Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

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 ever meet the Eldrazi? she asked Anowon. The titans 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.

Let me not mislead you. I would break my teeth off before I helped the Eldrazi in any way whatsoever, he said, a snarl in the back of his throat. And I would never enslave my own people. Never. I am as much a beast as those weaklings with the null. More so. With that Anowon turned and stomped away. He stopped for a second to look up at the plants hanging off the cooling magma ball, then stooped under it and began walking to the smoke fires of Affa.

Anowon passed Mudheel, who was relieving himself as he gazed at Affa, moving his body to make glyphs in the powdery soil. Smara was sitting on the ground to the side of Mudheel, stroking her crystal in her lap.

Why does he stomp away so? Mudheel yelled over his shoulder.

Nissa watched Anowon go. If he was not the Mortifier, then that left She turned to where Sorin was tending his hair with his comb, still intact after their many encounters. He carefully swept his long, white hair back and tied a piece of leather around it. He did not have the vestigial horns at his shoulders and elbows. A vampire? she thought. Sorin was too tall. He had no tattoos. When does he feed? His hair was not black, like the hair of every other vampire she had ever seen. A vampire? Nissa felt like drawing her stem sword and trying to strike Sorin down where he stood. A vampire? But instead she turned and walked toward Affa as she considered her best course of action.

Robert B. Wintermute

Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

Affa lay in the distance. They walked without stopping until the tents of the herders and smalltime relic seekers began to appear. The tents of the stonecutters those that eked out a living selling shards and chips from hedron stones were the shabbiest, amounting to little more than hides stretched over the ribs of undra stompers. The goblins among the stonecutters preferred to sleep in burrows with hides thrown over the entry hole.

Anowon disappeared shortly after encountering the outlying tents. Nissa knew what the vampire was looking for, but she tried not to think about it. Luckily it was past dark when they straggled past the first bonfire, so Nissa doubted Anowon would be detected as he hunted.

Nissa watched Sorin as they walked. At first he appeared to be unaffected by the presence of edible creatures. But soon they passed the tents of the cutters and relic seekers and entered Affa proper, and the amount of life increased. Soon there were humans, merfolk, goblins, elves, and even other vampires moving around the cookfires in the dark. Nissa thought she could hear Sorin s breathing quicken. If he was as hungry for blood as she was for a drink of water, then she had best take the others and leave him to his unutterable desires.

The center of Affa was more built up than Nissa would have guessed. More than just a tent city, it had permanent stone-and-mortar buildings with steep roofs of slate and weathervanes of wrought dragons. The streets were cobbled with intricate designs. The steep mountain peaks stood out in stark contrast against the light brown clay shingles. A small, turreted keep hunched in the middle of town, surrounded by semi-permanent stalls built of wood and manned by merchants selling all manner of wares. Where did they get the wood? Nissa wondered. She had not seen a forest in leagues.

Braziers burned on the street corners, and when Nissa exhaled she was surprised to see her breath outlined in the chilly mountain air.

Nissa turned to Sorin, only to find him gone. Only the shadows around the various braziers remained. Smara muttered behind her as they walked. Nissa turned and caught the goblin Mudheel looking at her in a curious way. Even the goblin knew about Sorin, she thought.

Had Sorin been sneaking off the whole time? she wondered. She had spent so much time watching Anowon for the slightest glimmer of aggression directed at her that Sorin could have supped on her blood twenty times over, if he had had the interest.

Smara s muttering behind became louder as they walked.

May I ask how long we will be walking tonight? Mudheel said with more than a bit of acid in his voice.

Nissa turned. The goblin was carrying Smara over his shoulders, and she struggled on the goblin s back. As Nissa watched, the kor kicked her legs out and generally writhed.

The goblin fought to gain control of the kor s flailing body. After struggling for some moments, a grumbling Mudheel switched his hold, moving Smara from his shoulder so he was cradling her forward across his arms. Nissa was never more impressed to see a goblin s strength as she was at that instant. Mudheel bent its snout close to Smara s ear and hummed the kor a low song. It was a moment so strangely touching that Nissa had to look away. When she turned back, Smara was singing to herself, stroking the smoky, dagger-length crystal she clutched at all times.

I thought we should sleep at the side of the camp that faces the mountains, Nissa said. She lowered her voice a bit.

So we can leave undetected.

The goblin nodded. I have not seen sign on the ground of brood lineage for many days, he said.

Neither have I, Nissa said, looking out of the corners of her eyes at the outlines moving around the fires. But it is not the brood I am worried about just now.

The goblin kept walking, holding Smara in his arms as one might a child. Lady elf, we will need supplies if we are to ascend into the Teeth, you know?

I know. Nissa said. She was still getting used to the goblin speaking and thinking as well as he did. Mudheel could surely be the leader of a whole goblin nation if he wasn t bound to Smara as he was. As kor to goblin.

Where will we find the coin for this? Mudheel said, snapping her from her thoughts.

We will steal it, Nissa said, looking straight ahead. After her talk with Anowon about Sorin and the Eldrazi, her opinion about the importance of the expedition had changed significantly. We will steal and acquire what is needed to climb to the Eye of Ugin and save Zendikar.

The goblin looked at her a moment longer than normal, blinking.

Nissa continued. How many days can we expect to climb to the Eye?

From Affa, two perhaps three days, the goblin said.

And what will happen then? Nissa said. What are your and your mistress s reasons for traveling there in the first place? I suppose I never asked.

Mudheel looked down at the face of Smara, who looked up at the pocked, mole-covered face of the goblin. She feels drawn by the spirit in her crystal.

There is a spirit in that?

A most fabulous one, the goblin said. The words were barely out of his mouth when Smara began struggling again. She bucked her body up and snapped her legs out. Mudheel struggled to hold her. When Smara s struggling became more violent, Mudheel gently put her down on the ground.

The gift is in the loam, Smara screamed, suddenly. She kept screaming it.

Should we both carry her? Nissa said.

The goblin nodded. Nissa took the kor s ankles and Mudheel her wrists, and they hoisted Smara and began walking with her, struggling, toward the edge of the settlement. She stopped screaming.

Nissa waited a couple of beats before speaking again. What ails your mistress? she asked.

Nissa could not see the goblin s face as it walked ahead, but she imagined a wince.

It started after she heard you and the vampire speaking yesterday.

You heard that? Nissa asked.

I did not, Mudheel said. She did.

But how do you know she heard it

She speaks to me, the goblin said as he stopped walking for a moment. In my head.

What did she hear? asked Nissa.

She was bothered by the Sorin vampire s plan.

Was she?

Her ghost tells her to release the Eldrazi, Mudheel said. He tells her to kill you all. He tells her to burn things.

The hairs on the back of Nissa s neck stood. Really?

Yes, the goblin said. Kill you in the fire of the Eye of Ugin.

I see.

The gift in the loam must be released.

You want to free them?

It is not I, the goblin said. It is the desire of my mistress s ghost.

And who is this ghost?

The knower of all things, the goblin said.

The predictor of everything.

And it says free the Eldrazi?

From the back, Nissa saw the goblin look left and right at the mention of the word Eldrazi. It says: free those who shall not be named.

Once again the hairs on the back of Nissa s neck went up. Smara began to thrash violently and to scream words Nissa did not know. Nissa watched the goblin wrestling with the kor. The kor had been cast out of her tribe and given to the wilderness and somehow lived. She had grown up apart from her people through no fault of her own, and after all that a crystal that spoke to her, telling her to burn things and free the Eldrazi.

Smara kept screaming. She thrashed out of the goblin s arms and staggered around as Mudheel spoke in a low voice trying to calm her. The inhabitants of Affa turned and watched the kor. Soon a small crowd had formed outside of a small dry-stack stone building with a flagon of wine painted above the door. Mudheel began shoving Smara none too gently down the lane, and soon they were out of the center of the settlement and hurrying between the tents.

The tents and rough stone shacks started to thin as they reached the far side of the settlement and the boulders started. The huge rocks had been in the settlement, of course people had leaned wood and bones against them as a roofs. One could not hope to move boulders of that size without true magical talent, and from what she saw in the camps as they walked, there was not a great deal of that to go around. The inhabitants were mostly petty peril seekers.

