Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum (magic:the gathering)

by Robert B. Wintermute

  Are you ready to visit beautiful Zulaport?

  Zulaport?

  You know? Sorin pointed down to the sea. The town that lies there where we will hire a craft to take us over the water to Akoum? That Zulaport.

  Yes, of course. I am ready, master.

  The smile dropped off Sorin s face. He glanced at Nissa before smiling again. Master you say? What foolishness you speak? Let us walk.

  And Sorin began walking.

  Master, Nissa thought. Interesting. That would explain many things. But why?

  The grassland swept several leagues until it ended abruptly at the blue ocean. The trail was clearly marked, and they followed it until the sun buried itself in the jagged pink and yellow surf. Soon the lights of Zulaport showed bright in the dusk.

  They entered the town at total dark, greeted by the barking of feral Onduan hounds that howled around them on their three legs. Sorin fetched one a kick in the ribs and sent it yelping away, and the rest melted into the darkness.

  Nissa frowned. She could hear Anowon sniffing the air next to her, smelling the many beings in the small settlement. At one point he closed his eyes, and his head bobbed to a rhythm only he could hear. Vampires could hear and feel the blood of prey. If a vampire let it, the pulse, as it was called, could be strong enough to whip one into a frenzy. But as Nissa watched, Anowon opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

  Yet Sorin took Anowon by the scruff of the neck, and when the vampire turned, shoved him forward so he almost went sprawling on the ground. Keep your fangs in your mouth, Sorin said.

  Shed blood here, and I ll exact a toll on your flesh tonight.

  Nissa stepped back from Sorin. Any vampire she d ever encountered in Bala Ged would have attacked at such a provocation. But Anowon skulked ahead and did not even turn.

  Sorin leaned in. Anowon has wanted to feed on you, but I have kept him at bay.

  Nissa did not know what to say to that. Let him come, she said finally.

  Indeed, Sorin said, and moved away into the darkness.

  The town itself seemed composed of small shacks of thatch and sod as was typical in a Zendikar settlement. The rush of the ocean surf punctuated the darkness as Nissa walked. The wind off the ocean was humid and cold, and the acrid smoke from the animal dung fires stung Nissa s eyes. Ahead a large fire burned, and they walked toward that light like moths.

  A group of larger shacks were grouped around the large fire. It blazed huge and sideways with each gust of wind. One shack was larger than the rest. In the wild flicker of the bonfire a sign made from a piece of driftwood swung in the wind above its door.

  Anowon drew the hood of his cloak up over his head. Nissa watched the reflection of the flames dance on his eyes for a second, and then Sorin spoke.

  What is that supposed to be? Sorin said. He reached up and took hold of the swinging sign, stilling it.

  A kraken, Nissa said. But what is it doing to that cuttlefish?

  Sorin, tilting his head sideways, looked at the sign. I do not uh he righted his head I see now.

  The Way of Things, said a voice from within the door. Eyes were looking out from the peat hole. The door opened to reveal a short human, hunkered as though by deformity. Or perhaps it was the man s heavy armaments he was wearing a contraption strapped over his left arm. To Nissa it looked to be a mechanism that fed one of the many knives lined up along his arm into his hand. Humans loved such devices. And he was wearing armor plenty of armor another human weakness. Only his bald head and huge red beard were free from rusted plates fit together with only a small seam. Even though elves loathed armor, she could tell the suit he was wearing had once been quite expensive.

  Welcome to Zulaport. You will be wanting to speak to Indorel at your earliest possible convenience. He runs this place.

  And you are the welcoming committee? Sorin said.

  In a manner of speaking, yes, the man said.

  I keep this small inn here. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the large shack, an action that caused a multitude of squeaks and creaks to issue from his armor. I watch. For Indorel.

  When the man turned, Nissa noticed a great sword covered with runic etchings at his side. His armor was accented with various hooks, and riveted with small loops for affixing ropes and rope systems. And his hands were covered with what looked like tattoos of fire. Flames over every bit of exposed skin on his hands.

  Do you have coin? the man said.

  Nobody said anything.

