The Moons of Mirrodin

CHAPTER 21

Glissa grabbed Bruenna’s shoulders with both hands. “Thank you,” she said. “I need to find out who is trying to kill me and why.”

“I don’t know anything about their motives,” protested Bruenna.

“Maybe not,” said Glissa, “but you know how they operate.”

“I know a little about their magical research,” said the human mage, “at least those projects my people are working on. Not much more. I have no idea what they’re thinking, and I don’t know anything about the inner workings of the Synod.”

“Something pretty big is going on here,” said Glissa, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “The vedalken have made deals with the nim and the goblins. They’ve attacked the leonin, the trolls, and the elves. It has something to do with some deep, dark secret about the world the vedalken have uncovered. There must be someone who knows something about this.”

Bruenna shrugged. “The vedalken are a lot smarter than humans. They treat us as if we are no better than beasts. It wasn’t always like that, though. I’ve heard tales from long ago of a time when humans and vedalken worked as equals, but the serum changed all that. It changed the vedalken.”

Glissa nodded. “I’ve heard about the serum, too. It expands your mind and gives you insight into the creation of the world.”

“The serum does more than that. It expands all your senses. You become aware of the connections between all living things. I have heard it can even unlock racial memories. You can learn everything your ancestors ever knew. Unfortunately the effect is only temporary, so the vedalken need a steady supply. Much of their research goes into finding faster ways to refine the serum.”

“I’ve also been told it comes at a terrible price,” muttered Glissa.

“It certainly did for the vedalken,” replied Bruenna. “They turned cruel and used the knowledge they gained from the serum to take control of the sea and everything in it.”

“It has another drawback as well,” said Glissa. “The vedalken have to murder millions of blinkmoths to maintain that steady supply.”

“That I did not know. I am glad I never took the serum.”

Glissa looked at her companion in some surprise. “How do you know of the serum if you’ve never taken it? Do the vedalken ever give it to humans?”

“Winds, no!” exclaimed Bruenna. “It is forbidden to humans. The vedalken keep it all for themselves. My father once worked refining the serum. Later he became a research assistant and was able to learn more about the serum.”

“Yet they trade small quantities to their allies,” said the elf. She pulled the vial from her boot sheath. “I got this from the leader of the nim. It was to be his payment for killing me. The vedalken probably assume a few vials won’t do any harm if the effects wear off so quickly.”

“You have a vial of serum?” asked Bruenna. She reached eagerly for the vial, but Glissa pulled it back.

“I’m loath to use it,” she said, “but it is my only link to the mage who killed my friend.”

Bruenna drew back her hand, a sheepish look on her face. “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t really want it, either. I gave up wanting to be like the vedalken long ago. However, there may be a way to get your answers with that vial.”

“Do I have to drink it?”

“Yes,” said Bruenna, “but not here. Not now. First, we have to get you into Lumengrid.”

“What is Lumengrid?”

“Lumengrid is the crystal fortress of the vedalken. It is where the Synod sits. It is where they keep their most prized possession-the Pool of Knowledge.”

“A pool of knowledge?” Glissa was skeptical. “I bathe in it and I magically get all of my questions answered?”

“Something like that,” said Bruenna, smiling. “I am not sure how it works. My father told me tales of it before he was killed. He even tried to use it once.”

“Did it work?” asked Glissa. “Did your father learn the knowledge of the vedalken? Is that why they killed him?”

“He only got flashes of images,” said Bruenna sadly. “It was enough for him to realize how horrible the vedalken are. That is why he tried to lead our village from under their control.”

Glissa ran her fingers along her jaw. “How is that going to help me?”

“I did some research of my own when I was younger,” said her human companion. “After the revolt, I took my father’s place as research assistant. I think the vedalken wanted to keep an eye on me. After a few cycles, I became nothing more to them than a piece of research equipment, but I never forgot what they did to my father. When my vedalken master wasn’t watching I went through his journals and personal research notes. From what I learned, I believe the Pool of Knowledge will only work correctly for someone who has taken serum.

