***Begins immediately after 'King and Country: The Long Road Home' ends, and I highly recommend reading it (yeah I know it's long, sorry) before this, or Enemy Within may not make a whole lot of sense. The usual warnings apply – Course language, violence and adult themes, but nothing you won't see on prime-time tv or the canon Warcraft novels. This story is leading to the events of the 'Wrath of the Lich King' expansion however, and it may creep into a 'M' rating. As always, I own nothing, Blizzard Entertainment owns everything, and I'm just playing around in the world they created.*** Oh yeah… please read and review! I can't improve if I don't get feedback!***
One.
The rain came down in sheets as lightning streaked through the sky. In the deluge five riders in plate and mail encircled two others who shivered with cold and exhaustion. The ruddy ground, turned to deep slop by the driving rain, sucked at the horses' hooves as they shifted restlessly in the downpour. The beasts steamed in the cold air, their panted breaths leaving distended nostrils in gouts of thick vapour that looked almost like smoke.
"There is nowhere left to run, Harkness." The woman's cold, amused voice sounded almost disembodied through her full helm, the visor down to ward off the weather. Neither young paladin needed to see the woman's face to know who she was. "Give us the girl and I will give you a clean death."
"Captain, listen to me!" Taliah pleaded through a cough. She hated Brigitte Abbendis with every fibre of her being, but she had to try and make her see reason. "Saidan Dathrohan may have been human once, but no longer… he is a demon!"
"I have seen it with my own eyes!" Joscelin interjected "He has deceived you and he has corrupted the Scarlet Crusade. He will lead you all to ruin!"
"Silence!" Abbendis's eyes glowed balefully through the helm's visor. "Cease your slanderous rantings, Harkness. Taliah is still very ill must be returned to Lord Dathrohan's care." Her longsword stabbed at the empty air in Joscelin Harkness' direction "Taliah, he is filling your head with lies." Finally, the woman flipped up her visor to reveal a tired but pretty face. Brigitte smiled and it would have looked kindly and concerned if not for the fact the gesture did not reach her cold dark eyes. "Come home, Taliah. Commander Mograine will take you back, and Lord Dathrohan will forgive you. It's not too late to end this before you get hurt."
"I won't go back, Abbendis." Taliah stated flatly and levelled her runeblade at the woman. The sword wavered slightly and Abbendis could hear the air whistling in the girl's throat when she breathed. "Last night, I pledged myself to Joscelin, and our union is consummated before the Light." Taliah's chin came up in defiance. "Renault has no claim to me now. I will not be use by him, or anyone else."
"Suit yourself." Abbendis shrugged uncaringly and with a flick of her chin, the woman's visor clanked shut. "Kill the boy. Do whatever you must to subdue the girl." That seemed to be all the urging the other four riders needed as they spurred their mounts forward and the ring around the two young paladins shrank.
Three weeks on the run had finally come to what promised to be a bloody end. Taliah touched her blunted spurs to Valiant's sides and the mighty grey stallion surged forward despite his fatigue, striking and pawing at the destrier that charged at him. Her opponent's bay gelding shied as Taliah brought Peacemaker up to parry, and guiding Valiant with her calves, had her mount give the other a brutal shove with his chest. The bay's hooves skidded in the mud and it reared as the grey bored down on him. The man and horse went over backwards in a flail of legs and curses. The beast rolled to its feet with a grunt and galloped off, dragging its rider through the mud as the screaming, injured man desperately tried to kick his twisted foot free of the stirrup.
Light, your servant calls for aid! Taliah prayed silently and the Light answered, filling her with renewed strength as another rider came at her and the business end of his sword plunged at her shoulder. The girl jerked away and the blade pierced her cloak as it slid through the empty space between her arm and body. Dropping her reins, Taliah reached back and used her wet woollen cloak to protect her arm as she wrapped it about the blade. The rider saw his peril and tried to turn his mount into hers, but Peacemaker took off his sword-hand at the elbow. Releasing the man's sword, she ignored his screams and the crimson that slashed across her face as his weapon and forearm dropped to the ground.
Storm snorted and jostled his opponent, and the two chargers snapped at one another fiercely as their riders hacked and slashed at each other. Joscelin had already dropped a rider, beheading the man's mount and causing it to crash down atop him, but Brigitte Abbendis was not so easily thwarted. She was overzealous a sociopath, but she was also cunning and quick. Joscelin, a strapping young man of nineteen, was larger, much more powerful and very handy with a sword, but lacked the other paladin's experience. Harkness could hear the cold smile on her lips when she spoke.