The real power seekers would be excavating other locations like Tal Terig, the tower they had passed that lay under brood siege, or the Hagra Cistern. A real adventurer would not be hovering around at the base of the Teeth of Akoum like an eeka bird. Affa was a place where goblins brought the small relics and Eldrazi charms they had found and could not make work.

As she walked, a form appeared out of the deep shadows that lay far from the fires. Smara kept screaming as hard as her lungs could.

What is that lovely sound? Sorin said. Oh, it is the kor, of course.

Smara reacted to Sorin s sudden voice in the darkness. She struggled and pulled free from the goblin s hands, turned on Sorin, and let loose a string of words Nissa could not understand. Smara sputtered as she spoke. To Nissa they sounded more like complete sentences than the ravings of a mad person, and Sorin listened with a smirk forming at the corner of his lips.

And then Sorin did something that Nissa could never have predicted. He spoke back to Smara in the same tongue she had been speaking to him. They were talking back and forth, arguing really.

From behind, Nissa detected movement and smelled the dusty smell of Anowon. But the vampire stood still, listening.

The arguing continued, with Smara becoming more and more aggravated. At one point the kor stepped forward and swung at Sorin, who stepped back and let the blow pass harmlessly in front of his face.

Nissa remembered how long she had gone without food or drink. She suddenly felt too weak to go any further, and she sat down on the ground. The stars were bright, and the fires of Affa were behind them. They had no coin and no hope of finding any. They would need to steal, and after that they would need to flee. She was tired enough at the thought.

The screaming continued until Smara began spitting. Sorin laughed, and Smara turned and wandered away into the darkness with Mudheel trailing after her. They did not see her again.

Nissa forced herself to stand, and they kept walking. Ahead the dark shapes of the long mountains loomed. Nissa walked up behind Anowon.

We need supplies, she said. Rope and food and water. We will all die without water.

The vampire stopped. Then you had best get some.

We still have no coin, Nissa said. Nothing has changed there.

Sorin stepped up behind her in the dark. It looks like a bit of theft might be just the thing.

I do not want to do that, Nissa said. But I will.

It just so happens I would like to make a stop, Sorin said. I will see what is lying around unattended.

When Sorin had left, Nissa caught up to Anowon.

I should have known Sorin was one of you.

He is not one of me, Anowon snapped. He is an outlander a barong, as you elves say. He is an enslaver, from out there. My people do not enslave their own.

Not so sure of that, Nissa thought, but she swallowed the words. Instead she said, What was Sorin saying to Smara?

They were arguing over what to do at the Eye. Smara wants to free the vile ones and let them live among us, and share their wisdom with us.

That did not sound like a good idea to Nissa, if the Eldrazi titans were anything like their children, the brood lineage.

Do they suck the mana from holes in the earth like the brood? Nissa said.

The ancient texts say different things. Some say they lived off the blood of their vampires. Others say that they drank the land.

Nissa sniffed in the cold breeze blowing down out of the mountains. That does not sound very good, she said.

If they are large I would reason they could drink plenty of land.

Anowon kept walking with Nissa next to him. How long had they been walking? Nissa wondered. She had lost count. It felt like months. Every step was slow and heavy. She stopped and plopped down on the ground for a rest. The fires of Affa were well behind them now.

Anowon stopped and turned to look at Nissa sitting on the ground.

Anyway, Anowon said. The Eldrazi will not tarry here. The mad kor wishes in vain. They would flee into the sky.

How do you know?

All the texts agree they came from there, Anowon said. Why stay here?

You yourself said they eat mana. Why not stay here and enslave us all?

If what you said before is correct, then there are many other places, Anowon said as he raised his hand to the dark mountain. Out there.

Nissa looked up at the star-strewn sky. She recognized the constellations she had seen her whole life: the scute bug and the vorpal weed, the dragon s claw and the hedron. And there were the other vast planes separated by gray areas in space. Would the Eldrazi prefer these places to Zendikar?

Nissa, Anowon said. We must rid Zendikar of this parasite.

Nissa turned and regarded Anowon. What did you see at the Eye before the brood took you prisoner?

The vampire s voice appeared very close suddenly in the dark. I was there looking at the strange crystal formations and the even stranger writing on some of the crystals. Writing I could not read. Writing that is utterly unknown to Zendikar. I imagine it is writing from Sorin s place, but I was unaware that the Mortifier was more than myth.

Nissa nodded.

I was studied these unusual writings before I found two strange beings, perhaps one like you and Sorin not from Zendikar?

I am from Zendikar, Nissa said. I have always been from Zendikar.

Well, the female had fire for hair. I wanted to feed on them both, to be truthful. But before I could, I was waylaid. By whom, I do not know. She moved on without me, but I met a mind mage on the trail who was pursuing the fire mage. I led him to the Eye of Ugin. I was locked out of the chamber, though. I don t know what happened, or how they released the scourge.

What is Ugin?

Ugin was a dragon, Anowon said. I do not know what Ugin is now.

Ugin is a bother and a pain, no doubt, Nissa thought. Like everything on this expedition.

Why did they release the brood? Nissa said.

Anowon had been looking down at Nissa as he spoke. Now he folded his legs and fell into a cross-legged position.

I don t know that it was their intention, Anowon said. But whatever they did, it weakened Ugin s ability to hold in the brood.

You think they accidentally released the brood?

Anowon bowed his head a bit. As you say.

How do you think they released them? Nissa said. If she knew how the planeswalkers had released the brood, perhaps she could release the titans if she could convince Sorin to allow it. And if he does not consent? Nissa thought.

They found a way to open the lock of Ugin, Anowon said. A lock that has defied the Eldrazi for thousands of years. I have no idea how it was done. Perhaps it was their very presence that triggered the lock.

Just then there was a scuff, and Sorin appeared out of the darkness. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and moved his great sword s scabbard so it was in the proper position. He smiled.

I have found what we need, and it is close, he said.

What? Nissa asked.

Supplies, Sorin said as he turned and began walking. Come.

They walked through the darkness back in the direction of Affa. Nissa could hear Sorin s scabbard thumping softly against his thigh as he walked. They neared a fire, next to which a figure was lying, apparently asleep.

Why does this settlement appear so calm and unprotected? Nissa thought. The brood are running feral over the land, and I have not seen an armed guard yet in this settlement.

As they neared the fire, Sorin put one finger up to his lips and pointed at a large tent. The two dulam beasts tethered next to it snorted as Sorin approached, but Nissa stroked their necks and they calmed.

Nissa was unsure how it was going to work. They would wake the man if they went through his tent. He would hear them, surely. Sorin carefully threw back the flap of the tent and entered.

The vampire started handing items out to Nissa and the others. Rope appeared, as did wedges and mallets for climbing, small bags of zim grain and dried meat. Sorin kept handing out goods, but when Nissa saw the jar filled with a glowing substance appear in his hand, she snatched it and tucked it into an inner pocket of her cloak. It was Berm-bee honey a kind of honey made by a berm bee which only collected nectar from the mana imbued flowers blooming in the surging growths after the Roil. A drop filled one with euphoria and prophesies. Three drops caused brief flight. More than three drops caused death.

Soon each of them had more than they could carry. Sorin stepped out of the tent, and without even looking at the sleeping figure, began strapping all they had on one of the dulam beasts. He used a length of rope to strap on two large panniers and filled these large baskets with goods. The rest, long tent posts and odds and ends, he strapped lengthways along the beast s back.

Sorin took the beast s halter rope and led it away into the darkness. Nissa looked back at the sleeping figure before following. If stealing from that poor man would allow her to save Zendikar, then that was how it had to be. The man would probably be glad if she told him the full story. As she reasoned with herself, Nissa fumbled for an earthenware canteen of water Sorin had placed in the left pannier, and helped herself to a long draught of warm, sulfurous water.

They walked into the darkness for a time before Nissa felt comfortable speaking.

We must have the stealth of a baloth. Nissa said.

Nobody said anything.

Did you drug the man? Nissa asked. He could have woken at any moment.

End this charade of innocence, Sorin said.

He will not ever wake. I slaked my thirst on him. I even supped on his heart.

She walked in silence holding the dead man s water jug. They had not slept in days, and suddenly Nissa felt very tired. Yes, it was time to end the charade.

