The Moons of Mirrodin

CHAPTER 6

“We have to get inside the city!” said Glissa. “Now!”

Slobad didn’t react, so Glissa gave the goblin a shove, sending him scrambling down the hillside. She ran after him, grimacing with each step.

“Crazy elf!” shouted Slobad, arms flailing as he tried to stop his headlong rush into the valley. “You kill us both, huh?”

Glissa didn’t understand what Slobad meant until she saw a large patch of razor grass directly below them. Pulling her sword from the makeshift scabbard, Glissa lengthened her stride and rushed past Slobad. She reached the razor field just in front of the goblin, slicing her sword back and forth in front of her as she ran, cutting a path through the deadly plants. Razor-edged weeds longer than her sword flew into the air around the elf. She raised her forearm to protect her face.

“Aagh!” screamed Slobad from behind Glissa, but she couldn’t look back. Just a few more strides and she would be through the field. A weed sliced into her raised arm, and blood sprayed into her eyes as she ran.

When she burst out the far side of the razor field, Glissa stopped and glanced back at her friend. Slobad was right behind her and seemed uninjured. A single blade of razor grass had pierced his satchel, which the goblin held in front of him like a shield.

“That could have been my head, huh?” snarled the goblin as he yanked the razor blade from his satchel. “My head! Don’t do that again, crazy elf.”

Glissa smiled. “Sorry,” she said. She looked toward the leonin city and the advancing army. She and Slobad were still a few hundred feet from the base of the tower, but the encircling flanks of invaders were about that same distance apart and closing slowly. “This is going to be close,” she said. “Come on. There’s no time.”

Glissa ran. She could no longer feel her injured ankle. During her descent, everything below the wounds had gone numb. She knew that was a bad sign, but at least the pain no longer slowed her down. She and Slobad sprinted across the valley.

As they neared the tower, Glissa could see the invaders more clearly. What had been a dark mass of shapes became an army of dark creatures. At first she thought they were humans, but soon she could see that while they walked on two legs and had arms and heads, they bore little resemblance to elves, goblins, or even trolls.

“What are those?” shouted Glissa over her shoulder.

“The nim,” responded Slobad. “Creatures from Mephidross.”

The nim shambled forward, hunched over so far that it looked as if their heads jutted out from their chests. Their long arms reached the ground, giving them an odd, four-legged gait as their knuckles scraped against metal. A carapace ran from their heads down across their backs. It was as if their creator had torn the spines from the nim bodies and laid them on top of their skin.

The two flanks of the nim army were converging. Only a small strip of land remained open as Glissa and Slobad reached the army. The elf sprinted across the opening. A foul, acrid odor accosted her nose as she ran past the slow-moving nim. Now she could see tubes coming out from the sides of the creatures, tubes belching green gas into the air.

“Good thing they’re slow,” gasped Glissa halfway past the advancing army.

“Move slow, yes,” panted Slobad behind her. “Fight fast. Watch out!”

The closest nim swung one of its long arms toward Glissa. The movement was so quick that she had no time to dodge. She snapped her blade up to parry the blow and caught the nim’s arm right behind its clawed hands. The blade cut through the nim’s wrist as easily as it had cut through the razor grass. The claw dropped to the ground. More of the noxious fumes billowed from the injured nim’s arm along with a thick brownish-green fluid that Glissa assumed must be the creature’s blood.

She had no time to dwell on the strange physiology of the beast or to marvel at the power of her new sword. A dozen more nim reached for her as she ran on.

“Stay close, Slobad!” she shouted. “I’ll keep them off us.”

Glissa swung her sword in a figure eight in front of her as she ran, slicing through the grasping nim. The blows from each side came faster as more nim closed around them. Glissa could do nothing but hack at their hands and arms. The nim were too fast, and their arms were too long.

They were almost through the throng when one nim got past her blade barrier and caught Glissa on the shoulder. She tried to dodge the attack, but the nim’s claw dug into her skin. The force of the blow sent her stumbling forward. The elf scrambled to keep her footing, but her numb ankle betrayed her and she fell to the ground. Glissa rolled over, expecting another blow to land, but she was free of the nim army. The blow had sent her past the horde.

Slobad had not been so lucky. Glissa couldn’t see the goblin anymore. The two nim flanks merged behind her and began to advance.

“Slobad!” she called as she got to her feet.

