Green—all was green, shadowy and nightmarish, grotesque images dancing at the corner of Arthas’s mind only to dart away before they could be firmly grasped. There was a brief glimpse, gone now—antlers? A deer? A man? It was hard to tell. Hope hung about the figure, but there were forces bent on destroying it….
The mountains themselves came to life, taking giant strides, crushing everything luckless enough to cross their paths. With each mammoth footfall, the world seemed to tremble and shake.
Frostmourne. This at least he knew, and intimately. The sword whirled end over end, as if Arthas has tossed it into the air. A second sword rose to meet it—long, inelegant but powerful, with the symbol of a skull embedded in its fearsome blade. A name—“Ashbringer,” a sword and yet more than a sword, as was Frostmourne. The two clashed—
Arthas blinked and shook his head. The visions, tumbled, chaotic, heartening, and disturbing—were gone.
The orc chuckled, the painted skull on his face stretching with the gesture. He had once been named Ner’zhul, had once had the gift of true visioning. Arthas did not doubt that all he had seen, though imperfectly understood, would indeed come to pass.
“So much more,” the orc repeated, “but only if you continue to walk this path fully.”
Slowly, the death knight turned his white head to the boy. The ill child met him with a gaze that was astonishingly clear, and for a moment, Arthas felt something inside him stir. Despite everything—the boy would not die.
And that meant…
The boy smiled a little, and some of the sickness dissipated as Arthas struggled for words. “You…are me. You are both…me. But you…” His voice was soft, tinged with wonder and disbelief. “You are the little flame that burns inside me still, that resists the ice. You are the last vestiges of humanity—of compassion, of my ability to love, to grieve…to care. You are my love for Jaina, my love for my father…for all the things that made me what I once was. Somehow Frostmourne didn’t take it all. I tried to turn away from you…and I couldn’t. I—can’t.”
The boy’s sea-green eyes brightened and he gave his other self a tremulous smile. His color improved, and before Arthas’s eyes, some of the pustules on his skin disappeared.
“You understand, now. Despite all, Arthas, you have not abandoned me.” Tears of hope stood in those eyes and his voice, though stronger now than it had been, quavered with emotion. “There must be a reason. Arthas Menethil…much harm have you done, but there is goodness in you yet. If there was none…I would not exist, not even in your dreams.”
He slipped off the chair and slowly walked toward the death knight. Arthas stood as he approached. For a moment, they regarded each other, the child and the man he had become.
The boy extended his arms, as if he were a living, breathing child asking to be picked up and held by a loving father. “It doesn’t have to be too late,” he said quietly.
“No,” Arthas said quietly, staring raptly at the boy. “It doesn’t.”
He touched the curve of the boy’s cheek, slipped a hand beneath the small chin and tilted up the shining face. He smiled into his own eyes.
“But it is.”
Frostmourne descended. The boy cried out, his shocked, betrayed, anguished cry—that of the wind raging outside—and for a moment Arthas saw him standing there, the blade buried in his chest almost as big as he was, and felt one final tremor of remorse as he met his own eyes.
Then the boy was gone. All that remained of him was the bitter keening of the wind scouring the tormented land.
It felt…marvelous. It was only with the boy’s passing that Arthas truly realized how dreadful a burden this last struggling scrap of humanity had been. He felt light, powerful, purged. Scoured clean, as Azeroth would soon be. All his weakness, his softness, everything that had ever made him hesitate or second-guess himself—it was all gone, now.
There was only Arthas, Frostmourne, all but singing at having claimed the final piece of Arthas’s soul, and the orc, whose skull-face was split with triumphant laughter.
“Yes!” the orc exhilarated, laughing almost maniacally. “I knew you would make this choice. For so long you have wrestled with the last dregs of goodness, of humanity in you, but no longer. The boy held you back, and now you are free.” He now got to his feet, his body still that of an old orc, but moving with the ease and fluidity of the young.
“We are one, Arthas. Together, we are the Lich King. No more Ner’zhul, no more Arthas—only this one glorious being. With my knowledge, we can—”
His eyes bulged as the sword impaled him.
Arthas stepped forward, plunging the glittering, hungering Frostmourne ever deeper into the dream-being that had once been Ner’zhul, then the Lich King, and was soon to be nothing, nothing at all. He slipped his other arm around the body, pressing his lips so close to the green ear that the gesture was almost intimate, as intimate as the act of taking a life always was and always would be.