They stopped to sleep at the base of the mountains. The Teeth of Akoum jutted straight off the plateau. It would be a hard climb, she knew. To compound the difficulties they would encounter, they had lost Mudheel when Smara left. Goblins could be unbearable, but they always knew a good path and how to proceed along it. And Mudheel had been easier to live around than any goblin Nissa had ever met.

Each of them stooped and kicked hip grooves in the dirt before falling on the ground and asleep.

Do you know the way? Nissa asked Anowon. She was beginning to wonder if Anowon had fallen asleep when the vampire spoke.

More, or less, he said.

That is reassuring, Sorin said.

I know the general path, Anowon said. My camp had been here in the Teeth, but it was raised in the wake of the brood. I can get us to the Eye.

Perhaps, Nissa said. She fixed her eyes on the tall mountains above her.

Later, in the dark, things seemed unusually quiet. Nothing moved. A lizard croaked somewhere far off, and then another closer by, and suddenly Nissa was wide awake. She rolled onto her stomach and took hold of her staff, waiting for the next lizard call to signal an attack.

But none came. She heard no more lizard calls. The stars blinked above in the empty sky, and in a moment her eyes felt heavy again.

She woke in the dawn darkness as Sorin jostled her shoulder with his boot.

Up now, the vampire said.

Nissa rubbed her eyes and looked around. What had happened to the ambush? She wondered. When the light was good enough she got on her hands and knees to look for signs among the scrubby grasses. But she found only that of a nurm rat.

There was not time to look further. Anowon began to walk.

The climb up the mountains started out hard and never stopped. After just three hours, Nissa was breathing as hard as she ever had. The well worn trail was riven with runoff channels and switched back and forth on an ascent so steep that she felt like roping in. But that would have slowed her down. Nissa knew she could not afford to be slow when the man was found dead beside his fire, there was a high likelihood that someone from Affa would send out a search party.

There was also the issue of last night. Nissa was sure someone had been in the darkness watching them. The lizard calls had been too uniform and their distance too staggered. But Anowon had been on watch, and he had not mentioned anything about the strange calls. Perhaps Affa had sent their party out sooner than she thought, and they were watching for a chance to attack?

Below them Affa was an unmemorable scrabble of huts and tents, and above them the peaks appeared to go on forever. The mountain was constructed of the same red, gritty sandstone as the other mountains in the area, with one large difference: the Teeth of Akoum were as smooth as incisors. Where the earlier mountains had been bulbous and rounded, the Teeth were buffed smooth by the winds which blew continuously and hard. It blew so hard that whoever had created the trail had been forced to cut it into the very rock to allow feet purchase. Without the trail s lip the group would have been blown off the side of the mountain and away within two hours of starting their ascent.

The wind howled so that Nissa finally had to tie a piece of her cloak around her head and ears to protect them and keep her brain from feeling like it would explode.

And exploding was a distinct possibility. The Roil occurred frequently. Nissa could feel them erupting, echoing off the mountains. As they staggered along the trail, the Roil rent the rock above them, and lava gurgled forth from the cracks. The very mountain seemed to rock on some axis before straightening and settling. Another Roil was so severe that Nissa had to fall to the ground and brace her arms and legs against the rock.

Sorin, on the other hand, had begun to float away, pulled by the Roil. But Nissa managed to whip out her stem sword and catch his ankle before the crackling mana drew him far out into the chasm.

After the last Roil they all agreed to use the rope they had stolen in Affa. Nissa was the only one with a harness. She rigged a harness for Sorin out of the rope, which Anowon sneered at as he tied his own.

Vampire style, he said. The harness Anowon tied on himself looked strange to Nissa, constructed as it was with long pieces of rope that wrapped around the hip and shoulders, a style she had never seen. Elf harnesses, and human ones for that matter, looped around the legs, hips, and abdomen. The strangest harness she d ever seen was surely the merfolk s little more than two pieces of rope strung through the crotch and around the shoulders in a figure eight. Anowon s harness took more rope, but appeared, she had to admit, very stable.

The trail became steep enough that they had to use their hands to half-climb, half-walk along the rough scree.

Their end rope was belayed crossways around Anowon s shoulder, so the vampire could with his weight act as the anchor. Nissa had counseled Anowon against the idea. What if he fell, or was carried away by the Roil? But Anowon was leading the ascent, and that meant he chose the rope system. Their climb would be in the vampire style. Nissa sighed and started climbing again.

Nissa wondered how Smara and Mudheel would have made their way up the trail Would the goblin have led? Was theirs even the trail the two would have taken? There were other trails; Nissa had seen them branching off. They were mostly small trails, more than likely used by animals, but Mudheel had been the only one among them that actually knew the way to the Eye of Ugin. Anowon had, by his own admission, only the roughest idea of where the Eye lay. In fact, as Nissa watched the vampire take each of his toe-holds, she wondered more and more if he had any ideas at all where the Eye was.

Nissa wondered where the kor and her goblin minder were. Surely they did not give up their quest to get to the Eye just because Smara argued with Sorin? What if they reached the Eye first and managed to free the Eldrazi?

Nissa had never seen Sorin with so little to say and with such a serious look on his face. Every time the switchback turned back on itself, Sorin stopped and closed his eyes and did not move. Whatever magic the vampire was utilizing was not giving him the answers he desired, for he was frowning when he opened his eyes again and scrambled over the rock.

The way became steeper. and at the same time the switchbacks stopped and the trail steepened. It clung to the side of a cliff that fell away below and spanned above past all their abilities to see. The trail was just wide enough for the dulam to move through. Nissa led the beast as it inched along.

Twice Nissa heard a loud crack and looked up to see a boulder bouncing off the cliff with great bounds as it plummeted toward them. One crashed past, knocking a divot out of part of the trail, which Nissa guessed happened fairly often judging from the chewed-upon state of the trail.

The second rock that fell was larger than the first, and Nissa knew the moment she looked up that it was falling directly at her. She waited until the rock was almost upon her before jumping to the side. She slipped in her haste, and tumbled off the trail.

The wind blasted past her ears. The thought flashed through her head that her rope had not held, but it took up the slack, and her harness jerked her to a jarring stop. She hung leagues above the ground swinging in the gusts.

Nissa has fallen before, of course. Falling was nothing new. Even zeem monkeys fell from trees, after all. But hanging so far above the ground where Nissa had to squint at the ground to make out even a boulder was something new. With shaking hands she hoisted herself up and continued to climb.

By late afternoon the group was higher than the clouds, and the air had turned cold. The crystals that stuck out of the red sandstone were red themselves and as sharp as sword blades. Sorin cut his arm as he passed one, and when he turned to look at the cut he tripped and teetered. Nissa reached out and caught him just before he fell off the side and onto one of the many tipped crystals jutting out of the cliff.

The light of the setting sun shone directly in their eyes as they walked, making stepping even more dangerous. Nissa s breath was a cloud in the high air as she stopped. At that moment the dulam beast missed its footing and struggled desperately as it slipped off the edge and fell soundlessly into the void below with all their supplies. Nissa waited for a sickening thud.

There was no sound. Finally Nissa turned and began walking again.

The night was frigid. The wind had mostly disappeared, but still the air was icy and bit hard at their shoulders and faces. Twice Nissa thought she heard the lizard call that had woken her out of a dead sleep days before echoing through the peaks.

Do you smell smoke? Nissa whispered. Any sound echoed off the crystals, sounding deceptively close or far away.

Anowon shook his head, but Nissa was sure she smelled smoke. And when she stood first watch, the smell drove her to stand and go for a look around. Nissa knew it was not a good idea to walk in the mountains in the dark, especially those mountains, but she could not stand smelling wood smoke without trying to find where it was coming from. It could be some travelers that knew where they were going, after all.

As good as her eyes were in the dark Nissa still tripped. The land around was red from the sandstone and stretched out and down in long jags. She stepped around an outcropping of crystals and stopped. She could tell something was standing against the rock. She wished she had thought to bring her staff and cursed herself for making such an unwise mistake.

Come out, she said.

A figure emerged from against the rock. Mudheel pieced his way to her walking carefully in the dark.

You? Nissa said.

The goblin bowed slightly.

Robert B. Wintermute

Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

Nissa watched as the goblin approached. She d last seen him some days before, following Smara as she stormed away after hearing Sorin s plan to refortify the Eldrazi s prison.

Are you following us? Nissa asked.

It is you who should be following us, Mudheel said.