“That’s why you wanted the serum?”

“Once,” said Bruenna. “I planned to gain the knowledge my father sought so I could use it to exact my revenge on those responsible for his death. But I learned-over time-that there are more important things than vengeance. I dedicated the last ten cycles to my people and to my mother.”

“Vengeance is a great motivator,” said Glissa drily. She reached out and touched Bruenna’s shoulder. “If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past week or two, though, it’s that it must be tempered by reason or it will consume you.”

The pause in the conversation grew uncomfortably long. Finally Glissa said, “So, I just down the vial and jump into the pool? That sounds easy enough.”

“It won’t be,” said Bruenna. “Lumengrid is impregnable, and the Pool room is closely guarded.”

“You have a plan, right?”

“I do,” agreed Bruenna. “I planned for a long time after my father’s death. First, we need to go back to the village.”

“What’s there?”

“My father’s legacy.”

* * * * *

Bruenna controlled the boat while Glissa, Slobad, and Bosh crouched in the stern, talking.

“You think we can trust her, huh?” asked Slobad.

“I don’t know,” said Glissa. “I think so. She lost her father to the vedalken.”

Slobad crossed his arms. “She don’t like goblins, huh?”

“Neither do you,” replied Glissa. “Her people have feuded with the goblins over mining rights forever. That’s all she knows of the goblins.”

“She could be leading you into a trap,” said Bosh.

“She could have turned us over to the vedalken as soon as we destroyed the aerophins,” said Glissa. “She didn’t. Now she’s risking her life and the lives of everyone in her village-including her mother-to help us. I think we can trust her.”

Bruenna whistled softly. “We’re almost there,” she said. “I’ll land the boat away from the town.”

Glissa joined her. “Then what?”

Bruenna looked nervous. “I built a copy of my father’s diver,” she said. “It took me five cycles to complete, but I never found a power source strong enough to make it work. I know the vedalken constructs, especially large ones the size of that golem-she gestured to Bosh-have a powerful mana source inside of them, usually a crystal or a stone of some sort. I thought we could deactivate the golem … Bosh … and use its power source in the diver.”

“Out of the question,” snapped Glissa. “I won’t kill my friend to get revenge on the vedalken.”

“I would be willing to make this sacrifice,” said Bosh. “My mana battery should be sufficient.” He opened up a cavity in his chest and began to reach inside.

“No,” said Glissa. She put a hand on his arm. “I know you are willing to die for me. You’ve proven that already. But I need you fighting by my side. I need you to remember your past. We will find another way to get into Lumengrid.”

“There is no other way,” said Bruenna. “We need the diver to get into Lumengrid. The diver needs a power source.”

“You just get us back to town,” said Glissa. “We’ll think of something.”

“I have idea, huh?” said Slobad. “If anyone want to hear what goblin has to say.”

* * * * *

“Are you sure this will work?” asked Bruenna later.

“Simple goblin solutions often best, huh?” said Slobad as he worked on the diver. “Goblins no need magic to make machines work. Goblins smarter than magic.”

Glissa chuckled. She left the mismatched pair to their work and wandered around the storage shed. After they landed the boat, the group had made their way to Bruenna’s personal shed. The human leader had hidden the diver behind several boats in various stages of repair.

It didn’t look like much. In fact, it looked more like a goblin artifact than anything else. Bruenna explained that she used her father’s plans but had to substitute goblin iron for the sleek, silvery vedalken metal. The diver was a huge cylinder of rusty iron. It ran from one side of the shed to the other and was just slightly taller than Bruenna. It looked for all the world like one of the tubes in the walls of the goblin tunnels, but it was much larger around and capped at both ends.

Slobad was busy working with his fire tube at one end of the diver. A thin white line of flame came from the tube, just like the flame Glissa had seen the goblins using on the duct by the Great Furnace. Bosh held a loop of iron against the front of the diver while Slobad melted a bar of silver above the loop and the diver. They had already affixed a similar loop on the opposite side of the front end.

