Zendikar_ In The Teeth Of Akoum Part 21

If she had her staff she could slice them apart, but it had been left at the tower she guessed, most likely among the bodies of her dead comrades. At one of their short and infrequent rest stops, Nissa attempted to connect with her mana and summon a creature, but when she reached her mind out for the lines of power that connected her to her known places, she found herself too weak. Once she managed to summon a gravity spider, but s.h.i.+r simply touched the animal, and it rotted before her eyes.

Nissa was neither fed nor given water and by the second day was pa.s.sing in and out of visions of her homeland of Bala Ged. She was near death when they stopped in the middle of the gra.s.slands of the high plateau. The null threw her down in the sharp gra.s.s, and Biss stood taunting her. When Nissa did not reply to Biss's ridiculous questions she received a kick in her already excruciatingly painful ribs.

"Null," Biss would scream when Nissa rolled over to protect her face. "Roll her back over."

The nulls were the only creatures treated worse than she. Two of them fell and could not get up on the two-day run, but the others kept running. Biss even laughed at the struggling wretches.

But when they stopped on the high gra.s.slands of the plateau, Nissa knew it was no rest stop. s.h.i.+r had been stopping frequently to look at the dirt. At one point he even took a pinch of the dry earth and put it on his tongue and tasted it. Then he put his hand over his eyes to protect them from the sun as he scanned the distance.

"There," he said, pointing, and broke into a run.

One of the remaining nulls grabbed Nissa's feet and began dragging her. When they reached the place where s.h.i.+r and Biss stood waiting, they released her feet. She was sc.r.a.ped and bruised but also interested in what s.h.i.+r was doing.

The male vampire fell onto his hands and knees and began touching the ground, feeling for something.

"Why are we running?" Nissa asked, but n.o.body said anything.

Nissa noticed some oddness in the gra.s.ses of the area as the vampires searched. Some looked a bit trampled, as though others had already been to that particular spot. And she saw signs in the dusty soil-signs that Biss and s.h.i.+r were not bothering to examine, which meant they knew who had made the tracks.

Or thought they knew who had made the tracks. As Nissa looked at the tracks the pulse of blood through her body began to speed up. Soon it was hammering at her temples, and it was all she could do not to smile. She looked around the great expanse and saw no forms in the distance.

"Why are we here?" Nissa repeated. "Why were we running?"

s.h.i.+r looked up from his searching. There was sweat on his forehead and a sour look on his face. Somehow Nissa knew that the vampire did not like to have sweat on his face.

"Null," he called. "Come here and look for a seam."

The nulls fell to the ground and began scrabbling their long claws about in the dust.

Biss said something to s.h.i.+r in the vampire tongue. Even though Nissa did not understand the language, the female vampire's facial expression told Nissa that she was not convinced the null could find what they were looking for.

Nissa stood and began scanning the soil a body span away from the vampires and their nulls. Her elf eyes were good at finding patterns, and instead of looking at the soil, she looked at the patches of gra.s.s that blew sideways in the wind. Soon she was able to see a rough line where the gra.s.ses did not grow.

She saw the sign that had given her such hope again near the seam-footprints, and recently. Footprints she thought she recognized.

"The seam you seek is here, I believe," Nissa said.

Biss looked up and sneered. s.h.i.+r walked over to where Nissa had slumped back onto the ground, then to where Nissa pointed.

"Yes," he said. "It is here. Nulls, to me."

The nulls scrambled over and began feeling for the seam.

"Thank you, elf," s.h.i.+r said turning to Nissa. "For this your death will be quick. I will not leave you to Biss. I shall do it myself."

"Why not kill me back at the tower?" Nissa backed up as the null got their fingers in the seam.

"We would have liked to, but your party escaped. We plan to use you as bait."

"Who are you?" Nissa said.

"We are charged with fighting the Eldrazi brood lineage. When we came upon your band we saw an opportunity to kill or capture the Mortifier, who is perhaps the greatest Eldrazi sympathizer of all time."

"How do you know this Mortifier?"

"We know. Vampire legend talks about him frequently," s.h.i.+r said. "He lives in infamy in our stories about slavery. He sold us into slavery to the Eldrazi, who utilized us as a food source, and when that was not diverting enough for them, as labor. They enjoyed greatly seeing how hard we could be worked until our bodies failed. The Eldrazi put us in chains all our lives."

I would have put you in chains as well, Nissa thought. But instead of speaking Nissa backed up, as the nulls heaved, and the outline of a stone became apparent in the loose soil. Soon they had the stone high enough that they could slide the heels of their hands under and push. The gra.s.ses that grew on the stone were planted in such a way that they did not slide off.

Biss smiled as the stone was raised. But the smile faded on his lips when the stone flew back and Anowon and Sorin burst out of the hole. Sorin had his sword out, and he and the vampire charged the stunned nulls, cutting down the remaining creatures in a matter of moments. Anowon swung hands with their sharp, claw-like fingers in savage arcs, tearing chunks out of the nulls, his mouth set in an ugly sneer. He spun his body around pivoting first on one foot and then jumping onto another to generate the inertia for his sweeping attacks. He even used his slas.h.i.+ng feet.