Why?

You are on the wrong path.

How do I know you are not trying to mislead?

You do not know this, The goblin said. Except why would I, young elf?

He was right, Nissa thought. The goblin and Smara had left, not the other way around.

Why are you telling me this?

The goblin smiled, showing lines of teeth like stones in a graveyard. He hesitated a moment before speaking.

I miss you, he said.

Wonderful, Nissa thought.

And I did not want to push the rock.

You pushed that boulder down on us?

The goblin nodded slowly. Twice.

Both times?

The goblin nodded again. But I did not want to. She made me.

Where is she now?

Sleeping. Mudheel said. She has been sleeping more and more the closer we get to them.

Why are you here? Nissa said. To finish the job?

The goblin frowned. It was not you I was trying to knock off the mountain. It was the vampire. The one who wants to put the ancient ones deeper into their mountain. My mistress decreed it.

Then why are you here?

I want you to take the true path. Your days are few if you do not.

Why?

These mountains contain a protector. You have not seen it yet, but it has detected you. It stalks you.

And you have evaded detection?

Once again the goblin bowed slightly. Nissa wished he would stop doing that.

What is the nature of this enemy?

They are children of the ancient ones.

Brood lineage? Nissa said. We have handled them before.

Here in the Teeth they are the goblin wet his cracked and purple lips wilder.

Why have they not attacked us then?

I have been watching them for many days. They do not act as I thought they would. They seem to consider things more than I had thought.

Nissa looked at the goblin queerly.

So you want us to travel a different path to avoid the brood?

Yes, please.

I will tell you what I think, Nissa said.

I think you are trying to direct us down an incorrect trail by telling me that the brood are tracking us. I have not smelled brood or seen any sign in the dust.

The goblin sighed. On the morrow you will come to a split in the trail, he said. See if you do not. Take the right trail. It is the smallest trail.

And it ends at a sheer cliff?

No, the goblin said. It ends at the Eye of Ugin.

Assuming this trail does lead to the Eye, Nissa said. You know that Sorin will fortify the prison of the Eldrazi, correct?

The wind picked up suddenly and howled past Nissa s long ears at the mention of the ancient ones.

I know the Mortifier intends to do that. But you and the reading vampire have decided to release the gift in the loam, Mudheel said. My mistress will do the same thing. But

But what? Why should we come along if that is what she is doing?

I am unsure she can control whatever comes out of that hole.

Nissa thought for a quick moment.

And you want us there if the Eldrazi do not do what she says if they decide that Zendikar is as good a place as any to dwell?

The goblin nodded slowly before bowing and stepping back into the shadows.

Nissa slept that night on the hard rock. The next day she and the others ascended higher and higher into the mountains. The clouds flicked by so close overhead that Nissa felt she could reach out and touch them.

The trail entered into a series of switchbacks that took them until the sun was past its zenith in the sky to complete. Then the trail split. The main trail continued forward, but two small offshoots extended right and left and disappeared behind the rock. Of the two splits, the right one was the smallest path by far, composed of gravel and dust that had not been disturbed in days. How had the trail not been disturbed?

Let us take this smaller trail, Nissa said.

Why would we do that? Sorin said. It does not lead anywhere.

And this large trail does? Nissa said.

It looks more like a trail that leads somewhere than the small one.

Nissa paused. What could she say to convince them? I m telling you we should take this one, Nissa said.

Anowon stopped and cocked his head at Nissa.

At that moment Sorin pointed, and two mass-of-tentacles brood floated into view ahead. Each of them was different and larger than any the group had seen before. They had very large and thick looking obsidian-like rock mantles that floated around their writhing bodies.

At the same time, three brood with large bone heads and no faces scrawled their ways onto the large trail, pulling themselves on thick tentacles.

Both groups advanced on the party.

Sorin immediately began to sing. His voice boomed forth, knocking both of the large brood on the ground into heaps of blood. The wind blew the smell of putrefaction toward them. Nissa fanned out to the right to get away from it. The flying brood drifted closer. They seemed ponderously large to Nissa, incapable of quickness. But her thoughts were shattered moments later when one of the flying brood shot out a tentacle and caught Sorin around the neck.

Nissa twisted her staff and snapped her stem sword out, severing the creature s tentacle and freeing Sorin. Sorin pulled off the severed tentacle and flung it aside. He spoke two words and raised his right hand to the creature. The air around them went icy cold, and motes of power bloomed around Sorin s hand. The brood missing one tentacle trembled. The next moment a piece popped free from the brood s body and fell beating to the ground. The creature had no face that Nissa could see, but she had the distinct feeling that the brood was looking down at the beating thing on the ground, which could only have been its heart. In the next moment it crumpled and fell to the ground and lay like an empty wineskin on the red rocks.

The last creature flew at her.

Nissa put her staff on the rock of the mountain. When she took a deep breath her deepest fears were confirmed: only trickles of power were reaching her from the various mana tributaries she depended on. Nissa closed her eyes and took another deep breath. She seemed to be unable to catch her mana bonds. It was Zendikar herself that was hindering her, almost as if she wanted Nissa to fall here on this rocky spot. It had happened to Nissa before, of course it was part of the unpredictably of Zendikar but never at such a vital time. There was mana here, gouts of it. But it seemed to flutter around her, like a mothling around a lantern.

To make matters worse, two more brood appeared at that instant. One was the bone-headed variety the other, floating. As Nissa watched they both began moving toward her at an alarming speed. The floating brood tucked its tentacles close to its body, and charged.

Nissa had only a moment. She channeled what little mana she could and formed an image in her mind of an eeka bird a large, pest bird with a long beak. Nissa brought the bird to her and sent it hurling, beak-first at the brood.

The eeka flew straight and buried its beak deep in the brood s mass of concentrated tentacles. The brood stopped its charge and used one tentacle to find the bird and throw it aside. By that time Nissa had drawn her stem sword as rigid as a spike and was charging forward. She pushed off from a boulder and jumped high into the air where she executed a flip and hurled downwards. She plunged the spike into the center of the mass of squirming tentacles, burying it all the way to her fists. Nissa knew that once inside a body, the stem would put out rhizomes and use the blood vessels and arteries to travel through the body. Eventually the roots would fill it.

But that did not happen to the brood beneath her. Instead it found her and began winding tentacles around her neck and body, squeezing until she could not breathe. Nissa clawed at the tentacles and pulled, but the brood s tentacles wrapped around her wrists and ankles and squeezed. She struggled, and the brood s grip tightened. Soon the red rocks and blue sky went black and white, and spots began to appear before her eyes. Nissa felt the strength pass from her.

Anowon ran to the brood and swiped a swath out of its tentacles. Another tentacle swept down at him, and he caught it and bit out a sizable chunk before flinging it aside. But before he could climb any closer to Nissa, another tentacle seized his ankle and threw him back and away.

The blackness was taking over Nissa s view when she felt something on her hands and ankles and neck the tickle of the rhizomes peeking out from the tentacles. An instant later the brood s hold loosened, and Nissa fell to the rock, gasping.

She looked up to see Sorin and Anowon fighting the last two brood. As she watched, Sorin touched the blade of his sword. It pulsed black, and the Mortifier swung and swiped off one of the bifurcated arms reaching for him. The rot from the cut spread like a blue shadow through the rest of the brood s body. The creature s bony head, void of any semblance of a face, inclined sideways at an inquisitive angle as its body suddenly withered to the texture of an autumn leaf and fell to the ground with a dry crack.

Anowon had a bampha stick he had taken from the vampire Biss, and its obsidian edges whirred through the air in a sudden and complex array of attacks so fast that Nissa could not see it clearly.

Nissa turned and looked at the brood that had almost strangled her. The rhizomes from her stem sword had turned into thick roots and tunneled into the rocks. In rich soil those roots would keep growing, she knew, and eventually a blood briar would grow.

But blood briar or not, she had to get her sword out. Nissa searched until she found the stem sword, buried almost past the pommel. She grasped its slimy grip and pulled and pulled. Eventually she was able to rip the sword from the wet body of the dead brood. Thick roots extended off the stem like a brush; she would pare them off with a small knife later. She watched as Sorin assisted Anowon in destroying the last brood. After Sorin jabbed the creature and it lay still on the rock, she walked to them.

