Lightning cracked out across the sky. It showed up the underbelly of the third sphere-pipes knotted in tight convolutions. Jagged energy probed an enormous flywheel.
It illuminated a complex of gears and spindles before disappearing across the sky.
He knows we are here, Taysir said. Why doesn't he do more to stop us?
He cannot, Urza replied. All his forces are committed to the invasion. In his arrogance, he never believed we could assail him.
You're wrong, Taysir said. He and Urza had never been friends, and since Kristina's death, Taysir made no attempt to hide his animosity. He is smarter than that. He knows something we don't know. He's luring us in.
And you accuse me of paranoia, Urza said. No, Taysir. You are the one who is wrong, about this, and about a great many things.
One of the vacant titan engines powered up. A bluster of thoughts intruded on the conversation. Can't believe we have to muck about in pipes and sepsis, putrefying our hands and burning our beards and scratching our-my monocle! How in hell did that damned creeper scratch my best monocle?
How did your mission go, Commodore Guff? Urza asked.
Huhh? came the thought, flustered at the presence of the other two planeswalkers. Oh, peachy, my man. Not a hitch. Textbook.
Textbook? Urza ribbed. So, you are writing fiction these days?
The commodore gave a confident chuckle. That's the beauty. A man in my position writes fiction, and it becomes reality.
Two more titan engines powered up. Their piloting bulbs glowed faintly in the darkness. Within one sat Bo Levar, happily puffing on a cigar. Blue smoke curled up around him and drew away through fans at the rear of the suit. He waved a greeting to his comrades.
Within the other was Freyalise, settling into the command harness. Grime and oil and soot. Really, Urza, I don't know what you see in machines. Filthy, loud, vicious things.
Look at it this way, Bo Levar commented amiably, you're setting bombs to blow up the biggest damned machine in the multiverse.
Freyalise dipped her head in acknowledgment. That's the whole reason I agreed to come. I couldn't blow up all Urza's machines at once, but I could blow up all of Yawgmoth's.
Do not say that name, Urza warned. Do not even think it.
Urza thinks Yawgmoth doesn't know we're here, Taysir explained.
Freyalise gave a snort. Yeah, that's likely.
Don't say that name! Urza insisted.
The panther warrior's quadrupedal machine powered up. So too did the draconic machine of Tevash Szat.
Ah, so the animals are the last ones back, quipped Bo Levar, sending a great puff of smoke up into his piloting dome. I'd think on four legs you could have done the job in half the time.
Ever laconic, Lord Windgrace spoke only a few purring words. I ran into some… rats.
Did you plant the bombs? Urza asked.
Yes. They are set.
Mine too, offered Szat quietly.
That leaves only my daughter, Taysir said.
Oh, she won't be coming, said Urza casually. She's dead.
What? chorused Taysir and Freyalise.
Urza's titan engine began to pace with the same demeanor the man had used in Tolarian lecture halls. There has been a lot of talk lately about who has underestimated whom.
What does this have to do with Daria? Taysir demanded. Where is she?
The hand of Urza's engine rose. Let me finish. It has been said I have underestimated our foe. This is not possible. I've spent four thousand years preparing for this battle. It has been said I have underestimated Tevash Szat, that he is untrustworthy and evil. This is also impossible. I constructed these engines with Szat in mind. In fact, the one person in this group who is chronically underestimated is me.
Szat hissed, What has any of this to do with Daria?
Simply that you killed her, and I knew you would, and I now exact your punishment.
Instead of responding, Szat only hung there within his engine.
Taysir shouted, What going on!
He's dying, Urza replied simply. I've initiated the kill rubric.
Kill rubric?
At my command, ten thousand metal fibers emerged from his piloting harness to pierce his flesh. Minute lightnings pass through each of these, creating a local and general paralysis. He cannot move or feel, act or think. He is in a kind of suspension.
Taysir stared in amazement into the piloting bulb of Szat's engine. The dragon hung limply within the harness. So, you have incapacitated him. You'll punish him. But what about Daria! You said you knew this was going to happen. Why did you let it happen? Why did you let him kill Kristina and Daria?
Oh, I didn't know he would kill any of us, only that he would betray us. And I had to allow him to betray us so that I could exact punishment. And I had to exact punishment because it was the only way to charge my most powerful weapons.
Have you gone mad? Freyalise demanded.
An uncomfortable laugh came from Urza. Barrin always use to say that. No, I'm not mad. Come here, all of you, up beside Szat. Come look at what is happening inside the engine.
They crowded around Tevash Szat and peered into the piloting bulb. Tiny motes of light scintillated across the dragon's form. They emerged from the core of his being and glinted along the filaments that pierced his scales.
Barrin always said that I did not consider the moral implications of my actions. He said it particularly loudly when I developed these soul bombs. You see them there, beneath the piloting seat? They are extraordinarily powerful explosives, able to destroy whole cities. Unfortunately, they can be charged only by capturing a soul. Barrin had said I could never ethically charge them. I pointed out that plenty of traitors and murderers are executed every year, and their souls could charge these bombs. Again, he said I was mad, that no mortal crime deserved an immortal punishment.
So, look what I have done. I have found an immortal to commit an immortal crime-a traitor and a murderer whose soul can charge not one bomb but twenty. Even now, Szat is giving us the means of destroying the fourth sphere.
Can any of you imagine any more moral solution than that? Can any of you imagine any more sane plan? Now you know why I insisted Szat come. He has become my greatest weapon.
The others could only stare in horrified amazement as the last of Tevash Szat's life force seeped out of him and into the soul bombs.
Chapter 23
In the early morning light, Weatherlight rose from the encampment. The engine rattled command tents. Ash from spent logs fled up the volcanic hillside. Metathran stirred in their bedrolls. Minotaurs looked up from sharpening strivas. The perimeter of ghoul sentries turned to see the great ship surge out across the mountains of Urborg.
In his gunnery traces, Gerrard stared down at the conglomerate army. "Life surrounded by death." Agnate was winning the land battle but losing his life in the bargain. His pure heart was surrounded by rot. Even now, he and Commander Grizzlegom mustered their forces for an assault on the first volcano. At the summit, they would meet up with Lich Lord Dralnu and a new contingent of undead.