As if in response, a nim several ranks back burst into flame. Glissa could hear the familiar hiss of Slobad’s flame tube. She limped toward the burning nim to help the goblin fight his way out of the horde, but she had to fight her way in to get to him.

The elf warrior struck at one nim’s arm, cutting it clean off, then brought the sword back around and cut the creature in two. She stepped into the horde and ducked down as three more arms flew in toward her head. Glissa crouched low and swung the sword in an arc around her, taking out the legs of all three attacking nim.

What had seemed a clever tactical move almost proved to be Glissa’s undoing. All three nim continued to fight, pushing themselves up on the stumps of their legs with one hand while slicing at her with another. From her crouched position, Glissa jumped over the grasping claws. She landed behind one of the legless nim, wincing as pain shot up her leg. She gritted her teeth and kicked back with her good leg to topple the attacking creature back into the other two.

She turned back toward the hiss of Slobad’s flame tube and came face to ugly face with the burning nim. It shambled forward, hardly seeming to notice the flames. Glissa parried one attack, sending a fiery arm flying into the face of another nim. She sidestepped as the beast lunged forward, swinging her sword down through the flaming nim’s carapace, severing the creature’s head from its hunched shoulders.

As the burning nim’s headless body slumped to the ground, Slobad ran past Glissa and dived over the tangle of legless nim. The elf followed, leaving a bloody mess behind her. The pain in Glissa’s ankle had returned with a vengeance after her previous vault. Her entire leg now felt as if it were on fire. It was all she could do to keep moving. Slobad returned to help her, and the two limped toward the tower just ahead of the merged army.

Glissa glanced back at the slow-moving nim. They were barely outrunning the creatures. “Are you sure they’re not after us?” she shouted over the din of the approaching army.

“No,” replied Slobad, “but Slobad don’t care. Just keep moving, huh?”

Glissa could see figures on the wall high above, but they were too far away to discern any details. As she watched, a hail of arrows rained down. Most slammed into the ranks of the nim, but several fell uncomfortably close to Glissa and Slobad.

“Hey!” shouted Glissa. “We’re not your enemy.”

Another volley followed the first, and Glissa ducked her head as she and Slobad pushed on toward the massive gate. It seemed carved into the side of the tower, the top edge looming forty feet above them. Fresh scratch marks on the ground showed how far out the gate extended when open. Glissa now realized what the horn had signified. Until very recently the gate had been standing open.

A third volley of arrows fell behind them like a sheet of rain. Glissa and Slobad were protected under the buttresses, but they had another problem. The gate was closed. They were running straight toward a wall with an army on their heels.

Glissa clanged on the metal gate with the pommel of her sword.

“Let us in!” she shouted. “We are not your enemy.” She thought she heard movement behind the blank metal, but there was no answer.

The horde was almost on them. Glissa turned to face her death. Standing with most of her weight on her good leg, she raised her sword and stepped in front of Slobad. “Get your flame ready, goblin,” she said. “We’re not going to die without a fight.”

She heard the tube ignite behind her, but Slobad didn’t step up beside her. “Protect us, huh?” he said to her. “We not dead yet. Slobad have way out … or in. Yes-way in.”

Glissa glanced back to see the goblin running his hand up and down on the gate as if looking for something. “What are you doing?” she cried. “That little flame won’t cut through a gate.”

“Just protect us, huh?” said Slobad, glancing back. “Crazy elf. Let Slobad do his job. You do yours. Swing big sword. Look out!”

Glissa ducked instinctively before even turning back to the invading nim. A clawed hand tousled her hair as it whisked by, just missing her head. The elf shot her sword hand forward, catching the attacking nim in the abdomen. A quick jerk slid the blade through the creature’s groin. It toppled over backward, but two more nim took its place, trampling over their downed comrade to get to her.

The elf whipped the sword back up, cutting off the first beast’s arm, before slicing across to lop off not one, but two heads. As those two nim slumped in front of her, Glissa marveled at the power of her new blade. She hadn’t given it much thought since her battle with the levelers, but this sword she had stolen from Chunth was amazing.

Another claw swung at her. She parried the blow, sending the nim’s hand flying back over its head. Glissa took the opening and hopped forward a half step to impale the injured nim just as its other claw raced toward her. The beast went limp on her sword. Glissa flexed the muscles in her arms and flung the creature back off her sword into two other advancing nim. The awesome show of strength almost toppled the limping elf as she came down too hard on her injured leg. Glissa screamed as pain shot through her ankle.