Nissa watched Sorin tuck his white hair back behind his ears and smile an impish smile at her. Do you have any more shortcut ideas? he said to Nissa, motioning to the smallest trail.

We had better take it before more brood appear, Anowon said, out of breath. I could not do that again if my very blood depended on it.

With her knife Nissa cut the roots off the stem before sliding it back into its sheath. She tapped her staff on the mountain and started walking down the small trail, which narrowed as they walked. Soon the rocks began to shut them in. They were walking through a deeply cloven gully, silent and dim, with high, ridged headwalls of red sandstone on either side. Crystals with bases as thick and as gnarled as old jaddi trees hung out over the cliffs above, and more crystals bunched into inclines of glinting tips. But Nissa s eyes were on the ground before them.

What do you observe? Sorin said.

Nothing, Nissa said.

Nothing?

No tracks or any sign of recent disturbance, Nissa said, trying to sound more positive than she felt. She wondered how a trail could have no sign of any kind, not even animal tracks. But her throat hurt from the brood s tentacle, and she did not want to explain to Sorin why a trail without any sign was more dangerous somehow than a trail with a sign. As it was, she was going to have a hard time convincing the ancient vampire to release the very creatures he was on Zendikar to imprison. She would save her breath for that debate.

Sorin looked up and around. This place is familiar to me, he said. We are closer.

They walked up the long gulley. Above their heads the high alpine wind howled through the crystals, which stood virtually shoulder to shoulder. But in the gulley there was no wind. There had never been any, Nissa thought as she ran her finger across the top of a nearby crystal and saw it covered with dust.

At the top of the gulley they stopped and surveyed. Ahead the small canyon dipped and narrowed, so the talus and scree channeled down into the black maw of a large erosion hole.

This is the very entrance, Sorin said. This is where I stood long ago, dreaming this prison to life with the others.

Anowon spit into the rocks at his feet. After you meted out pain and anguish to my people, abuse that has lasted for generations, then you imprisoned the very empire you helped?

Sorin turned to Anowon. I was charged with containing them. And I only gave your people what they deserved tenfold.

Anowon rose up, a snarl curling the corner of his lip. Sorin took a step back and dropped one hand to the pommel of his great sword, his own lips curled back off his fangs.

Stop, Nissa said. Something about her voice stopped the two vampires in their places. She pointed upwards.

Anowon followed Nissa s line of sight. He whistled when his eyes fell on them. There were at least ten lava drakes, each perched on the tip of a huge crystal.

Sorin sniffed. No, he whispered. What energy I have left must be kept for the containment spell.

Nissa turned to Anowon.

I cannot sup on a drake s blood, Anowon said. Even if I was able to slay one of them.

You were both more than ready to fight each other a moment ago, Nissa said.

Nissa looked back at the drakes. We cannot match them, she conceded. But we can run into the hole before they reach us. She turned to the others.

We will drop the gear here and run for the hole, Nissa said.

But they will reach us before we reach the hole, Anowon said.

Nissa cast the vampire a sidelong glace. If we run like vampires they will reach us. Run like elves. Nissa turned back to the drakes and the hole. Ready? she called.

Robert B. Wintermute

Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

The drakes saw them almost immediately, and they took to the air a second later. Nissa clutched her staff and ran as hard and as fast as she ever had, skipping between the larger boulders and trying not to slip on the gravel. She d seen drakes before but always been careful to avoid them, knowing that in their way there were more dangerous that a dragon. A Zendikar dragon would not normally bother itself with two or three beings, but preferred lazy activities like sleeping in a deep hole or sitting in Glasspool soaking its scales.

Drakes were different. Aside from the obvious difference drakes had no arms, only legs and wings there was the large difference in bearing and disposition. Drakes were mean and dim. Their love of hunting in packs made them extremely difficult to fight, and their appetite was prodigious.

The drakes were on them before they reached the hill. Nissa had her stem sword out and managed to lop the leg off a drake that was extending its claw for her. She dodged another who had landed in her path and attempted to bite her.

A third drake swooped down and seized her in its claws and bore her up, at the same time it bit down at her head. But when it opened its mouth for the lethal bite, it received a thrust from Nissa s stem sword which traveled through the top of its palate and into its brain. Mana from the sword pulsed through the drake s body. Nissa had a flash image of rhizomes spreading out from the stem and constricting around the drake s brain and spine.

Nissa was able to land first with her feet and roll out with no injury, except for the deep gashes in her shoulder where the drake s claws had been.

A moment later she was charging over the rocks to the gaping maw of the cave. She reached the cave just as another drake was sweeping down on her. But the flying beast decided against following her into the darkness of the cave, preferring instead to land on the rocks outside and peer inside cautiously, screeching uneasily.

Nissa took a rock from her feet and threw it at the drake, hitting it in the eye and driving it away. Soon Anowon was in the cave having found a way to avoid attack completely. Sorin was soon to follow, with two drakes hounding his progress, and three bodies quivering on the rock, fallen to his sword.

Soon the drakes gave up and flew back to their perch, where they screeched and nipped at each other and began to fight.

Nissa turned and peered into the darkness of the cave. Have we another tooth, Anowon? she said.

The vampire pulled a tooth from his cloak. He whispered to it, and it burst to light. Outside the cave the drakes were screaming. Holding the tooth between his fingers, Anowon looked around the cave. Markings covered the walls, lines and lines of writing executed in a script so twisted and long that Nissa could not tell where one word stopped and the next began.

Anowon held out the tooth further and looked closely at the etchings. These are utterly foreign to me, he said at last. I cannot decipher even one word.

We left these lines, Sorin said. When we imprisoned the Eldrazi for the second time. They talk about the crimes committed against the planes.

Anowon blinked as he considered what Sorin had said. The Eldrazi were imprisoned more than once?

They were imprisoned on another occasion, before my time, Sorin said. Even I am not that old.

Anowon spit on the ground.

And these are the titans? Nissa said, pointing at the pictures in the rock. Three grotesque images looked hauntingly like the brood lineage, but different. She could not pull her eyes off the strange creatures, which looked a strange combination of insect, brain, and kraken. None had faces of any sort. And despite herself, Nissa shivered.

They are Nissa began.

Very terrible, said a screechy voice from behind. Mudheel stepped out of the shadows.

Nissa jumped. Mudheel! she said. It was all she could think to say, and she immediately regretted saying it as the word echoed down the cavern.

Where is your kor mistress? Sorin said.

The goblin s eyes cast down and then around the darkness. Mudheel shrugged his shoulders.

They stood in the near dark of the cave looking at one another. The drakes screamed outside as they fought over the meat still clinging to the bones of their fallen comrades.

How did you get past the drakes? Sorin asked, after a time.

I crept through at night, the goblin said.

Little dragons see like humans in the dark.

Well, Nissa said. Should we continue to Ugin, whatever it is?

The goblin stared at her.

Which way is it? Nissa said, finally.

Oh, Mudheel said. There. The goblin lifted one hand and pointed away, where the cave continued into blackness. But we cannot go there.

Why? Anowon snapped. Why not?

Because my mistress is surely there.

That does not concern us, Sorin said, brushing past the goblin. Even now I feel the containment spell weakening. I must reach it.

She will be vexed, Mudheel said.

Nissa watched the goblin closely. What is she like when she is vexed?

She is most cruel, Mudheel said. The words stuck to Nissa for some reason, and she looked around before following the others down into the darkest part of the cave. Nissa listened for Mudheel, who finally followed them.

They walked downward for many hours. Anowon was at the head with the glowing tooth pinched between his fingers. The cavern remained large. Large enough for a full grown basalt crawler to move through without touching a scale, Nissa thought.

Each of their footfalls bounced off the wet of the deep cavern and came echoing back to them as deep growls. The others seemed to make no notice of the noise.

But there was another sound, a far quieter but more persistent sound than their footfalls. Nissa stopped and turned her head, angling her long ear for better hearing. The sound was too irregular to be drips. It occurred in sudden bursts and then stopped for a time.

A bluish glow began to appear in the volcanic cavern ahead. As they walked the glow became stronger, until it was bright enough for Nissa to see her hand grasping her staff. The rock on either side of them began to slope downward, until they entered a huge carved cavern with no floor Nissa could see. Many thin causeways of chiseled basalt zigzagged at different levels across the deep chasm and trailed to a tunnel filled with blue light on the far side of the cavern. Multiple levels of stairs and paths joined the chiseled basalt causeways. The middle of the immense chamber was littered with debris, some of it scorched. But the lack of a floor was not the feature that caused Nissa s heart to start beating fast.