  There are two places to sleep in Zulaport: Here or there. He pointed into the dark where the ocean crashed, and Nissa could just make out the outline of a small lighthouse on a hill.

  And you are not getting in there without fins on your ankles. He held out his hand. I take coin or trade. He looked them over carefully. In your case I can see it will be coin.

  That seemed to offend Anowon in some way. He straightened up and lifted his chin. Smara stumbled out of the darkness with her goblins behind her. Nissa waited for more, but none appeared. Were they really down to only three? she wondered. Had there not been nine when they had climbed out of the Makindi Trench?

  So, do you have coin? the man said, in a tone more like a demand than a question.

  Oh, we have everything you would want, Sorin said.

  The man smiled, showing teeth as brown as his armor, and lines at the corners of his eyes. But his smile fell away when he saw Smara and her goblins. Superlative, but the goblins have to sleep in the stables due to the smell.

  I m sure your little inn cannot smell that bad, Sorin said. The goblins can endure.

  The man did not smile at Sorin s joke. I meant due to the goblins smell. It is too much. And the kor too, cannot enter for obvious reasons.

  How do you feel about vampires, Sorin said, with his smug smile on his lips.

  Vampires pay double, the man said. And if he slips his chain in the night we are not responsible for skewering him, be warned. And you still pay double.

  The inside was worse than the outside. It smelled like seaweed and was as damp as a grave. Nissa could feel the shafts of wind through the cracks in the daubed timber-and-peat walls. But the man who said his name was Aleen showed them a room with slips filled with dry grass that lay on low wooden frames lined up against the wall. The beds were only a bit stained, but the grass was sweet smelling. Nissa fell asleep almost as soon as she layed her head down.

  She was shaken violently awake. Get up, a voice shouted in the dark. Up.

  A hand grabbed her by the hair and dragged her painfully to her feet. By the raw strength of the man she knew she could not attack directly, and her staff was unreachable next to her bed. Wincing in pain as he pulled her through the dark, Nissa planted one foot, squatted, and braced for the pain. The man stopped and began to pull, but Nissa shot her other foot out and planted it in the small of the back of his knee, forcing the knee to bend and the man to lose his balance and fall into her. He was a large specimen, she thought as she easily caught him, pivoted on her hip, and threw him head first into the wall.

  She could see quite well once her eyes had become accustomed to the dark. She was on top of the man quickly. She had his belt off and around his neck in a split second, and she put her knee in the space between his shoulders and pulled until his throat made a certain gagging noise. Then she pulled more until he stopped making any noise at all. She walked back to their room and picked up her staff. The other beds were empty, but there was a small window cut into the wall.

  Outside the wind was gusting as hard as it had been before. Nissa left the room and walked down to the water and the dock that the inhabitants of Zulaport had built in the crescent shaped Bay of Bayeen. Nissa had been on the ocean only once in her life, when she had left Bala Ged to sail to Ondu four months ago. In the bay. she saw tethered ships bobbing in the pitch of the surf. Some had sails and some did not. One had what must have been a sail bound in a tight bundle and lashed to the bottom of the beam that went perpendicular to the mast.

 
Nissa walked back to the inn. The bonfire had burned down, but a group of people stood around it. The body of the man Nissa had strangled lay on the sand before the fire. Smara and her three goblins were standing with men behind them holding their arms. Sorin was smiling in the firelight, looking like he was enjoying himself immensely.

  Where is the other one? The being was tall, wearing black leather armor made in such a way as to be formed entirely of swirls. His hair hung in his face in stringy, black wads. Nissa realized it was a vampire, and a start of revulsion went through her.

  She knew Anowon was there behind her before she felt him touch her shoulder.

  That is Indorel. Anowon hissed. A credit to my race. He controls this shore-rat s nest. He makes his coin extorting the peril seekers, and sucking the weak among them dry.

  How do you know?

  Anowon did not say anything.

  Why is he so angry?

  He found two of his henchmen, Anowon said.

  Bled dry. She could hear the wet way he was forming his words, and the sound made the gorge rise in the back of her throat.

