Pushing the ground with her back leg, the elf leaped into the air, her front leg outstretched. The thresher reared back, but it was too slow, Glissa had already cleared its teeth, and she landed on top of its head. Its top was soft, and it caved in under her weight. She slipped, and her knee gave way. Tilting to the side, Glissa pushed off again.
Her off-center jump sent her flying to the ground. She tucked into a ball, curling her shoulder under as she hit. The world spun once, and Glissa popped back to her feet.
Before her, the threshers closed in on Bruenna. One of them seemed to open, lifting its head and cutting blades up off the ground. Behind those spinning teeth, the creature revealed a hollow chamber. Bruenna looked up, her eyes wide, and she lifted her hands in the air, hopelessly trying to hold off the advancing creature.
Darting forward, it scooped up the injured mage and closed down, swallowing her whole.
Glissa couldn’t believe her eyes. Bruenna was gone. Threshers weren’t supposed to be able to do that.
Anger and grief welled up inside her, the same feelings that had driven her powerful spell in the past. She thought of Al-Hayat, the trolls, and all the wizards who had died on this quest. Then she thought of Bruenna, trapped inside the gut of that thresher, and her blood began to boil. She could feel power course through her, as it had many times before. Her control was getting greater, and she focused her rage on the threshers, willing them to disintegrate into tiny piles of dust.
Nothing happened.
Glissa felt the same release she had each time before when the spell had worked. For some reason the creatures she had focused on were unaffected.
It hit her. “They’re no longer metal.”
Each time before, when she had used this mysterious power, she had only been able to destroy levelers or weapons-never flesh. Standing there, empty handed, watching the thresher with Bruenna inside dart away, Glissa felt numb. Her head buzzed, and her limbs felt heavy. She hadn’t realized before how draining that experience had been.
A thresher hit her from behind, knocking the elf face first on the ground. She had time to turn over and see the creature open wide, before she too was swallowed whole.
CHAPTER 23
Memnarch opened the door to the Eye and waved Malil over. “Come. Memnarch wishes to see the elf girl.”
Malil crossed the laboratory and climbed into the Eye with Memnarch. The guardian touched the appropriate controls, and all of the screens lit up. Each of them showed a different scene, each giving a different view of Mirrodin. The plains, swamp, mountains, oceans, and forest of the metal planet were all represented.
Memnarch turned another knob, and five of the six screens changed to a picture of the interior. They were all the same, but each from a different angle. In the center of all five screens, a lone thresher rolled across the open ground.
On the sixth screen was a view of the inside of the Eye-the view from Malil’s point of view. The metal man looked into that screen, and it reproduced what he saw a billion times-like two mirrors facing each other. Malil looked at what Memnarch saw when Memnarch looked through his eyes, and that image layered itself upon itself into infinity, making an endless hallway, surrounded by the interior of the Eye.
An unexpected discovery, thought the Guardian, something he’d have to explore later, when the elf girl was firmly within his grasp.
Malil turned his attention to one of the other five screens, and the view through his eyes too showed the lone device on the interior of Mirrodin.
“Why are we looking at a thresher, master?”
“Because, Malil, the elf girl is inside.”
Memnarch squinted, spotting something heading toward his prize. One of the screens shifted its view, narrowing in on another lone creature, speeding toward the thresher atop a hoverer.
“What is he doing here?”
* * * * *
The inside of the thresher’s body was very dark. It reminded Glissa of the time Bosh had placed her in his chest cavity. Only this time, the world wasn’t spinning. Considering the circumstances, it was a comfortable ride. The chamber was spacious enough for her to sit cross-legged and not have to duck her head, and the sides of the creature were soft.
After having hit the thresher with her fists-and even kicking until she became winded-Glissa concluded that it didn’t feel any pain, at least not from the inside. So she sat waiting.
What a predicament. Swallowed whole by a thresher after having lost her sword. It was a wonder she’d made it this far at all. She laughed at that thought. Slobad had been so worried about what she would use for a weapon once they’d put the Kaldra Champion together. Evidently, it didn’t matter.
She thought about what awaited her at the end of this ride. Was Bruenna being taken to the same place? Would she finally meet Memnarch? This wasn’t exactly the way she had envisioned it.
Glissa felt the thresher slow down. Her heart raced, and she prepared to draw mana. The creature came to an abrupt stop. It jerked backward, then the sharp tip of a short blade cut through the creature’s exterior, nearly punching straight into Glissa’s forehead.
The blade slid sideways, and the thresher shook. Blood poured into the hollow cavity, and light seeped in through the wound. Glissa could only make out the hand and forearm attached to the blade-blue skin.
Another blade struck the beast and punched through. Glissa pushed herself back in the chamber, staying as far from the weapons as possible, then she drew as much mana as she could.
The arcane energies flowed to her, and she cast a spell, growing to nearly twice her size in the blink of an eye. Her body quickly filled the confined space, and her arms were pinned to her sides by the thresher’s flesh. She had known this would happen and avoided just this situation earlier in the ride. Kicking with all of her might, her engorged legs connected with the front of the thresher-right beneath where the blade had cut into its hide.
Flesh tore, and light flooded in. Glissa was free.
Getting to her feet, the giant elf pulled the remaining bits of the thresher’s corpse from her head and looked down on a vedalken.
“Pontifex.”
The four-armed lord glared back at her. “You have taken from me my god. You have taken from me my kingdom.” He lifted a bloody sword in each hand. “Now I am going to take your life.”
The vedalken lunged at the elf, cutting two long gashes in her thigh before she could react. The wounds would have been much worse had Glissa not been so big, but they were still painful, and the elf gave ground.
Lifting off into the air on his hoverer, the vedalken brandished a pair of matched short swords. Pontifex shot forward, swooping around the giant elf, charging right at her head.
Glissa ducked, shuffling forward and putting her hand to the ground to keep from falling. The hoverer just missed her, tussling her hair as it shot past. Catching her balance, Glissa stood up and turned, keeping the vedalken where she could see him.
Pontifex stopped dead and with a thought twisted the hoverer in mid-air. Its nose pointed at Glissa, he rode at her again. This time Glissa sidestepped to her right, swatting at the vedalken as if he were a buzzing fly. Pontifex anticipated her move and swung the hoverer to his left, bringing the sharp edge of his blade across her shoulder.
The elf hissed at the wound and jerked away from the attack, bringing her other hand up in defense. Pontifex’s mind urged his vehicle away, but he was too close. The elf’s hand swung by him, swirling the air around his hoverer.
Pontifex bounced through the windstream, then the hoverer flipped over and spun, tossing the rider from his mount. The vedalken dropped to the ground.
Glissa lifted her foot in the air, prepared to step on her foe. “I’m going to squash you like a bug.” She lowered her foot, casting a great shadow.