Hedrons floating in the air and pointing at skewed angles. In the middle of the chamber many hedron sat side to side and piled on one another, but they all seemed to be pointing loosely at the tunnel on the far side of the cavern. It was as if a great magnet had pulled them into place.

The cavern was so large that Nissa could see neither the floor nor the ceiling, and as she stepped out onto the causeway, the air seemed to ripple and refract.

Wait, Sorin said. He put one cold hand on Nissa s shoulder and drew her back. I will go first.

Nissa stepped out of the way and let the vampire pass. They followed him across the huge cavern and entered another after that and another after that. The light grew brighter and brighter until a glare caught Nissa s eye ahead. Sorin stopped and turned. The corner of his cloak swirled the foggy blackness under the causeway.

Ahead is the entrance to the Eye of Ugin, Sorin said. I will talk for us as it is I who will have to sing the containment back to fortitude, Sorin said. He fastened Nissa with a hard look. Do not speak.

Nissa jerked her chin up. Must you strengthen the prison? she said.

Sorin turned his head. The most particular expression played across his face.

Yes, he said. I must. Otherwise the Eldrazi will scream free and eat your precious Zendikar in three bites. Do you not hear them? That far off sound? That is them clawing at the walls of their enclosure. They have been scratching for centuries. They never stop.

Nissa heard the same irregular sound she d heard before, only now it was louder. A long, slow scraping.

How are they unable to get out? Nissa said.

Keeping them contained is the job of Ugin, Sorin said. The containment spell is one the ancients could never hope to break, without help from outside. To break the spell, the ancients would have to perform an action that is against their fundamental nature.

They are their own prison? Anowon said.

Precisely, Sorin said.

Yet the spell fails.

Because of outside intervention, Sorin said.

They all stood listening to the Eldrazi scratching on the walls of their prison.

We do not want them here, Anowon said.

No, Nissa said, shaking her head. We do not. They are the cause of Zendikar s Roils, her gravity wells

They are strangers here.

Sorin regarded them both for only a moment before speaking.

Zendikar is naturally dangerous. The mana existed here before the Eldrazi arrived and will remain here after they have rotted to dust. Zendikar is savage, and its most savage behavior is in its inhabitants, Ghet.

Do not call me Ghet, Anowon said. I will not have the slave masters of my people sucking the energy of Zendikar as they once sucked vampires dry.

You know they would leave this place and travel to other planes, Nissa said.

I do not know that, Sorin said. There is mana in abundance here. That is what they lust for.

They will leave, Anowon said.

How do you know?

I know.

How can you?

Nissa turned to look at Anowon. It was a good question, she thought. How could he know?

Anowon snarled. I have read it.

Sorin sighed. He looked at the bright light ahead of the causeway.

It is true that the magic we wrought to bind the Eldrazi in their prison has had some undesired effects on this plane, he said. But the prison is not the only reason this place is so wild.

The hedron stones? Anowon said.

Are devices we made to condense mana and keep the containment spell strong.

Anowon s smile was unrestrained and large.

Then you will cease this travesty, Anowon said.

By your own admission

Enough! Sorin boomed. Nissa staggered backward, pushed by the vampire s voice.

I am Sorin Markov, the vampire boomed. Rock dust sifted down from the ceiling of the cavern as his words echoed. Sorin straightened his arms to each side. Blue-black energy snapped around his fists. I will slay anyone attempting to stop me from performing the task given me.

Sorin s words were like weapons bludgeoning down on Nissa. She found it difficult to stand. The sound was in her, in her head echoing. Mudheel lay face down on the causeway next to her covering his head in an effort to escape the sonic assault.

Nissa squared her shoulders and stood despite her body s intense desire to fall to the ground. Years of Joraga training had given her the ability to ignore pain, but Sorin s voice was something else entirely every part of her screamed in agony. Still, Nissa could tell by the shocked expression on the tall vampire s face that he was impressed she was still standing.

Blinking with effort, Nissa twisted her staff and drew the stem sword.

The words Sorin said were unknown to Nissa. But the pitch and timbre of Sorin s voice increased, and she felt those words ringing off the marrow of her bones. Yet still she stood.

Sorin winked at her before turning toward the light at the back of the chamber. He dropped his hands and the light brightened. Nissa could see the huge stone face of a dragon. Arc-shaped patterns filled the wall around the dragon s face and it was from these arcs that the glowing light emerged. The wall appeared slightly fluid. A huge stone hedron covered with markings writhed to the right of the dragon s eyes.

But the hedron was not writhing. Something on the hedron was writhing.

Nissa squinted for a better look, but in the low light it took more than the usual time to recognize the form of Smara. The kor had straddled the hedron and appeared to be pounding its pocked sides with her fists.

She moaned as she hammered. He body was smeared with dried mud and pebbles. Long, bloody abrasions where she d torn her skin rubbing the mud onto her skin crisscrossed her arms and legs.

Mud had been smeared in circles around her eyes, as well. But her eyes her strange, large eyes were unchanged. They stared unblinking as she raged with her fists against the stone.

Why mud? whispered Nissa.

To bind the land, Mudheel said, his face still down. The hedron is the key. It must be destroyed.

Sorin took a deep breath and straightened at the sound of the whispering. He looked out at the hedron, and a deep chuckle echoed from his throat when he saw Smara s sad form.

But the humor was gone as fast as it had appeared. Sorin closed his eyes and opened his mouth and began to sing. It wasn t a song like any that Nissa had heard before. She could not understand any of the words, and the melody was more of a dirge. Yet as soon as it began, a strange change occurred with the dragon s face. The dragon s eyes lit with the same blue glow that emanated from the arced patterns above its head. And the hedron s markings crackled with lightning fire.

Smara fell off the hedron. For a moment Nissa thought the lightning fire had struck her down. But after a second the kor struggled to her feet. Then she fell into a caterwauling run at Sorin, the rags of her clothes fluttering out behind as she gained speed.

It took the kor some time to make her way along the causeways and stairs, but soon she was near. Sorin did not see her. His eyes were closed as he sang. Smara charged across the space and crashed into Sorin, who let out a grunt and stumbled backwards. Nissa felt the force that had been holding her down release and she rose quickly to her feet, stem sword in hand. But Sorin did not notice her he was too busy shielding himself from Smara s frenzied attack.

Nissa quietly raced to the hedron. It was large. Some of the white flame playing across its runic surface licked out toward her as she drew near.

From behind, There was a tremendous pop and singe and the air was filled with the smoke of charred meat. Nissa knew that Sorin had ended Smara s rebellion.

She had only moments. Only moments before Sorin dealt in a similar way with her. Looking down at her hands, Nissa realized she had only one option. She had never attempted to seed stone, and she was not at all convinced that it would work. But in a split breath she joined her staff and mouthed the familiar enchantment. She struck the end of it squarely on the hedron, and green fire funneled down its shaft. The fire snapped Nissa back and she found herself sprawled on the ground, half of her staff still clutched in her hand. The other half singed and lying under the hedron. It seemed as though the hedron had absorbed the spell without effect.

There was no familiar, glowing dent where her staff had struck the hedron, and Nissa began to despair her effort. From behind, Sorin sucked in air for an incantation that Nissa suspected would almost surely be his last, fatal strike against her. All for Zendikar, she thought as she sank back, expecting the blow from behind. All for the forest. The brilliant stars and the face of the moon.

When the blow did not come, Nissa turned. Sorin was standing with his eyes closed, still singing. A certain blackness emanated from his mouth like fine smoke as he sang.

Then a crack appeared in the hedron. Nissa turned in time to see. At first the crack was as thin as a spider s leg, then it widened, and a second later the tip of a bright, green leaf unfurled from within, and the crack widened. Nissa leaned forward just as a shoot, thick as her arm, uncoiled and rented the crack wide. The crack traveled up the hedron until it stopped at the tip, and the hedron broke cleanly into two pieces and tumbled with a tremendous crash onto the stone floor. Green arced from shard to shard, and then the fire blinked out altogether.

