Jess Lebow: The Darksteel Eye

Bosh turned to Glissa. “Run,” he shouted.

Glissa stood stunned for a moment. She couldn’t leave him.

“Run,” he yelled again, his eyes growing big in his head, his face creased with concern.

Slobad shot up beside her on Pontifex’s hoverer. “Come on.”

The Kaldra Champion righted itself and grabbed Bosh in one of its huge hands. The iron golem was lifted high into the air. He seemed resigned to his fate, not looking at the Champion but keeping his eyes focused on Glissa.

“Go,” he said, his lips forming the words, but no sound emerging. Then he smiled.

The Kaldra Champion squeezed Bosh, and the golem’s face wrinkled with pain. The sound of metal cracking filled her ears, and Glissa turned away. She couldn’t watch.

Stepping on behind Slobad, she whispered, “Go.”

At full speed, Glissa and Slobad flew away from Panopticon.

* * * * *

“After them,” shouted Memnarch.

The Kaldra Champion opened its fist and let its contents fall to the ground.

“I want the elf alive,” ordered the Guardian. “Alive!”

Silently, the Champion floated off in pursuit of the elf and the goblin.

Memnarch turned and headed back to Panopticon. Near the open doors he found Malil climbing to his feet behind a pile of broken levelers.

“Come, Malil,” said Memnarch. “We will watch from the Eye.”

* * * * *

When they had covered several hundred yards, Glissa looked back over her shoulder. As she did, the Kaldra Champion dropped Bosh’s smashed body to the ground.

“I was wrong,” said Glissa.

“ ’Bout what?”

The elf shook her head, fighting back her tears. “I had thought there was nothing worth trusting in this world.” She turned away from the pursuing Champion to put her hands on Slobad’s shoulders. “But there was … there is.”

“He good golem, huh?” said Slobad. “Slobad miss him.”

“Me too,” said the elf. “Me too.” Wiping her eyes she added, “Just do me a favor.”

The goblin nodded. “What you want, crazy elf?”

“Don’t get killed.”

Slobad nodded. “Slobad try, huh?” He glanced at the Champion behind them. “Not so easy.”

Glissa turned her attention back to their pursuer. Slobad was right, the Kaldra Champion was coming on fast.

“How far to the blue lacuna?”

“Close, huh?” replied Slobad.

Glissa and Slobad sped on, the Kaldra Champion right behind them. In the far distance they could see the entrance to the blue lacuna. To their left, another mycosynth forest loomed up under the mana core.

“Never make it,” said the goblin.

“We might be able to gain some ground if we went through the monoliths,” she shouted against the wind into Slobad’s ear.

“How? Slow us, huh?”

“But they’ll slow him even more,” she said, hitching her thumb over her shoulder.

Slobad shrugged. “Okay, crazy elf.” Leaning to his left, the goblin steered their hoverer toward the mycosynth. They sped off, the Champion gaining ground fast.

The strange crystalline growth rose up before them, and the Kaldra Champion loomed behind. Mere seconds from the edge of the forest, something came out from between two monoliths, blocking their path.

“Thresher,” shouted Slobad, and he leaned hard right.

Glissa wasn’t ready for the abrupt turn, and she slipped, falling off the hoverer and rolling to a stop.

The Champion ignored Slobad, zeroing in on the fallen elf. The thresher too had its sights set on Glissa, and the two pursuers sandwiched her between.

The thresher reached her first. It leaned back, opening up like the other she had faced near the black lacuna, ready to swallow her whole and carry her off. There was nothing Glissa could do but put her hands up to protect her head.

The Kaldra Champion bent down, ready to pluck her from the ground.

The leveler stopped dead in its tracks, its deep central cavern only inches from the elf’s head. A figure stepped out from inside, her hands held high.

“Bruenna!”

The wizard shouted a single power word, the rest of her spell already spoken. Screaming lines of blue power shot from the woman’s outstretched arms like a cannon. The blast hit the Kaldra Champion in the chest and froze him in place, bent over like a question mark, only a few feet from the two women.

Glissa got to her feet. “But how-?”

Bruenna interrupted her. “We must go. This spell won’t hold him for long.”

With that, the human cast another spell.

Glissa and Bruenna lifted from the ground, gifted with the ability to fly. Slobad had circled back, but seeing the two women soar into the air, he headed for the entrance to the lacuna.

The women followed the goblin, racing as fast as they could. As they entered the blue tunnel, they heard the Kaldra Champion let out a tremendous roar.

* * * * *

At the top of the Pool of Knowledge, Bruenna turned to the other two. “You must get to the Tangle,” she said. “You will have a better chance of beating this foe on your own ground.”

“You come with us, huh?” The goblin looked up at the wizard from the hoverer.

Bruenna shook her head. “I must go help defend my tribe.”

“We help you,” said the elf.

Bruenna once again shook her head. “You have problems of your own.” She smiled. “We will meet again, I think. For now our destinies lie on different paths.”

* * * * *

Glissa and Slobad shot from Lumengrid, headed for the elf’s home. They had abandoned Pontifex’s hoverer for Bruenna’s magic, and they flew now, out over the Quicksilver Sea and onto the plain. Not far behind, the Kaldra Champion pursued, though he could not fly. Having to follow on the ground slowed his progress considerably, and the pair managed to stay ahead of their tormentor.

“Do you ever think we’ll stop being chased?” asked the goblin.

“No,” replied Glissa. “I think it’s our lot in this life. Frankly, I was bored with it long ago.” She shrugged. “But what choice do we have?”

The pair approached the Tangle.

“What’s that?” Slobad pointed at the ground.

Glissa squinted. “Trolls,” she said. “The trolls have come to our aid.”

There, arrayed before the metal forest were about twenty-five burly, wrinkled trolls, each holding what looked like the trunk of a stout tree between his hands.

Coming down to the ground, Glissa was greeted by Drooge, leaning heavily on his staff.

“You are being followed.” The old troll pointed to the Kaldra Champion, growing larger in the near distance.

“And you have come to fight,” replied Glissa, “as you said you would.”

Drooge took a deep breath and nodded sadly. “This fight has only just begun.” He laid his thick palm on her shoulder, and he smiled. “Go,” he said. “We will keep him busy until you have reached the cover of the deep Tangle.”

Looking up into his eyes, the elf said, “Come with us. If we run deep enough, he won’t be able to get us. He’s too big.”

Drooge shook his head. “The trolls’ time has come,” he said, “but you, young Glissa, have a long life ahead. You are Mirrodin’s last and only hope.” He pushed her toward the interior of the forest. “Seek out the Radix, in the deepest part of the Tangle. It is there that you will find the most power. Go now and prepare yourself. Your fight yet awaits you.”

Glissa stumbled forward, the troll’s hand on her back. “But-”

“Please,” said Drooge. “You will do your part.” He turned back to the plain where the Kaldra Champion was nearly upon them. “Now we must do ours.”

Slobad grabbed Glissa by the hand and pulled her toward the deeper woods. “Come on, huh?”