World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm Page 0,122

can help. I can save lives. Let me do this.”

Jaina’s eyes filled with tears, and she turned away. He didn’t press her. He had faith in her and knew she would do the right thing.

“I …”

“One day I’ll be king, and not just for a short time. One day Father will be gone, and no one knows when that day will be. It could be as early as tonight—Light knows I hope not, but you know that, and I know it. And so does Father. Ruling Stormwind is my destiny, what I was born to do. And I can’t face that destiny if I’m being treated like a child.”

She bit her lower lip, then dashed her hand across her eyes. “You’re right,” she said quietly. “You’re not a little boy anymore. We both still want you to be, your father and I, but you’ve already seen so much, done so much. …”

Her voice broke and she paused. “You take the utmost care not to get caught, Anduin Wrynn,” she said in a voice that was hard and angry. For a second he was startled, then he realized she wasn’t angry at him—she was angry that there was no other way. “And you stop your father. You make it worth the risk, do you understand?”

He nodded mutely. She caught him up in her arms and hugged him tightly, as if she were holding him for the last time. And maybe, in a way, she was, trying to give a final farewell to the boy he had been. He hugged her back, feeling a cold brush of fear. But even stronger than the fear was a calm, quiet feeling in the center of his being that told him he was doing the right thing.

She drew back and patted his cheek, the tears streaming down her face as she forced a smile.

“May the Light be with you,” she said. Stepping back, she began to cast the spell to create a portal.

“It is,” Anduin said. “I know it.”

And he stepped through.

They were shadows, nothing more, as they slipped along the dark streets that were deserted this hour of the night. They were heading north, into the smoky Dwarven District.

Heading for the Deeprun Tram.

The station was utterly deserted, and of course the tram itself was nowhere to be seen. When it had been running, bright spotlights had been placed every few yards along the track for the safety and pleasure of the commuters. Now that the tram was “closed for repairs” at its Ironforge departure site, Varian had ordered all the lights in the Stormwind jurisdiction extinguished. The eighteen other men and women who now dropped down onto the tracks and ran lightly along the metal path, their feet making barely a sound, were accustomed to maneuvering in the darkness, and the path was a straight shot. Varian’s feet, however, did make some slight sounds, and he frowned to himself. He was in this instance the weakest link in the chain. His training had been much different from those of his compatriots. While he was unquestionably as deadly as they, his manner of attack was quite different, and he was more than willing to let himself to be guided and corrected. All nineteen of them wore masks to protect their identities.

The leader of this part of the mission was Owynn Graddock, a dwarf with darkly tanned skin and black hair and beard. He had been handpicked for the job by Mathias Shaw, head of SI:7. Though most were human, there were several other dwarves and a few gnomes among the company. Varian had insisted they be included. Every trained assassin could do the job, but dwarves and gnomes would stand to benefit the most from regaining control of Ironforge.

Prior to the mission, Graddock had scouted out almost the entire length of the tram’s tunnel himself, so the group knew what to face.

“There’s nae break in th’ glass keeping the water from th’ lake out,” Graddock had reported. “I half-expected that—it would flood the tunnel but good, an’ thus prevent the sort o’ thing we’re attempting here. But I figure Moira eventually wants to be able to use th’ tram—maybe tae mount an attack on Stormwind. At any rate, we’re lucky with that.

“Now, about here … I saw some Dark Irons lurkin’ about. So …” He had looked up, his solemn brown eyes regarding Mathias and Varian. “Here’s where th’ battle begins.”

Now they ran, swiftly and for the most part silently, until they reached the subterranean