Finished with the nulls, Sorin and Anowon turned to the vampires. Anowon bent and yanked a bampha from one of the null's hands. Biss was searching the ground, looking desperately for her own bampha, as Anowon lunged, driving the obsidian blade of his weapon firmly into her chest. The impact of his thrust knocked Biss off balance, and she took a series of steps backwards before falling still into the dust.

s.h.i.+r sneered and made a grab for Nissa. But she had been expecting such a move and spun easily away. Anowon stepped forward. s.h.i.+r hissed.

"This is all your doing, Mortifier," s.h.i.+r said to one of them, Nissa could not be sure which. "We were driven from our land because of you, and we have been fighting the Eldrazi fiends because of you. And you will die before this moon's cycle has moved beyond the mountains."

s.h.i.+r took a deep breath and closed his eyes. In a moment the air around them turned cold, and with a shock of revulsion Nissa noticed the gra.s.s around s.h.i.+r's feet wither and die. Why do they have to be so creepy? Why do they have to be so creepy? Nissa thought as the vampire raised his arms. His skin began to hang off his body in patches, then without warning, the vampire's body fell to pieces before Nissa's eyes. First the arms hung so low that the attaching skin tore, and the arms fell. Then the legs buckled, and the corpse of s.h.i.+r fell. When it hit the ground, its head bounced off the pebbles and rolled a short distance before stopping. Nissa thought as the vampire raised his arms. His skin began to hang off his body in patches, then without warning, the vampire's body fell to pieces before Nissa's eyes. First the arms hung so low that the attaching skin tore, and the arms fell. Then the legs buckled, and the corpse of s.h.i.+r fell. When it hit the ground, its head bounced off the pebbles and rolled a short distance before stopping.

Nissa watched as the headless corpse withered to a bloodless husk. Sorin was not smiling for once. Anowon was already looking away to the west at the tallest mountains. Their peaks were so sharp that they truly looked like an upheaval of red fangs.

"Did you do that?" Nissa asked Sorin.

Sorin shook his head.

Nissa did not look at the loose pile of bones and skin. Instead she looked down at the square hole in the ground and the stone that had covered it for so long. "What was this place?" she asked.

"A hiding place," Anowon said. "I knew of this barrow. We have them in all areas of Zendikar. Many are joined with tunnels, as this one is. We entered at a location over there." He pointed.

Just then Mudheel came clambering out of the hole. He bent over and pulled Smara out. The kor did not notice s.h.i.+r's body. In fact, she almost stepped on the vampire's now gelatinous thigh as she made her b.u.mbling way to a small mostly buried hedron. Mudheel tilted his head as he stared at s.h.i.+r's body, as though he was having trouble figuring out what exactly it was.

"It is called a body, you turnip." Sorin said to Mudheel.

"A turnip?" Mudheel said, looking from Sorin to the pile of body.

Nissa let her eyes linger on the goblin.

Sorin handed Nissa her staff. "Ghet was the one who insisted on tracking you," Sorin said. "I would have left you, you know. You must know that?"

"I know that," Nissa said. "You have a mission."

"Yes," Sorin said. "A mission." He took out a comb and began brus.h.i.+ng his hair. Has that comb been with Sorin the whole time? Has that comb been with Sorin the whole time? Nissa wondered. Nissa wondered.

"I know those mountains," Anowon continued, still staring at the extremely jagged red peaks. "The Eye of Ugin lies there in that part of the Teeth."

"That is true," Mudheel said. The goblin had received a cut across his forehead in the battle, and the tip of his ear hung at an angle. Both wounds he had dressed with a mud poultice. "Affa lies at the base."

"Before he died, the vampire s.h.i.+r-" Nissa began.

"-He is not dead," Anowon interrupted. He spoke with his back turned, as he looked out at the high mountains. "I know of this vampire s.h.i.+r. He unincorporated. He dropped his body. He is from an old family. His line was made of a famous Bloodchief and has the funds to hire dementia summoners to dream him back into blood."

Nissa shook her head. She was rarely pleased to learn anything new about vampires. Such knowledge tended to keep her up at night.

"Before the autumn of his flesh, this creature s.h.i.+r spoke of the Mortifier," Nissa said.

Anowon turned. Sorin raised an eyebrow.

"Mortifier?" Sorin said. "What did they want with this Mortifier?"

Nissa shrugged. "They did not say why they were looking for him. But I had the feeling that their main purpose was to find and destroy brood lineage, and finding this Mortifier was a coincidence."

"They were attacking brood?" Anowon said.

"That is what I think," Nissa said. "But neither vampire spoke much, except to taunt."

"So they were not specifically tracking the Mortifier?" asked Anowon.

"It seemed they stumbled upon us." Nissa said. She watched Anowon's face for a tell-something that would show her that he was the Mortifier, as she suspected him to be. The Mortifier was a vampire, after all. A vampire.

But Anowon's facial features did not vary or appear agitated. He simply nodded when Nissa told him about the vampires. Then he turned back to the mountains.

"The Mortifier," he said.