“No,” Arthas whispered. “No we. No one tells me what to do. I’ve got everything I need from you—now the power is mine and mine alone. Now there is only I. I am the Lich King. And I am ready.”
The orc shuddered in his arms, stunned by the betrayal, and vanished.
The teacup shattered as it fell from Jaina’s suddenly nerveless hands. She gasped, momentarily unable to breathe, the cold of the damp, gray day knifing through her. Aegwynn was there, her gnarled hands closing on Jaina’s.
“Aegwynn—I—what happened?” Her voice was thick, anguished, and tears suddenly filled her eyes as if she was grieving terribly for the loss of…something….
“It’s not your imagination,” Aegwynn said grimly. “I felt it, too. As for what—well, I’m sure we’ll find out.”
Sylvanas started as if the mammoth demon in front of her had struck her. Which, of course, he would never dare do. Varimathras narrowed his glowing eyes.
“My lady? What is it?”
Him.
It was always him.
Sylvanas’s gloved hands clenched and unclenched. “Something has happened. Something to do with the Lich King. I—felt it.” There was no longer a link between them, at least not one in which she was under his control. But perhaps something lingered. Something that warned her.
“We need to step up our plans,” she told Varimathras. “I believe that time has suddenly become a precious commodity.”
For so long, he had felt nothing. He had stayed on the throne, immobile, waiting, dreaming. The ice had come to cover him as he sat still as stone, but not a prison, no, a second skin.
He had not known then what he was waiting for, but now he did. He had taken the final steps on a journey begun so long ago, begun the day that darkness had first brushed his world in the form of a weeping, young Stormwind prince mourning his father. The path had led across Azeroth, to Northrend, to this Frozen Throne and open sky. To the searching of his deepest self, and the choices to murder both the innocent that held him back and the parts of himself that had shaped him.
Arthas, the Lich King, alone in his glory and power, slowly opened his eyes. Ice cracked from them at the gesture and fell in small shards, like frozen tears. A smile formed beneath the ornate helm that covered his white hair and pale skin, and more ice fell from his awakening, slowly shifting form, fragments of an icy chrysalis that was no longer needed. He was awake.
“It’s begun.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author Christie Golden has written over thirty novels and several short stories in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Golden launched the TSR Ravenloft line in 1991 with her first novel, the highly successful Vampire of the Mists, which introduced elven vampire Jander Sunstar. To the best of her knowledge, she is the creator of the elven vampire archetype in fantasy fiction.
She is the author of several original fantasy novels, including On Fire’s Wings, In Stone’s Clasp, and Under Sea’s Shadow (currently available only as an e-book) the fir
st three in her multi-book fantasy series “The Final Dance” from LUNA Books. In Stone’s Clasp won the Colorado Author’s League Award for Best Genre Novel of 2005, the second of Golden’s novels to win the award.
Among Golden’s other projects are over a dozen Star Trek novels and the well-received StarCraft Dark Templar trilogy, Firstborn, Shadow Hunters, and the forthcoming Twilight. An avid player of Blizzard’s MMORPG World of Warcraft, Golden has written several novels in that world (Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Horde) with three more in the works. She has also written two Warcraft manga stories for Tokyopop, “I Got What Yule Need” and “A Warrior Made.”
Golden is currently hard at work on three books in the major nine-book Star Wars series “Fate of the Jedi,” in collaboration with Aaron Allston and Troy Denning. Her first book in the series, Omen, is slated for publication in July of 2009.
Golden lives in Colorado with her husband and two cats. She welcomes visitors to her website, www.christiegolden.com.
NOTES
The story you’ve just read is based in part on Blizzard Entertainment’s computer game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Released in July 2002 and July 2003 respectively, these titles topped sales charts and were praised by critics, picking up “Editor’s Choice,” “Strategy Game of the Year,” “Game of the Year,” and other awards from numerous publications.
Over five years later, Warcraft III is still a popular choice for online multiplayer matches, and is a staple of professional gaming tournaments around the world. The single-player campaigns allow players to command and interact with some of the most powerful and interesting characters in Warcraft lore and to experience a pivotal time in Azeroth’s history firsthand.
