The Moons of Mirrodin

CHAPTER 25

“Janus,” said Glissa. She pointed her sword at the vedalken across the Pool. “I’ve been looking for you.”

The guards broke into two groups of four and glided around both sides of the pool.

“Save your bravado,” said the vedalken leader. “It does not frighten me or my guards.”

Glissa waited. Janus seemed content to let his guards take care of her. His mistake. She waited until the groups were halfway around either side of the Pool, then made her move. Glissa ran toward one group. The guards raised their weapon arms and fired. Glissa dived forward underneath the harpoons. She rolled and came up running, barreling into the guards before they could fire again.

Glissa tumbled to the ground atop one of the guards. Her sword fell from her hand and skittered across the floor, out of reach. The guard wrapped its arms around Glissa and held her fast. She pushed against the ground, trying to break free, but the guard’s grip was too strong. Maybe she had made the mistake. The hair on the back of her neck began to tingle. The other guards had recovered. She pushed hard with one hand and rolled over, pulling the construct over on top of her. A bolt of lightning slammed into the guard, knocking it off Glissa. But now she was exposed, and the tingling had not subsided. Glissa rolled across the floor as two more bolts impacted behind her.

She grabbed her sword as she rolled over it, and swung it at the nearest guard. The blade bit into the base of the construct and stuck. Glissa rolled over again and spun the impaled guard onto the floor. Its weapon arm snapped off as the guard slammed into the floor. Glissa jumped to her feet, yanked her sword out, and kicked the helpless guard across the floor toward its two companions.

As the two guards glided from the path of the skidding construct, Glissa glanced at the other group. They had reached the other door. They would be in harpoon range soon. She was running out of time. Glissa got an idea. She scooped up a harpoon from the broken weapon arm and hurled it at the head of the closest guard. The missile smashed through the creature’s globe top. Lightning crackled back along the shaft. Glissa dived to the side as the guard’s head exploded. Shards of glass and metal shredded the guard standing next to it. The tattered remains of both guards dropped to the ground and fell into the Pool of Knowledge.

Glissa scrambled back to her feet and moved around the Pool, away from the second group of guards. Janus moved.

“Aren’t you afraid of Memnarch finding out about your campaign to kill me?” she asked Janus as she closed on him.

The vedalken didn’t seem cowed by her words or her quick disposal of half his guards.

“I don’t know what you think you know,” he said, “but the truth of this world would make you want to curl up in the crook of one of your Tangle trees and cry yourself to sleep. Why don’t you leave the running of Mirrodin to your masters?”

Glissa continued to stalk around the Pool, just out of range of the oncoming guards. Pontifex was backing away as well, but the vedalken leader held his ground. “So now you’re my master?” she asked. “Hardly.”

“Ah, but I do know how to control you, as I proved in that dark little forest of yours,” said Janus.

Pontifex stepped past Bruenna. The female mage had pushed herself into the wall. She was now tying a strip of her cloak around her thigh to stop the bleeding. “Pontifex,” said Janus, “grab the human traitor and bring her to me, if you please.”

“Leave her out of this,” said Glissa. She broke into a run.

“Stop,” said Janus, “or I will kill her, and you know I can do it-I proved that in the Tangle as well.”

Glissa stopped. “Don’t you people ever tire of hearing yourself speak?” she taunted. The guards continued to move toward her.

Janus smiled. “You brought her into this-bound her to your destiny,” said Janus, “so don’t blame me if you cause her death.”

Pontifex moved in on Bruenna. But when he bent down to grab her, she thrust her arms up and released a huge blast of wind. The vedalken researcher flew into the air, riding Bruenna’s vortex. He slammed into the ceiling above the Pool. Then Bruenna released the spell and let him fall. A huge wave of silvery liquid washed across the chamber, drenching Glissa’s legs and pushing the guards back into the wall. Glissa watched Pontifex sink from sight, pulled down by the weight of his robes.

“I’m not dead yet!” spat Bruenna. But the backwash began pulling her across the slippery floor toward the Pool’s edge.

Glissa started forward, but the hair on the back of her neck began to tingle. She looked at the approaching guards. Their heads glowed with crackling energy. She twirled and flung her sword at the group. All four guards flew back a few feet and shot their beams of lightning at the sword. The energy disappeared into the blade as it clattered to the floor.

