Arthas...beloved, best friend...please don't do this.
"Then I must consider this an act of treason." Arthas's voice was cold, clipped. If he had struck her across the face, Jaina could not have been more shocked.
"Treason?" Uther spluttered. "Have you lost your mind, Arthas?"
"Have I? Lord Uther, by my right of succession and the sovereignty of my crown, I hereby relieve you of your command and suspend your paladins from service."
"Arthas!" Jaina yelped, her tongue freed in her shock. "You can't just-"
He whirled on her furiously and spat, "It's done!"
She stared at him. He turned to look at his men, who had stood by silent and wary as the argument had progressed. "Those of you who have the will to save this land, follow me! The rest of you...get out of my sight!"
Jaina felt sick and dizzy. He was really going to do this. He was going to march into Stratholme and cut down every living man, woman, and child within its walls. She swayed and clutched the reins of her horse. It lowered its head and whickered at her, blowing warm breath from its soft muzzle across her cheek. She was fiercely envious of its ignorance.
She wondered if Uther would attack his former pupil. But he was bound by an oath to serve his prince, even if he had been relieved of command. She saw the tendons on his neck stand out like cords, could almost hear him gritting his teeth. But he did not attack his liege.
Loyalty, however, did not still his tongue. "You've just crossed a terrible threshold, Arthas."
Arthas looked at him a moment longer, then shrugged. He turned to Jaina, his eyes searching hers, and for a moment-just a moment-he looked like himself, earnest, young, a little scared.
"Jaina?"
The single word was so much more. It was both question and plea. Even as she stared at him, frozen like the bird before the snake, he reached out a gauntleted hand to her. She stared at it for a moment, thinking of all the times that hand had clasped hers warmly, had caressed her, had been lain on the wounded and glowed with healing light.
She could not take that hand.
"I'm sorry, Arthas. I can't watch you do this."
There was no mask on his face now, no merciful coldness to shutter his pain away from her. Shocked disbelief radiated from him. She couldn't bear to look at him anymore. Gulping, her eyes filled with tears, Jaina turned away to find Uther regarding her with compassion and approval. He held out his hand to help her mount and she was grateful for his steadiness and composure. Jaina was shaking, badly, and clung to her horse as Uther mounted and, holding her horse's reins, led them both away from the greatest horror they had yet encountered in this whole dreadful ordeal.
"Jaina?" Arthas's voice followed her.
She closed her eyes, tears slipping from beneath closed lids. "I'm sorry," she whispered again. "I'm so sorry."
"Jaina?...Jaina!"
She had turned her back on him.
He couldn't believe it. For a long moment he simply stared, dumbfounded, at her retreating figure. How could she abandon him like this? She knew him. She knew him better than anyone else in the world had known him, better maybe than he knew himself. She had always understood him. His mind suddenly went back to the night they had become lovers, bathed first in the orange glow of the wicker man's fire, and later the cool blue of moonlight. He'd held her to him, pleading.
Don't deny me, Jaina. Don't ever deny me. Please.
I never would, Arthas. Never.
Oh yes, powerful words, whispered in a powerful moment, but now, now when it really counted, she had done exactly that-denied him and betrayed him. Dammit, she'd even agreed that if it were her, she'd want to be killed outright before the plague came and twisted her into a violation of everything good and true and natural. She'd left him, alone. If she'd stabbed him in the gut, he didn't think he could hurt worse.
The thought came, brief and bright and sharp: Was she right?
No. No, she couldn't be. Because if she was right, then he was about to become a mass murderer, and he knew that wasn't who he was. He knew it.
He shook off the dazed horror, licking lips suddenly gone dry, and took a deep breath. Some of the men had departed with Uther. A lot of them. Too many, truth be told. Could he even take this city with this few?
"Sir, if I may," Falric said, "I'm...well...I would rather be hacked into a thousand pieces than turn into one of them undead."
There were murmurs of agreement and Arthas's heart lifted. He grasped his hammer. "There is no pleasure in what we do here," he said, "only grim necessity. Only the need to halt the plague, here and now, with the fewest casualties possible. Those within these walls are already dead. We know it, even if they do not, and we must kill them quickly and cleanly before the plague does it for us." He looked at each of them in turn, these men who had not shirked their duty. "They must be slain, and their homes destroyed, lest the dwellings become shelter for those whom we are too late to save." The men nodded their understanding, gripping their own weapons. "This is not a great and glorious battle. It is going to be ugly and painful, and I regret its necessity with my whole heart. But it is with my whole heart that I know we must do this."
