She listened for Sorin to begin climbing. Why had his destructive singing not worked on the giants?
She asked him.
They must be composed, he said, breathing hard as he climbed. Must be composed of stone. I am only able to rot the living.
Nissa turned back to climbing. Rot the living, she thought. She tried to speed up so Sorin was not so close behind her.
The first reddening of the sky found them still climbing, though slowly. Nissa found that if she stopped thinking about anything, her hands found their own handhold, and her progress was more satisfactory. Sorin must have found the same thing. The rhythm of his steps sounded more regular, and his breathing had steadied.
Farther down, the goblins followed behind Smara, pushing and heading her up the trail, making good progress. They lived in rocky crevices and could clearly move in high, precarious places easily.
They attained the lip of the mesa when the sun was low in the sky. Panting, Nissa clambered onto the grassy veldt. To the right, a river poured over the edge of the mesa and cascaded the heights into the dark mist of the canyon. Nissa crawled to the river and had a drink. Her hands were cut and raw, and she put them into the cold water and cried out with the sting. Soon Sorin and Anowon were at the river. Sorin put his whole head in. Anowon put only his lips in the clear water and sucked peacefully. After he was filled, he walked up the stream with his eyes on the stream bed as he walked.
What are you looking for? Nissa said.
Signs.
As she watched, he fell to his knees next to the water and plunged his hands into the rocks and pebbles at the bottom of the stream. His hands came out holding something.
What is that? Nissa asked. Her soreness made kneeling difficult, but she did it anyway.
The palms of Anowon s hands were filled with many small pebbles and a couple of rocks. Something about the scratches on the rocks set her curiosity on edge, and she bent to look closer at a green one. Soon a brow became apparent. Then slit eyes. The rock was crudely carved into the likeness of a head with an expression of anger. She looked up at Anowon.
Each is similarly carved, he said.
She looked still closer at the pebbles in his hands. He was right each of them, no matter how small, was carved to look like an earless head. Some had tentacles for mouths and some did not.
She looked at Anowon again.
I have heard of these streams near the Binding Circle, he said. All the streams around are filled thusly.
Suddenly Nissa had the feeling she was being attacked something was running toward her. But when she spun, the mesa behind her was covered only with dense grass that spread away into foothills. There was no enemy. Even in the slanted morning light she could see the gaps in the mountains where the ancient ones had sheared off the tops and put their magic in between so they rose and crashed down at irregular intervals. The foothills extended into blunt mountains capped with snow, and dark, purple rain clouds sat on the horizon. On either side of the stream, twin statues of grotesque, tentacled statues stood in massive repose. One was missing a head, and the other s body was floating slightly above its pedestal.
She turned back to Anowon, bewildered.
I feel it too, he said. We must be on guard.
She nodded.
Did you see it? asked Anowon.
No, Nissa said.
Anowon pointed. It was no more than a dot at the base of the mountains: a palace. It was in a sunless lee of the mountains and clearly crumbled, but it had obviously once been huge.
Is this the Binding Circle? Nissa said to Anowon.
I don t know, he replied.
The morning sun was bright and warm on her neck. Anowon went off to lie in the grass with the pebbles in his open palms. Sorin was already asleep, snoring loudly. As she watched, Smara clambered over the edge of the Mesa, pushed forward by her goblins. She was muttering again, with her crystal firmly clamped in her right hand. But as soon as the goblins had situated her in the grass, she clutched her crystal to her chest and quieted a bit.
Nissa stretched out in the grass and felt her muscles loosen. She believed that vampires liked to cut their prey before feeding. Their teeth were not overly sharp. Anowon had no bladed tool.
A low rumbling sound drifted somewhere far off in the mountains. The floating parts of the statues next to the river cast long shadows. And Nissa fell asleep, without setting a watch.
Robert B. Wintermute
Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum
Nissa awoke suddenly, shivering in the darkness, listening for whatever had woken her. But she was unable to hear anything except the gusting wind shaking the grass fronds around her. There were no stars or moon overhead, and Nissa could not hear Smara s incessant babbling. Her staff was by her side, and she very slowly reached out and put her hand around its smooth shaft. She waited and listened, but nothing came and she drifted off again.
She next opened her eyes to bright daylight. Her staff was still clutched in her hand. She sat up. Smara was speaking somewhere, and the wind had disappeared, but not the feeling of foreboding. Anowon was sitting in the grass watching her, with his bound hands wrapped around his legs. Sorin was standing with his back to her, looking at the mountains. The goblins and Smara were grouped together near the river.
Are you ready? Sorin asked, turning. He looked surprisingly fit. His face was full as he smiled. Anowon wanted to feed on you but I kept him from it
Nissa stood.
But you have something in your blood, he tells me, Sorin finished.
Nissa turned and adjusted the climbing harness she always wore.
I take the Joraga tincture, Nissa said. Once a month. She took Khalled s map from the tube strapped to her belt.
Where do you get that? Sorin said. Are you not a Tajuru, after all?
Nissa stopped. What did he say? she thought. She bristled at the taunt. Watch your tongue, human.
Sorin laughed.
Still, Anowon watched her.
I have fought many vampires in my time, Nissa said. And our tincture makes our blood poison to one. Now, if you are done? She unrolled the map and considered its ink lines. What had gotten into Sorin and Anowon? she wondered.
Did you sleep well? Sorin asked.
She looked up from the map.
One of Smara s goblins is gone. Sorin said.
She looked over at the group of goblins surrounding Smara. One, two, three yes, there were only nine.
Yes, and? she said.
We are wondering what happened to it, Sorin said, a smug smile on his face as he turned to Anowon. Aren t we?
She looked up in surprise. Why would I have knowledge of this?