Perhaps sensing weakness, the nim closed in on Glissa from three sides. She was running out of room to maneuver. The press of bodies drove her back into Slobad and the gate. All she could do was parry at the encroaching claws. She took a blow from the right that ripped into her already bleeding shoulder. Another claw got past her blade to the left, gashing her forehead. Blood flowed into her eyes, and Glissa was forced to swing her blade blindly back and forth.

The nim pressed in all around them, the stench from the gas jets belching out green clouds of noxious fumes. Glissa coughed and felt nauseous. She didn’t know if she was going to vomit or faint from the fumes. She couldn’t hold up much longer.

“If you’re going to do something,” she shouted as she wiped blood from her eyes, “you’d better do it now!”

“Almost got it,” said Slobad. “Give me a moment, huh? Not easy to find. Supposed to be secret. Slobad’s secret.”

“I don’t have a moment to give,” Glissa snapped. “Stop talking and do something!” She ducked again, barely seeing the incoming claw in time. She swung her sword but couldn’t even tell if she hit anything. The air was filled with a green haze, and blood streamed into her eyes.

An odd sound came from behind her, like metal striking metal only muted as if heard from far away. She swung through the air in front of her again to keep the nim at bay, then felt something tug on her from behind.

“Come on, huh?” said Slobad. “Hurry. We go in now. Why you waiting, crazy elf? Move now.”

Glissa didn’t argue. She swung her sword back and forth in front of her as she backed up, wincing with every step. She kept expecting to fall over Slobad or bump into the gate. After a few more steps, her blurry world got much darker. She heard the sound again, only this time it was much louder and sharper, like swords striking in front of her. Glissa held her sword defensively as she wiped her forehead and eyes. When she could focus, she saw a wall in front of them. From far away, she heard the clash of weapons.

They were inside.

“How?” she asked.

“That is what we would like to know,” said a booming voice behind her. Glissa turned to see what she knew must be a leonin. She and the goblin were surrounded by leonin guards. One large leonin stood with his hands on his hips.

Slobad had described the leonin, but the goblin’s sketchy description could not come close to matching the impact of seeing these creatures in the flesh. They looked more like beasts than men. Their flattened noses spread out from sloping foreheads like snouts, and their eyes were set back close to their pointed ears.

Yet for all that, they looked regal. Long manes of flowing hair-some braided, some not-seemed to sparkle in the torchlight, as did the highly polished silver and gold metal of their arms and legs. The guards all wore shiny armor and carried large, mirrored shields. The sight was impressive, and Glissa felt ill at ease.

The leonin who spoke was well over six feet tall. His great mane, much larger and fuller than any others around him, cascaded down over his shoulders and chest. His sculpted arms were folded in front of him, and Glissa could see their great strength even at rest. Metal and flesh muscles bulged against the leonin’s silver-clad chest. He had the air of a leader about him. The guards had an air of calm superiority, standing as she had seen Kane stand on guard duty.

The leader regarded Glissa and Slobad coolly, staring down at them over his flattened nose.

“Take them away,” he said to the guards, then turned and left.

Glissa looked at Slobad, who shrugged. As the guards came toward her, Glissa handed them her sword. She didn’t even consider fighting. The blood had stopped flowing from her forehead, but her ankle was on fire and her shoulder ached. They were in the hands of the leonin now, captives, but they were alive, and that was better than the alternative.

* * * * *

Glissa removed the bandage from her ankle and swallowed hard. The infection had spread almost to her knee. Scraps of green metal coated the leather, sticking to the bandage as she pulled it away from her wound. Her calf was still swollen, and her entire leg felt as if it were on fire. Green pus oozed out from all over her leg, not just down by the wound. Everything below her ankle had turned black and was cold to the touch. She turned away from Slobad so he wouldn’t see how bad the wound had gotten.

The guards had taken them to a small room and closed the inside door. Glissa had heard the now-familiar metallic click after the door shut and knew they were locked in. She sat across from Slobad in their prison and worried-about her foot, about Slobad and Raksha, and about the latest threat against her life.

“What were those creatures outside the gate?” she asked.

“I told you other day,” said Slobad. He was pacing back and forth across the room and hadn’t seemed to notice Glissa fiddling with her bandage. “Leonin fight nim. Always fight nim. That’s what take Raksha away from Slobad. Battles against nim. Beat them back to Mephidross; they just come back again. Don’t know why.”

“Mephidross?”

