Kane looked down at the half-eaten steak on his plate and smiled a little sheepishly. “They’re wonderful, ma’am.”
Glissa turned to her father and asked, “Did the council discuss the drought tonight, Father?”
Her father answered between mouthfuls. “Yes. We’ll have to continue rationing for now until the stars bring us more rain. Brynn has been studying the stars, and he claims there are fewer in the heavens now than after the last rebuking ceremony. He says that’s why we get less rain.”
“Do you believe that?” asked Lyese. “I mean, how could there be fewer stars? Where would they go?”
“I don’t know,” replied her father, “but each passing cycle we get less rain, and the basins are dangerously low. I suggested to the council tonight that we tighten the rations even further to build up our reserves over the next few weeks. We’ll need a surplus before the rebuking ceremony. The first few weeks after are always chaotic.”
“That sounds sensible,” said Glissa. “What did the council say?”
“Brynn was behind the idea, but most of the others were grumbling,” replied Father. “They are worried about the backlash. A lot of Viridians are having trouble with the current rations.”
“How long until the ceremony?” asked Lyese.
“Six weeks. Watch the moons, Lyese. We see them less and less each rotation. That’s why it has gotten so much darker. When the four moons don’t rise at all, Viridians will head for the Radix at the center of the Tangle.”
All Viridians but one, thought Glissa.
The rest of the evening went much the same. Glissa, her father, and Kane discussed council business, the trolls, and the coming ceremony while enjoying her mother’s meal. This was the part of Glissa’s life she found she enjoyed the most: The hunt was over and she could relax with her family—even Lyese. Perhaps that’s why she had turned down the offer of joining the Chosen. Glissa didn’t really know. She’d wondered about that decision for months. A position on the Chosen would give her more access to the trolls’ secrets, but it had not felt right. Perhaps being one of the Chosen was not her destiny. But if not that, what?
Glissa went to sleep that night with many thoughts weighing heavily on her mind: Kane, her family, the Chosen, the ceremony, and especially that strange flare. Tomorrow I’ll tell Kane about the flares, she said to herself as she rolled over and closed her eyes. Maybe then he’ll agree to miss the ceremony and help me find the truth about Viridian history.
* * * * *
Sometime later, Glissa awoke, feeling she was not alone. “Mother?” she called to the dark spire room. “Lyese?”
She could hear movement and thought she saw several shapes in the darkness, but her eyes were filled with sleep, and even her own hands in front of her face looked fuzzy.
Glissa closed her eyes and let her warrior senses take control. There was definitely something movng through her room, several large creatures moving toward her. She reached for her dagger, but before she could find it the closest form leaped on her bed and slammed her down onto the hide covers. The pungent odor of fur filled her nose. It was huge, grasping her arms and legs, pinning her to the bed. It seemed to be all hands and fur.
Glissa drew in a deep breath to scream, but the beast slapped another hand over her mouth. Or was it a second beast? How many hands did these creatures have? Glissa felt herself lifted from the bed and squirmed against her attackers’ hold. She got one hand free and raked her claws across what she hoped was the beast’s face. She heard the sound of ripping flesh, but then her hand was caught again.
Before she could break free again, a bag was pulled over her head and tied at her waist, pinning her arms to her sides. She screamed, but the leather must have muffled the sound, for there was no response nor any echo inside the spire chamber. Glissa struggled to free her arms, but one of the creatures picked her up and squeezed her arms even tighter against her body. She could hardly breathe, let alone scream or struggle anymore as the creature carried her down and from her spire room, then on into the Tangle.
TREE OF TALES
Glissa concentrated as she was carried through the Tangle—up and down trees and across terraces—and tried to trace the route in her mind. The creature carrying her was very agile, for it climbed up and down the trees as easily as it moved across the terraces.
