Theros

by Jenna Helland

  “Hold your ground!” Daxos shouted. “You are the only thing standing between that and your loved ones!”

  “How far away is the city?” Elspeth asked Daxos urgently.

  “A short ride down Guardian Way,” Daxos said.

  “Nikka, take a horse and warn the city guard,” Elspeth said. “Can you find your way?”

  “I know the way,” Nikka said. “But I can help you fight!”

  The girl was a powerful mage, no doubt, but Elspeth couldn’t be distracted by protecting her and fighting this monster at the same time.

  “Warn the city,” Elspeth said. “Let them know we need help.”

  Nikka nodded in agreement, and one of the soldiers steadied the horse while Nikka climbed into the saddle.

  “I’ll see you soon,” Elspeth called as Nikka grabbed the reins and spun her horse around. She dug her heels into its flank, and the horse sprinted for Meletis.

  “Form up!” Daxos shouted to his men.

  The soldiers grouped themselves into a rectangular formation with shields raised in a line in front of them and spears pointed at the approaching hydra. Only Daxos and Elspeth stood unprotected to the side.

  “At least he doesn’t have fifty heads,” Elspeth muttered.

  “In the sky, he did,” Daxos explained. “But nothing is as powerful in the mortal realm as it is in Nyx.”

  “Do you really have to cut its heads off all at once or they’ll grow back?” Elspeth asked.

  “That’s how we kill hydras in the mortal realm,” Daxos said.

  “What do you have to do to kill one in Nyx?” she asked.

  “No one has ever tried,” Daxos said. “Nylea would have killed them first.”

  As it neared the center of the plateau, the hydra lurched forward with an unexpected burst of speed. The men of the phalanx scattered when it rushed them. Daxos shouted at them to be steady, but they were unable to regroup. Instead, the men attacked wildly from each flank in an uncoordinated attack. Elspeth dodged a head as it snapped down at her. Black foam coated its fangs, and she could smell an acidic tang permeating the air. Near her, one of the men was snapped up by another head. His bones crunched loudly, and then the head tossed him aside. He went flying through the air and landed nearby with a wet smack.

  The head above Elspeth lunged at her again, and she sliced her blade below its mouth and severed the head from the writhing neck. Instantly, lumps of flesh pushed out of the purplish stump and two fully formed heads emerged in the place of one. Elspeth was forced to draw back or be devoured by the twin heads she’d created.

  She’d lost sight of Daxos, but another solider rushed at the hydra. She followed close behind him.

  “Gut the body,” she yelled. She dashed around a writhing head and drove her spear-blade deep into the hydra’s flank. The skin healed before she could even pull her blade out. She injured the creature again as she yanked the blade out, but again, it healed immediately.

  She turned to her companion, but the solider screamed as the hydra raised its massive foot and crushed the man to a pulp against the ancient stones. Elspeth withdrew from the range of the hydra’s heads and tried to regroup with the other soldiers. But only a few remained standing. Daxos was hacking at one of the hydra’s necks near the bodies of his men, who lay crushed and bleeding. They desperately needed more soldiers.

  Elspeth moved her blade in the ritualized form that she’d learned as a Knight of Bant. Focusing her spellcasting through her weapon, she summoned a dozen soldiers to join her in the fight. Daxos stumbled back in surprise at the appearance of these strangers. They carried long spears, for she had a specific task in mind. She imbued them with a superhuman strength. They were greater than any living human—they were the ideal both in battle and devotion.

  “Skewer the heads!” she ordered her soldiers. “Pin them down!”

  Without question, the soldiers rushed the creature en masse. Dodging and making defensive strikes, they aimed to stab the heads and control them. The change in tactics confused the monster, and the soldiers managed to pin each of the hydra’s heads against the ground. The flesh closed around the spears, but the soldiers held their spears fast against the raging hydra.

