The Moons of Mirrodin

by Will McDermott

  “You should sleep,” the golem said. “I will guard until the suns set.”

  Glissa chuckled. “You’ve been listening to Slobad,” she said. “The elves call them moons.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “They just feel like moons to us. They never rise above the Tangle, and they give us precious little light. A sun should burn bright above you and warm your face when you look at it.”

  “You should sleep,” said the golem again. “We leave after the … moons set.”

  Glissa watched the cultists sleep. Her repaired boots stood on the floor near Dwugget. She picked them up and sat at the table to put them on. Glissa glanced down at the Book of Krark again, then at the remaining cultists. There weren’t many of them left, but they still clung to their beliefs—even though that belief had nearly cost all their lives. These goblins gave up their former homes, their former lives, and risked everything because they believed in something larger than themselves. Could she do no less?

  Something bad was happening to their world. Chunth knew it. Ushanti dreamed it. Glissa had seen glimpses of it in her own flares. She was fighting for all of them now. Whether she wanted the mantle or not, she had become the champion for the goblins as well as the trolls and elves—perhaps even for the leonin, nim, and everyone else on this world. There was an inner world. She knew that now. Somehow she also knew that she had to reach it to face her destiny.

  Bosh had been right. She needed Slobad and the golem in this battle. The stakes were too high. It wasn’t just her against some killer. It was her battling for the future of their world. Bosh had information locked in his head about the inner world and Memnarch. She needed it to make the right choices, to avoid Ushanti’s vision. Slobad knew how to survive. He had an instinct for living, an instinct she would need in the coming days. Bosh was right. She needed them. If not for her, then for the Krark cultists, for the leonin, the elves, and the trolls.

  Glissa picked up the Book of Krark and carried it over toward Bosh. She lay down and curled up beside the metal man, holding the book to her chest. Bosh patted her head with his newly replaced arm. She fell asleep with the golem’s arm wrapped around her like a blanket.

  * * * * *

  They left after the red moon set behind the mountains. The terrain flattened somewhat as they made their way toward the Glimmervoid. Rust-colored outcroppings of metal still surrounded them, but the iron tubes no longer ran through the ground beneath their feet. Those had given way to flat metal slabs that seemed slammed together in a huge red tile mosaic. The slabs often shifted under their feet, making the descent slow and torturous. As they skirted between the rusty buttes, Glissa could see the rolling metal plains of the Glimmervoid glittering in the starlight in the distance.

  Bosh and Slobad scouted ahead during the night and returned just as Glissa saw the top edge of the yellow moon between two outcroppings. The goblin and his golem led Glissa and the cultists to an abandoned cave they had found.

  That night, Glissa read more of the Book of Krark. As a shaman who received visions from his deity, Krark set himself apart and made an enemy of the shaman elder, who seemed more concerned with his own power than imparting any sort of wisdom to the goblins. One passage stood out to her:

  I have asked the shaman elder to let me enter Mother’s Womb. I told him of my visions and my desire to seek her Heart. He cursed me for spreading lies about the Mother and promised to send me to the furnace if I spoke such heresy again. He cannot see the glory of the Mother. I must make him see. I must see the Heart. She calls to me.

  The next night, Glissa came to the passage Slobad had recited to her in the cult lair before the attack.

  I stood in a sloping chamber with no roof, surrounded by ancient towers of coral. A giant sun hung above me, glowing like Sky Tyrant, and Bringer, and Ingle, and the Eye of Doom. I had found Mother’s Heart. The Heart beat in the sky, giving life to the world. The stars danced around the heart, happy to live in her divine glow. Her heat warmed my face and my heart. I was home.

  On the next page was a sketch showing the scene Krark described. Glissa recognized it, both from Krark’s description and from her own flare two nights before.

  “Look at this, Bosh,” she said. “It’s an image of the inner world. Dwugget must have copied this from the original journal. Do you see the specks rising up from those … towers? Krark says, ‘It rained upward toward the heart from them.’ I saw these in a dream the other night. Are they blinkmoths? Chunth told me that the rain comes from the blinkmoths—the stars we see above us.”