None of her attackers had made a sound, but from their smell and feel she was sure they must trolls. She had only ever seen them during ceremonies. They were the priests of the Tangle and kept to themselves inside the Tree of Tales except during holy days, but she had never known them to climb. They always moved slowly and solemnly during rituals, flanked by the Tel-Jilad Chosen. No one but elves and trolls knew the Tangle well enough to move through it this quickly. The two races had lived side by side in the Tangle for hundreds of cycles. It flashed through Glissa’s mind that Kane might have told them of her plans, but she couldn’t believe he would betray her.
She had almost worked a hand free from the leather bag when her abductors stopped. From the distance they had covered and the number of trees they had climbed, Glissa suspected she was high up in the Tree of Tales, but she knew of no openings into the great tree other than the main entrance at its base where the Chosen guards stood—where Kane should be standing guard right now.
Glissa heard a scraping sound behind her. It sounded like a dagger sawing against a Tangle tree limb. Then they were moving again. Glissa began to lose her bearings. They were ascending but not by climbing or jumping from terrace to terrace. The creature’s footsteps were regular like walking, but Glissa felt a hard bump with each step. She knew of no formation in the Tangle that would explain this movement. It felt as if they were walking up a spire limb, but they couldn’t be for this long a time.
Glissa screamed again, and the creature grabbed her legs and back tighter to keep her still. The strength of the beast’s arms forced the air from her lungs. Her stomach pressed down on small horns and ridges on the creature’s back. She almost blacked out from the pain, but then she was tossed down on her back and could breathe again. She screamed once more, and the bag came off her head.
“Where am I?” she demanded.
“Safe,” came the gruff reply.
Glissa looked around. Four trolls surrounded her. They were squat-looking creatures, though they stood as tall as elves. Perhaps it was because their heads hung lower than their metallic shoulders, making them appear humpbacked. Two were hunched over now. Their copper-capped knees were splayed wide, and their long, metal-clad arms pushed against the floor to keep them from falling over. Glissa had seen trolls squat on the ground this way for hours during the long ceremonies. It seemed the preferred stance for the broad, humpbacked creatures.
They must be inside the Tree of Tales, she thought. The trolls had brought her in through a secret entrance. They were fast and agile, climbed as well if not better than Viridian elves, and she’d heard they used secret entrances to abduct dissenters.
“What do you want with me?” she asked.
“To protect you,” replied the troll who had spoken before. “The convergence is coming.”
His gray head was bare except for three copper bumps, and he had no forehead. His flat head seemed to roll down into his flabby nose, which covered most of his face. Glissa had never trusted trolls, partly, she admitted, because they looked so different from the elves. You couldn’t even see their mouths under their huge noses until they opened them. How could you trust someone when you couldn’t even see their mouth?
“Protect me from what?” asked Glissa as she slowly worked a hand down to her dagger sheath. “From my dangerous memories? What convergence? Do you mean the rebuking ceremony? Are you going to force me into the rebuking ceremony just to protect your secrets?”
The trolls looked at her. Glissa couldn’t tell whether they were bored, mad, or happy. She could never read their faces.
“It won’t work,” she said. “You can’t force me to attend the ritual. I
will find out the truth eventually.”
“Of that I am sure,” said a new voice.
Another troll had appeared in a doorway that had not been there a moment before. Glissa could barely see him behind the other trolls, but she sensed something different about him. His voice had an odd inflection. The others bowed slightly as soon as he spoke. She wasn’t sure, but she thought he might be smiling. It was so hard to tell with trolls.
“Who are you?” demanded Glissa, her hand almost on her dagger. She tried to get a better look at the new troll, but the bodies of the two trolls in front of her were so wide, all she could see was his face.
“Leave us,” commanded the new troll to the four abductors. “She will be safe with me.”
The trolls bowed and turned to leave, climbing back down the sloping tunnel. Glissa could see now that the tunnel was not natural. It was no spire. It had been sliced right through the metal tree. When she looked back up at the new troll, she was surprised to note that there was no metal visible on him at all! His arms, head, and legs were all bare, gray skin. He wore a long, leather cloak that billowed as he walked. When he turned to go back into the room behind him, Glissa could see there was no metal on his back, either. She also noticed he didn’t have the same humpbacked appearance as the other trolls. The leather hung straight down from his neck to the floor.
