Anowon was far ahead when they began to walk through the clumps of grass toward the thin lines of smoke drifting sideways from Affa at the base to the aerie peaks. They kicked through the grass all the rest of that day. That night they slept where they fell on the hard ground, with no food and not even a fire.
They rose before dawn and stopped to lick the dew off the blades of grass and their weapons. The sky to the east was a dull gray when they started walking again. They moved across the high grasslands, and midday found them with their cloaks thrown over their heads to protect them from the high-altitude sun which Nissa could feel as a weight on her skin. Clouds passed close overhead, carried on the constant wind.
In the late afternoon, the ground began to jump and jitter. The air seemed to pull in on Nissa. The tiny flask of water she kept around her neck boiled, and tremendous crack appeared in the earth. Moments later, lava shot into the air and pulled into a massive ball that quickly cooled to black, at which point plants began to grow all over it. It happened in a matter of minutes. Soon the floating ball was engulfed with greenery.
Nissa had fallen next to Anowon. They stood when the Roil was over and the cooling ball of magma floated in the air blasting heat. Nissa looked sideways at Anowon.
Thank you for getting me from the vampires, she said.
Anowon nodded. You did the same for me in the tower of the elves. We vampires drink blood, but some of us have honor, if it suits us. I gain from your presence, which is why you are still here.
How do you gain?
You are effective against the brood, Anowon said.
Perhaps you will be the same against the Eldrazi themselves.
Nissa changed her grip on her staff. Eldrazi? she said. You mean the ones that are still imprisoned? How would we fight them?
If we woke them from their slumber?
But we are traveling to the Eye of Ugin for Sorin to strengthen the spell of containment on the Eldrazi tomb. If they escape, it will be red slaughter.
That is what he told us.
And you do not believe him?
There are other places out there, Anowon said, waving a hand at the sky, referring to other planes. Since we talked I have become suspicious. This Sorin is from another plane, and he wants to keep the brood and their masters here? Anowon stamped his foot on the ground. Why? Why does he not keep them somewhere else?
Nissa opened her mouth and then closed it. The vampire had put voice to a question she had been wondering herself. I do not know why he wants them kept here, she said.
None of us do, Anowon said, casting a sidelong glance at Sorin.
What do you propose we do? Nissa said.
Freeing the Eldrazi, Anowon said. Let them go back out there. Once again he waved his hand at the sky. Have you noticed how the Roil has grown in severity lately, since the brood escaped?
I do not know when they escaped.
I was there. It was three moons ago.
Nissa thought back. It did seem as though the Roil had increased. But that could just be her remembering incorrectly.
And, according to what I ve read, the Roil was not always on Zendikar. Ancient texts first speak of the Roil only after the Eldrazi disappeared, Anowon said, pointing at Sorin.
After that one imprisoned them. And I know from my research that the hedrons did not appear until after the Eldrazi disappeared off the face of Zendikar. There were no hedrons on Zendikar when the Eldrazi walked its surface.
Well, Nissa said. What are they?
Anowon threw up his hands. Whatever they are, they clearly have something to do with keeping the Eldrazi asleep with channeling energy. Many of the strange phenomena of Zendikar occur around them, have you noticed?
That seems true, Nissa said.
And did you notice the inscription on that building the brood were building? The one in the hedron field near the ocean?
Nissa remembered that they had taken the brood by surprise and left none alive. But as for the building itself, she could not bring any of the inscriptions into her mind s eye. She shook her head.
The inscriptions were made by the brood copying the ancient Eldrazi style of decoration, Anowon said. Just as the markings on the hedrons are copies. The only original markings are on the palaces and crypts and various other buildings that once housed the ancients.
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.