"Oh Joscelin, you poor, stupid boy. You really do love her, don't you?" She sneered as their blades came together in a shriek of steel and their mounts snorted and heaved beneath them. One deft thrust pierced the left side of his chest, but skipped off a rib, leaving a six-inch gash that bled profusely. "Did you think if you deflowered the girl that Renault would no longer want her? He'll be disappointed I'm sure, but he'll have nearly as much fun breaking her spirit." Abbendis laughed as her longsword thrust at Harkness's throat, forcing him to throw his upper body backwards and unbalancing his mount. While she was armoured, he was not, wearing only layers of roughspun woollens, which afforded him more flexibility. "Does the thought of your precious little Taliah gasping and writhing beneath him-"
"Shut your filthy mouth, bitch!" Harkness roared. The young paladin parried and grabbed Brigitte's wrist as she slashed at him. Using weight and power to his advantage, he set his feet in the stirrups and Joscelin yanked with every once of strength he had while Strom turned abruptly to the right. There was a wet snap as the woman's shoulder popped from its joint. Abbendis cried out in pain and her sword-hand went numb.
The two remaining Crusaders pressed her hard and the shimmering sphere that protected Taliah and her destrier gave way with a swirl of golden mist. Her breaths came in wheezing gasps that left her mouth in a thin trail of white vapour and her parries and counters were growing slow and laboured. Knowing the girl was done, one of the riders broke off when he heard Captain Abbendis cry out in pain. Had she been healthy it would have been a fair fight but as it was, she could hardly breathe.
"Don't make me hurt you, Taliah." She recognized the voice of the remaining Crusader, though Jarod Flamelle's face was concealed by his helm. They had been sparring partners occasionally and the two young paladins had been friends until recently, when the growing corruption within the Crusade had begun to cloud Flamelle's sense of right and wrong.
"Jarod, listen to me." The girl's chest heaved as she spoke. Taliah could feel the long, ragged claw marks Dathrohan had gifted her with burning and itching beneath her tunic. They still refused to heal, though it had been over a month since she'd attacked him and paid for it, and the raw skin would still occasionally break. "Dathrohan is not what he seems! Can you not sense the darkness in him? Can you not see what he is doing to what little remains of the Silver Hand?"
"Taliah, you're ill and feverish. Harkness has been filling your head with lies. Lord Dathrohan is no demon. He only wants what is best for you." Taliah slashed at him, ham-fisted from exhaustion, and Jarod easily turned her aside. "Forgive me, Taliah." With a flick of his wrist he disarmed her, causing Peacemaker to go spinning through the air. Valiant sat on his haunches and spun at Taliah's urging as she attempted to flee, but Flamelle got an arm around her and jerked the girl from her horse. He tossed her before him in the saddle and it dug into the scars on her belly, causing the wounds to reopen and Taliah cried out harshly in pain. Jarod ignored her and jammed his hand between the girl's shoulder blades to keep her from falling. Wheeling his mount, the Crusader looked back at Captain Abbendis as she and the last remaining rider harried the boy mercilessly. "I have her!"
"Ride!" Abbendis barked. She had jerked her shoulder back into place, though she now fought with her left hand. "Fall back to Hearthglen. We'll finish off the boy."
Taliah knew what fate awaited her back at their destination – she would be sent back to the Monastery where she would, in time, be broken and corrupted as Renault and the rest of Crusade had been. Dathrohan would then use her and the children Renault would sire on her to attempt to destabilize and destroy the last human kingdom of Azeroth. "Joss!" Taliah cried desperately as she thrashed like a landed shark. Jarod's grip on her tightened painfully to keep her in place as his mount broke into a canter across the slick, treacherous ground. Valiant was close behind, bellowing in rage and harassing Flamelle's mount as the man tried to make good his retreat. She caught a glimpse of Joscelin as he struggled to disengage from the two Crusaders that harried him. His bright blue eyes were desperate as he watched Flamelle ride off.
"Taliah!"
"Taliah…" She heard her name again, but while the voice was male, it was not Joscelin's. Something gripped her shoulder and the paladin cried out in fear as she shot to her feet. In a move so practiced it was instinctual, Peacemaker cleared leather and slashed. Powerful hands latched onto her forearms in a crushing grip and she was shoved hard against the wall next to the hearth. Pinned between it and a powerful, armoured body, Taliah cried out for Joscelin as she kicked and struggled. "Taliah! Lich's black bones girl… It's me!" The paladin's eyes were blank and confused as the flashback faded and she found herself staring into a wide, armoured chest.
"Release me!" Taliah's normally pale face was white and she looked up at the deathknight with eyes almost wild in fright. The stone wall at her back was heated from the hearth and nearly as uncomfortable as Necrucian's weight crushing her against it. Even through plate, mail and leather, he could feel her heart hammering in her breast and saw the pulse point at her throat pounding.