“Come,” he said over his shoulder to her. “We have much to talk about.”
“I’m not ready to talk just yet,” muttered Glissa under her breath. Now was her chance. She jumped to her feet and grabbed for the dagger, but the blade was not in its sheath. Of course. It was beside her bed. She stopped as the troll glanced back at her. Again she thought she could see a smile play across his face. She smiled back. She would just have to play along for now and watch for a chance to overpower her captor.
The elf entered the room and felt as if she were in another flare. The walls and floors were covered with animal skins, and the troll’s bed and chairs were made not of metal but of bone and hide. In fact, there was no metal in the entire room. Glissa lifted a skin away from the wall and was almost comforted to see the familiar green-tinged copper underneath. Runes were inscribed on the metal, much like the history inscribed on the trunk of the tree.
“I detest the metal of our world,” said the troll, “so I keep it as far from me as possible.”
Glissa dropped the skin back onto the wall when she heard metal scraping against metal again. She turned just in time to see the door close behind her.
“Sit, and I will answer your questions,” said the troll. He motioned to two chairs on either side of a table in the middle of the room. The only light came from a gelfruit set in an elaborate bone holder on the table. “My name is Chunth. I am the First One.”
“What is the ‘First One’?” asked Glissa. “Some kind of leader? I’ve never seen or heard of you before.” She began to pace back and forth past the door. “Why have you brought me here?”
Chunth sat down across from the door and folded his cloak around his body. “Yes. Leader. That is as good a word as any,” he said with that strange smile Glissa was beginning to dislike. “I stay in here, away from the metal. I rarely leave this room anymore. It is better for my health. As to why I had you brought here, I assure you, it is for your health as well.”
Glissa stopped pacing. “What do you mean, ‘for my health’? Metal cannot be bad for us. We are metal. Metal and flesh.”
“I said it was bad for me, not for you,” said Chunth. “Your danger comes from outside the Tangle. Please sit down. There is no way from this room.”
Glissa had pulled the hide away from the door, looking for a handle, but she couldn’t even find the door. She let the hide drop back again and turned around. “Fine,” she said, “but stop talking in riddles. Just tell me why you brought me here.”
“As you wish,” said Chunth. “We have reason to believe there will be an attempt on your life very soon, probably tonight.”
Glissa stared at him. “An … an attempt on my … By whom?”
“From outside the Tangle.”
“How can that be? There is nothing outside the Tangle but barren metal. I’ve been to the edge of the forest. I’ve seen it.”
“There is much more outside the Tangle than you know, Glissa,” said Chunth. He raised his hand. “That is not meant as a riddle but as a simple statement of fact. There is a great, dangerous world outside the Tangle, and you must believe me that someone or several someones wish you dead.”
Glissa sat down and stared hard at the inscrutable troll. “How can you know all of this if you never leave this room?” she asked.
“We are the keepers of the tales, are we not?” asked Chunth. “I have been recording the history of the Tangle since before your father’s time. While it is true that in all that time we have had little contact with the other races of Mirrodin, that does not mean they do not exist or that I do not have ways of finding out about them.”
“Then tell me, oh great holder of knowledge,” snapped Glissa, “who wants me dead?”
“That I do not know,” said Chunth. “I have been looking for that answer since the last convergence, but the information eludes me still.”
“Convergence?” asked Glissa. “What is that, and what does it have to do with me?”
“The convergence is the time of the rebuking ceremony. Every one hundred cycles, the four moons align in harmony around the world, each above its own land. During that rotation, no moon rises on the Tangle, for the Tangle has no moon. It is a day of darkness and a day of great power in the Radix. As you know, all the elves attend the ceremony in the Radix and purge their unpleasant memories.”
Glissa nodded. “What does it have to do with me?”