He lifted his hammer. "For the Light!" he cried, and in answer his men roared and lifted their weapons. He turned to the gate, took a deep breath, and charged in.
The ones that had risen were easy. They were the enemy; human no longer, but vile caricatures of what they had once been in life, and smashing their skulls or slicing their heads off was no more of a hardship than putting down a rabid beast. The others- They looked up at the armed men, at their prince, in first confusion and then in terror. At first, most of them didn't even reach for weapons; they knew the tabards, knew that the men who had come to kill them were supposed to be protecting them. They simply could not grasp why they were dying. Pain clenched Arthas's heart at the first one he struck down-a youth, barely out of puberty, who gazed up at him with incomprehension in his brown eyes and got out the words, "My lord, why are-" before Arthas cried out, as much in anguish at what he was being forced to do as anything else, and caved the boy's chest in with a hammer that he absently realized was no longer radiant with the Light. Perhaps the Light, too, grieved the dire necessity of its actions. A sob ripped through him and he bit it back, willed it back, and turned to the boy's mother.
He thought it would get easier. It didn't. It just got worse. Arthas refused to yield. The men looked to him for an example; if he wavered, they would too, and then Mal'Ganis would triumph. So he kept his helm on so they would not see his face, and himself lit the torches that burned down the buildings full of screaming people locked inside, and refused to let the horrible sights and sounds slow him.
It was a relief when some of the citizens of Stratholme began to fight back. Then the self-defense instinct kicked in. They still did not have a chance against professional soldiers and a trained paladin. But it mitigated that horrible sensation of-well, as Jaina had said, slaughtering them like farm animals.
"I've been waiting for you, young prince."
The voice was deep and shivered in his mind as well as his ears, resonant and...there was no other word for it...evil. A dreadlord, Kel'Thuzad had said. A dark name for a dark being.
"I am Mal'Ganis."
Something like joy shot through Arthas. He was vindicated. Mal'Ganis was was here, he here, he was was behind the plague, and even as Arthas's men, who also heard the voice, turned and sought the source, the doors of a house where villagers had been hiding was flung open and walking corpses hastened out, their bodies limned by a green, sickly glow. behind the plague, and even as Arthas's men, who also heard the voice, turned and sought the source, the doors of a house where villagers had been hiding was flung open and walking corpses hastened out, their bodies limned by a green, sickly glow.
"As you can see, your people are now mine. I will now turn this city household by household, until the flame of life has been snuffed out...forever." Mal'Ganis laughed. The sound was unsettling, deep and raw and dark.
"I won't allow it, Mal'Ganis!" Arthas cried. His heart swelled with the rightness of what he was doing. "Better that these people die by my hand than serve as your slaves in death!"
More laughter, and then the disturbing presence was gone as swiftly as it had come, and Arthas was busy battling for his very life as a throng of undead, three deep, charged him.
How long it took to slaughter every living-and dead-person in the city, Arthas would never be able to tell. But at last it was done. He was exhausted, shaking, nauseated by the smell of blood, smoke, and the sick, sweet scent of poisoned bread, hanging in the air even though the bakery itself was a burning building. Blood and ichor covered his once-bright armor. But he was not done. He waited for what he knew would come, and sure enough, a mere moment later, his enemy arrived, descending from the air to land on the roof of one of the few buildings still intact.
Arthas staggered. The creature was enormous. His skin was blue-gray, like animated stone. Horns curved forward and up from his bald skull, and two mighty wings like those of bats stretched out behind him like living shadows. His legs, encased in metal adorned with spikes and decorated with disturbing images of bones and skulls, curved backward and ended in hooves, and the very light of his glowing green eyes revealed sharp teeth bared in an arrogant sneer.
He stared up at the creature, rapt with horror, disbelief warring with the evidence before his eyes. He had heard tales; had seen pictures in old books, both in the library at home and in the Dalaran archives. But beholding this monstrous thing, towering over him, the sky behind him crimson and black with fire and smoke- A dreadlord was a demon. A thing out of myth. It couldn't be real-and yet it was here, standing before him in all its dreadful glory.