Anowon was far ahead when they began to walk through the clumps of gra.s.s toward the thin lines of smoke drifting sideways from Affa at the base to the aerie peaks. They kicked through the gra.s.s all the rest of that day. That night they slept where they fell on the hard ground, with no food and not even a fire.

They rose before dawn and stopped to lick the dew off the blades of gra.s.s and their weapons. The sky to the east was a dull gray when they started walking again. They moved across the high gra.s.slands, and midday found them with their cloaks thrown over their heads to protect them from the high-alt.i.tude sun which Nissa could feel as a weight on her skin. Clouds pa.s.sed close overhead, carried on the constant wind.

In the late afternoon, the ground began to jump and jitter. The air seemed to pull in on Nissa. The tiny flask of water she kept around her neck boiled, and tremendous crack appeared in the earth. Moments later, lava shot into the air and pulled into a ma.s.sive ball that quickly cooled to black, at which point plants began to grow all over it. It happened in a matter of minutes. Soon the floating ball was engulfed with greenery.

Nissa had fallen next to Anowon. They stood when the Roil was over and the cooling ball of magma floated in the air blasting heat. Nissa looked sideways at Anowon.

"Thank you for getting me from the vampires," she said.

Anowon nodded. "You did the same for me in the tower of the elves. We vampires drink blood, but some of us have honor, if it suits us. I gain from your presence, which is why you are still here."

"How do you gain?"

"You are effective against the brood," Anowon said. "Perhaps you will be the same against the Eldrazi themselves."

Nissa changed her grip on her staff. "Eldrazi?" she said. "You mean the ones that are still imprisoned? How would we fight them?"

"If we woke them from their slumber?"

"But we are traveling to the Eye of Ugin for Sorin to strengthen the spell of containment on the Eldrazi tomb. If they escape, it will be red slaughter."

"That is what he he told us." told us."

"And you do not believe him?"

"There are other places out ... there," Anowon said, waving a hand at the sky, referring to other planes. "Since we talked I have become suspicious. This Sorin is from another plane, and he wants to keep the brood and their masters here?" Anowon stamped his foot on the ground. "Why? Why does he not keep them somewhere else?"

Nissa opened her mouth and then closed it. The vampire had put voice to a question she had been wondering herself. "I do not know why he wants them kept here," she said.

"None of us do," Anowon said, casting a sidelong glance at Sorin.

"What do you propose we do?" Nissa said.

"Freeing the Eldrazi," Anowon said. "Let them go ... back out there." Once again he waved his hand at the sky. "Have you noticed how the Roil has grown in severity lately, since the brood escaped?"

"I do not know when they escaped."

"I was there. It was three moons ago."

Nissa thought back. It did seem as though the Roil had increased. But that could just be her remembering incorrectly.

"And, according to what I've read, the Roil was not always on Zendikar. Ancient texts first speak of the Roil only after after the Eldrazi disappeared," Anowon said, pointing at Sorin. "After that one imprisoned them. And I know from my research that the hedrons did not appear until after the Eldrazi disappeared off the face of Zendikar. There were no hedrons on Zendikar when the Eldrazi walked its surface." the Eldrazi disappeared," Anowon said, pointing at Sorin. "After that one imprisoned them. And I know from my research that the hedrons did not appear until after the Eldrazi disappeared off the face of Zendikar. There were no hedrons on Zendikar when the Eldrazi walked its surface."

"Well," Nissa said. "What are they?"

Anowon threw up his hands. "Whatever they are, they clearly have something to do with keeping the Eldrazi asleep ... with channeling energy. Many of the strange phenomena of Zendikar occur around them, have you noticed?"

"That seems true," Nissa said.

"And did you notice the inscription on that building the brood were building? The one in the hedron field near the ocean?"

Nissa remembered that they had taken the brood by surprise and left none alive. But as for the building itself, she could not bring any of the inscriptions into her mind's eye. She shook her head.

"The inscriptions were made by the brood copying the ancient Eldrazi style of decoration," Anowon said. "Just as the markings on the hedrons are copies. The only original markings are on the palaces and crypts and various other buildings that once housed the ancients."

"The hedron were not made by the Eldrazi?" Nissa said.

Anowon pointed at her and nodded somberly.

When Nissa looked, Sorin was looking out over the distance singing a song under his breath.

Nissa took a deep breath. Hedrons or not, the Mortifier was a vampire, and there was only one vampire in their group. "Did you you ever meet the Eldrazi?" she asked Anowon. "The t.i.tans I mean?" ever meet the Eldrazi?" she asked Anowon. "The t.i.tans I mean?"

Anowon looked at her. "How would I have? They died long before I was made." The vampire narrowed his eyes at Nissa. "Why do you ask me this?"

"I would not blame you," Nissa said. "Every vampire I have ever met is a beast, except you. I can see where you might have tired of your own. I am sure you had your reasons."

Anowon kept staring at her with a confused look on his white face. "What are you talking about?" Anowon said.

"The Mortifier," Nissa said. She squeezed the staff in her right hand, glad to have been given it by Sorin when they rescued her from the vampires and the nulls. With the tiniest twist, she could have the stem sword out.

"You must be he," she said. "The Mortifier."

It was many moments before Anowon spoke. He stood glaring at Nissa.