been drawn here at