Daughter of Azeroth

32 | DESOLATION

Her gaze drifted to the once-pretty fountain and its garden, long since fallen into disrepair. During a sudden, brief cold snap over the winter, the pipes burst and the poor fish froze to death. Borda cut off the water supply, but no one bothered to remove the fish, leaving them to rot in the rancid, filthy water, the stink of their decay rising up to Idira's room for days. Without its gardeners, the garden, lawn and rose bushes died of thirst, leaving behind the skeletal spines of their once beautiful branches, now twisted and gnarled.

The other houses on the square lay ransacked, their doors kicked in and windows shattered. For a while mayhem had controlled the streets, as the poorest, lowest classes—unable to pay their way on the caravans—vented their anger and resentment against the privileged in an orgy of destruction. Eventually, even they left. Hunger drove them out onto the wastelands of Westfall, in search of something, anything, to eat. Without ever having to return, Papa had managed to lay an entire town to waste.

She glanced at the letter in her hand, brought to her by Kip. He had found it in the tunic of one of Papa's dead men, after one of his many skirmishes against them. A little blood stained one side of it, but the words were still legible. It was a letter from Nin, handwritten in her elegant hand on a fine piece of embossed stationery. Dated three months ago, she apologised for not having been able to say goodbye in person but she had had to leave in great haste with an escort of Stormwind guards sent specifically to collect her. She learned her royal connections to the previous queen had been enough to warrant her protection despite her fidelity to VanCleef.

She wrote detailing how she had barely had enough time to shut up her house in Moonbrook and leave. Once in Stormwind, she had been taken aside and told she wouldn't be allowed to return until VanCleef was contained. She later saw a generous reward had been posted around the city, inviting adventurers to enter the Deadmines and defeat VanCleef before he could attack Stormwind. She quickly moved on from that disturbing news to say Arinna and Bishop Mattias also sent their love, having accepted her offer to join her in her flight. She reassured Idira if anything ever happened and she needed a home to go to, she could always find one with Nin in Stormwind. She had enclosed a promissory note for ten gold pieces, but Idira had no idea how she could ever access her sudden wealth when the bank in Moonbrook had been closed since the New Year, the vaults long emptied by VanCleef's demands for support. She hid the bank note in her book about growing into womanhood. Somehow she suspected not even that greedy goblin would bother to look in there.

Two months later, in the middle of a broiling hot late spring afternoon, Idira lounged on the steps of the inner courtyard watching Unambi play Vanessa's favourite game with her. It was a made-up game she called Dagger Girl. It wasn't really a game more just pretend, but Vanessa loved to play act she was grown-up like her father, carrying two blades. Using little wooden daggers, she attacked Unambi with a ferocity that was fascinating to watch. Only just turned five, she had clearly inherited her father's catlike agility. Unambi showed her moves, which she learned and executed with alacrity. Blackie came in and sat down beside Idira, swishing her tail and washing her face. Idira petted her, thinking at least Blackie would always have plenty to eat, once the people and all their cats left, rats had arrived, carried to shore by all the ships from other lands carrying VanCleef's supplies.

The front door slammed. Idira looked up, startled. Unambi stood up and pushed Vanessa behind him. Idira hurried over to join them.

'Where is everyone?' VanCleef hollered, his voice echoing through the deserted corridors and rooms of the house.

'We be 'ere,' Unambi called back. They waited. Eight months. Idira had not seen VanCleef in eight months, and now, all of a sudden here he was as though he had just left to run an errand.