But Sorin seemed not to hear. His eyes were on the vampire.
Who are you? he asked.
Anowon, he said. Formerly of Family Ghet. I was taken prisoner at the eye.
Well, Sorin said. Do you know where I am now, Anowon, formerly of Family Ghet?
The vampire s eyes fell on Nissa as she hoisted Hiba.
Somewhere in the Turntimber, he said. When Sorin said nothing, Anowon continued. On Ondu. Still Sorin said nothing. Zendikar? Anowon ventured.
And I don t suppose you know the way to the Eye of Ugin? Sorin asked.
It s on Akoum, Anowon said.
Sorin chuckled. That s not what I asked. And if you want to bandy cute words, I will tear your heart out of your chest and have the elf eat it.
Nissa shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other.
I know the way to Akoum, Nissa said, glancing casually at the dead brood laid out in the clearing. At least I can start you on the way. Anything to get you out of my forest.
Excellent, Sorin said. Finally, a bit of good news. You know this land. You will be our guide, yes. You will show us the way. He turned to Nissa. That, he pointed at Hiba, is dead. You are guiding us through this morass to Akoum. I knew the way once, you see. But I cast a forgetting spell on the place so it might be lost for all time. A forgotten blight.
Why would I help you, Nissa asked, when I could go back to into the turntimber and leave you two to be shredded by those baloth howling in the forest?
Because, dear savage, Sorin said, what you saw here is just the vanguard of the true army. The rest are bearing down on this and every other location on this backwards plane even as we speak. If you want to have any hope of saving your people, you will assist me in containing this sickness, and in putting these broodlings back into their prison, which will not be easy. But it seems to fall to me to accomplish.
Nissa looked down at Hiba and felt a lump rising in her throat. He was dead. She swallowed and started to speak.
But Sorin continued. Only I can cast the Eldrazi back into the crypt from whence they came. Only I can send them back into their forever sleep.
Nissa seemed to consider his words before speaking. These are my terms: You both will help me bury my friend in the forest, she said. And I will not travel with an unbound vampire. He must be bound and gagged, or you will have to navigate the teetering stones without me.
Anowon s mouth went to a sneer. Joraga moon slug, he said. I would not deign to touch lips to the likes of you. Your people taste of dirt and moss. Mushroom eaters.
Nissa smiled, despite herself. She hadn t heard that insult in quite some time. Strangely, it reminded her of home. Part of the reckoning ritual involved eating cut fungus. Invariably the young warrior died from it. Most lay dead for some minutes before blinking awake and sitting up gasping. If you survived, you survived. If you died, then you weren t meant to be a Joraga warrior, and your body was tossed into the Great Hollow Tree.
Bound, Nissa said. Or not at all.
As if in answer, another baloth howl drifted slowly through the trees, and Nissa started to walk.
Robert B. Wintermute
Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum
They walked once again into the deep forest, and buried the fallen elf Hiba near a young jaddi tree. While Nissa kept watch, Anowon dug a hole with a length of turntimber bark. With a face that betrayed neither thought nor emotion, Sorin watched the vampire sweat in the humid air. When the shallow grave was dug, Nissa dropped down from her high perch and placed a green paphian flower picked from a clump she d found growing in the crotch of a jurworrel tree in Hiba s gnashed fingers.
An hour later they were traveling the branchways of the turntimber. Nissa, in the lead, was careful not to shy away from the serpents that hung like vines in that part of the forest, careful not to show her strange traveling companions any sort of weakness.
At sundown they stopped at a huge hedron stone, pointed at each end and broken in two enormous pieces, with a huge jurworrel growing out of the largest fissure.
We dare not stop for too long. Nissa said. She wondered how long it would be before the Onduan baloth caught up. Before it tore them apart. A baloth was a creature that floated at the edge of every action in the turntimber a pure predator that could cut through bone and muscle with the slightest slash of its claw, and which possessed an appetite large enough to devour a whole Tajuru squad. Those who lived there never left the safety of home without thinking, however briefly, about the likelihood of encountering one.
Sorin nodded once and looked back the way they had come. Fool, Nissa thought. He has no idea. She climbed to the top of the ruined hedron and cupped her hand to her long ear. They are eating our scent even now.
Sorin yawned. He casually took a handkerchief from an inner fold of his black cloak and dabbed his brow. You are the fool, he said. His voice was soft so soft that Nissa found herself leaning in to hear him, unnerved that he had somehow read her thoughts. You are a fool if you do not understand the true nature of the danger we are in. Do not trifle over whatever is following us. We must watch for the brood, and hope they haven t grown too powerful to counteract. He put the handkerchief back into the folds of his cloak and cupped his hands around his mouth. Ghet! he yelled.
Anowon looked up from where he had been peering at the hedron stone s inscription. Even though his wrists were bound, he had managed to pinch a small book between his thumb and first finger, and was copying the engraved symbols into the book with a bone pen.
Find me food, Sorin commanded.
Nissa hopped down off the hedron. I can bring you game.
But Sorin was looking ahead at the rising mesas in the distance.
The Ghet will acquire my food. I have special tastes.
Nissa looked from Sorin to Anowon, who was tucking his small black book into a little pack he d rigged from vines strung through the leaf of a gourgi bush. The vampire walked over to Sorin, who untied his hands.
How do we know he will not flee? Nissa said. Or waylay us to our doom, she thought.
He will not, Sorin said, looking at Anowon, who kept his eyes forward. He is an archaeomancer; his interest lies in the magic of this ruined empire. He has no use of such things as ambushes or bold combat. Anyway, he wants to take us to the Eye of Ugin. Don t you, Ghet? Sorin s voice raised in volume and pitch. DON T YOU? he repeated.
For a moment, Nissa could feel the weight of Sorin s ominous words float in the air like a physical presence, and then they settled onto Anowon. The vampire s pupils dilated, Nissa noticed. He nodded once, then turned and walked under a branch and disappeared into the high grass.
Nissa looked at Sorin. Why would a vampire do what a human ordered him to do? she wondered.
He will meet the baloth, she said. And die.
You don t know vampires, Sorin said.
And you do? Nissa thought. She moved her staff to her other hand.
You don t know baloth. A vampire bleeds like anything. I have proven that many times.
He raised an eyebrow. Yes, but they have the rather unerring ability to sneak up on things. A bit like elves, I must say, Sorin said, laughing.
The shrill screech of a barutis bird rang out in the high canopy.
Where do you want to travel? Nissa said, once her pulse had calmed. The barutis s cry, so senseless and without reason, always shocked her.
I have told you. Akoum The Teeth of Akoum, Sorin said.
But do you have a path in mind?
I believe it is called Graypelt now, Sorin said. He was looking into the west again, at the high mesas.
Graypelt? Why travel through Graypelt? Graypelt is full of trappers and stinking humans, Nissa said as she looked down at the ground and cursed herself inwardly. Of course there s nothing wrong with humans, she said. Humans are fine.