“Mephidross?”
“Bad place under Ingle,” said Slobad. “The black sun … er … moon, where goblins go when burned in Great Furnace. Slobad never go to Mephidross. Too close to Ingle. Raksha tell me about it, huh? Green muck everywhere. Gas swirling in air make you sick, huh? Nim rise from ground. Attack leonin. Bad.”
“Zombies?” asked Glissa. “I’ve heard stories about the dead rising from the ground-Father called them zombies-but these nim didn’t look dead. They just looked sort of turned inside out.”
Glissa concentrated on her hands and built up a small ball of green mana between them. She moved her hands over her leg as if massaging the energy into the wounds and decay.
“Don’t know,” said Slobad from across the room. “Never see them before today. Some say green muck or foul gas turn people into nim. Never want to find out, huh? Slobad like being goblin.”
“You’ve never seen one?” asked Glissa. “I thought you said Raksha fought them all the time.” The mana spread out over her leg and sank down into the decaying flesh. The metal skin around her knee looked a little better, but her foot remained black and cold. She looked up at Slobad to see if he had noticed, but he was still pacing. It was obvious the goblin didn’t like to be locked up.
“Out on border with Mephidross,” said Slobad. “They never come all the way to Taj Nar before. Something funny happening in world, huh? Levelers, nim, crazy elves. Strange, huh?”
“I suppose it’s all my fault,” snapped Glissa. “Is that what you’re saying?”
Slobad stared at Glissa and blinked a few times. “You strange, crazy elf. I never say that. How it your fault, huh? Just strange, that’s all. Crazy elf. World not revolve around you, huh?”
Glissa lowered her head. She didn’t know where that outburst had come from. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I haven’t really been thinking right since the leveler attack.…” She paused. “No, that’s not true. I do that all the time-seeing things that aren’t really there. I’m just suspicious of coincidence, I guess. I’m sorry.”
Slobad came over to her and saw her foot. He let out a low whistle. “You lose that foot if we don’t see healer soon, huh? Need to find way to get from here. Get out soon or lose foot. That for sure.”
Glissa didn’t argue. There was nothing more her magic could do. If they didn’t see the healers soon, she’d have to cut off her own foot just to save the rest of her leg.
“I thought you said Raksha owed you,” she growled. “Fine way to show it-locking us up in here.”
“Raksha don’t like surprises, and leonin don’t trust strangers,” said Slobad. “I guess Slobad upset Raksha when I bring stranger in through secret entrance, huh?”
Glissa dipped her bandage in a bowl of water sitting on the table. “Raksha was the leader we met, right?”
Slobad nodded.
“Didn’t he know about the entrance?”
The goblin smirked. “No,” he said. “Slobad help build gate for leonin many cycles ago. Added extra door. Slobad always like to have more than one way in or out, huh?”
Glissa laughed as she cleaned the blood off her forehead and shoulder. After rinsing the bandage again, she tried her healing magic on her other wounds, but the energy would not come this time. The infection and her failed attempts to keep it in check had made her weak.
“We need to see Ushanti now,” said Slobad. “Can’t wait for Raksha to calm down, huh? Slobad find other way from here.”
He began pounding on the door. When the door opened, a Leonin guard filled the doorway. Slobad talked to the guard for a moment. The leonin’s eyes widened in horror. He closed the door, and Glissa heard him running off.
“What did you say to him?” she asked.
“Slobad remind him of penalty for losing prisoner,” said Slobad. “If you die, he dies. Try to look sicker when he comes back, huh? Told him you be dead by first moon. Just show him leg. He believe, huh?”
A few minutes later, the door opened and two guards entered. Glissa hung her head low and breathed heavily, trying to look and feel as sick as possible. It wasn’t hard. The guards led them from the room. Glissa limped along between the two guards, helped by Slobad.
* * * * *
The leonin city was beautiful. Glissa had never seen so much brightly polished metal. The molder in the Tangle gave the forest a fuzzy, green look that Glissa found comforting, but the leonin city was trimmed with polished copper, silver, and gold. Even the guards’ shields were mirrors that reflected light ahead of them as they walked. The prisoners were led through a series of wide hallways made of copper, with silver trim around each door and along the edge of the floor. Golden sconces holding silver fire tubes like the one Slobad carried dotted the walls all along the hall. The entire hallway glittered in reflected light from the numerous flames.
They passed an open door, and Glissa glanced inside. This was no holding room like the one she and Slobad had occupied. It was large and bright and filled with amazing furnishings. As she hobbled past, Glissa saw an ornate bed made from large metallic bones of some animal she didn’t recognize. Next to the bed were a matching bone table and chair. The table had been topped in gold, while the bone legs and back of the chair had been completely covered in silver. Everything in the room-even the bones on the table and bed-had been highly polished and reflected the light of the fire tubes inside. The effect was dazzling.
The guards escorted them out into a large courtyard near the edge of the city. Glissa could hear the sounds of battle coming over the wall from the fields below, but there were no warriors to be seen. The leonin soldiers must have left the battlements and gone out to face the nim. Glissa glanced up and saw that much of the city still towered above them. She could see walled terraces at several levels. Each of them was brightly lit, and the walls of the entire city glittered in the night air.
They walked on plates of silver and gold as they crossed the courtyard. The plates were arranged to create tapering gold lines radiating out from a large golden circle in the center of the courtyard. In the center of the circle stood a statue of a leonin warrior carrying an ornate shield on his back and holding a huge, bladed staff. The warrior’s outstretched hand held a ball of fire that illuminated the entire courtyard, but Glissa couldn’t see anything fueling the fire.
“Your work?” she asked Slobad.
The goblin shook his head, then nodded. “Not make statue, huh? Slobad tinker, not sculptor. Art not practical. Not keep you alive, huh? Slobad make fire. Like tubes in hall. Leonin revere light. Say they keep fire burning to stay close to their god, huh? I think they afraid of dark.”
On the other side of the courtyard, the guards stopped. They moved to either side of the door and held open a thick, dark curtain. Glissa and Slobad limped through the opening, followed by their escorts. This room was darker than anything Glissa had yet seen in the city. Curtains of woven leather hung everywhere, and a pungent, smoky aroma hung in the air. It was a drastic change from the rest of the brightly lit city.
“Sit,” said the guard, indicating a low bench inside the door.
Glissa sat down, and two female leonin appeared from behind one of the curtains. As they got closer, Glissa noticed that the females were only slightly smaller than the males she had seen, but their faces were even more striking. They had no manes covering their heads, but Glissa could see a graceful curve of their necks and cheeks that was hidden on the males. Even more striking was the color of one of the females’ eyes. One was copper, like all the leonin Glissa had seen so far. The other was bright blue.
The one with the odd eyes spoke. “She is not leonin,” she said. “Why do you bring this creature in here?”
Glissa thought the leonin might not heal her after all.