Will McDermott - The Moons of Mirrodin

Glissa raised her head and looked at Raksha. She tried to read the leonin’s face, but it seemed as impassive as ever. “If you’re not going to help us, then we’ll just leave, thank you very much.”

Glissa threw the loose ropes into the face of one guard, then rolled off the bench and came up behind the other guard. Before he could react, she had taken the claw-tipped staff from his back and whipped it down through the ropes tied around Slobad’s hands. She pushed the guard into a curtain. He tumbled to the floor, caught up in the voluminous leather. The other guard stood ready to attack. Glissa looked to Raksha. He merely stared back at her.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said to the Kha. Her staff wavered between Raksha and his remaining guard. “Just let us leave.”

“You need not hurt anyone,” replied the leonin leader, “and you need not leave just yet.”

With blinding speed, Raksha rushed forward, ducking as Glissa snapped the staff toward him. He slapped the staff out of the way and moved in. Before she could bring the long weapon back around, the leonin leader grabbed her wrist and pulled the staff from her grasp. Casually he twirled her around and pushed her back down onto the bench.

When Glissa rolled over, the Kha was standing before her as impassive as ever. He reached up to his forehead and dabbed his finger at the cut she had inflicted. “Impressive,” said Raksha. “We have never seen anyone move that fast before.”

Glissa was thinking the same thing.

“As we said, there is no reason to hurt anyone.” The leonin leader turned to Ushanti, who had hidden behind her cauldron during the scuffle. “Tend to this warrior’s leg, old woman,” he said. “She is our guest and is to be treated as such.”

“But the fire trance,” protested Ushanti. “The visions-”

“Can often be misleading,” growled Raksha, “as you well know.”

“I don’t understand,” said Glissa. “What just happened here? I attacked you, and now I am your guest?”

“We will excuse the attack,” said Raksha, “this one time. We are in the midst of trying times, and such behavior is understandable, but that is not why you are now our guest.”

Ushanti came out from behind her cauldron, chose a variety of colored sand and oils from her table, and began mixing them in a bowl. Raksha spoke a few words to the standing guard, who helped the other guard to his feet then hurried from the room. Raksha turned back to face Glissa.

“Four nights past, the levelers came to Taj Nar,” he continued. “They climbed the tower and breached the walls just after the last moon set. The alarm was raised, and our warriors fought valiantly, but still the levelers came … all the way to our chambers. We destroyed five of the foul things, but more poured through the door. We thought we would soon join Dakan, the first Kha, in the eternal light, but at our darkest hour, the levelers halted. We dared not breathe for fear it might be a trick. As one, the levelers turned and fled the way they had come.”

“That is just how it happened in the Tangle,” said Glissa. “I had shown them power, but still they came, trampling their own to get to me. Then they turned and fled.” She hesitated for a moment, then said, “I was told they were sent to kill the mightiest elf warrior in the Tangle. Perhaps they came here to kill the mightiest leonin warrior as well.”

“Your enemy is our enemy, elf,” said Raksha. “That may make us allies.”

The guard returned, holding Glissa’s sword and Slobad’s bag of tools. “Take these as a sign of our trust,” said Raksha, “and as a symbol of our new alliance against this common enemy.” He laid the sword into Glissa’s hand, and she looked at it closely for the first time. It was a beautiful blade, and the entire length of the weapon glittered and gleamed, even in the low light coming from the coals beneath Ushanti’s brazier. The curved blade seemed to flow from the hilt like water.

* * * * *

Ushanti finished her mixture and hobbled over to Glissa. The elf thought she heard the old woman grumbling, but it might have been an incantation.

“Lift your leg, elf,” said Ushanti. “This will hurt.” The leonin healer poured half of the foul-looking mixture over Glissa’s knee. Steam rose from Glissa’s calf and ankle as the concoction trickled down her leg. It seemed to be burning through the corroded metal. Glissa fought back a scream as the fire in her leg exploded and sent icy-hot tendrils of pain up her thigh.

Ushanti placed the bowl at Glissa’s feet. “Put your foot in the bowl,” she commanded.

The steam made it hard for Glissa to see the bowl, and it took most of her concentration to fight back the pain from the fire running down her leg. Finally she placed her foot into the bowl. At first she felt nothing except the lingering pain from the treatment. Her entire foot was numb. Then it began to tingle. The tingle turned into pinpricks, then into stabbing pains. It felt as if long needles were working their way into her flesh.

Glissa held her breath and gritted her teeth through the pain. Steam from the bowl rose into the air and met the steam surrounding her calf. As the steam swirled around, the elf exhaled and took another deep breath. The fire in her ankle and calf decreased little by little as the steam dissipated, but the memory of that intense pain lingered. It was some time before the muscles in her thigh relaxed to the point where she thought she could walk.

“The infection has been cleansed,” said Ushanti. “Our daughter can heal the wound left behind. We must retire now.”

“One last thing, Elder Shaman,” interjected Raksha as the old woman turned to leave.

Glissa was sure she saw a sneer cross the healer’s lips as she turned, but no trace of it lingered as she faced her leader. “Yes, Kha,” she said, bowing low.

“This figure the elf saw in the Tangle,” said Raksha. “Find him for us that our new friend …”

“Glissa,” said the elf as Raksha turned to her.

“So that we and our new friend Glissa may deal with him.”

“You wish us to enter the fire trance?” asked Ushanti. “After healing the destroyer, we must once again face the vision of her demolishing our world?”

“Yes.”

Ushanti stared at Raksha for a moment, but it was obvious all her bluster had been drained away by the force of her leader’s presence. She shuffled back to her cauldron and grabbed two handfuls of sand-one yellow, one blue. As Ushanti sifted the sand through her clenched fists into the cauldron, the smoke changed colors. Brightly limned azure wisps snaked their way up to the low ceiling. Ushanti bent low over the cauldron until the smoke enveloped her head.

Moments passed, and Glissa stared at Raksha, Rishan the healer’s daughter, and the other young healer. None of them; seemed at all worried that the old woman might suffocate within the smoke.

Ushanti began to moan. “Robes,” she cried. “Shimmering robes. Reflection. Faceless. Watching. Waiting.”

“Where is he?” asked Raksha.

Rishan moved over toward the brazier. “Look beyond the robes, Mother. See past the faceless figure. See the place. Look behind.”

“Cannot,” said the old seer. “He holds us. Riveted. Cannot move. Cannot look away. No eyes. Only reflection.”

“Look into the reflection,” said Rishan.

“Blackness. Only blackness,” said Ushanti. “It drinks in the light. Wait … a sun rises. Black sun on black sky. Illuminates … chimney. Black chimney. Huge. Reaches for the sun. Foul water cascading down. Bones everywhere. Nim!”

The last word was a scream, and Ushanti’s knees buckled underneath her. As she fell, Raksha caught the old seer and lifted her from the smoke. Her lined face seemed more sunken and sallow than ever. Her eyes were open, but there was no life in them.