  Nissa shook her head. The goblins were not enough for you?

  It was not I, Anowon said. She could hear the mocking tone in his voice. Why did he even joke about not killing the henchmen, Nissa thought. Who else would it have been?

  They watched the vampire question Sorin and Smara. The kor babbled and Sorin smiled, responding with single syllables. With each of Sorin s responses Indorel became angrier and angrier until he was stomping around in the sand throwing his arms up in annoyance.

  I feel like that, talking to Sorin most times, Nissa said.

  Anowon pushed his jaw out and said nothing.

  The men around Smara and Sorin were heavily armed, and further out in the shadows, Nissa could sense something else. Something larger was waiting.

  Why does Sorin not give them coin and be done with it?

  I do not know that he has coin.

  But he said

  Anowon raised his eyebrows in a way that said, I pity you for your foolishness.

  Nissa looked back at the fire.

  Maybe we should leave? Anowon said. Sorin will be fine without us.

  No, Nissa said. Only he knows how to stop the Eldrazi and send them back into their slumber.

  I know where the Eye of Ugin is, do you not remember? Anowon asked.

  Yes, but how do we work it? Nissa asked.

  The surf crashed behind them.

  Do you even know why we travel to the Eye? Anowon said.

  No. But it must have something to do with imprisoning the brood.

  Right, of course, Anowon said. But the vampire did not sound convinced. An outlander thinking about the good of Zendikar?

  Indorel suddenly shoved Sorin, who fell back in the sand. Indorel raised his arms and rivulets of black and purple power crackled and bled down his arms.

  Sorin reached out and took hold of the ankle of the dead henchman. His body convulsed at Sorin s touch. But when it lifted its head an instant later, long drips of bloody fluid were coming from its eyes and from its mouth as it struggled off the sand and reached for Indorel.

  The vampire stepped back and spit into the sand to his right. He extended one finger and touched the flesh between his eyes. He whispered some words, and his finger glowed. At the same time the zombie swung a clawed hand at Indorel, which caught the vampire in the ear and caused him to stagger sideways a step. But then Indorel took a step forward, reached out, and touched the zombie. It locked and fell dead.

  Anowon began chanting softly.

  Indorel seized the air, and Sorin fell onto the sand, writhing with convulsions. He arched his back and grunted.

  Then Anowon snapped his fingers, and Indorel suddenly stumbled releasing Sorin.

  Anowon kept chanting.

  Sorin hopped to his feet and began to run. Smara and the goblins followed, shaking off the henchmen s grasping fingers.

  Nissa twisted her staff and released the stem sword. She rushed forward and caught one of the henchman in the chin as he struggled to grab the fleeing Sorin. The henchman s head slid easily off his shoulders and fell with a thunk in the sand, his mouth gasping. The henchmen were all around her then, with more coming out of the inn. But she reached her target. Indorel stepped back as she neared him, and two henchmen stepped between them. Nissa joined her stem sword to the staff and dived between one of their legs. She twisted and hopped to her feet and in an instant poked the vampire with the bottom end of her staff. Then two henchmen were swinging, and she bent her knees and hopped back. Indorel looked down at the place where Nissa had jabbed him.

  The henchmen pushed their advantage. They rushed forward into the darkness at the edge of the fire and brought their swords down where Nissa should have fallen, but struck only sand. Nissa snapped out the stem sword and one of the men fell with a grunt, clutching the stump of his right arm, severed above the elbow.

  Nissa knew the seed she had planted in Indorel s chest would have rooted throughout the vampire s body. And as she watched from the darkness, with his body silhouetted by the raging fire, she saw a small bud poke out of his sternum and through his leather armor and burst into bloom. Nissa took a running start and flipped into the air over the henchmen squinting into the dark looking for her. She cleared their heads easily and landed with a thump in the sand in front of the vampire. Nissa stopped only a split second, just long enough to seize the flower stem and yank it out of the stunned vampire s chest. The firelight flickered and, pop, there was the vampire s heart, still beating in the stem s roots. She dropped the flower and heart and ran.