Glissa glanced back at Bruenna, but Janus rushed forward and grabbed her by the neck. He lifted the mage off the floor and flung her back against the wall. Bruenna crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

The guards advanced again, their weapon arms raised. Glissa needed to rid herself of them quickly so she could confront Janus without further interruptions. She raced toward the guards, dodging back and forth to avoid harpoons. As she reached the first, Glissa threw up an arm to block its attack. Metal clanged against metal and pain shot up her arm, but she got inside its reach. Glissa grabbed the construct around the torso and twisted it around to keep its weapons pointed away from her. She spun to face the other guards. With no clear shot past her hover shield, the guards hesitated.

Glissa took the opening and rushed forward. She slammed her shield guard into the next guard in line and shoved them both over the lip of the Pool. They fired their thrusters over the glistening liquid, but that did little more than create large ripples that splashed over the edge. Both guards dropped into the Pool of Knowledge, firing their harpoons wildly before sinking from sight.

Glissa stood between the last two guards. They raised their arms to fire. Glissa kicked out at the one behind her as she ducked under the harpoon arm of the one in front of her. Its shot flew over Glissa and slammed into the reeling guard behind her, sending it over the edge of the Pool as well, where it sank down next to its companions. Glissa grabbed her sword as she straightened up, and whirled completely around, swinging the sword in a blazing circle. Electricity still crackled up and down the blade as it sliced through the last guard, just below its domed head.

Glissa turned and glared at Janus. The vedalken stood over the unconscious Bruenna, holding her head up by the hair with one hand while pointing his staff at her face with another. His second set of hands clapped very slowly.

“Impressive,” he said. “But ultimately futile. I don’t think you want another death on your hands. Give yourself up to me and I will spare the human’s life.”

* * * * *

Janus shifted his hand on the staff and it flashed. The doors on either side opened. Six more guards flew into the room through each door and moved to surround Glissa. She was trapped and her arm ached from the guard’s blow. She couldn’t handle another dozen guards. Glissa thought for a moment about diving into the Pool, but if she left, Bruenna would surely die.

“How do I know I can trust you?” she asked.

“You do not,” said Janus, “but you have no other choice, do you?”

“You will release all of my friends?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“And leave the other races alone?”

“You have my word.”

The guards lined up on either side of Glissa. She could feel their energy pulsing across the hairs on the back of her neck. She truly had no choice. “Then I surrender,” she said.

“Take her,” said Janus. Two guards moved in and grabbed Glissa’s arms. Pain shot up her sore arm when the guard wrenched it up away from her. The other ten guards circled around her. “Now hold her so she can watch as I melt another one of her friends!”

“No!” screamed Glissa. Janus began his spell. Mana built up around the top of his staff. Glissa’s rage and fear triggered something inside, just as it had after Kane’s death. In an instant, green tendrils of energy enveloped her body and coursed up and down her arms and legs. Without even thinking, Glissa unleashed the power.

The tendrils coalesced around her hands and flashed to the guards holding her. Both guards went rigid and began shaking as energy spiraled around and through their bodies. A moment later, tendrils shot from the two guards holding her out to the ten surrounding guards. A spider web of emerald energy pulsed around Glissa as the guards shuddered and broke apart under the magical onslaught.

Then it ended, as quickly as it began. All twelve guards disintegrated into piles of fine silver powder around Glissa. The entire incident happened before Janus could finish summoning mana. Glissa slumped to the floor, spent. Her arms and legs felt dead. Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t catch her breath. She rested on her hands and knees and stared at Janus across the Pool.

The vedalken didn’t speak. He merely dropped Bruenna’s body and began moving around the pool toward Glissa. The end of his staff pulsed with energy.

“Why?” asked Glissa as she continued to gasp for air. “Why do you want me dead?”

“Because you threaten our way of life, our mastery of this world,” said Janus. “Because Memnarch will use you to destroy Mirrodin, and it is our duty as the master race to protect the other races-from you!”

“Liar!” someone screamed.

Pontifex rose up from the Pool behind Janus. He floated above the liquid, his wet robes matted against his body, glistening in the flickering lights of the room. “Liar!” he screamed again. With a flip of his hand Pontifex flew toward his leader. Liquid sprayed from his robes behind him like a wake as he slammed into Janus and pushed him back into the wall of the chamber. Pontifex grabbed Janus’s staff and tossed it to the floor behind him. The leader of the Synod grabbed at the researcher’s wet robes and tried to push him away. But Pontifex grabbed the leader’s domed head in two hands and flung it against the wall.

Glissa heard a loud crack. Liquid begin oozing from the dome covering Janus’s head. The leader let go of Pontifex and grabbed at his headpiece with all four hands, frantically trying to find the source of the leak. Pontifex, still holding Janus, turned to look at Glissa, who was still kneeling on the floor watching the strange spectacle.

