“You’re awake, huh?” said Slobad, who was sitting at the table, eating. “Good. Can you walk? We leave soon, but Slobad can’t carry you home. Too big. No good, huh?”
Glissa looked at her leg. The swelling was almost gone, but the ankle still ached. She untied the leather bandage and saw that the copper around the wounds looked odd. It was green, but that was just molder-the process that gave Tangle trees their green coloring. All copper looked that way if not polished regularly. No, the metal itself seemed to have bubbled up around the wounds. As Glissa removed the leather strap, some of the metal flaked off, and pus oozed from the wounds again.
The elf wiped her ankle clean, wincing at the pain, then replaced the bandage. She pushed herself up and tested the ankle. It held her weight, and she could endure the pain. “I can walk,” she said.
Slobad came over and poked at the bandage with his clawed hand.
“Ow! What did you do that for?”
“You can’t walk long on that leg,” said Slobad. “I saw, huh? The metal is corroding. Infection spreading. You’ll never make it to the Tangle, huh? Too far. You need healer soon. We go to leonin.”
“Leonin?” asked Glissa. “Who is that? Is he far away?”
“Stupid elf,” said Slobad. “Do you know nothing about the world outside Tangle? The leonin are your neighbors, huh? Their tribes live in the Glimmervoid. Not far. Slobad lives on edge of Glimmervoid. It’ll take two or three rotations to walk to leonin city. We find a healer there.”
The little goblin went to his workbench and began putting tools and some of the larger scraps of metal into his pouch. “We go soon. You eat, huh?”
“Two or three rotations?” asked Glissa as she hobbled over to the table. It looked as if it might fall to pieces at any moment, but it held her weight when she leaned against it. “You call that ‘not far’? And how do you know they’ll help me? We should just go back to the Tangle. How far can it be?”
Slobad shook his head. “Stupid, crazy elf,” he muttered. Tangle is twice that far, huh? Take at least six, maybe eight rotations to get you home from here, especially with that bad leg. We have to cut leg off after four rotations, at most. If that’s what you want, we’ll go to Tangle.”
“There’s no healer closer?” asked Glissa. On the table she saw the carcasses of two small animals. They each had four tiny legs, a wiry tail, and patches of gray fur mixed with metal plates on their backs. “What about the goblins? They must be close, right?”
Slobad was searching for something on the workbench. Glissa couldn’t tell what any of the tools were for. She sliced off some meat with Slobad’s knife and ate what she could while she waited for his response. The goblin didn’t seem to understand the art of conversation. He often answered his own questions without waiting for a response, and now he seemed to be ignoring her questions. The meat was pungent and stringy, but Glissa was famished. She cut off more meat and soon finished both animals.
“Goblins have no healers who can deal with that leg, huh?” said Slobad. The goblin had finished packing his bag and now tossed a fur over his shoulders and tied it around his neck with several strips of leather. “Elf magic only heals wounds. You said so yourself. Goblin magic hardly even do that. Elves and leonin only decent healers. You choose, huh?”
“Fine,” said Glissa. Once again she had no choice but to trust this creature who lived by himself within the den of the world’s most dangerous … constructs. Why was he helping her? How did he know so much about the world? It seemed that people who spent all their time in little rooms knew a lot more than she did about Mirrodin. Perhaps Slobad could be useful, but she needed to know more about him and his motives.
“We’ll go see the leonin healers.”
Slobad nodded. He tossed Glissa a sword sheath. “Here, take this. I found it in blades of leveler. Maybe you can use it better than its previous owner, huh?”
Glissa grabbed the sheath. There was no belt, so she took the goblin’s knife, cut a long strip of leather, and tied the sheath around her waist. Several more strips fastened her boot back onto her leg.
“Ready.”
* * * * *
Slobad revealed another secret opening in the wall and led Glissa through a square, metal tunnel. Slobad could walk, but the elf had to either crawl or hunch over inside the tunnel. It twisted back and forth, and they passed many side tunnels as they walked. It seemed to Glissa like she crawled for an eternity. Slobad often turned left or right at intersections but never slowed his pace. Glissa knew she could never find her way back to Slobad’s room. She had to keep following the goblin. Finally she saw light up ahead, and they emerged from the small tunnel into a larger cave.
“This way,” said Slobad as he moved toward the light streaming in through the cave entrance.
Glissa stepped outside and halted, amazed by the land around her. The ground gleamed. It was made of a silvery metal, not the moldered copper of the Tangle. The ground rolled up and down around her, making hills and valleys running as far as she could see. The cave behind her did not come from a hill, though. Rather, the structure was shaped like a mushroom. Rust-colored intertwined tubes ran up from the silver ground to a large, conical top. There were several of these outcroppings around them, and in the distance behind her, Glissa could see a large mountain with similar features jutting into the sky.
“Is that where your people live?” she asked Slobad.
“I told you, huh?” said Slobad, who was already moving down the slope. “Slobad has no people. Slobad is his own people. Goblins live in mountains leonin live in Razor Fields. Mountains up there. Razor Fields down there. We go this way, huh?”
Glissa hobbled up beside the goblin and looked at him. His eyes were narrowed, and he looked straight at the ground. He might just have been concentrating on the path, but Glissa guessed she had hit on a touchy subject.
“Why do you live alone, Slobad?” she asked.
“Long story,” said Slobad.
It was an uncharacteristically short answer. “We have three days,” she replied. “Surely that will be enough time.”
“Leave me alone, crazy elf,” said Slobad in a gruff and final tone.
“You could have left me alone back there and been perfectly happy in your little room,” said Glissa. She poked him in the shoulder with the tip of her claws. This was getting fun. For some reason she was reminded of Kane.
“Come on,” she continued. “You brought this on yourself. You helped me and abandoned your home to take me to the leonin. You owe me.”
Slobad walked on in silence, apparently trying to wait her out.
“I’m not going to stop asking until we get to the leonin city,” she said, poking him again, “so you might as well just tell me now. Look, I never had many friends, either. There’s no shame in being alone. I find it more comforting. You don’t have to worry about anyone else and what they might do to you.”
“Elf talks too much,” grunted Slobad. Glissa thought he was going to fall silent again, but he continued after a few more steps. “You don’t know what you talk about, huh? You choose to be alone. Slobad outcast. Have no family, no friends. Slobad is cursed. That what you want to know, huh?”
“I’m sorry,” said Glissa. “Sometimes I think I’m cursed, too. I’ve always been different. I’m sort of an outcast as well. Maybe that’s why I like you, Slobad. Maybe that’s why I’m willing to trust you.”
For the rest of the day, the pair walked away from the mountains in silence, through the hills of the Glimmervoid. Glissa watched with awe as the yellow moon passed almost right over her. She could see the red, black, and blue moons as well. The red one stayed behind them all day while the blue passed off to their right. The black was farther away ahead of them, but it was still closer than she had ever seen it before.