They are easily controlled by other vampires, Anowon said. But only in small numbers. This force is no small number.
Something must be controlling them, Nissa said.
Below, the forest trolls were swinging at nulls with all their might. The many gashes they had received from the vampire zombies had begun to regenerate closed. But Nissa did not worry about the cuts that covered her trolls. Hers was another fear, soon borne out. For every null that the trolls mowed down, four more seemed to clamber onto the dead one s back. Soon mounds of nulls surrounded each troll, and when the piles were high enough, the remaining creatures simply surged up and over the trolls. They clawed the trolls eyes out and snaked their long arms down the trolls throats to yank out handfuls of whatever they could clutch. The trolls regenerated, but not fast enough. Some of the nulls scrambled over the trolls thrashing forms and charged at the tower.
Below, the last forest troll fell atop a pile of ruined null.
A primal yell came from Anowon s throat as he launched himself into the horde. Nissa was momentarily awed by the attack. As she watched, Anowon drove his long fingers into the nearest null, tearing out hunks of flesh. With his hands wrist-deep in one null he turned, and with a quick snap bit deep into another s neck and tore most of its throat out with the jerk of his chin. He freed his hands and mouth, sidestepped another null s clumsy swing, and countered by shoving his hands through the creature. His mouth began tearing chunks out. When that null fell, Anowon hopped up and spun to do it all again with a new null. A chill ran down Nissa s spine. It was one of the most savage attacks she had ever witnessed.
Nissa snapped her staff back together and raised it. Only about half of the nulls were incapacitated, and the rest would clearly not stop until they were playing in their blood. Nissa raised her staff above her head, feeling the power rise in her like the sap rising in a spring tree. She moved her mind to the one creature she knew could destroy all of the creatures. She only hoped it would take a mortal wound before it got to her and the rest. Soon the rough outline of an Onduan baloth appeared in her mind.
Will they not Sorin began. She heard him grunt, and the next moment he was falling over the edge of the tower. Nissa received a blow from behind that knocked her forward and against a crumbled rampart. Darkness came abruptly, and she remembered no more.
She woke to a rhythmic jostling. Something was running as it carried her. Her eyes hurt, so she didn t open them. A sharp jab of pain spread through her head with every footfall, and she felt as though she were being torn apart. When she cried out, the running stopped, and she was thrown down on the hard ground. When Nissa regained consciousness, she opened her eyes and found that something was pulled over her face to keep her from seeing. A moment later the hood was yanked off, and the bright sunlight stabbed into her eyes, causing even more pain.
Nissa forced herself to make note of her surroundings. She was still in the high foothills, that much was obvious there were some small plants eking from a fissure.
A blurry figure approached. Nissa shook her head so the figure came into view, and soon wished she had not. A female vampire bent so her head was almost touching noses with Nissa. Her breath, rank with the smell of blood, was all over Nissa s face. A lip curled back to show one stout incisor, pointed and white.
It moves, the vampire announced. What a shame. I was hoping for a broken spine. The female vampire pulled a pink tongue over her white teeth. Easy meat.
Nissa looked past the female vampire. About eight nulls stood around them, their mouths gaping and drool running down their chins. Nissa noticed that many of the null had ruined limbs that dragged, or gashes and other signs that they had been in the brutal battle Nissa and the others had given.
You will rue the day you survived that fray, meatling, the vampire said. Rue the day.
It is you who will regret, Nissa said under her breath.
It speaks? the vampire said. Insolent animal?
The vampire backed up and turned, snatching a long, obsidian-tipped bampha stick from the hands of a skeletal null. She was dressed in tight leather with her head shaved around the side, front and back so that only a swath of black hair grew in tangles. Her skin was as pale as a null s, and she was almost as thin.
But as she took the bampha stick and swung it, she appeared to be the lithest thing Nissa had ever seen. She executed a complex hand over hand spinning attack that took a split second to execute and concluded with the obsidian tip coming to an abrupt halt an inch from Nissa s right eyeball.
Nissa could no more have dodged the attack as she could have flown on golden wings. But when the female vampire looked down, Nissa had slipped the top of her foot around behind the heel of the vampire s foot. Nissa lifted her other foot and pushed on the knee. With the vampire s heel caught on the top of Nissa s foot, the force of Nissa s push transferred to the upper body, and the vampire pitched backwards. She fell on her back, dropping the bampha.
Nissa did not have her staff, but even without it she was able to call down the mana and channel it into her mind where the outline of a giant Onduan python had formed. The huge coiled serpent snapped into being next to the female vampire and opened its mouth.
A second vampire appeared by the serpent and touched its scaly side. Immediately the animal shook and dropped its head. A moment later its head raised, a pale glow emanating from its eyes, and its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth.
The second vampire turned to Nissa. Thank you, elf, the vampire said. We need more bodies in our troop after you and your associates had your ways with us.
He turned to the female vampire, who picked herself up and snatched her stick off the rocks.
Biss, the male vampire said. Would you scout ahead for us?
Biss bowed and left, casting a hard look at Nissa before departing.
We have been tracking your progress for days, the male vampire said, turning to Nissa. And her hatred of the Mortifier is very great indeed. As is mine. The vampire raised one hand and snapped his fingers.
Behind the vampire, the zombie python began to writhe, knocking one of the nulls against a rock with its huge coils. Then it lay still. The male vampire looked at Nissa and shrugged.
What can I say? I love to kill things, he said.
Plus, it would have been another mouth to feed.
Why am I still alive, blood slave? Nissa said. They had called vampires that when she d been younger and in the jungles, mostly because vampires hated the name. But the vampire only smiled.
A good question, the vampire said. And you may call me Shir.
Shir must have sensed Nissa s disappointment that the name she called him had not angered him. His smile widened so that Nissa thought for a moment that he would lean over and bite her. Every yellowed tooth in his mouth showed as he spoke.
I would expect names such as that from one who travels with the Mortifier.
What is this Mortifier you speak of, blood slave? Nissa said. Or are you as dim as the rest of your kind?
The vampire studied her face for a moment. Could it be that this elf is not aware of whom she travels with? he said.
Perhaps she does not know what the Mortifier is?
Robert B. Wintermute
Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum
They stopped only briefly. At Shir s orders, the nulls seized Nissa and ran with her bound on its shoulders. The nulls ran like they were being chased with Biss and Shir at the front and back.
At several points Nissa had to pull into herself, into the forest within, to avoid the pain of the thrall s sharp shoulder blades impacting her ribs, and to avoid the mineral smell of its breath in her face.