“Come up here,” called Bruenna from on top of the diver.

Glissa scrambled up the side. The mage stood next to a circular opening on top of the diver.

“We’ll ride inside the diver,” she said. “I’ll use my wind magic to fill it with air and keep the quicksilver out. Once your golem … I mean, once Bosh gets us inside Lumengrid, we can make our way to the Pool of Knowledge.”

“Won’t the vedalken stop us?”

“It will be difficult to get inside the Pool of Knowledge chamber, but getting to it shouldn’t be a problem. The vedalken don’t even notice humans walking about inside their towers unless we are performing some task for them. Then we’re tolerated at best or punished if we’re too slow or the vedalken is in a foul mood.”

Glissa rubbed her head. “Surely there are mages in other villages who feel the same way that you and your father do about the vedalken.”

“Some do, but most are content to work for the vedalken like beasts and pick up what little power they can. You learn very early to do what you are told. Subservience is rewarded with easier work and better working conditions. Defiance is punished by forced labor in the serum processors or by the hoverguards.

“That’s horrible,” said Glissa.

“Yes,” said Bruenna, “but that means once inside Lumengrid, we’ll be able to walk around freely. Humans are discouraged from talking to one another, and the vedalken won’t even notice us. Just keep your hood up.”

“You think this diver will get us inside undetected?”

Bruenna nodded. “I had planned to pilot the diver in through the waste tubes below Lumengrid, but with no power, it is little more than an iron tube now. That is why I will have to provide air. I will have to concentrate the whole time we are under the sea.”

“How long can you do that?”

“Long enough,” said Bruenna. “We will tow the diver most of the way. Then Bosh will take us down to the bottom.”

Glissa called down to Slobad and Bosh. “Are you two sure Bosh won’t have any trouble under the quicksilver?” she asked. “Didn’t the Dross get inside of him and clog his gears?”

“That took long time,” said Slobad. “Maybe hundreds of cycles. Bosh okay for short trip.”

Glissa looked at Bruenna. “He grows on you after a while.”

“He would have to.”

* * * * *

Bosh cleared a path through the shed while Bruenna opened a chest and pulled out a large coil of braided leather. Glissa had seen these attached to the boats and the docks outside. Bruenna tied the two ends of the rope to the iron rings and handed the coils to Bosh.

“Wrap this around your torso,” she said to Bosh. “I will levitate the diver. You just pull it with the rope. Glissa and Slobad, you will need to guide the diver on either side.”

Bosh looped the rope around his body a few times, then walked toward the door. Glissa moved to the back of the diver. It floated into the air and began moving. It was a slow process. Bruenna couldn’t move very quickly while keeping the diver in the air, and Glissa and Slobad had trouble controlling it. Several times, Glissa pushed too hard and sent Slobad diving to the ground as the diver swung over his head.

It was easier once they tied the diver to the boat. Slobad navigated it out from shore while Bruenna kept the diver aloft. Once the diver was over the sea, Bruenna eased it down. It sank about halfway into the silvery sea but remained afloat. The mage guided the boat and diver away from town.

“Can’t we go any faster?” asked Glissa.

“We are straining the power of the boat as it is,” said Bruenna. “I am afraid to push too hard. I might burn out the mana orb. Then we would be stranded until my villagers head to the crystal islands in the morning. We should be able to make it to the abandoned island before the blue sun rises.”

“What do we do from there?”

“Submerge.”

* * * * *

Both the blue and red moon had risen by the time they pulled into the cave beneath the abandoned tower, but Glissa was sure nobody had spotted them.

“How far is it to Lumengrid?” she asked.

“Not far by boat,” returned Bruenna. “I think it will take most of the day in the diver.”

“Why not get closer, huh?” asked Slobad. “Not spend so much time trapped under silver water. Seem dangerous to Slobad.”

Glissa answered. “Because someone might see the abandoned boat and get suspicious.” She turned back to Bruenna. “Can you keep the quicksilver out that long?”