Dreadlord.
Fear threatened to overwhelm Arthas, and he knew if he let it it would cripple him. He would die at the hand of this monster-die without even a fight. And so with sheer will, he drowned out the mindless terror with another, better emotion. Hatred. Righteous fury. He thought of those who had fallen beneath his hammer, the living and the dead, the ravening ghouls and the terrified women and children who didn't understand that he was trying to save their souls. Their faces bolstered him; they could not-would not-have died for nothing. Somehow Arthas found the courage to meet the demon stare for stare, clutching his hammer.
"We're going to finish this right now, Mal'Ganis," he shouted. His voice was strong and firm. "Just you and me."
The dreadlord threw back his head and laughed. "Brave words," he rumbled. "Unfortunately for you, it won't end here." Mal'Ganis grinned, black lips pulling back from sharp, pointed teeth. "Your journey has just begun, young prince."
He swept an arm out, indicating Arthas's men, long, sharp claws glittering in the light of the flames that still burned and consumed the great city. "Gather your forces and meet me in the arctic land of Northrend. It is there that your true destiny will unfold."
"My true destiny?" Arthas's voice cracked with anger and confusion. "What do you-" The words died in his throat as the air around Mal'Ganis began to shimmer and whirl in a familiar pattern.
"No!" Arthas shrieked. He surged forward, blindly, recklessly, and would have been cut down in a heartbeat had not the teleportation spell been completed. Arthas cried out incoherently, swinging his faintly glowing hammer at empty air. "I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth if I have to! Do you hear me? To the ends of the earth!" To the ends of the earth!"
Manic, raging, screaming, he swung his hammer wildly at nothing until sheer exhaustion alone forced him to lower it. He propped it up and leaned on it, sweating, shaking with raw sobs of frustration and anger.
To the ends of the earth.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Three days later, Lady Jaina Proudmoore walked the streets of what had once been a proud city, the glory of northern Lordaeron. Now, it was the stuff of nightmares.
The stench was almost unbearable. She lifted a handkerchief, liberally scented with peacebloom essence, to her face in a partially successful attempt to filter out the worst of it. Fires that ought to have consumed themselves, or have abated at least slightly from lack of fuel, continued to rage at their full height, telling Jaina that some dark magic was afoot. Combined with the acrid smell of smoke that stung her eyes and throat was the reek of putrefaction.
They lay as they had fallen, most of them unarmed. Tears welled in Jaina's eyes and slipped down her cheeks as she moved as if in a trance, carefully stepping over the bloated bodies. A soft whimper of pain escaped as she saw that Arthas and his men, in their misguided mercy, had not even spared the children.
Would these bodies, lying still and stiff in death, have risen to attack her if Arthas had not slain them? Perhaps. Many of them, certainly; the grain had had indeed been distributed and consumed. But every single one? She would never know, nor would he. indeed been distributed and consumed. But every single one? She would never know, nor would he.
"Jaina-I ask you again, come with me." His voice was intense, but it was clear his mind was a thousand leagues away. "He escaped me. I saved the city's inhabitants from becoming his slaves, but-at the last minute he got away. He's in Northrend. Come with me."
Jaina closed her eyes. She did not want to remember that conversation of a day and a half ago. She did not want to remember how he looked, cold and angry and distant, fixated on killing this dreadlord-Light, a demon-at the expense of everything else.
She stumbled across a body and her eyes snapped open again to the horror that the man she had loved-still did love, despite everything, how she could still love him after this she did not know, but Light save her, she did- "Arthas-it's a trap. He's a demon lord. If he was powerful enough to elude you in St-Stratholme, he will certainly defeat you in his own territory, where he is strongest. Don't go...please..."
She had wanted to throw herself into his arms, physically keep him there beside her. He couldn't go to Northrend. He would be going to his death. And although he had dealt out so much to others, Jaina found she could not wish for his.
"So much death," she murmured. "I can't believe Arthas could've done this." And yet she knew he had. A whole city...
"Jaina? Jaina Proudmoore!"
