The Moons of Mirrodin (40 page)

Bosh passed his hand over another circle on the far wall. Part of the wall disappeared, creating a doorway from the little room. An odd glow emanated from the room beyond, but Glissa couldn’t see anything past the door. Bosh moved through the doorway. But as he did, the golem’s body tipped forward. It looked like he had fallen into a hole, head first. But Glissa could still see the iron man’s back, and he seemed to be walking down, away from the base of the door.

Glissa walked to the doorway and peered through. The small room opened into a tunnel that descended straight down into Lumengrid. Luminescent moss grew on the sides of the tunnel, providing light. But what Glissa saw made her stomach flip over. Bosh stood on the side of the tunnel beneath her. Next to him sat Slobad, who was cradling Bruenna’s head in his lap. They were all below her, standing, sitting, lying on the side of the tunnel.

“Is this safe?” asked Glissa. She could see the three of them there, somehow attached to the moss-covered wall, but Glissa’s brain refused to believe she wouldn’t fall as soon as she stepped through the doorway.

“It is,” said Bosh.

Slobad nodded. He was stroking Bruenna’s hair. Glissa suppressed a chuckle. She was sure that if the human mage were awake, she would not enjoy the attention she was currently receiving from a goblin. Glissa took a deep breath and stepped over the edge. Just like Bosh, she rotated over the bottom edge of the doorway as she stepped through. Her foot came to rest on the side of the tunnel, but Glissa’s stomach tried to leap from her throat. She fell down next to Slobad and threw up.

“Helps if you close your eyes, huh?” said Slobad.

Glissa closed her eyes for a moment and let her stomach settle back down into her gut. When she opened her eyes, the world looked normal around her. She felt like she was in a long tunnel … a long tunnel with a door in the floor.

“Where does this tunnel lead?” she asked.

“Down,” said Bosh, pointing away from the door.

“How far?” asked Glissa.

“Past bottom of Lumengrid, huh?” said Slobad. “Found entrance below. Amazing. Tunnel wide as Mother’s Womb down there. Go on forever.”

“That must be why all of the corridors go around the center of Lumengrid,” said Glissa. She looked at Bosh. “Is this one of the other holes down into the inner world? You said there were more like the Mother’s Womb that Krark used in the mountains.”

Bosh nodded. “We should proceed,” he said. He picked up Bruenna and began walking away from the doorway. Slobad and Glissa got to their feet and followed the iron golem.

“What happened to you?” asked Slobad as they walked.

“Visions,” said Glissa. “Like Bruenna’s father experienced. Random visions I couldn’t control.”

“Anything useful?” asked Slobad.

“No,” said Glissa. “Maybe. I don’t know. It was all a jumble.” Glissa kicked at the moss that covered much of the silvery surface of Lumengrid’s inner core.

“Flare!” she muttered. “We came all this way for nothing. Bruenna almost died … and for what? The vedalken may no longer want me dead, but this Memnarch plans to use me to destroy the world. I don’t even know where to find him, let alone how to stop him. We’re no closer to figuring out Chunth’s great mystery than we were when we left the Tangle.”

“The trip was not completely without merit,” said Bosh.

“What do you mean?” asked Glissa.

“The Pool aided me in recovering my memories,” said Bosh.

“That’s great,” said Glissa. She ran down the side of the hole to catch up with the golem. “What do you remember?”

“Everything.”

Will McDermott has clawed his way from total obscurity to relative obscurity in just a few short years.
The Moons of Mirrodin
is the second M
AGIC: THE
G
ATHERING
novel for the former editor-in-chief of
Duelist
and
TopDeck
magazines. His other credits include
Judgment
, book three in the Odyssey cycle, and three M
AGIC
short stories: “The Lady of the Mountain” in
The Myths of Magic
anthology, “Journey Home” in
The Secrets of Magic
anthology, and “Ach! Hans, Run!” in
The Monsters of Magic
anthology. Will lives in Hamburg, New York, with his wife, three young ruffians, and one large, insane dog.

M
AGIC:
T
HE
G
ATHERING
, M
AGIC
, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries.
©2011 Wizards of the Coast LLC