FURTHER READING:
If you’d like to read more about the characters, situations, and settings featured in this novel, the books listed below each offer another piece of the story of Azeroth:
* Thrall’s story (along with more on Taretha Foxton, Aedelas Blackmoore, Durnholde Keep, and the orc internment camps) can be found in Warcraft: Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden.
* Jaina Proudmoore plays a central role in World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred by Keith R.A. DeCandido as well as the monthly World of Warcraft comic book by Walter Simonson and Ludo Lullabi, Jon Buran, and Mike Bowden.
* Kel’Thuzad’s reprimand by the Kirin Tor can be seen in detail in “Warcraft: Road to Damnation” by Evelyn Fredericksen (on worldofwarcraft.com).
* The further fate of the Sunwell is revealed in Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy by Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim (hardcover ultimate edition available).
* Prince Varian Wrynn of Stormwind is a young refugee in this volume, but his adventures continue in the World of Warcraft monthly comic by Walter Simonson and Ludo Lullabi, Jon Buran, and Mike Bowden (hardcover collected edition available).
* The magical city of Dalaran will also appear in Warcraft: Mage, a manga written by Richard A. Knaak and scheduled for release in February 2010.
* The story behind the mysterious prophet who warned Terenas, Antonidas, Arthas, and Jaina is revealed in Warcraft: The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb.
* Further information about Ner’zhul’s life and undeath has been recounted in World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde by Christie Golden, World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal by Aaron Rosenberg and Christie Golden, and “Warcraft: Road to Damnation” by Evelyn Fredericksen (on worldofwarcraft.com).
* Sylvanas Windrunner and the Scourge attack on Silvermoon are both featured in Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy volume 3—Ghostlands by Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim.
* Illidan Stormrage, Archimonde, and the demonic forces of the Burning Legion all wrought havoc on Azeroth in the Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy by Richard A. Knaak.
* Like most demons, Kil’jaeden was originally a mortal. His people, the eredar, largely decide to give themselves over to corruption in World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde by Christie Golden.
* Anduin Lothar is forced to kill one of his oldest friends in Warcraft: The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb. Lothar goes on to pit himself against Orgrim Doomhammer in World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg.
* Terenas, Uther the Lightbringer, and the Alliance of Lordaeron manage to drive back the Horde in World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg.
* Orgrim Doomhammer grows to adulthood just as the orcish clans of Draenor are forged into a single savage Horde in World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde by Christie Golden. Later, during the Second War, Doomhammer faces unexpected defeat in World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg.
* The Knights of the Silver Hand are first formed in World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg. One of their most famous members goes into exile during the events of Warcraft: Of Blood and Honor by Chris Metzen and later reappears in World of Warcraft: Ashbringer by Micky Neilson and Ludo Lullabi.
* Khadgar’s adventures are explored in detail by Warcraft: The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb, World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg, and World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal by Aaron Rosenberg and Christie Golden.
* Aegwynn led a challenging and largely solitary existence until she met Jaina in World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred by Keith R.A. DeCandido. Aegwynn continues to advise and assist Jaina in the monthly World of Warcraft comic book by Walter Simonson and Ludo Lullabi, Jon Buran, and Mike Bowden.
* The pit lord Anub’arak reveals the Lich King’s grim plans for Azeroth in “Warcraft: Road to Damnation” by Evelyn Fredericksen (on worldofwarcraft.com).
* Lord Prestor’s betrothal to Princess Calia and his secret ambitions come under suspicion from the red dragon Korialstrasz in Warcraft: Day of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak.
THE BATTLE RAGES ON
You’ve met Arthas. You’ve seen his youth, his greatest love, his greatest loss, and his greatest challenge. You’ve witnessed his most desperate hour, his brutal rise to power, and finally his reawakening. But that’s just the beginning. Now you can challenge him yourself in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
World of Warcraft is an online role-playing experience set in the award-winning Warcraft universe. In it, players create their own heroes and explore, adventure, and quest across a vast world shared with thousands of other players. Whether adventuring together or fighting against each other in epic battles, they form friendships, forge alliances, and compete with enemies for power and glory.
World of Warcraft is the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game of all time, with more than 11.5 million active subscribers worldwide—if it were a country, that population would be larger than 135 real-world nations. Its second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, released in November 2008 and set a new record as the fastest-selling PC game of all time, with more than 2.8 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and more than 4 million in its first month.
To discover the ever-expanding world that has captivated millions around the globe, go to worldofwarcraft.com and download the free trial version. Live the story.
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