  Bosh looked at the picture in the book. His eyes narrowed, and Glissa could tell he was trying to remember anything else about his life within the inner world. His eyes opened wide as if he’d had a disturbing vision.

  “Myco … mycosynth. Those are mycosynth spores, not blinkmoths. The mycosynth crystals produce spores. Blinkmoths are eternal. Mycosynth arrived later.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Glissa. “Memnarch created the mycosynth but not the blinkmoths? I thought you said he made everything.”

  “Memnarch shaped the world to his desires. He did not create it,” said Bosh. “Blinkmoths predate even Memnarch. Mycosynth arrived later like a plague. I believe I may have been created to battle the mycosynth infestation, but I lost the battle. That is all I remember. Everything else is blank until you and Slobad found me in the Mephidross.”

  Glissa left Bosh alone with his patchwork memory and returned to the book. They were less than a night’s travel from the leveler lair, and she was almost finished with the Book of Krark. It read like a flare. Krark had been drawn to the Womb and the Heart as if by destiny. He entered the massive hole and walked down its length into another world, a world inside the world, that curved up and away in all directions.

  It is like being in a valley surrounded by hills that stretch up to the sky. In that sky, Mother’s Heart hangs like a single sun that never moves.

  Chunth was telling the truth. Krark had seen it. Bosh had lived it, and Glissa had dreamed it, but what did it all mean? If there were huge holes leading to this inner world, why had nobody but Krark ever descended? Bosh said the mycosynth were a plague, but if they were so pervasive, why had no one ever seen them in the outer world? They were pieces of a puzzle, but Glissa had no idea how to put them together.

  Glissa pulled out the vial of serum. Were the answers in there? She thought about drinking the serum to gain the knowledge of whatever ancient power had created the blinkmoths. But Chunth had kept his secrets to protect the elves and the trolls from the serum. He’d died protecting his secrets—and her. She would only use the serum if she had no other options.

  * * * * *

  They arrived at the leveler lair well before the moons rose the next morning. Glissa and Slobad went in to investigate, while Bosh remained to guard the cultists. Slobad lit his fire tube as they entered the dark chamber that had been his home. The place had been ransacked. The table, chairs, and workbench had all been destroyed. When Slobad checked the passage to the leveler lair, he found it blocked off.

  “You were right,” said Glissa. “Whoever takes care of those monsters found your home. Aren’t you worried they’ll come back?”

  “Only if some crazy elf destroys more levelers, huh?” said Slobad. “You not going to do that, huh?” He smiled.

  “I was thinking about it,” said Glissa. She looked around. “There’s not much space here.”

  “More chambers there and there, huh?” said Slobad, pointing to the walls on either side of the small room. He pushed the remains of his workbench out of the way and opened a panel then moved across the room and opened a second panel. “They survive.”

  The other chambers were untouched, and Glissa crawled out to get the cultists. “It’s not much,” she said to Dwugget, “but you’ll be safe here. The shaman elder will never send anyone here. When this is over, maybe Slobad can clear out more chambers for you.”

  “Thank you again,”
said Dwugget. “You have done much for us, huh? We follow Krark and Glissa now.”

  “Well, I’m not sure I’m planning to follow Krark down that hole,” she said.

  “You will,” said the cult leader. “All answers are within the Mother’s Heart.”

  BRUENNA

  They left for the Quicksilver Sea immediately. There was still a few hours of dark before the yellow moon rose over the Glimmervoid. Slobad rode atop Bosh, and Glissa had taken her normal seat in the crook of the golem’s iron arm. They backtracked up into the mountains for a while before turning and heading in a new direction. Glissa could see the Glimmervoid off to her left through the mountains.

  “We’re going to need information about the vedalken,” Glissa said to the goblin. “Do you know anything at all about the Quicksilver Sea?”

  “Know that humans live on edge of sea, huh?” said Slobad. “Wizards, mostly. Have no need for goblin repairs, so Slobad leave alone. Never go back, huh?”