“Bad place under Ingle,” said Slobad. “The black sun … er … moon, where goblins go when burned in Great Furnace. Slobad never go to Mephidross. Too close to Ingle. Raksha tell me about it, huh? Green muck everywhere. Gas swirling in air make you sick, huh? Nim rise from ground. Attack leonin. Bad.”

“Zombies?” asked Glissa. “I’ve heard stories about the dead rising from the ground-Father called them zombies-but these nim didn’t look dead. They just looked sort of turned inside out.”

Glissa concentrated on her hands and built up a small ball of green mana between them. She moved her hands over her leg as if massaging the energy into the wounds and decay.

“Don’t know,” said Slobad from across the room. “Never see them before today. Some say green muck or foul gas turn people into nim. Never want to find out, huh? Slobad like being goblin.”

“You’ve never seen one?” asked Glissa. “I thought you said Raksha fought them all the time.” The mana spread out over her leg and sank down into the decaying flesh. The metal skin around her knee looked a little better, but her foot remained black and cold. She looked up at Slobad to see if he had noticed, but he was still pacing. It was obvious the goblin didn’t like to be locked up.

“Out on border with Mephidross,” said Slobad. “They never come all the way to Taj Nar before. Something funny happening in world, huh? Levelers, nim, crazy elves. Strange, huh?”

“I suppose it’s all my fault,” snapped Glissa. “Is that what you’re saying?”

Slobad stared at Glissa and blinked a few times. “You strange, crazy elf. I never say that. How it your fault, huh? Just strange, that’s all. Crazy elf. World not revolve around you, huh?”

Glissa lowered her head. She didn’t know where that outburst had come from. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I haven’t really been thinking right since the leveler attack.…” She paused. “No, that’s not true. I do that all the time-seeing things that aren’t really there. I’m just suspicious of coincidence, I guess. I’m sorry.”

Slobad came over to her and saw her foot. He let out a low whistle. “You lose that foot if we don’t see healer soon, huh? Need to find way to get from here. Get out soon or lose foot. That for sure.”

Glissa didn’t argue. There was nothing more her magic could do. If they didn’t see the healers soon, she’d have to cut off her own foot just to save the rest of her leg.

“I thought you said Raksha owed you,” she growled. “Fine way to show it-locking us up in here.”

“Raksha don’t like surprises, and leonin don’t trust strangers,” said Slobad. “I guess Slobad upset Raksha when I bring stranger in through secret entrance, huh?”

Glissa dipped her bandage in a bowl of water sitting on the table. “Raksha was the leader we met, right?”

Slobad nodded.

“Didn’t he know about the entrance?”

The goblin smirked. “No,” he said. “Slobad help build gate for leonin many cycles ago. Added extra door. Slobad always like to have more than one way in or out, huh?”

Glissa laughed as she cleaned the blood off her forehead and shoulder. After rinsing the bandage again, she tried her healing magic on her other wounds, but the energy would not come this time. The infection and her failed attempts to keep it in check had made her weak.

“We need to see Ushanti now,” said Slobad. “Can’t wait for Raksha to calm down, huh? Slobad find other way from here.”

He began pounding on the door. When the door opened, a Leonin guard filled the doorway. Slobad talked to the guard for a moment. The leonin’s eyes widened in horror. He closed the door, and Glissa heard him running off.

“What did you say to him?” she asked.

“Slobad remind him of penalty for losing prisoner,” said Slobad. “If you die, he dies. Try to look sicker when he comes back, huh? Told him you be dead by first moon. Just show him leg. He believe, huh?”

A few minutes later, the door opened and two guards entered. Glissa hung her head low and breathed heavily, trying to look and feel as sick as possible. It wasn’t hard. The guards led them from the room. Glissa limped along between the two guards, helped by Slobad.

* * * * *

The leonin city was beautiful. Glissa had never seen so much brightly polished metal. The molder in the Tangle gave the forest a fuzzy, green look that Glissa found comforting, but the leonin city was trimmed with polished copper, silver, and gold. Even the guards’ shields were mirrors that reflected light ahead of them as they walked. The prisoners were led through a series of wide hallways made of copper, with silver trim around each door and along the edge of the floor. Golden sconces holding silver fire tubes like the one Slobad carried dotted the walls all along the hall. The entire hallway glittered in reflected light from the numerous flames.

