The Darksteel Eye (26 page)

“Uh oh. It see us, huh?” said Slobad from her back.

Glissa shivered. It was true. The centipede was watching her and the goblin as they sped toward the wall.

With lightning speed, the bug lunged, snapping its razor arms together, trying to catch the soaring elf.

Glissa twisted in midair. There was nothing she could do to control her flight. All she could do was cling tightly to the strand of webby silk. The creature moved in on them, rustling the air and pushing before it the foul stench of the underground lake. Glissa’s hair whipped around, and the unnatural breeze whistled as it whipped through the metal on her shins.

The centipede’s closing arms reached out, grasping for the elf and the goblin. Metal closed down on metal, missing flesh but slicing right through the magical web and sending the pair spinning off toward the wall.

The room whirled, and Slobad’s grip tightened around Glissa’s shoulders. Closing her eyes, the elf quickly ran through the words to another spell. It was all she had, and she wasn’t even sure it would work, but she forced as much power into it as she could.

The final word spoken, Glissa let loose. Strands of wire that looked like leafy green vines sprouted from her hands and feet.

Slobad gasped then giggled. “Hey,” he said, letting go with one hand. “Stop. Tickles, huh?”

Glissa ignored him. As they spun, falling back toward the floor, she grabbed hold of the wires with both hands. Whipping them around like a lasso, the elf flung them toward the wall with all of her might. It was her only chance, and she took it.

The wires clanked as they collided with the tubes, slapping around and spanking off the slippery, slime-covered metal.

“Damn!” shouted the elf.

The vines trailed down the wall as the pair fell, slapping and
flapping the whole way. Then one of them got stuck in between two of the pipes—and it jammed. The other end of the cable—attached to Glissa’s foot—pulled tight. The goblin and the elf were flipped over, upside down, and flung sideways as their descent was stopped cold by the wire.

The pair swung out over the lake, suspended upside down by Glissa’s magical vine. All the blood in her body ran down into her head, and she struggled to recover from the sudden stop.

“You okay?” she asked Slobad.

“Yeah,” replied the goblin, though his words seemed labored.

Reaching the end of their swing, the vine brought the two back toward the wall. Glissa squeezed her gut and leaned into the vine, trying to accentuate the swinging.

The centipede loomed up large behind her, getting ready to strike again.

“Slobad,” she shouted. “Can you grab hold of my hand?” Reaching back up over her upended shoulders, she spread her palms out for the goblin.

Without a word, the goblin grabbed hold. Immediately his body flipped over, righting itself. The force of the shifting bodies changed the course of their swinging, and the vine gave way.

Glissa gasped as they fell again. A loud creak filled the chamber, and their descent was stopped once again. Only a few inches below where they had been, the vine caught again.

Suspended there, arms outstretched, looking up into the eyes of the upside down elf, the goblin said, “Now what, crazy elf?”

“Now I’m going to toss you onto that pipe coupling.”

Slobad’s eyebrows lifted. “What?”

“We’re going to swing as hard as we can, then I’m going to toss you up toward the coupling.”

“Why?”

“So you can take it apart.”

“What ’bout you, huh?”

Glissa smiled at him, her head still filling with blood. “I’m just going to hang out.”

The pair swung away, reaching the apex of their arc, slowing, then coming back down and gaining speed. They were headed back toward the coupling.

“This is our best chance,” said Glissa. “It’s now or never.”

Slobad looked up and only nodded.

From the corner of her eye, Glissa could see the centipede ready to strike again, its head curled back, its eyes pointed at her and Slobad.

“Here we go,” she shouted, and she swung her arms with everything she had. At the top of their arc, as close as they would come to coupling, Glissa let go of the goblin. As soon as she did, the vine complained once again, then it snapped, and she fell, head first, toward the ground.

As she dropped she watched Slobad soar through the air. He looked as if he were hanging on an invisible hook, weightless and unconcerned about being ten times his height from the floor.

The centipede’s head filled her vision. It came down, and the rest of the world rushed up to greet her. She could hear the scissoring sound of the bug’s arms closing and opening again. She hit something hard, and everything went black.

*  *  *  *  *

At the other end of the lake, a new predator emerged. Unseen but all seeing, it stalked from between the pipes. Scanning the room with its hawklike eyes, set deep above a birdlike beak, the four-legged creature stayed concealed within the shadows. It would watch and wait.

The myr had all the time in the world.

*  *  *  *  *

Slobad was weightless. One minute he was swinging from a vine like a monkey, the next he was being hurled through the air. The falling part he didn’t so much like, but the moment just before he fell—the point at which he wasn’t travelling up or down but was just stuck in midair—that he kind of liked.

Now he was falling again. Glissa had done her best to throw him toward the coupling. He hadn’t made it, and he was starting back down. Slobad felt his stomach rise as he began to pick up speed. He definitely didn’t like this part, and he reached out, reactions taking over for reason.

His fingers closed around nothing but air, and the goblin continued to fall. Then something solid hit his leg, and he lunged for it. Nimble hands caught the edge of a broken, magical vine, and Slobad crashed into the pipes.

His heart raced, and terror flooded through his veins. Looking down, he saw Glissa falling then saw the centipede dive after her—Bosh clinging to his back.

Glissa hit the water, and the swamp creature plunged its head under, leaving the room eerily quiet. Slobad clung to the wall, listening to himself breathe, trying to piece together what had just happened to him.

The sound of bubbling water interrupted his thoughts. The surface of the underground lake exploded upward, and the centipede’s head shot into the sky. This time, though, Bosh wasn’t attached.

Great, thought the goblin. Bosh and Glissa are gone, and Slobad is the one stuck up here with angry centipede, huh?