Jaina started violently, snapped out of her sickened trance by the sound of the familiar voice. Uther. A strange feeling of relief swept over her as she turned in the direction of the hail. Uther had always intimidated her slightly; he was so large and powerful and...well...so deeply entrenched in the Light. She recalled with an incongruously guilty flush how, when she and Arthas were younger, they used to make fun of Uther's piety, which to them verged on the pompous and sanctimonious, behind the knight's back. He was a fairly easy target. But three excruciating days ago, she and Uther had both stood against Arthas.
"You swore you would never deny me, Jaina," Arthas accused, his voice sharp as an icy knife blade. "But when I most needed your support, your understanding, you turned against me."
"I-you-Arthas, we didn't know enough to-"
"And now, you refuse to aid me. I'm going to Northrend, Jaina. I would have you with me. To help me stop this evil. Won't you come?"
Jaina winced. Uther noticed, but said nothing. Clad in full plate armor despite the overwhelming heat of the unnaturally blazing fires, he strode swiftly toward her. His stature and presence was now a picture of strength and solidity rather than intimidation to her. He did not embrace her, but did grasp her arms reassuringly.
"I thought I might find you here. Where has he gone, girl? Where has Arthas taken the fleet?"
Jaina's eyes widened. "The fleet?"
Uther grunted an affirmation. "He's commandeered the entire Lordaeron fleet and taken off with them. Sent only the briefest message to his own father. We don't know why they obeyed without direct orders from their commanders."
Jaina gave him a small, sad smile. "Because he's their prince. He's Arthas. They love him. They didn't know about...this."
A flicker of pain crossed Uther's rugged features and he nodded. "Aye," he said softly. "He's always been good to the men who serve him. They can tell that he genuinely cares about them, and they'll serve him with their lives."
Regret laced the words. They were true, insofar as they went, and once Arthas had deserved such undying devotion.
"And now you refuse to aid me...."
Uther shook her gently, bringing her back to the present. "Do you know where he might have taken them, child?"
Jaina took a deep breath. "He came to me before he left. I pleaded with him not to go. I told him it sounded like a trap-"
"Where?" Uther was relentless.
"Northrend. He's gone to Northrend to hunt Mal'Ganis-the demon lord who is responsible for the plague. He couldn't defeat him...here."
"A demon lord? Damn that boy!" The outburst startled Jaina. "I've got to inform Terenas."
"I tried to stop him," Jaina repeated. "Then...and when he..." She gestured helplessly at the almost inconceivable number of dead that kept them silent company. She wondered for the thousandth time if she could have stopped it-if she had found the right words, touched Arthas the right way, if he would have been swayed. "But I failed."
I failed you, Arthas. I failed these people-I failed myself.
Uther's heavy, gauntleted hand dropped on her slim shoulder. "Don't be too hard on yourself, girl."
She laughed humorlessly. "Is it that obvious?"
"Anyone with a heart would wonder the same. I know I do." She glanced up at him, startled at the admission.
"You do?" Jaina asked.
He nodded, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, and there was a pain in those depths that struck her to the core. "I could not fight him. He is still my prince. But I wonder...could I have stood in his path? Said something else, done something else?" Uther sighed and shook his head. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. But that moment is in the past and my choices cannot be undone. You and I must both look to the future now. Jaina Proudmoore, you had nothing to do with this...slaughter. Thank you for telling me where he has gone."
She lowered her head. "I feel like I've betrayed him again."
"Jaina, you may have saved him-and all the men who are going with him in ignorance of what he's become."
Startled at his choice of words, she looked up sharply. "What he's become? He's still Arthas, Uther!"
Uther's eyes looked haunted. "Aye, he is. But he made a dreadful choice-and one with repercussions we've yet to see played out. I don't know that he can come back from this." Uther turned and eyed the dead. "We know the dead can be raised to unlife. That demons truly exist. Now I wonder if there are such things as ghosts, too. If there are, our prince will be ten thick in them." He bowed to her. "Come away from this place, lady."
She shook her head. "No, not yet. I'm not ready."
He searched her eyes, then nodded. "As you will. Light be with you, Lady Jaina Proudmoore."
"And you, Uther the Lightbringer." She gave him the best smile she could muster and watched as he strode off. Arthas would no doubt see this as yet another betrayal, but if it saved his life-then she could live with that.