Sorin s voice boomed louder from behind. But clearly the vampire could not undo what had been done. Moments later his song took on a high, screeching sound, and then stopped abruptly. Nissa looked back at Sorin. His eyes popped open to reveal corneas the color of molten gold.

Well, Sorin said, clapping his hands together.

This is my queue to leave. You, my dear fools, can deal with the consequences. They will be far worse than anything I can do to you. The vampire brushed a hand down his tunic, and Nissa turned her attention back to the broken hedron.

The hall echoed and shook as the hedron halves rocked in place. But instead of quieting when the halves came to rest, the cavern continued shaking, until large chunks fell from the darkness above and the cave floor began to pitch. The eyes of the stone dragon s face were still glowing. She smelled Anowon suddenly standing next to her.

Well? Nissa said to Anowon who said nothing, but stood at the edge of the causeway looking down into the darkness at the bottom of the cavern.

Robert B. Wintermute

Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

As the cavern shook, small jags of lightening snapped between the hedron halves. Nissa closed her eyes and squared her shoulders as she waited for the last moment. Zendikar would flourish once again and the Eldrazi would be gone forever.

Mudheel was next to her retching he wiped the corner of his mouth and looked up at the hedron with tears streaming down his face. Mistress he said. No.

The cavern started to shake. Three massive tremors shook the cavern sending more rocks showering down. And from somewhere deep in the mountain came a sound so ominous that Nissa turned away from the face of the dragon and started running. But the sound followed her, like the moan of ten thousand undead, and something else a rushing roar.

Out, Anowon yelled above the roar.

They ran. Twice Nissa almost slid off the causeway, catching herself at the last moment. Of Mudheel, there was no sign.

They crisscrossed over the causeways with rocks falling all around until they saw the light of the cave entrance ahead. The cavern shuttered again and Nissa turned back for a final look at the Eye or Ugin. Something was rising out of the depression under the causeway. Shapes danced in the darkness. The shadow of a tentacle larger than any she d ever seen flopped on the causeway behind, shattering it to pieces. She felt the stone around groan and buckle as it came undone and fell to bits.

The drakes were still perched atop the crystals when Anowon and Nissa burst out of the cave mouth. The small dragons surveyed them standing in the billows of dust issuing from the cave s mouth. Then they took off and flew away.

The ground began to shake more violently. The roar behind suddenly swelled to a deafening bellow and Anowon and Nissa leaped back against the rock next to the cave mouth.

And just in time. Moments later enormous tentacles snaked out of the cave mouth, followed by jagged, bony arms. The very mountain began to come down around the tentacles. What could only have been an Eldrazi titan glided out of the hole, its tentacles slathered in mucus.

Nissa began to run. The others followed. Whatever was coming out of the cave mouth was huge. The ground was fracturing under it. Nissa glanced back as she ran the red tooth, the spire at the top of the mountain, cracked and tumbled down over the creature s bony neck. Nissa and Anowan ran as hard as they could until the ground was not shaking as much. Nissa stopped and turned.

As Nissa watched, the creature nuzzled its bulbous bone face into fine scree and rubble which was all that was left of the mountain. In appearance the beast looked much as a brood lineage, but larger by far. As tall as a turntimber tree. And the smell! The smell made her want to die. Rotting meat and mushrooms and sulfur from the very bowels of the rock.

But there were differences, aside from its immensity. The small plants eking out an existence in the scree withered to black smudges on the stones as the titan neared. A stone pig fled its burrow in terror, but fell to sludge as it passed near the titan s tentacles. Nissa felt the terrible power as well. She felt the force within her body pulling toward the tentacled menace, as iron to a magnet. It was hard for her to work her lungs at pulling air. Next to her, Anowon shuddered and slipped down the rock they were huddled against.

The next titan to emerge from the ruined mountain was nothing more than a mass of tentacles. The porous latticework structure floating above it scraped the top of the cave mouth as it was born from the cave mouth. Nissa blinked and found herself crumpled next to Anowon on the ground, she did not know she was holding her breath until she exhaled.

The last titan used its split arms to drag itself out of the mouth of the cave. It was a long creature, longer than the other titans and more terrible somehow. Once it had pulled its rear tentacles out of the cave, this titan straightened itself. Its chitinous exoskeleton crackled as it stood taller than anything she d ever seen. Nissa found herself cringing.

All standing together, the titans moved down the canyon. The very light around them bent as a desert mirage might, and the rock they moved over cracked to dust. As they neared the edges of the canyon, great chunks or red rock broke off and desiccated to dust filtering down to the canyon floor.

The last titan slithered to the middle of the canyon, and even its sound did not adhere to the normal rules of nature. Instead of the crushing sound that should have been heard as it made the rocks flat, Nissa heard a high-pitched squeak and low, moaning roll as the sound in the canyon bent and reverberated in the titan s dominion.

The terrible creatures moved close and as their tentacles wound together they began to make a sound that Nissa could not have imagined in her worst nightmare. At once it was the shriek of wounded warthogs mixed with the sharp cut of a gale wind. The titans raised their clinging arms and began to bellow at the sky.

Nissa glanced at Anowon, expecting to see the fear that she herself felt at seeing these massive creatures screaming at the sky. But the vampire would not meet her eyes, and when he did it was not fear of the Eldrazi that she saw. It was hunger. He s hungry, she thought with a dull dread.

Mudheel was gone. That left Nissa, alone with a vampire who had not eaten in days. Had not Sorin told her that Anowon was always trying to drain her? And that he, Sorin, kept this from happening? She did not doubt it seeing the hungry look in Anowon s eyes just now.

But by this time the titan s vocalizing had become deafening. Some of the canyon walls singed to vapor and the rest compressed to powder and blew away in the hot wind. Nissa watched as the creatures, their tentacles intertwined, moved down the canyon, knocking down walls. When they came to the mountain, they did not stop. The rock simply fell to pieces at their touch. And they stopped for a moment to nuzzle the rubble until it, too, was nothing more than powder sucked dry of any mana.

Nissa lay on the ground, exhausted. When she looked up Anowon was watching her, his chin resting on arms crossed over his knees. The pupils in his strange dark eyes were narrowed to points as he stared.

Rocks clattered and a form lurched out of the dust, dragging one leg. Nissa hopped to her feet and felt for the stem sword. But the figure turned to her and chuckled.

Oh, this is rich, Sorin said. You managed to break what could not be broken, and you almost did me to death in the process. Now you are responsible for what happens to your precious Zendikar.

Nissa s mouth must have gaped. I did not know the seeding would undo such a desperate enchantment, she stammered.

Sorin took a deep breath and released it. What is done is done.

Nissa looked to the path of destruction left by the titans.

With his most arrogant smile Sorin turned his eyes on the other vampire. Anowon, come here.

Anowon did not move, did not even meet the vampire s eyes.

I do not serve you, Mortifier, Anowon said. You should be dead now.

I should, Sorin agreed. But now that the elf has released the scourge, I will be needed elsewhere.

First you will come with me to Guul Draz and answer for your crimes to the Septumvirate in Ib Nimana, Anowon said.

Thank you for the invitation, but I will have to decline, Sorin hobbled over to a rock and sat down. His great sword clattered on the talus as he bent and sat down.

Nissa took a deep breath.

You know what direction they are moving, don t you? Sorin said.

Nissa imagined the titan s path and closed her eyes.

Yes, you see, Sorin said. Toward your jungles.

He looked from Nissa to Anowon, then back again. What do you think will happen now? he said. Does your plane feel different now that the ancient enemy is released?

I will not even ask the Ghet, Sorin said.

I can tell the answer from his face.

Nissa glanced at Anowon. He was staring at Sorin with extreme distaste.

Sorin swept one arm out. Zendikar is the same place as it always was. The brood still run rough-shod over your lands. The Roil will perservere And elves will still bless the rest of us with their stunning opinions. But I, Sorin leaned foreword and stood. I will have to let you see how this all turns out.

You are not leaving, Anowon said. You are coming with me to Guul Draz.

Oh, Sorin said. You were serious before about visiting the Septumvirate? Again, I am sorry.

Anowon stood.

Sorin was easily a head taller than the other vampire, and far more formidable, Nissa knew. He looked at Nissa. Do not let him slake his disappointment-thirst on you, he said.