Before the creature could get its bearings, Slobad decided to climb. Grabbing hold of the smallest pipe he could find, hugging it as if it were Glissa’s back, the goblin shimmed up toward the coupling.

The going was tough, but Slobad was a good climber, and he managed to make progress. The coupling, however, was on a different pipe, and eventually he’d have to find a way to cross from where he was over to where he was going.

Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know why he was going there. Glissa had wanted him to take it apart, but that was when Bosh was still on the creature’s back. But, even when the golem had still been attached to the bug, Slobad didn’t know what good taking apart the connective coupling was going to do.

He’d almost reached the connection when he heard a loud chittering sound. Turning around, he looked into the beady little eyes of the giant centipede.

Slobad swallowed. “Nice bug, huh?”

The swamp monster reared and lunged at the goblin.

Slobad barely had time to scamper onto the neighboring pipe before the creature’s head impacted the coupling.

A dull gong, followed by a high-pitched hissing sound, rolled through the chamber. A flood of filth shot out, blinding the centipede and forcing it back. The creature’s attack had punctured the coupling, and all the swamp fluid stored within the pipe was released in one large shot.

“Oh,” said Slobad. “Now Slobad understand crazy elf.”

Below he could see that Glissa and Bosh had surfaced and were getting out of the lake. Bruenna stood below him, waving her hands.

“What?” he yelled.

Bruenna cupped her hands to her mouth. “Jump.”

“Oh.” Slobad shrugged and leaped into the air.

Memnarch’s body hummed in anticipation. Every cell, every molecule of metal and flesh combined wanted more serum. No, they needed more serum.

Drinking in giant quaffs from a large mug, the guardian of Mirrodin leaned over the controls of his Darksteel Eye. When he had built the Eye, he asssumed he would always have his infusion device. Consequently, the viewing chamber was too small for him to fit inside while wearing his serum tanks.

It had been a miscalculation.

Images buzzed around him. Each of the eight different screens showed him the view through the eyes of his myr. Right now, he was unconcerned with all of it—except for the unfolding events in the Mephidross.

Capturing the elf girl was his priority. The rest of the plane could wait just as he had waited.

Through the eyes of his spy, he watched the elf girl and her friends evade the centipede and scurry into the tunnel. Memnarch had watched that interaction barely taking a breath. There would be no end to the torture he would unleash on the denizens of the Dross if she were killed in the swamp.

Damn this frustration. If only he could lay his hands on her. If only he were in his original body, his created, perfect body,
then he would be able to chase her himself. But alas, he was not. He was cursed to have this sagging, fleshy monstrosity that served no other purpose except as a vessel for his greatness. With it, there was only one thing he could do in the search for the elf—watch and wait.

Each time his servants had her cornered, the elf girl had managed to escape. That would not be the case this time.

Now as his myr stalked behind its quarry, Memnarch was much relieved. She only needed to step through the end of the passage, and he would have her in his grasp.

*  *  *  *  *

Glissa and Bosh fished Slobad from the underground lake. His body was mostly limp, but he was coughing up swamp water, so the elf figured he was still alive. Looking up one last time at the disoriented centipede, Glissa dodged into the passage with the rest of the group, the goblin in tow.

The eerie yellow glow from the large chamber behind them didn’t seep too far into the tunnel. About a hundred yards in, everything was dark.

“Anybody have a dry torch?” said Glissa.

Suddenly the passage lit up with a cool blue glow. In front of the elf, Bruenna and two of her wizards held their arms in the air. In their outstretched palms, each held a small glowing ball of light, about the size of a baby squirrel. It wasn’t much, but it did the trick.

“That’s better.”

Glissa scanned the tunnel. It was large enough to accommodate the iron golem, though his head occasionally touched the roof, depending on how much sludge had collected on the floor. The walls were covered in a shiny film that reminded her of the
sludge she’d swum through to get to the bottom of the swamp. Looking down at her hands, the same shiny slime had attached itself to every crevice. The lines on her hands were set in a deep black, and her skin looked like it belonged to someone twice her age.

“I don’t think I can remember the last time I was clean.”

The group continued on, following a series of twists and turns. Al-Hayat had a hard time keeping his balance. His paws kept slipping in the slime, and his claws made a screeching noise when they ground across the metal pipe beneath.

Finally the passage straightened out, and a clear white light filled the tunnel from the other end. It wasn’t bright or harsh, but it was certainly more powerful than the dull blue glow from Bruenna’s spell. Seeing the new light reminded Glissa of exiting the blue lacuna. That time she had stepped from the tunnel to find a whole new world, one that she had thought was the stuff of legends but was in fact real.

Now she wondered what new thing she was going to find when she stepped out into the light. She didn’t know if it was possible for her entire world to be turned upside down again, but even the thought made her stopped where she stood.

“What is wrong?” asked Bosh. The deep resonant base of his voice woke the sleeping Slobad. The goblin rubbed his eyes and leaped down, standing beside the elf.

Glissa shrugged. “Last time we stepped from a tunnel like this I discovered a hollow world. What will I find this time?”

Al-Hayat had turned and come back to join the conversation. “Is finding out something new such a bad thing?”

“No,” replied Glissa, “not always.” She smiled. “But I didn’t find you at the end of a tube.”

The wolf laughed. “So everything at the end of a tube is bad?”

Glissa shrugged. “I don’t know. This is only my second tube.”

Al-Hayat stuck his muzzle against her back and urged her forward. “Maybe this one won’t be so bad.”

Bruenna appeared, her glowing blue ball now extinguished. “Don’t be so sure.”

Glissa looked up at each of her friends in turn. She’d come this far. No reason to stop now. Steeling herself, she stepped forward and out of the tunnel.