Chunth was silent a moment, and Glissa began to wonder if he was ever going to get to the point and whether he would ever let her from this room. Glancing around the room, she noticed something glinting in the gelfruit light. It was the pommel of a sword sticking out from under the bedcovers behind Chunth. Perhaps it was time to pace again, she thought.
The troll continued at last. “Exactly one phase of the moons before each of the last two convergences, the greatest warrior in the Tangle has been brutally killed,” he said. “We believe it will happen again. Tonight marks the beginning of the last phase before the convergence.”
Glissa was stricken speechless for a moment, then burst out laughing.
“So now I’m the greatest warrior in the Tangle?”
She rose and began to move around the room again. “You’re not serious.”
“You would never admit it,” said Chunth, “not even to yourself, but you are our greatest warrior. Perhaps the greatest warrior the Tangle has ever seen. We have watched you. You have a destiny, my child, and I must keep you safe from the levelers tonight.”
“Levelers?” said Glissa, stopping halfway around the room. The sword was just a few more steps away. “Levelers are coming for me tonight?”
“That is how it happens,” said Chunth. “Exactly one phase before the convergence, the levelers enter the Tangle and kill our greatest warrior. But here you will be safe. The levelers will not find you.”
“What about my family?” asked Glissa. A touch of hysteria entered her voice. “The levelers want me, right? They’ll leave my parents and my sister alone, right? Right?”
“The levelers do not discriminate, Glissa,” Chunth replied slowly. “You know that. Their targets are normally random, but on this night, I believe they will attack your house.”
Chunth’s answer hit like a dagger in Glissa’s throat. She couldn’t speak. She could hardly breathe. She leaned against the hide-covered wall and wrapped her arms around her chest. “Why?” she asked finally in a quiet, rasping voice.
“We do not know why,” replied Chunth. “We only know it will happen tonight and that you are the target.”
Glissa straightened, rage and pain playing across her face. “No,” she said. “Why save me but le
ave my family to die? What are you playing at?”
“You have a destiny,” replied Chunth. “They do not.”
“Well, my destiny includes my parents,” spat Glissa and dived toward the bed.
Chunth rose and turned to cut her off, Glissa but rolled past him and came up behind, pulling the sword out from the bedcovers as she stood. She pushed the tip of the sword up under Chunth’s flat nose, snarling, “If you want to see another convergence, old one, you’ll open that door and call your guards back in here.”
Chunth made no resistance. The two walked to the hidden door, and Glissa watched as the troll lifted back the hide, reached in, and with a grunt of distaste pulled down on a small extrusion of metal. The door unseated itself and began to move slowly inward. Glissa stepped behind the door, keeping the sword pressed hard just under Chunth’s ribs.
“Call them,” she hissed at him, “but remember, I’m the greatest warrior in the Tangle and I have a sword just inches from your heart.”
Chunth called out, “Sentinels. Come take our guest to her quarters.”
Glissa pushed a little harder on the sword. “Now move back and let them come into the room,” she said.
The trolls arrived and Chunth waved them into his quarters. As soon as the fourth one passed the door, Glissa shoved the old troll into the others. The five trolls crashed to the floor, flattening the chairs and table, and sending the gelfruit globe flying up into the air. The globe splattered on top of Chunth’s head, plunging the room into near darkness. Glissa turned to the door and smashed the sword pommel down onto the metal Chunth had pushed to open the door. It broke off and clattered to the floor.
The elf flitted through the door, but one of the sentinels grabbed her ankle as she passed the mass of troll bodies on the floor. Glissa pulled back, but the troll had a strong grip and she lost her balance, sprawling to the floor. She kicked out with her free leg and slammed it into the sentinel’s sloping forehead. He grunted but held on. The other trolls were crawling from the pile. She kicked again, harder, into the troll’s upturned face and heard something crack. The troll yelped and grabbed at his nose with both hands. Glissa was free.
The Moons of Mirrodin Page 3