"You were thrashing and crying out in your sleep." Necrucian looked down at the paladin in concern, and while she had quit struggling, Taliah was still taut as a bowstring. The deathknight's grip gentled and his expression was darkened by concern. "What were you dreaming about that could frighten you so?" When he was certain she was not likely to gut him, Necrucian released her and moved back just far enough so that the paladin was no longer pinned against the wall.
"Nothing." Taliah said far too quickly and took a deep breath to calm herself. She sheathed her blade and her hand went to the aching scars on her belly that throbbed in concert with the ones on her back. Her hands shook as she tried to regain control and the paladin looked away. "Please, just leave me be."
"I'd like to think that in our time together we have become friends, Taliah." Necrucian put an armoured finger beneath her chin and gently turned her head so she had to look at him. "I worry for you." The look of genuine worry upon the dead man's face was more than the paladin could bear.
"I'm fine." Taliah slid away and walked across the large room to the nightstand by the bed. She poured water from the ewer she found there into a basin and splashed the cold water into her face. Slowly, the ghostly sounds of driving rain and the thundering hoofbeats of the past faded, replaced by the smell of fire, unwashed clothing and sweat.
"Sure you are." The deathknight sighed. "It's perfectly normal to sleep on the floor instead of the perfectly good bed that's not twenty paces away." Taliah had been sleeping before the hearth, wrapped in a huge down comforter she'd taken from the bed. Light help her, she had tried to sleep in the gargantuan featherbed that dominated the room, but it had felt like the plush mattress was trying to swallow her. Lying by the hearth had reminded her of many nights she and Harkness had spent together huddled by a fire, be they in derelict buildings or beneath the stars. It had been only that cold comfort that had allowed her to get any sleep at all.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to be debriefing His Royal Highness all morning." Taliah changed the subject and drank straight from the ewer. The water was clean and cold and felt good as it slid down her parched throat.
"I was, but as it's now three bells past midday, I thought I would come and see how you were doing." Necrucian looked the young woman over with a critical gaze and the paladin glanced over her shoulder at the deathknight in surprise. There were no windows to let in the sun and let her judge the passage of time, but she could not believe she'd slept quite that long. "You know, when we were first sent on our mission, I wondered how you were going to get us past the gates." Necrucian crossed his brawny arms over his chest. "Now that I have actually met King Varian, I can see the family resemblance. You could have told me."
Taliah took another gulp from the pitcher, her mouth suddenly feeling dry again. "And what difference would that have made? I know why Fordring picked me. If the missives you carried were lost, I was the only one apart from Tirion himself that was going to get you an audience." The paladin's words were bitter and she slammed set down the pitcher. Water splashed onto the marble floor. "I'll assume you delivered your message and whatnot. Can we go now?"
"Go where?" Necrucian's did no understand Taliah's obvious desire to put Stormwind to her back. From the look the paladin gave him, he decided he was probably not going to like the answer. "If you mean Northrend, the shipping lanes north will be far to treacherous for at least two months to risk going by sea, and it would take you four months to ride from here to Ironforge alone. Besides, it will be months before the Alliance is ready to send its first wave of troops to Northrend. As far as I know, Highlord Mograine and the Ebon Blade are probably still working to secure Acherus from the Scourge." Taliah shuddered at the name 'Mograine' and Necrucian made note of it. "As it stands, I am their representative to the Alliance. For now, my duty lies here."
"Then I suppose this is where we part company." Taliah stated flatly and crossed her arms obstinately over her chest. Her hands had finally quit shaking and her heart no longer felt as though it would leap from her chest though she jumped when a sharp knock came from the bedchamber door. "Bugger off!" the paladin snapped, but the door opened anyway, revealing a short, round woman with an overly pleasant expression. She bustled in and waved the deathknight out.
"Shoo!" The woman seemed completely unfazed that Necrucian was huge, undead and covered in black plate armour. She clapped her hands at him as though he were a disobedient cat. "I will take it from here. Out with you!" The paladin looked between the two in obvious confusion and growing dread.
"I don't think that's -" When the short woman took him by the arm and escorted him through the receiving room, Necrucian found himself unceremoniously shown the door.
"Shoo! I'm sure you and the Highlord have all sorts of interesting things to discuss. Out!" she nearly shoved him out the door and closed it behind him. When she turned to face the paladin, the woman's expression became instantly sweet and matronly as she clasped her hands low before her. Taliah was immediately suspicious.