  “Wizards?” said Glissa. “The robed figure was a wizard, but he was vedalken. At least we assume he was. At the very least, he definitely was not human—not with four arms. If these humans live near the sea, though, they may know something about the vedalken. It’s as good a place to start as any. We’ll find ourselves a wizard and ask some questions. How far is the sea?”

  “Not far,” said Slobad. “Not on Bosh’s shoulders, huh? Be there one rotation, maybe less.”

  * * * * *

  The next day, Glissa, Slobad, and Bosh emerged from the mountains. Small outcroppings of tubular iron dotted the slope ahead of them, but beyond those lay a flat valley that led to the shores of the sea. Glissa looked up and down the mountain range. To her left, the range flattened out to meet with the Glimmervoid off near the horizon. The valley and the sea snaked in and out at the edge of the mountains. To her right, she could see that both the mountains and the sea ended abruptly in a curtain of green haze just at the limits of her vision—the Glimmervoid.

  Glissa searched for signs of habitation. She didn’t know if the humans lived in the mountains, in the valley, or on the sea. She hoped they didn’t live in the Dross. Her gaze kept wandering back to the Quicksilver Sea. It glistened in the light of the moons, seeming almost alive. From her vantage point in the hills above the valley, she could see its silvery surface swirl and ripple in a hypnotizing pattern of blue, red, yellow, and black shadows.

  The ripples were chaotic. As children, Glissa and Kane would toss small bits of metal in rain barrels to watch the tiny waves build and move across the surface and break against the edges. The Quicksilver Sea, though, undulated at random, as if something just below the surface, or the sea itself, were alive.

  Glissa tore her gaze from the sea and concentrated on the valley. As they moved past the last of the iron formations, she saw at the edge of the sea a town of some sort. Shelters had been built in circles around a central structure much larger than the rest. A series of large planks stuck out from the shore at the edge of the town. In between these planks Glissa saw transports of some sort that must be used to cross the sea.

  “There,” she said, pointing to the human town. “We’ll find our answers in that settlement.”

  “You think they talk to goblin, elf, and golem?” asked Slobad. “Never see elf this far from Tangle. Nobody ever see the golem before, huh? And goblins and humans never get along, huh?”

  Glissa thought about it. “You may be right,” she said. “We won’t get any answers if they think it’s for the goblins, and Bosh will just scare the flare from them.”

  “We capture one?”

  “No. If the humans aren’t working with the vedalken, we don’t want to alienate them. If they are, capturing one might expose us.”

  “What we do, huh?”

  “Glissa can impersonate a human,” said Bosh. “Just conceal her ears.”

  “And her claws, huh?” added Slobad. “They scary, too.” He smiled.

  Glissa stopped and looked back at her companions. “Are you serious?” she said. “I’ve never even seen a human. How can I pretend to be one?”

  “You have better plan, huh?” asked Slobad. “Wait for hover birds come back and follow them?”

  Glissa considered that one for a moment. “No,” she said. “Okay. We’ll try deception. It might work if I don’t stay too long. Just ask some questions and get out. I’ll need something to cover my ears. I can’t just tie a sword belt around my head.”

  “Leave to me, huh?” said Slobad.

  * * * * *

  After the moons set, Slobad slipped into the town while Glissa and Bosh skirted around to the docks, heading for several large buildings near the ships Slobad said were used for storage. Glissa wandered around the storage shed. Several dismantled ships from the docks sat inside. Glissa didn’t know if they were being built, destroyed, or fixed. From their appearance, though, she could tell they weren’t vedalken. These ships were crude compared to the hover beasts she had fought. They looked more like something Slobad would build. The sides were hammered, and the connections were visible. The hover beasts had been sleek and self-contained.

  Glissa climbed up on the deck of one of the ships. It was nothing more than leather hide stitched together and strapped across a metal-and-bone frame. Two large tubes of iron supported the leather deck. Glissa suspected these had been taken from the mountains. No wonder they don’t get along with the goblins, she thought. The humans have been stealing goblin metal.

