The first attack involved something large hitting the tower. The tremor seemed at first like the Roil, until Nissa checked the vial of enchanted water hanging from her neck and saw it was not boiling. But the tower shook all the same. Anowon was some distance ahead, and they all ran to catch up. A brace of elves charged out of a room to Nissa s right, and Sorin drew his sword and cut them down where they stood. Their bodies were withered husks when Nissa stepped over them, and Sorin s sword pulsed deep and black. He sheathed its hungry blade, and they ran after Anowon.
Once free from the cells, they descended the stairs. On every level elves were among the plants shooting arrows out. Nissa saw forms flying through the night. On the level where the plants with mouths lived, Nissa watched as a plant snatched a flying brood lineage out of the air and chewed it down. She also saw eight elves pulled out of the bushes and dropped by flying brood.
Nissa stopped. How are we going to get out of this tower? she asked nobody in particular. But Anowon did not stop. He charged down the spiraling stairway. Soon they were at the second to last level Nissa recognized the giant ferns and she could see the assembled host. Their dark shapes extended far into the darkness. There were no torches and no battle cries only the screams of elves pulled from their positions and the harmonic music of bowstrings released in staccato.
Nissa stopped again, taking Sorin s shoulder. We cannot win if we step out through those doors, she said. Sorin nodded. Anowon was ahead, but Sorin ran after him and caught the vampire before he turned the spiral corner. Sorin spun Anowon around, and the look on Anowon s face made Nissa start. His lips were stretched back and showed his fangs. His eyes were red and narrowed, and blood was coming out of the corners of his eyes. He was crying blood.
None of that seemed to bother Sorin, who dragged Anowon back up the stairs as though he were a toy. Nissa threw down any elves they met with her staff. There was a tremendous collision, and the tower shuddered. Elf screams erupted from below.
They ve broken through, Nissa yelled.
The stairs ended, and Nissa and the others found themselves on a wide platform. Kolya trees grew in raised beds. Three brood were standing next to the stairway entrance, and Nissa charged through, tripping on the body of an elf and falling. She twisted her stem sword free and connected with the verdant energy of the Turntimber.
Mana moved through her and she camouflaged herself to a patch of basalt. The brood that had been descending on her pulled up and hovered above the entrance. The brood s head moved back and forth, searching for Nissa s form.
But the creature did not have long to look, for Anowon came through the doorway behind her and grabbed one of the brood s hanging tentacles. The creature tried to pull away, but the vampire punched the tentacle with his fist, and the creature fell dead. A glyph glowed red on the tentacle where Anowon had struck.
Sorin was next. The two remaining brood took a look at Sorin, tall and pale with his great sword unsheathed and glowing like the starry night sky, and they turned to fly. But a keening song came to Sorin s lips, and the brood froze midair and fell as lumps of flesh into the darkness below.
They turned to Anowon. In a moment the dead brood stirred and moved slowly back into the air. The Glyph glowed softly on the tentacle as it moved.
Come, Anowon said. This will fly us down.
Nissa s skin itched seeing the effects of Anowon s vampire-rapture.
Another tremendous impact shook the tower. That was enough to dispel any unease Nissa had about the zombie brood. At Anowon s command, the creature wrapped one tentacle around her waist and stepped off the edge of the tower. The flying brood lineage could not fly normally while holding all five of them in its tentacles, but it controlled itself enough and glided fast toward the ground in a sort of controlled freefall. As they passed, Nissa could see that each of the tower s ledges held hundreds of roosting brood. In the starlight Nissa could see the land around the base of the tower. Six massive brood had planted their shoulders against the tower and were pushing it back and forth.
The zombie brood held them tightly as it glided far out into the night on wings of flesh. It finally skidded to a landing in the dusty flats half a league from the tower.
Anowon took a deep breath, and his jaw tightened as he gnashed his teeth. The veins in his neck stood out, and the muscles in his cheeks and arms clenched. A series of grunts emanated from deep in the vampire s throat, and when he opened his eyes they were red and without pupils. He looked at the null brood, and the creature dropped dead.
In a normal situation, Nissa would have felt a bit of pity for the dead brood. Nothing deserved what a vampire gave. But there was no time for pity. The night spread on all sides. Nissa turned and realized her pathwaystone was back in the tower, as was the pack that Khalled had given her.
I do not know what direction we should travel, Nissa said.
Anowon was in a similar quandary, Nissa could tell. The vampire was looking at the stars, trying to gain his direction. His blood tears had dried on his cheeks and flecked off. But the curl to his lip had not disappeared. He jerked his hand up and pointed. That way is west, he said. It is somewhere there.
Ghet? Sorin said. You told me you were at the Eye of Ugin. How can you be unsure how to travel to the Teeth of Akoum, Ghet?
Anowon looked hard at the smiling Sorin. Both sides of his mouth curled back, and he spoke in a voice as menacing as any Nissa had ever heard. Having visited a location is different than knowing the way there, the vampire said.
Ghet, Sorin said, his face clearly showing his mock disapproval. You have lied to us, and we demand an apology.
Smara s goblin looked from one to the other of them, then at Smara. I know the way, he said.
Nobody said anything. Smara cocked her head and stared at the goblin as though she d only just noticed him for the first time.
You? Sorin said. Again?
All eyes were on the goblin, and he swallowed hard before speaking. I was in the Teeth for my mistress, the goblin said, motioning at Smara. She had suddenly become quiet, listening to the goblin speak. My mistress sent me through the Cypher of Flames to find the Eye of Ugin and return with a path to it. We were traveling to the eye when the fates of the ancient ones put us in your path.
The ancient ones? Sorin said. Do you mean to think that the Eldrazi sent us to you?
The goblin clapped its clawed hands over its ears. It peered at the dark sky from under a furrowed brow. You must not speak the ancients name, it said.
The gift is in the loam, Smara said, her pupilless eyes staring up at the sky.
Yes, the gift in the wherever, Sorin said. He turned to the goblin. Well, lead on then, he said.
Wait, Anowon said. The vampire had advanced on the goblin and was not less than an arm s length away.
I did not see you. I did not smell you, he said.
But I saw you, vampire, the goblin said. I saw you held outside the doors as the magic wielders fought. And the dragon. And I saw you
That is enough, Anowon said, holding up his hand.
A sly smile spread across the goblin s dry, cracked lips.
The vampire does not want me to speak of what I saw?
You will remain quiet, or you will sleep with your friends.
The goblin bowed, turned on the ball of its right foot, and pointed into the darkness. The Teeth of Akoum lie there.
They walked all that night. The wind that blew across the flats was cold, and soon Nissa s teeth were chattering. But when the sun rose, the flats heated quickly. By the time the sun fell shining in their eyes, the ground was so hot that none dared stop, for fear that their sandals might start ablaze. The goblin was the exception its feet were the color of rock and seemed as thick and as hoary as dulam hide.