And still they climbed, Nissa becoming more confident with the ingenious rope system. At midday the combers stopped on a small ledge, the flat side of a crystal that had had its sides chipped and dulled enough that it did not cut them. They sat on the shelf with their feet dangling over the edge and drank water sloshing in canteens made from the exoskeletons of large beetles. There was no food there had not been any for more than three days, and Nissa s stomach had stopped hurting. She did not even miss it.
They attained the top of the cliff by late afternoon. Sorin poked the top of his head over the edge and seeing no sign of movement, scrambled up. The dulam hide ropes were tied to huge crystals that had first been wrapped with more layers of hide as thick as Nissa s finger.
When they were all up and resting in the strange, wavy shadows created behind the crystals, Sorin looked over at Anowon. The vampire had closed his eyes again and was kneeling on the hard rock, moving his fingers soundlessly over the writing on one of his metal cylinders. The combers sat opposite Anowon, pretending not to notice him.
So, Sorin said to the combers. You were not totally unhelpful.
We traveled down to help you, the head man said.
We never meant you any harm.
Um, Sorin said, and then turned. Ghet?
Anowon opened one eye.
Ghet, do you know the way from here to the Teeth of Akoum?
The vampire s eye moved to the head man and stayed there.
Not precisely, Anowon said.
Sorin addressed the head comber. You will come with us and act as a guide. You will bring another Sorin turned to Anowon and asked, Two?
Anowon nodded.
Sorin turned back to the comber. Bring two of your associates, he continued. One of them might be eaten by the end. I feel I must tell you.
And if we refuse? the comber said. He spoke very calmly, without fear or uncertainty. Nissa found she liked him for that.
If you refuse, then we will destroy all of you, Sorin said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Anowon. And he will turn you into nulls.
They spent that night at the top of the cliff, protected from the nearly continuous wind by a huge crystal lying on its side. In the morning two of the beach combers had gone, and the others got together to decide which of them would accompany the party.
The head man volunteered, as did a merfolk who Nissa had not seen at first. The rest of the combers said hasty goodbyes and left, disappearing into the rocks. Sorin and Nissa noticed how brief their parting words had been.
If I were you, Sorin said, turning to the two remaining combers, I would have told my associates to meet us somewhere up the trail. Maybe a loose boulder could be pushed. Maybe there is a certain ledge or hole only you people know about. No?
The two combers stood looking down at their shabby sandals made of what Nissa took to be dulam hide stitched to other, older pieces of the same hide. Their shins and knees were wrapped with the same material.
Is that what you were talking about before they left? Sorin asked.
No, the headman said. He stood up tall. Nissa thought he really was a fine specimen of a human, despite his thick, black beard. Growing a beard was an ability human males seemed to relish, for most of the human males she had seen displayed some type of one. The head man s beard was long enough that it touched his chest. You have my word, he said. We spoke of no such thing.
Smara muttered to herself off behind a crystal. One of the goblins cooed at her. Sorin narrowed his eyes at the head man.
You are an interesting human, Sorin said.
I feel there is more to you than meets the eye.
The head man said nothing.
Perhaps it is the first blood, Sorin said as he squatted before the head man, as one might with a child. Your people were some of the first in this place. You and the kor. Now the vampires, Sorin said, brushing his hand in the direction of Anowon. They are relative newcomers. The merfolk too.
He was speaking in the same tone he had used to tell Nissa of the Eldrazi titans, still buried in the rock. What Sorin had not told her was why he knew all of this about old Zendikar. Could he have been on Zendikar in the first place, to see the old races and know about the vampires of old? And how old would that make him? she wondered.
Without bothering to reply, the head man turned and slowly began to walk, with the merfolk who had also volunteered following close behind. They stopped and shouldered the supplies that the other combers had left.
Nissa pulled on the pack that Khalled had prepared for her in Graypelt. Sorin brushed off his hands and walked behind Nissa. Smara tripped after them, with a goblin fore and aft as she walked. Anowon followed last, turning a metal cylinder and running his fingers over it as he walked.
They walked up a series of small rises until they stopped at the top of the last one. Stretched out before them was Akoum. Below lay a rick of hedrons of all sizes jumbled together, with most being many times larger than any Nissa had ever seen. A mist sat low on the land, obscuring the ground, but in many of the cracks of the hedrons, Nissa could see the faint pink glow of molten rock. Scattered among the fields were crystals, some of them as large as the hedrons. They fit so close together, there was hardly a space between them. Broken bits of hedron stones floated above the larger hedrons.
How do we move through that? said Nissa.
There is a way, the head man said. He looked until he saw what he wanted. The group made their way over to where the constitutent parts of a shattered large hedron were floating just above the ground. The head man took a bit of dulam rope and fashioned it into a lasso. He waved them to a larger chunk of the hedron, and carefully they climbed onto it and clung as it bobbed.
Then the head man scaled the chunk of hedron. He stood atop it and swung the lasso until its loop went around a nearby tip of a hedron. Then the head man pulled. At first nothing happened. Then slowly the rock began to move. When it moved past the hedron he d lassoed, the head man yanked the loop off and swung the lasso onto another hedron and pulled again. Their hedron moved a bit faster. Soon they were floating at a walking pace over the hedrons in the fields.
We dare go no faster, the man said. Some of these stones are higher than others, and we may need to slow to dodge one of them.
How long does this rock field continue? Nissa asked.
The man turned to her and blinked.
They traveled in such a way for three days. Another of the goblins disappeared in that time, as did the merfolk who had come with the head man. Anowon made no pretense. He shrugged when Nissa found the goblin s left sandal hanging near the edge of the hedron.
The head man had already shared the meager tack he had. He looked at Nissa and pointed ahead.
The land changes ahead and there should be game, he said.
Nissa looked. There seemed to be no end to the hedron and crystal fields. The horizon was dotted with more floating hedrons. She knew she could rig a snare or some form of trap if they could only find a place where living things could be found. She glanced at the head man again. He said the terrain is about to change, she said to the others.
Anowon, who was nearby, looked past her at the head man pulling on the rope looped around his chest and arms.
The man is Eldrazi feed, Anowon said.
Nissa did not know what to say.
Anowon continued. His people were the feed of the Eldrazi.
I thought they did not eat like we eat?
True, Anowon said. They live on pure mana. But they had my people collect energy by feeding, and then tapped us.
Why?
Our blood condenses mana, Anowon said. Nissa edged closer a bit, as much as she dared. Our blood is a sort of distillate of the mana from every victim. The Eldrazi beasts kept us for that sole purpose.
And the hooks? Nissa said, pushing her luck, she knew.