"Ah Taliah, you're finally awake! It is so good to finally meet you!" The maid approached with her arms wide, as though the paladin were some long-lost daughter. She may have been short and somewhat round, but she was by no means weak, nearly crushing the breath out of Taliah as she embraced her. "You've the regal look of your father, you do. Those eyes, those cheek bones! That beautiful dark hair-" the older woman held the younger one at arm's length and the look on her face turned to one of distaste "Sweet jumping murlocs girl, when did you last bathe?" The woman exclaimed and turned the paladin in the direction of the bedchamber's adjoining bathing room. "Into the bath with you! You smell like something that washed ashore dead a week ago."
"What just a bloody minute. Who the hell are you?" The paladin turned and backed away from the woman as though she thought the maid might bite her.
"Oh, how rude of me!" The woman, dressed in the blue and silver livery of the royal house, gave Taliah a respectful curtsy. "I am Gretchan Balari, head maid to His Majesty's household. Your father sent me to help you get settled in and familiarize you with the palace." Perhaps in her mid fifties, the woman's hair was steel grey streaked with swaths of white and pulled into a severe bun at the back of her head. Gretchan's blue eyes were lively and kind and when she smiled her cheeks dimpled deeply.
"Oh did he?" the words dripped sarcasm and indignation in equal measure "You can go back His Royal Highness and tell him to go fu-"
"My Lady! Such language… I cannot believe you would speak of our King, your father, in such a manner!" Gretchan looked absolutely appalled, not to mention profoundly disappointed. "Now get yourself into the bath this instant! Perhaps you'll sound less like a gutter rat when you no longer look like one!"
"Now wait just one Light damned minute!" Taliah bristled and glowered at the slightly shorter woman. "Stop treating me like a child."
"Then kindly quit acting like one." Gretchan sniffed and seemed to immediately regret it. She held her nose and pointed to the marble tub in the next room. "In. Now." The paladin's eyes narrowed, but she relented and marched through the door. The room was tiled in warm pink quartzine and at it center was an enormous rectangular tub carved of white stone. A privy chair sat in the far corner while a basin stood at the adjacent side of a room the size of the main room of her mother's cottage. The old woman bustled about humming to herself and turned the brass knobs at the end of the bathtub. Steaming water flowed from one of the two spigots while cold water gushed from the other. Taliah forgot her suspicions and could only watch in fascination and approached, running her calloused fingers over the brass knobs – she had never seen indoor plumbing that did not use a hand pump. As Gretchan was fussing over jars of scented oils that lined a cabinet near the basin, she looked over her shoulder. "What are you waiting for, dear? Strip."
Taliah muttered darkly as she unbuckled her swordbelt and kicked off her boots. When she started to pull her filthy, travel stained tunic over her head, the paladin looked at the woman through the neck hole. "Could I get a little privacy?"
"Pish-tosh. Just toss your clothes in the corner and I'll have them burned or buried or something." Gretchan waved away the paladin's concern and poured dollops of thick oil from several different bottles into the steaming bath. The air began to smell like spring flowers. "The water isn't getting any warmer, dear. Get those filthy clothes off. I doubt very much you have anything I don't have myself or haven't seen before."
With an irritate grunt, Taliah turned her back on the woman. She dragged the filthy tunic over her head and tossed it into the corner by the door before skinning off her equally filthy breaches. She had only grown leaner while at sea and the paladin lamented that she could count every one of her ribs. When the maid capped the small bottles and looked back at the paladin, whatever she was about to say caught in her throat and turned into a horrified gasp. Gretchan had seen her share of scars, but the claw marks that marred the paladin's back and belly were still fresh looking, unlike the multitude of others that had turned white with age. "You were saying?" Taliah asked waspishly. It had been five years, but the claw marks were still pink as though they were only weeks old. She padded across the warm stone tiles and stepped into the thigh-high bathtub. Sinking into the hot water up to her chin, Taliah let out a groan before she could stop herself.
"By the Light, child." Gretchan still seemed in shock and handed the young woman a large sponge and a bar of soap. "What gave you those scars?" When the tub was filled chest-high, the maid turned off the spigots and other than the slosh of the water, the room grew quiet.
Taliah did not answer, instead closing her eyes and letting the heat sink into her muscles. It was the third time in four years she'd been in a bathtub and somewhere in her mind she was squealing and clapping like an excited toddler. A hot bath beat a dip in a frigid stream any day and Taliah found herself relaxing. The paladin scrubbed her arms and face, then slipped under the hot water. She surfaced with a snort and Gretchan poured something that smelled like lilies into her hair and began to scrub with strong fingers.