  Smara and Anowon were standing in the sand, as was Sorin. When Nissa reached the dock, she ran directly to the boat with the sail lashed to the mast. In a moment Anowon stomped onto the dock s lashed logs.

  How do you make this sail? Nissa said.

  The vampire s eyes glowed slightly in the dark. The sun was lighting the eastern sky, but even so it was too dark to see if they were being pursued. The fire in front of the inn blazed, but nobody was standing around it that she could see.

  I do not know how to sail this, Nissa said as she looked over her shoulder at the dark.

  Can we create wind? Anowon said.

  But how do we get the sail up?

  Nissa heard running from behind. Sorin and Smara appeared on the dock. The goblins arrived seconds later.

  What is this? Sorin said.

  A boat, Nissa said. And we do not know how it works.

  We have little time, Sorin said. Can we push it or pull it? He looked genuinely harried.

  Then Nissa had an idea.

  Find rope, she said.

  Nissa sat down on the deck and took a deep breath. The plains that stretched around were foreign to her and held little power she could use. But Nissa recounted the route they d taken to get here. In her mind s eye she followed their trail backward, over the grassland, down the trench and up onto the mesa to Turntimber Forest.

  Soon the power from the turntimber trees was flowing into her. She collected it in herself until she felt so full of the energy that she could burst. Then she imagined the largest creature in the forest. A creature of the deep forest a ziru behemoth. Ten humans standing head on foot would just reach its burly shoulder, and the Behemoth had plates of horn extending from the tip of its nose all the way over its shoulder in a loose row. The underside of its jaw had plates as well. Its legs were long and muscular, and its feet were splayed and slightly webbed, which was why she summoned it.

  Nissa began drawing the image into herself, and when she opened her eyes the huge creature was standing on the beach, its feet sunk into the wet sand. It snorted its pug nose into the gusting wind and stamped a foot.

  Now that is exactly the creature I would have expected you to summon, Sorin said. He threw up his arms. One with neither fin nor wing. Why not something with wings?

  Nissa and Anowon used every coil of rope they found on the dock to fashion a harness of sorts
. While Sorin kept lookout, they looped the rope into a huge circle and put it around the behemoth s neck. To that circle of rope they tied other long pieces of rope. Nissa asked the creature to enter the water, and when it had, they tied the loose ends of the rope to the masthead of the small ship. The rope was not long enough at first, so they tied more on, and soon it was long enough.

  Robert B. Wintermute

  Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum

  The ship responded surprisingly well to being dragged behind the behemoth. The creature swam with its head low in the water, so only its eyes, nose, and the top of the head jutted above the low waves.

  By sunrise, the continent of Ondu was only a line of land topped with a fringe of round mountains behind them.

  By midday there was no land to be seen in any direction. Nissa used Kahlled s pathway stone to point the way, and they followed it. If the behemoth veered, Nissa crawled over the rope and whispered in its ear.

  Soon the azure water changed to dark blue, and its surface became choppy. All the rest of the day Nissa watched a line of clouds at the horizon grow larger, until finally they were overhead.

  The map showed the blue ocean gap between the continents of Ondu and Akoum to be only the length from the tip of her middle finger to its first digit not a long trip. But Nissa had no way to tell how fast they were traveling. So, by measuring with her finger how long it took them to travel from the Turntimber Forest in the center of Ondu to the coast, she guessed they would be traveling on the boat for two days.

  Still, the behemoth never seemed to tire so it would perhaps be faster. The creature paddled its feet in the manner of an Onduan hound and moved along fast enough to create a small wake. Before night fell Nissa thought she d seen a landmass on the horizon.

  The behemoth would not sleep. Nissa shimmied across the wrist-sized rope to tell it to stop, and either the creature did not hear her or it did not understand. If the behemoth did not sleep, neither could Nissa. She leaned against the mast with her cloak pulled tightly around her, holding up the pathway stone as often as she could to check their direction.

  Their dry tack was long gone. For water they had the little still residing in their canteens that they had filled before going to bed at the inn. If the trip lasted no longer than another day, they would survive. Nissa knew the Joraga fasting mantras, and she could last without food for another week.