Brood lineage, Nissa said. Is that why you are traveling?
The kor leader looked back at the other kor and gave a signal to move on.
Nissa turned and caught Sorin yawning. Behind Sorin, Anowon stood staring at her. The vampire was always staring at her, she realized with a chill.
The kor are the lost creatures of Zendikar, Anowon said, with a strange twist to his lips, as if his comment should remind her of other lost creatures. They believe they are followed by the ghosts of their ancestors. Because of this they never stop moving. The mothers bear their young while suspended in a harness, and their fathers curse the ground nightly while imploring the sky. Both sexes use the bones of their ancestors in their daily rituals. Some go so far as to prop the dessicated corpses of their dead ancestors at the eating table. I like that last bit. A nice touch.
Why are you telling me this? asked Nissa.
I am fascinated with the kor, Anowon hissed, moving closer. Nissa inched back. I think you are fascinated with them, as well. Did you know they walk so much that the nursing mothers keep vessels of their milk on their hips, which are turned to cheese by week s end?
Nissa stared at Anowon. He had never said so many words to her, and on such an odd topic. She was not sure she liked it. In fact, she was sure she did not.
The kor left as silently as they had come. The only sound as they walked was the muted clink of the hooks hanging from their shoulder harnesses.
When they were gone, Nissa began looking for a place to sleep. The light in the sky was gone, and already the damp of the trench s floor was turning to a fine fog. The sand was wet, and they spent an uncomfortable night on the ground.
Nissa watched Anowon as they stood shivering in the predawn gray. How was the vampire feeding? She d been eating hardtack and dried warthog for the last two days.
Anowon caught her looking at him.
What are you eating? she asked.
The vampire stamped his feet and rubbed his hands together. His breath came out of his mouth in a puff. I eat when I am hungry, he replied.
He eats when I tell him, Sorin said, who also seemed well fed to Nissa. He stood in the cold as pink and as warm looking as if he d been traveling in the jungles of Bala Ged.
They walked between boulders large and small. The sand was wet under their feet, and that made the walking harder still. The crested sedge that grew on the sunless canyon floor brushed against their hands as they passed. At one point they stopped to drink from a rock pool. A huge boulder stood at the far side.
The water appeared as crystal clear as one might expect in a Bala Ged oracle pool, Nissa thought. Sorin was the first to near it. When one of the stones at the bottom of the pool moved, Nissa looked closer. Why was there a pool like this at the bottom of the trench? Nissa wondered. And after a flood. Stop, Nissa said.
Sorin turned with a scowl on his face.
That is no pool, Nissa said. Step back.
Sorin peered closely at the pool. Tiny fish were swimming in the clear water.
Step back slowly.
After a couple of heartbeats Sorin did as Nissa told him. Nissa glanced at Anowon, who was watching the proceedings with an impassive face. But for just a second, Nissa thought she saw the side of his mouth rise in the barest glint of a smile at Sorin s predicament. Then it was gone, and Sorin was back by their side.
Watch, Nissa said as she took a stick from the ground and tossed it into the pool. In a flash, a lip appeared from behind the boulder on the far side and snapped down over the entire pool with an audible snap that shook the ground slightly. Some black and green birds sitting in a nearby shrub took sudden flight.
Ah, Zendikar, Sorin said, shaking his head. He turned back to the trail, chuckling. But Nissa saw he wasn t smiling.
They saw other groups of kor who passed without word or gesture in the day and night, looking like they had been resoundingly beaten by more than one enemy. The trench became deeper as they walked. The line of sky above grew more and more narrow. And as they walked, the rock changed. Where there had been red walls of crumbly sedimentary rock, there were sheer, sweeping walls of steel gray granite. Nissa did not like the look of it. No toe holds, she thought. No boulders on the canyon floor to shelter behind.
At midday they came to a fork in the trench. A massive statue, half the height of the canyon, was carved into the stone wall. It was a being Nissa had seen in statues in other parts of Zendikar, and although it was crumbled and missing limbs, she could tell what it had been: a creature with a large head, four arms, and tentacles that started at its waist brood lineage. But who had carved the statue, and how long before? She thought of Anowon s words before the rainstorm that had created the flood: There has to be something more to them. As she looked up at the strange creature, she wondered if he wasn t right.
Nissa took the leather tube containing Khalled s map from her pack and consulted it. There were many lines extending from the trench. She found the tiny picture of the statue and realized they could follow the canyon branch that angled toward the sun, or the other which traveled but wound back in the same direction. She showed the map to Sorin, who eyed it suspiciously. He put one long, thin white finger on a landmass that lay on the other side of the sea.
Akoum, he said. Both trench ways moved them in that direction. If it wasn t for this plane s volatile energy, I would walk in the air and be there in seconds. I wouldn t need you or the Ghet. He waved a dismissive hand at them.
Nissa chose the left fork. The sun was half past mid-sky and the shadows were deep when Anowon stopped them. The canyon wall next to them was filled with images engraved into the smooth stone.
Illuminated pictographs, Anowon said as he unscrewed one of his metal cylinders and slipped a piece of paper out of the hollow place within. He went to the pictographs and squatted before them. He consulted the piece of paper as he deciphered the writing.
These are old, Anowon said. It is unknown to me why they are written here in this wilderness. He kept reading, speaking as he did. Perhaps this trench was not always as it appears now. Perhaps this trench was once an aqueduct used by the ancient Eldrazi for power creation.
Perhaps, Sorin said. His mocking smile visited his lips again.
This main panel tells the story of the Mortifier, Anowon said, pointing.
Sorin stopped smiling.
Who is that? Nissa asked.
Anowon s fingers traced the image of a pictograph of a figure daubed with black. He used both of his fingers to trace the line. The figure daubed with black pigment stood with three huge, monsterlike creatures, but appeared to be a simple being. It did not have the tentacles of the other three. Before the figure were other beings, attached to it with long lines.
These are ropes, Anowon said, tracing the lines.
These figures are vampires, and they are slaves to the Mortifier, who is one of these Eldrazi it appears.
He is not, Sorin said, his voice a jot higher than Anowon s. Does he look like those Eldrazi?
Nissa considered the picture. No, she agreed.
But those three Eldrazi don t look very much like the ones we ve seen.
These large Eldrazi are the ones that we see as statues around Zendikar, Anowon said. Many scholars think they are deities.
Gods with slaves? Nissa said.
Perhaps, Anowon said. Why not? If this had been an aqueduct, then who dug it? Who built the fabulous palaces? And those slaves are not human.
No?
They are vampires.
Yes, Yes, Sorin said.
Nissa turned to Sorin. Do you know about these Eldrazi?
Sorin s eyes did not blink. I know that Zendikar is at risk, he said.
Nissa turned to Anowon. And why do you not question him further on this topic which so interests you? she asked.
He is clearly hiding information.