Step back slowly.
After a couple of heartbeats Sorin did as Nissa told him. Nissa glanced at Anowon, who was watching the proceedings with an impassive face. But for just a second, Nissa thought she saw the side of his mouth rise in the barest glint of a smile at Sorin s predicament. Then it was gone, and Sorin was back by their side.
Watch, Nissa said as she took a stick from the ground and tossed it into the pool. In a flash, a lip appeared from behind the boulder on the far side and snapped down over the entire pool with an audible snap that shook the ground slightly. Some black and green birds sitting in a nearby shrub took sudden flight.
Ah, Zendikar, Sorin said, shaking his head. He turned back to the trail, chuckling. But Nissa saw he wasn t smiling.
They saw other groups of kor who passed without word or gesture in the day and night, looking like they had been resoundingly beaten by more than one enemy. The trench became deeper as they walked. The line of sky above grew more and more narrow. And as they walked, the rock changed. Where there had been red walls of crumbly sedimentary rock, there were sheer, sweeping walls of steel gray granite. Nissa did not like the look of it. No toe holds, she thought. No boulders on the canyon floor to shelter behind.
At midday they came to a fork in the trench. A massive statue, half the height of the canyon, was carved into the stone wall. It was a being Nissa had seen in statues in other parts of Zendikar, and although it was crumbled and missing limbs, she could tell what it had been: a creature with a large head, four arms, and tentacles that started at its waist brood lineage. But who had carved the statue, and how long before? She thought of Anowon s words before the rainstorm that had created the flood: There has to be something more to them. As she looked up at the strange creature, she wondered if he wasn t right.
Nissa took the leather tube containing Khalled s map from her pack and consulted it. There were many lines extending from the trench. She found the tiny picture of the statue and realized they could follow the canyon branch that angled toward the sun, or the other which traveled but wound back in the same direction. She showed the map to Sorin, who eyed it suspiciously. He put one long, thin white finger on a landmass that lay on the other side of the sea.
Akoum, he said. Both trench ways moved them in that direction. If it wasn t for this plane s volatile energy, I would walk in the air and be there in seconds. I wouldn t need you or the Ghet. He waved a dismissive hand at them.
Nissa chose the left fork. The sun was half past mid-sky and the shadows were deep when Anowon stopped them. The canyon wall next to them was filled with images engraved into the smooth stone.
Illuminated pictographs, Anowon said as he unscrewed one of his metal cylinders and slipped a piece of paper out of the hollow place within. He went to the pictographs and squatted before them. He consulted the piece of paper as he deciphered the writing.
These are old, Anowon said. It is unknown to me why they are written here in this wilderness. He kept reading, speaking as he did. Perhaps this trench was not always as it appears now. Perhaps this trench was once an aqueduct used by the ancient Eldrazi for power creation.
Perhaps, Sorin said. His mocking smile visited his lips again.
This main panel tells the story of the Mortifier, Anowon said, pointing.
Sorin stopped smiling.
Who is that? Nissa asked.
Anowon s fingers traced the image of a pictograph of a figure daubed with black. He used both of his fingers to trace the line. The figure daubed with black pigment stood with three huge, monsterlike creatures, but appeared to be a simple being. It did not have the tentacles of the other three. Before the figure were other beings, attached to it with long lines.
These are ropes, Anowon said, tracing the lines.
These figures are vampires, and they are slaves to the Mortifier, who is one of these Eldrazi it appears.
He is not, Sorin said, his voice a jot higher than Anowon s. Does he look like those Eldrazi?
Nissa considered the picture. No, she agreed.
But those three Eldrazi don t look very much like the ones we ve seen.
These large Eldrazi are the ones that we see as statues around Zendikar, Anowon said. Many scholars think they are deities.
Gods with slaves? Nissa said.
Perhaps, Anowon said. Why not? If this had been an aqueduct, then who dug it? Who built the fabulous palaces? And those slaves are not human.
No?
They are vampires.
Yes, Yes, Sorin said.
Nissa turned to Sorin. Do you know about these Eldrazi?
Sorin s eyes did not blink. I know that Zendikar is at risk, he said.
Nissa turned to Anowon. And why do you not question him further on this topic which so interests you? she asked.
He is clearly hiding information.
Sorin kicked at a loose rock. What I know is not for you or the vampire s ears. He knows not to overstep his place. Sorin said, staring at Nissa.
Nissa ignored Sorin s glare. What force does he have over you? Nissa asked Anowon.
Anowon looked up at the canyon wall.
Somewhere down the canyon a boulder crashed into rock.
Sorin coughed. Can we keep moving before we are caught by another stinking troop of kor? I do not think my nose can handle another onslaught.
Anowon stood and rolled up his scroll. As you wish, he said. As he was sliding the scroll back into its metal cylinder, Sorin came near Nissa.
We must go now, he said.
Bind the vampire and we ll go. she replied.
But he did not answer her. Instead Sorin started walking leaving Nissa to it. They walked until they were stumbling in darkness, at which point they stopped next to what looked like a huge crumbled stone grate lying on its side and half buried in the sand.
Sorin insisted on a fire, and Nissa and Anowon were able to find some debris to make a small blaze. In the flickering firelight Anowon investigated the disintegrating grate, covered as it was with intricate line tracing and glyphs.
The fire was no more than coals when Nissa heard speaking echoing off the canyon walls behind them. She had drawn first watch. She quickly stoked the fire and woke the others. They moved away and hid behind a boulder to see who came to the fire.
Soon a small group of goblins leading a female kor came around the corner. The goblins had small swords on their belts. One had a staff with a pathway stone floating at its tip.
The kor was strange looking and not at all like the refugees passing up the trench toward Graypelt and the Binding Circle. This kor s hair was wild and unkempt, and her clothes were nothing more than rags. Glass beads were knotted into her hair, and they flickered slightly in the firelight. She was wearing small bells somewhere, and they chimed lightly as she stumbled. As Nissa watched she tripped, and two goblins gently caught her and pushed her upright.
Most telling was that the creature wore no ropes or hooks, unlike all other kor. In fact, the only attribute that gave away her race was her long, thin skull and the pale skin stretched taught over it.
The kor s mouth was continually moving like some merfolk lull-mage engaged in his daily intonations. But when she saw the fire, she stopped cold. Then she saw the ancient grate and rushed to it, stamping one foot in the corner of the fire in her haste. The goblins rushed to catch up, but the kor paid them no mind. She fell to her knees before the grate and began chanting.
Anowon watched the kor intently as the goblins brushed her hair from her eyes and kneeled down next to her in the sand. They also began chanting.
Sorin drew his long sword from its dark sheath. To Nissa the sword seemed part of the dark. The coals did not reflect their red off it. It seemed to suck what light there was into it.
I will slay the first goblin, and we can enslave the others, he said. The saliva in his mouth made his words slur.