  Elspeth charged forward and swung her blade in a low arc along the ground. For an instant, it seemed that she would cleave all the necks cleanly. But the hydra reared its final head out of reach with the spear still jutting through its skull. Polukranos bit off the head of the nearby soldier and knocked his headless corpse flying through the air and into Elspeth. The impact slammed her into the ground, and she felt her ribs crack. She watched in horror as all the stumps sprouted two more heads. The hydra’s body vibrated with energy and rejuvenated strength. Daxos ran to Elspeth and dragged her away from the monster. With a succession of rapid bites, the hydra slaughtered the remainder of her soldiers. Daxos and Elspeth were the last standing against Polukranos.

  “I can slow it down,” Daxos said.

  Daxos’s hand became covered in frost, and he transferred the chilling spell onto the hydra. Its massive body shimmered with ice crystals and its pace slowed. Elspeth dragged herself to her feet.

  “Where are the gods now?” Daxos muttered under his breath.

  A strange image had flashed inside Elspeth’s mind. It was one of her last minutes on Mirrodin as she was attacked by Phyrexian abominations. She’d been preparing to leave the plane as the murderous creatures broke open the door and tried to crowd their way inside the chamber where she’d taken refuge. They were climbing over each other, vying to be the first through the narrow space to get inside and gut her. They’d been too many to fit through the narrow opening, and the confusion had bought her a few precious seconds.

  “We’re not finished!” Elspeth cried. “I have an idea.”

  She set off running after the hydra, with Daxos close at her heels. The hydra strained against the frost. The spell wouldn’t hold much longer. They had to finish the creature before it regained its speed. She cleaved her blade down on the nearest neck. But she only severed the neck halfway, and before the skin could heal, she yanked out the blade. The head dangled uselessly off the stump. But the skin was split wide open, so it couldn’t mend itself back together—or at least that’s what she hoped. Stumbling back, she watched breathlessly for signs of the new heads to form. There was a faint glow on the raw flesh. But it died away, and the stump remained smooth.

  “Sever them partway!” she yelled to Daxos. “The heads can’t regrow if the old one is still attached to the body.”

  Daxos immediately grasped what she was doing. As Polukranos struggled against the binding spell, they dodged the flailing necks and cut each head halfway off. The frost evaporated just as Daxos rendered the last head useless. The hydra stumbled and fell on its side with a mighty crash. With its useless heads, it couldn’t roar its deafening noise or see to continue the battle.

  “Put it out of its misery,” Daxos said.

  Elspeth had already leaped up on the shuddering body. She drove her blade deep into the monster’s heart. It was a fatal blow. The hydra’s blood flowed freely from its wounds, and the life within it faded.

  “Heliod would call you worthy of that blade,” Daxos said. There was awe in his voice, but grimness, too. They had lost men, so this was no time for celebration. The city guard galloped onto the plateau and began to tend to the wounded and see to the dead. Elspeth looked, but Nikka wasn’t with them. She must have stayed in the polis. In a daze, Elspeth wandered to the edge of the plateau and looked down at Meletis, the city of philosophers, nestled like a jewel against the blue of the sea.

  “Where did you go when you left the mountain?” Daxos asked. “I’ve thought of you many times.”

  “Wandering in unknown lands,” Elspeth said. Her words caught in her throat.

  “That is Meletis,” Daxos said. “Heliod’s temple is there.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Elspeth said. “I feel like I’ve seen it before.”

  “You are He
liod’s Champion,” Daxos said, although he didn’t have the authority to declare it. “There’s a place for you with us in the temple.”

  “His champion?” Elspeth asked. “Is that because of me? Or because of the blade?”

  Daxos didn’t seem to understand her question. “Will you stay? Or will you wander again?”

  “What about the gods?” she asked. “Are they gone?”

  “No, they will be back, and they are watching us even now,” Daxos said.

  “I don’t want to wander anymore,” Elspeth said.

  Griffins wheeled in playful circles above the city. As she watched them dive in the wind currents, she felt like she might fall, and she touched Daxos’s arm to steady herself. He reached out and took her hand.

  “Welcome home,” he said.

  Continued