There was a sudden crash and one of the mountains in the direction that the titans had traveled began to teeter and crumble. Anowan turned to watch as the high mountain rocked far to the right and began to very slowly topple.

Sorin closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. Nissa stepped back involuntarily when the vampire s body tensed and began to shake. A deep growl emanated from his throat. Nissa could clearly see the veins standing out in Sorin s neck. Is the planeswalking? After a short time the growl became a whine and then Sorin s skin began to glow very slightly. He opened both eyes and winked one of them at Nissa. Then Sorin was gone, and the air which had surrounded his body rushed with a sudden pop.

Nissa s first inclination was to follow the vampire, to plead with him to come back to Zendikar and set things right re-imprison the menace she had just released. But the moment passed and Nissa did not concentrate on moving through the Eternities.

Anowan had missed the whole event, but she felt he was meant to. He stood rapt, his eyes fixed on the crumbling mountain. Nissa did not want to explain what had just happened. It would be difficult to do so clearly, anyway. And there was something more important she had to make painfuly clear to the hungry vampire standing opposite her.

Nissa reached down and drew a long dirk from her boot and snapped it out so that the tip rested on the back of Anowon s neck. Sensing the danger, he turned and lunged. Nissa stepped to the side, caught the back of his neck with her left hand, and with the force of her backwards step, whipped him to the ground face first. Then she drew a length of rope from the pack and bound Anowon s hands behind his back.

Nissa yanked the vampire to his feet. You will walk bound until Affa where we will part ways and I will travel to Bala Ged. My time trusting vampires has long since past, Nissa said, as she pushed Anowon before her along the trail. I am going home.

Robert B. Wintermute

Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

Nissa Revine walked toe-to-heel along the rope that lead to the Joraga council sling. The other rope, the only other way to get to the council sling, the main meeting place of her tribe where the young elves were born and raised, was full of other Joraga walking easily to the meeting. Even though it took a bit more time to navigate the many trapeze ropes that joined her tribe s meeting slings and sleeping pods, Nissa knew that the advantages outweighed their inconveniences. They could be cut easily in a siege. And vampires, despite their stealthy quickness, had trouble with prolonged balance. Such knowledge, discovered by her Joraga forbearers, and paid for in blood, had saved her tribe more than once. So Nissa was glad to slow down and walk carefully along the rope to the meeting sling.

Of course, the trapeze lines would not hinder brood lineage or the Eldrazi titans in the least, Nissa thought as she watched the few remaining Joraga make their way to the meeting.

When she got to the sling, she followed the other Joraga inside and strode to the front bench. Unlike a Tajuru council meeting, the assembled Joraga did not speak. Outside council they were loud and vulgar, unless hunting. Strangely, she found herself missing the Tajuru prattle the inane jokes and hushed giggles.

Nissa raised her hands and all eyes were on her. There were not that many eyes Nissa noticed with a sudden pang in her stomach. Most of the seats stood empty. Was this really it, all the Joraga left? They did not even fill half of the sling.

It falls to me, Nissa said. To tell you we have word of the scourge, at the Slim Blade.

Nissa imagined the Slim Blade, that tongue of land where two famous rivers met a place at the western edge of Joraga territory. She listened for the response to this news. As usual there were no significant sounds. But that did not mean there was joy in the crowd. She heard a very slight intake of breath from two elves in the front row. That could only mean exasperation and fear two emotions that were expressly forbidden in the sling or anywhere else in the Joraga rule.

Half will go, Nissa said, simply. with the bags. As your leader, I will be one of those going. She lowered her arms, turned and walked out of the sling. The rest of the Joraga waited until she had left and then filed out without a sound. On the planks that encircled the sling Nissa broke their number to half and all made their way to the supply sling.

Soon her time as leader would be over, Nissa thought as she waited in line with the other Joraga, and she already knew what she would do.

Nissa took one of the bags from the supply chief. She slung it over her shoulder. It was not a heavy thing after all, and she and the twenty Joraga began their walk to the west. As she walked the contents of the bag shifted and jiggled. She liked that.

The trip took two days. Nissa could not help but notice that such a trip would have taken a Tajuru double the time as they walked along their foolish branches and took needless breaks. None of this was done by the Joraga. They walked on the ground, unafraid. And food was eaten once per day, before their short nap at daybreak.

At the head of her squad, Nissa s job was to notice everything in the jungle. She did this. But as her eyes flitted from movement to movement, she found herself seeing a certain humanoid shape in every shadow. They always dissipated after she blinked her eyes. But it was unmistakably the same form every time. Anowon. She d left the vampire outside of Affa, tied up and buried to his neck in the sandy soil. She d left him with a stern warning: follow and die. A new stem sword was being grown back at the sling, but until then Nissa kept an arrow nocked on her bow string at all times.

She wished she had to worry about Sorin visiting. Once Anowan was dealt with, she tried to follow Sorin, but his trail was too fragmented. She had planeswalked through the Eternities and found his first couple of stops on rocky, seemingly abandoned planes. On another plane where every surface was as the surface of a pristine pond, she found an old human who said he had seen a white-haired stranger. But that was all. The thin, trail left when individuals walked through the ther had dissipated too much to be followed, and Nissa eventually gave up her search.

She would try again.

She would ask Sorin to come back and re-imprison the menace she had unleashed on Zendikar. He had not told her what would happen if they were set free. She had not understood fully. Now Sorin simply had to come back and set things right. The outbreak was simply too large for her to deal with alone.

Suddenly Nissa stopped. A far off movement in the undergrowth made her drop into a crouch. After a second a bird flew out, and she straightened and started walking again.

Then the Joraga were at the site of devastation, which looked very much like all the others. The edge of the destruction started when Nissa began to notice the plants of the jungle looked sick, yellowish. As they walked further the plants withered to a dark brown, and the immense nula trees were seen toppled to the ground. Then it got bad. Nissa and the other Joraga found themselves walking through a land of almost total ruin extending on all sides for as far as they could see. Wide swaths of dirt were trenched and plowed up to reveal dead roots, which appeared to reach for the wrecked and brooding sky.

Nissa never understood how they got at the sky. But every new wasteland had the same orange and gray sky. And always the same plants, stamped to ooze. Only the bare tree trunks, dripping themselves away, stood as stark jags on the dark landscape.

What was left of the elf bodies was worse. Inevitably there were bodies, although they were hard to find. The Joraga who had tried to stop the desecration of the land had paid for their fidelity with their lives. Nissa stopped and looked down at one of the blackened husks that could have been a section of tree trunk. She knew it was the body of one of her kinsmen by the tarnished armband.

Eldrazi scourge, the Joraga next to her hissed. Nissa jerked around and struck the male across the face, snapping his head sideways.

No, she said. Never that word. In the quiet that followed, the waste seemed to echo with the word Eldrazi. Nissa turned her ear up to the wind, hoping not to hear movement. She could detect none, but that did not mean they were not hunching in some hole out there.

She slung the bag from her shoulder. Let us start.

As she slit the threads to open the bag, she felt the total lack of life in the land. The leach. They had come and sucked every bit of mana out of the land, and they would come back. But in the meantime the Joraga could perhaps do something to heal the damage.

She spread the opening of the bag and felt the mana flood out and break over her face. It was such a welcome feeling in this wasteland. She reached in, took a handful of the seed, all of different sizes, textures, and colors. Enough variety of seed to make again the jungle forests of Bala Ged. In the palm of her hand she saw huge tramba seeds as large as her thumb, and the power-sized seeds of the creeping plants whose name she did not know. There were plenty of seeds she did not know. But she closed her fist around them all and waited.

Nissa knew that she was just the person to do the planting. Unlike the other Joraga, her magic was still strong, despite the Eldrazi. Her strong mana lines stretched to the different planes she d visited, allowed her to grow these plants better than any in her tribe could.

As soon as the other Joraga had a similar handful of seed Nissa began the growth song. It was an old song, and she sang it as she had been singing it her whole life. They may come again, Nissa thought. Or they may flee Zendikar tomorrow, but right now the forest would be made anew.

Nissa drew her fist back.

She would travel the planes until she found Sorin and others who would help bind the Eldrazi once again. She alone among her people could do this, and save Zendikar from the gathering darkness. For the first time her planeswalking skill would help her people.

I am of those that walk the Blind Eternities, Nissa said, throwing out the seed.