Jess Lebow - The Darksteel Eye

Turning her attention back to the thresher, Glissa barely managed to fend off its blow, as the quick device darted in. Her sword hit the creature’s sharp teeth. Lodging it into the spinning cylinder, she put all of her weight on the blade and shoved off.

Lifting from the ground, the elf’s body lurched. The forward movement of the thresher forced her back, and she balanced her lithe frame against the hilt of her sword. The creature began spurting blood, and it stopped its charge, letting Glissa fall back to the ground. It moved back, trying to pull the elf’s weapon from its belly. Its own bladed cylinder clamped down on the sword, and it jerked, pulling the handle free of Glissa’s grasp.

A cold chill ran down the elf’s spine as she watched the agile device dart back up the hill, her blade stuck inside. All around, the valley was flooded with these threshers, and the others fought for their lives. Slobad rode on top of a device, holding on for dear life. It looked as if he was trying to pry the thing open, but judging from the bloodstains on his chest, he was more a butcher than a mechanic. Bosh had his hands full, fighting off a half-dozen of the monsters.

Glissa wouldn’t be much help if she didn’t have her sword. Sidestepping a charging thresher, she went after the wounded device that had stolen her blade. As she turned, she clearly saw Bruenna battling with a pair of devices. Her shins bled. She was isolated-and she was losing. The other wizard from her tribe had fallen into hand to hand combat with the threshers as well. He was tied up, unable to get to her.

Parrying the attacks of one device, Bruenna turned too late to catch the attack of the other, and the creature gave her a nasty slash across the back. The human wizard fell to the ground, clutching at her wound.

Glissa jolted at the sight, forgetting her sword in the flurry of battle. She ran toward her downed friend as fast as she could. A thresher jumped out in front of her, its spinning blades turned to tear her apart.

Pushing the ground with her back leg, the elf leaped into the air, her front leg outstretched. The thresher reared back, but it was too slow, Glissa had already cleared its teeth, and she landed on top of its head. Its top was soft, and it caved in under her weight. She slipped, and her knee gave way. Tilting to the side, Glissa pushed off again.

Her off-center jump sent her flying to the ground. She tucked into a ball, curling her shoulder under as she hit. The world spun once, and Glissa popped back to her feet.

Before her, the threshers closed in on Bruenna. One of them seemed to open, lifting its head and cutting blades up off the ground. Behind those spinning teeth, the creature revealed a hollow chamber. Bruenna looked up, her eyes wide, and she lifted her hands in the air, hopelessly trying to hold off the advancing creature.

Darting forward, it scooped up the injured mage and closed down, swallowing her whole.

Glissa couldn’t believe her eyes. Bruenna was gone. Threshers weren’t supposed to be able to do that.

Anger and grief welled up inside her, the same feelings that had driven her powerful spell in the past. She thought of Al-Hayat, the trolls, and all the wizards who had died on this quest. Then she thought of Bruenna, trapped inside the gut of that thresher, and her blood began to boil. She could feel power course through her, as it had many times before. Her control was getting greater, and she focused her rage on the threshers, willing them to disintegrate into tiny piles of dust.

Nothing happened.

Glissa felt the same release she had each time before when the spell had worked. For some reason the creatures she had focused on were unaffected.

It hit her. “They’re no longer metal.”

Each time before, when she had used this mysterious power, she had only been able to destroy levelers or weapons-never flesh. Standing there, empty handed, watching the thresher with Bruenna inside dart away, Glissa felt numb. Her head buzzed, and her limbs felt heavy. She hadn’t realized before how draining that experience had been.

A thresher hit her from behind, knocking the elf face first on the ground. She had time to turn over and see the creature open wide, before she too was swallowed whole.

Memnarch opened the door to the Eye and waved Malil over. “Come. Memnarch wishes to see the elf girl.”

Malil crossed the laboratory and climbed into the Eye with Memnarch. The guardian touched the appropriate controls, and all of the screens lit up. Each of them showed a different scene, each giving a different view of Mirrodin. The plains, swamp, mountains, oceans, and forest of the metal planet were all represented.

Memnarch turned another knob, and five of the six screens changed to a picture of the interior. They were all the same, but each from a different angle. In the center of all five screens, a lone thresher rolled across the open ground.

On the sixth screen was a view of the inside of the Eye-the view from Malil’s point of view. The metal man looked into that screen, and it reproduced what he saw a billion times-like two mirrors facing each other. Malil looked at what Memnarch saw when Memnarch looked through his eyes, and that image layered itself upon itself into infinity, making an endless hallway, surrounded by the interior of the Eye.

An unexpected discovery, thought the Guardian, something he’d have to explore later, when the elf girl was firmly within his grasp.

Malil turned his attention to one of the other five screens, and the view through his eyes too showed the lone device on the interior of Mirrodin.

“Why are we looking at a thresher, master?”

“Because, Malil, the elf girl is inside.”

Memnarch squinted, spotting something heading toward his prize. One of the screens shifted its view, narrowing in on another lone creature, speeding toward the thresher atop a hoverer.

“What is he doing here?”

* * * * *

The inside of the thresher’s body was very dark. It reminded Glissa of the time Bosh had placed her in his chest cavity. Only this time, the world wasn’t spinning. Considering the circumstances, it was a comfortable ride. The chamber was spacious enough for her to sit cross-legged and not have to duck her head, and the sides of the creature were soft.

After having hit the thresher with her fists-and even kicking until she became winded-Glissa concluded that it didn’t feel any pain, at least not from the inside. So she sat waiting.

What a predicament. Swallowed whole by a thresher after having lost her sword. It was a wonder she’d made it this far at all. She laughed at that thought. Slobad had been so worried about what she would use for a weapon once they’d put the Kaldra Champion together. Evidently, it didn’t matter.

She thought about what awaited her at the end of this ride. Was Bruenna being taken to the same place? Would she finally meet Memnarch? This wasn’t exactly the way she had envisioned it.

Glissa felt the thresher slow down. Her heart raced, and she prepared to draw mana. The creature came to an abrupt stop. It jerked backward, then the sharp tip of a short blade cut through the creature’s exterior, nearly punching straight into Glissa’s forehead.

The blade slid sideways, and the thresher shook. Blood poured into the hollow cavity, and light seeped in through the wound. Glissa could only make out the hand and forearm attached to the blade-blue skin.

Another blade struck the beast and punched through. Glissa pushed herself back in the chamber, staying as far from the weapons as possible, then she drew as much mana as she could.

The arcane energies flowed to her, and she cast a spell, growing to nearly twice her size in the blink of an eye. Her body quickly filled the confined space, and her arms were pinned to her sides by the thresher’s flesh. She had known this would happen and avoided just this situation earlier in the ride. Kicking with all of her might, her engorged legs connected with the front of the thresher-right beneath where the blade had cut into its hide.