“I will not have to,” said the human. “The Quicksilver Sea is actually quite shallow. We should be able to ride on top most of the way to Lumengrid.”

“Let’s do it.”

Slobad helped secure the rope around Bosh. “If see trouble,” said Slobad, “pull this rope to untie, huh?”

“Fine,” said Bosh. He turned to jump into the sea.

“Be careful, huh?”

“You as well,” said the golem.

Bosh stepped off the boat and sank into the quicksilver. Glissa could just see the top of his head as he walked away from the boat. The quicksilver swirled around him, covering and uncovering his iron head as he moved.

The other three scrambled onto the diver. Bruenna dropped through the opening, and Glissa and Slobad followed her down. The diver was cramped and dark inside. Glissa could barely stand up straight and then only if she stood underneath the hole. Slobad was more at home in the cramped space. He immediately crawled into the back of the diver next to the provisions Bruenna had packed and curled up to sleep.

“How do we see where we’re going?” asked Glissa.

“Like this,” said Bruenna. She waved her hand in an arc around her body, and the iron cylinder disappeared. Glissa could see the quicksilver rippling against the invisible diver but couldn’t see anything past that edge, including Bosh. She mentioned this to the mage.

“The quicksilver is completely opaque,” said Bruenna. “You normally cannot see through it at all. That was the hardest part of the diver program. My father and the vedalken he worked for perfected this spell, though.”

She waved her hands again, and it looked as if the sea had parted around them, well out past Bosh-at least where he was supposed to be. Glissa still couldn’t see him. The golem had disappeared along with the quicksilver. She could see the rope. It was wrapped several times around something no longer there.

“Where’s Bosh?” she asked.

“Invisible,” said Bruenna. “It’s a bubble of invisibility. Bosh and the sea are still there. We just can’t see them anymore.”

“Will that work on us?” asked Glissa. “It would make getting into the Pool of Knowledge chamber a lot easier.”

“No,” said Bruenna. “It only works on metal. Take a look at your arms.”

Glissa glanced down at her hands. She couldn’t see them. The human robes covered her forearms. It took her a few seconds to get used to where her invisible hands were so she could pull up the sleeves. When she did, Glissa gasped. Her arms stopped just above her elbows. She fumbled for her sword. It was invisible also.

“We don’t want to walk around like this,” she said. “It would be pretty hard to fight when I can’t see my hands or my weapon.”

They traveled across the Quicksilver Sea most of the day. The rope remained taut, and Glissa could see the horizon move above the surface of the sea when she stood up. Periodically, Bruenna climbed up on top and pulled on the ropes to get Bosh to turn one way or another. The scenery was boring. They were in an open expanse of sea. Glissa could barely see the mountains in the distance past the endless silver sea. She wondered how Bruenna even knew where they were.

Early in the journey a group of silver eels attacked Bosh. Somehow they could sense where he was. They obviously weren’t made of quicksilver-at least not entirely-because Glissa could see them. She would have jumped from the diver to help her friend, but the eels couldn’t harm the metal man. They tried to bite him and wrap themselves around his invisible body, but they didn’t seem to be doing any damage and eventually turned away from the golem and headed for the diver. It was odd to see them swimming through the invisible quicksilver. It looked as if the eels were flying toward them. Glissa recoiled when the eels opened their mouths to attack. But the attacks stopped well short. They banged off the wall of the invisible diver. The eels attacked a few more times, then flew off through the quicksilver wall.

While the blue moon set in the sky behind them, Lumengrid rose up ahead. It looked like an immense mushroom sitting on the sea. The central tower was larger around than the entire crystal island chain. It quickly dominated Glissa’s view. The dome top spread out from the central tower on either side, seeming to reach out to the horizon.

Sitting atop the dome was a massive orb. It looked like a fifth moon-a silver moon-in the sky. Electricity arced out from it, filling the sky with a network of lightning that stretched to the surrounding islands-several dozen smaller towers clustered around the fortress. A system of bridges connected the lesser towers together. The lightning, towers, and bridges looked as if they were all joined together like a giant spider web.