“He convinced the Synod to destroy the champions of each race,” explained Pontifex, “and told them it was to safeguard our power, told them we would lose our power if Memnarch succeeded.”

“It’s true!” screamed Janus. “Memnarch will destroy the world. We will all be lost.”

“All but you-isn’t that right, Janus?” Pontifex turned to accuse his leader. “I have seen all of your lies, hidden deep within the Pool of Knowledge. You would usurp our god and take his place, dooming us and everyone on Mirrodin-all for your own glory.”

Janus’s robes darkened from the liquid draining from his dome. The level inside the dome had fallen past the top of the leader’s head. Janus began to shake uncontrollably. Glissa glanced over at Bruenna. She still lay unconscious where Janus dropped her, but she was dangerously close to the edge of the Pool.

“You were right, Glissa,” continued Pontifex. “Memnarch doesn’t want you dead, for he needs you alive for the final phase of his grand experiment. Janus ordered you killed because you arrived too soon and upset his own plans, for, you see, this snake planned to take Memnarch’s place in the grand design. But he wasn’t yet ready to move against our god, so you needed to be eliminated.”

The liquid was now below Janus’s flattened nose. Glissa could hear him gasping for breath. His eyes, which had been dark and sunken, now protruded from their sockets. He struggled against Pontifex, obviously desperate to get away from the researcher and fix his cracked dome. The two vedalken pushed against one another. Their arms flailed for purchase on each other’s wet robes.

Janus whipped his head forward and slammed his cracked globe into the front of Potifex’s own dome. The researcher’s head snapped back, and he lost his balance. Pontifex fell away from Janus. He tried to grab the leader’s robes to steady himself, but Janus knocked Pontifex’s arms away and pushed him to the floor.

“I will kill you for this insolence, Pontifex,” screamed Janus. His voice warbled as the liquid sloshed around his mouth.

Janus stepped over Pontifex and headed for his staff, which still pulsed with summoned mana. Glissa scrambled forward and dived for the staff. Janus reached for it but fell to the floor just short. Glissa grabbed the staff and rolled over. Pontifex grasped his leader’s robe again, pulling him away from the staff. Glissa scrambled to her feet and lowered the head of the staff to touch Janus’s cracked dome.

“Leave him to me,” said Pontifex, “and I will make sure Janus pays for his lies, pays for his crimes against the vedalken and our god.”

“I think not,” said Glissa. “He needs to pay for his crimes against my people-my family.”

She flicked her wrist as she had seen Janus do that night in the Tangle. She wasn’t sure the staff would work for her, but Janus hadn’t spoken when he activated the staff’s power earlier. It all seemed to be in the hands.

A stream of blue energy streaked from the staff and enveloped Janus. The vedalken screamed and clutched at his chest. Pontifex released the leader’s robes and rolled back toward the wall. Glissa held the staff steady and poured more mana into the effect. The remaining liquid inside the dome began to boil. Bubbles filled the dome and popped against the cracked glass.

Smoke rose from Janus’s robes as he tore at the fabric with his hands. Glissa kept pumping mana from the staff into the spell. The skin on the vedalken’s arms blistered and peeled away. Layer after layer of skin sloughed off until the vedalken’s muscles were exposed. These melted off the bones, leaving a sticky goo on his smoldering robes.

It was a gruesome sight. Memories of Kane welled up inside her as Glissa watched Janus melt before her. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t turn away. She had to see this through. Exact her revenge. The glass dome on Janus’s head shattered and Glissa could see his eyes, almost pleading with her to let him die. After all that, the leader still lived. Glissa could have ended his pain with a quick swing of her sword, but she didn’t. He didn’t deserve a noble death at the end of her sword. He deserved pain.

Finally, there was nothing left of Janus except robes, bones, and a skull rattling around inside the shattered dome. Glissa broke the vedalken’s staff over her knee and dropped it on his robes. She glanced at Pontifex, who was curled up against the wall. She shook her head and walked over toward Bruenna’s crumpled body. Glissa sat down next to Bruenna, lifted the unconscious mage’s head, and cradled it in her lap.

“It’s over,” she said.

“Not exactly, my dear,” said Pontifex. He had risen and walked over to the door that led to the corridor. The researcher passed his hand over a dark circle on the wall, and an alarm began ringing out in the corridor. “For you see, I am loyal to Memnarch, and I plan to deliver you to him for the final phase of his glorious experiment.”