  She heard a noise and dropped to the deck, but it was just Slobad returning. The elf clambered down from the ship and took the bundle he handed her. She unwrapped the package to find a dark, hooded robe and matching blouse and boots.

  “Where’d you get those?” she asked.

  “Borrowed them, huh?” said the goblin, grinning.

  The clothes were like nothing Glissa had ever seen before. They smelled like leather but were supple and flowed like water in her hands. She looked closely at the material. It appeared the leather had been cut into fine strips and woven together.

  Glissa stripped off her jerkin and pulled the new blouse from the bundle. Slobad spun around and Glissa thought the goblin’s neck turned an even darker shade of red.

  “No time for modesty, Slobad,” she said as she slipped the new shirt over her head.

  She pulled off her tattered boots. The cultists had done a wonderful job repairing them, but they wouldn’t last much longer. She pulled on the new boots. They were a little large, so she tied them around her leg with a few strips of leather from her old boots, slipped the dagger sheath into her new boots, and stood up.

  “I found out leader’s name,” said Slobad, still facing the wall. “She female named Bruenna. Live in big building, huh? Middle of town. Big building, huh?

  “You can turn around now, Slobad,” said Glissa. She pulled the cloak around herself. “I’ll go pay Bruenna a visit.”

  “Wait until the first sun is about to rise,” said Bosh.

  “Why?” asked Glissa. “She’ll be alone now. This will be the best time to talk to her privately.”

  “She will not expect a guest at night,” replied Bosh. “She will be suspicious. Go while she breaks her fast. You avoid the crowds but do not raise suspicion.”

  “Fine,” said Glissa. “This is your plan. I’ll wait.” She pulled her hood over her head and walked to the back corner of the shed to lie down. “Wake me when it’s time.”

  * * * * *

  Bosh shook Glissa awake. “The blue sun rises,” he said.

  Glissa looked at the metal man through bleary eyes. “What?” she asked.

  “The blue sun,” he said again. “It will crest over the Quicksilver Sea momentarily.”

  “Oh. Fine.”

  She walked to the door, readjusting the hood to cover her ears and most of her face. She then folded her arms inside the folds of the cloak to hide her claws. Those parts of her skin that were still visible she covered with mud, hoping no one would notice her green hue.
Slobad opened the door, and Glissa peered out.

  “Most of the ships are gone from the docks.”

  “Fisherman, maybe? They early risers, huh?” said Slobad. “All leave while you sleep.”

  “What’s a fisherman?” she asked.

  “A man who fishes, huh?” said Slobad. He continued as Glissa stared at him with a blank expression on her face. “You crazy again, elf? Humans catch fish—food—in sea. Bring home to eat, huh? Man who catches fish is fisherman.”

  Glissa nodded. “Well, find yourselves a good hiding spot until I get back,” she said. “In case someone comes back needing parts.” She slipped through the door and crept to the side of the shed. She saw nobody walking about in the lanes between the shelters. It looked as if Bosh was right. She turned the corner and began walking slowly and deliberately toward the center of the town, keeping her head down and her hands tucked inside the cloak.

  She passed a few humans heading toward the docks on her way through the ring of homes surrounding the main town building. She nodded at them as they passed, but they mostly ignored her. Glissa didn’t know what a fisherman would look like, but these people were all dressed in robes like her own and had an air of magic about them. She wondered if they used magic to catch the fish.

  She found Bruenna’s home easily enough. It was the largest building in the town, larger than two storage sheds. While the shelters surrounding it were simple metal boxes with leather curtains for doors, this building was ornate. Metal columns supported the roof, and symbols had been etched in the wall above polished double doors. Glissa climbed the wide steps that led to the doors and knocked.

  The door opened, and an old human female stood before Glissa. She had long white hair, and her face was almost as wrinkled as a troll’s. The old woman wore dark clothing similar to that which Slobad had stolen for Glissa, but her robes were dyed blue, and strands of silver ran through the woven leather. The dress glittered in the light of the blue moon rising behind Glissa.