They passed an open door, and Glissa glanced inside. This was no holding room like the one she and Slobad had occupied. It was large and bright and filled with amazing furnishings. As she hobbled past, Glissa saw an ornate bed made from large metallic bones of some animal she didn’t recognize. Next to the bed were a matching bone table and chair. The table had been topped in gold, while the bone legs and back of the chair had been completely covered in silver. Everything in the room-even the bones on the table and bed-had been highly polished and reflected the light of the fire tubes inside. The effect was dazzling.

The guards escorted them out into a large courtyard near the edge of the city. Glissa could hear the sounds of battle coming over the wall from the fields below, but there were no warriors to be seen. The leonin soldiers must have left the battlements and gone out to face the nim. Glissa glanced up and saw that much of the city still towered above them. She could see walled terraces at several levels. Each of them was brightly lit, and the walls of the entire city glittered in the night air.

They walked on plates of silver and gold as they crossed the courtyard. The plates were arranged to create tapering gold lines radiating out from a large golden circle in the center of the courtyard. In the center of the circle stood a statue of a leonin warrior carrying an ornate shield on his back and holding a huge, bladed staff. The warrior’s outstretched hand held a ball of fire that illuminated the entire courtyard, but Glissa couldn’t see anything fueling the fire.

“Your work?” she asked Slobad.

The goblin shook his head, then nodded. “Not make statue, huh? Slobad tinker, not sculptor. Art not practical. Not keep you alive, huh? Slobad make fire. Like tubes in hall. Leonin revere light. Say they keep fire burning to stay close to their god, huh? I think they afraid of dark.”

On the other side of the courtyard, the guards stopped. They moved to either side of the door and held open a thick, dark curtain. Glissa and Slobad limped through the opening, followed by their escorts. This room was darker than anything Glissa had yet seen in the city. Curtains of woven leather hung everywhere, and a pungent, smoky aroma hung in the air. It was a drastic change from the rest of the brightly lit city.

“Sit,” said the guard, indicating a low bench inside the door.

Glissa sat down, and two female leonin appeared from behind one of the curtains. As they got closer, Glissa noticed that the females were only slightly smaller than the males she had seen, but their faces were even more striking. They had no manes covering their heads, but Glissa could see a graceful curve of their necks and cheeks that was hidden on the males. Even more striking was the color of one of the females’ eyes. One was copper, like all the leonin Glissa had seen so far. The other was bright blue.

The one with the odd eyes spoke. “She is not leonin,” she said. “Why do you bring this creature in here?”

Glissa thought the leonin might not heal her after all.

“She is a prisoner of Raksha,” replied the guard. “She must not die before he returns from battle.”

After a moment’s hesitation, the two healers bent over Glissa and looked at her wounds. One reached out and touched Glissa’s forehead and shoulder, while the one with the single blue eye looked at her blackened foot and the decaying metal spreading up her leg. Glissa could see a white glow around the first healer’s fingers as she touched her wounds. The pain in her shoulder disappeared along with a dull headache she hadn’t even realized she’d had until it was gone.

Glissa looked down at the other healer and knew something was wrong. The leonin’s hands glowed, but Glissa could feel no change in her foot.

After another minute, the odd-eyed healer stopped trying and stood. “She must see Ushanti,” she said. “I have not the power to affect this wound.”

“Stand,” said the guard.

Slobad helped Glissa back to her feet, and they followed the healers through the maze of curtains into the center of the large room. Smoke filtered up to the ceiling from a brazier suspended over red-hot coals. Another female leonin stood with her back to the group, sprinkling sand into the smoking pot. A flash of yellow light shot from the brazier and scattered across the ceiling.

“Ushanti,” said the odd-eyed healer, “Raksha’s prisoner needs your healing power.”

“Raksha and his prisoner will have to wait,” replied Ushanti. “There are more important matters in the world than a nim prisoner.” She dipped her hand back into a bowl beside her and grabbed another handful of sand.

Glissa couldn’t see the seer’s face but could tell by the tremble in her voice and the hunch in her back that this leonin was old, older than any of the other leonin she’d seen in the city.

“She is not nim, Ushanti,” replied the healer. “I believe she is an elf.”

Ushanti’s clenched hand stopped halfway between the bowl and the brazier. “Elf, you say? Female elf?” The seer’s voice rose in pitch dramatically. Glissa wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the woman tremble.

“Yes, Ushanti.”

Ushanti turned to face Glissa and Slobad. As soon as her eyes locked with Glissa’s, the seer screamed and staggered backward. The sand Ushanti still clenched in her hand spread across the floor around her as she slumped to the ground.