"You poor girl." The maid murmured. "The horrors you must have seen in the North. I shudder to even think." For a long moment Taliah said nothing, nearly falling asleep at Gretchan's fingers scrubbed at her salty, grimy scalp. While she would have rather had her tongue cut out than admit it, the bath felt like a slice of heaven.
"You get used to it after a while, when it's all you see." Taliah replied wearily. As the tension eased from her body, the paladin let her mind go blank, but try as she might, the flashback she'd been roused from refused to be swept away completely. Had Tirion Fordring not heard the sounds of battle and interceded on that day five years ago, Taliah had little doubt about what where she would be now. As it was, Joscelin had been gravely injured and if not for Fordring's care, would have not have survived. She had heard through rumours whispered about the Argent Dawn encampments that Renault Mograine had been killed, slain by his younger brother Darion with the very blade Renault had used to kill their own father. Even now, the thought of the bastard dying in a pool of his own blood made her smile grimly, though she lamented not being one that had run him through. Her solace was that one day she would rid the world of the thing that disguised itself as Saidan Dathrohan, unless someone beat her to that too.
"My Lady?" Gretchan's gentle voice roused the paladin back to the here and now. Taliah opened her eyes and blinked through the steam.
"Sorry, my mind was wandering." When Taliah finished scrubbing herself pink and the water had turned a nauseating shade of grey, Gretchan offered her a robe as she stepped out of the bathtub. It felt so good to be clean again, even if she did smell of flowers.
"Before you put that robe on, let me get your measurements." Gretchan offered and pulled a length of knotted string, a wax tablet and a stylus from a pocket of her white apron. "The Noble Garden celebration will start next week and we have to get you a gown."
The smell of food wafting in through the open doors between the receiving room, bedchamber and bath was distracting and Taliah was only half paying attention. The paladin backed away as Gretchan approached her with the measuring string. "I don't plan on being here one second longer than absolutely necessary. I completed my mission and as shortly I am going to put as many leagues as possible between myself and this place."
The maid's brow furrowed "Whatever for? You're safe here, and you need rest and plenty of good food. By the Light child, a stiff wind would blow you away! Your father has waited twenty-one years to meet the daughter he never got a chance to know, and you're planning to just leave?" It obviously made no sense to her.
"Call it a family tradition." She belted the robe tightly about herself. "I have no interest in meeting the man who abandoned my mother." Turning on her heels, the paladin marched out of the steamy bathing room, Gretchan close behind.
"He did not 'abandon' your mother, Taliah." The maid pulled up short as the paladin turned and her grey eyes flashed.
"I don't want to hear it. If you would be so kind as to help me find some suitable clothing, I would be most grateful." It was so very hard to not verbally lash out at this infuriating little woman, but she did not blame poor Gretchan for her anger. She blamed Varian Wrynn.
The paladin stepped out into the receiving room, following the smell of food. The sconces were all lit and their candles provided cheerful illumination, compensating for a lack of windows in the suite. Four covered trays greeted her on the receiving room table and the smell of food made the paladin's stomach growl. The brief visit to her mother had been the first time in more years than she cared to remember that Taliah had not had to worry if there was going to be even one meal on any given day. Even with the Argent Dawn, supplies sometimes ran low and were rationed. Aboard the Arcareena, it had been two months of salt-beef, hardtack, salted or fresh fish and porridge. Now, new and delicious smells assailed her as she lifted the cover off a dish and she pulled up a chair. Beneath, there was a small pitcher of heavy cream, a bowl of preserved berries in a thick bread pudding and delicate, flaky pastries stuffed with creams and jams.
Gretchan tapped at her lip as she looked the paladin up and down and scribbled something on the tablet with the stylus. "The royal seamstress may have a frock or two that would fit -"
"No." By the tone of Taliah's voice, the discussion was over. "Breaches, tunic and cloak. That's all I need. I can't ride in a dress."
Gretchan's grey brows drew together and her tongue clucked in disapproval "A lady cannot be seen wandering about in men's clothing, Lady Taliah. It's unseemly!"
"I'm a 'lady' in title only, and only because I am a knight. I cannot ride or fight in a dress. Now please… I wish to be alone." She wanted to just frog-march the maid to the door, but Taliah kept her anger reined tightly.
"As you wish, Lady Taliah." Gretchan was flustered, but could tell the young woman's temper was wearing thin. As she left the suite, the maid gave the paladin a sympathetic smile. "Stormwind is peaceful, and since our King's returned, we've enjoyed renewed prosperity. There are no monsters here you would need to fight." The door closed and Taliah found that despite the feast before her, she had no appetite. The paladin slumped in the chair and pushed the food-laden tray away.
"There are always monsters to fight." Taliah sighed wearily.