The Darksteel Eye

CHAPTER 2

Glissa ran. She ran with all of her might, all of her being it seemed. The earth before her sank down and down. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought this great hole in the ground through which she descended led right through the middle of Mirrodin and out the other side. Of course, that couldn’t be the case.

Slobad ran beside her. His wrinkled little goblin body moved surprisingly fast, considering how short his legs were. His tool pouch bounced against his body as he ran. It always did whenever they were running away from something. It seemed as if they had been doing that since the day they met.

Glissa spared a glance over her shoulder. Bosh, the artifact golem, tromped along right behind her. His rusting iron frame seemed to lumber along, but what he lacked in agility, he made up for in size and strength. Each one of his footsteps measured more than three of Glissa’s. It was a good thing too. On more than one occasion it had been Bosh’s long legs that had saved their necks.

The clanking sound of his heavy metal feet colliding with the ground was dampened by the glowing mossy substance covering every inch of the tunnel and lighting their way. The funny thing about Bosh was that no matter what he did, his face always held the same stoically serious expression. Right now, that look of utter concentration and contemplation seemed appropriate.

In the giant construct’s outstretched arms, the newest member of the group rode, her face curled up tight in a grimace of pain, her hands gripping her leg. She had been hit by a harpoon while standing beside the Knowledge Pool. They had already removed the metal shaft, but the leg was still broken. Bruenna was a human wizard of considerable power, though none of those powers could heal her broken leg.

Glissa turned her attention back to the mossy ground before her. It gripped her feet, making each step more tiring.

The lacuna tunnel through which they ran was round and regular and traveled downward in a curved line. The slight bend in the passage blocked Glissa’s view of the warriors pursuing her. That, at least, was comforting.

Though she couldn’t see the vedalken, she knew they were there. She could hear their marching feet squish the mossy ground as they gave chase. Of course they were going to chase her. She and her friends had broken into their most sacred place. Even though it was for a good reason, Glissa didn’t think the blue-skinned, four-armed creatures saw it that way. In fact, she felt certain they wanted her dead.

Rounding a bend, the lacuna split in two.

Glissa coasted to a stop, breathing hard. Were this the Tangle, she would know which path to take, but she was a long way from her home now-in a place that until a few minutes ago, she never knew existed.

“Bruenna.… Which way?”

The wizard looked down through pained and teary eyes. “I … I don’t-”

“Left.” Bosh’s voice boomed over Bruenna’s.

Glissa looked up at her metal companion. “Left?”

“Left,” he repeated.

“How you know?” Slobad asked, now gasping beside the elf. “Your memory back now, huh?”

The golem’s voice rumbled through the tunnel again. “Yes. I remember this place.”

The sound of the marching vedalken army grew louder in the curved tunnel. Glissa looked to Bruenna. The human shrugged.

“We go left,” announced the elf. She continued her sprint down the tube. The goblin loped along beside her, as the clank of Bosh’s massive feet resumed.

The tunnel continued on, and the mossy covering grew thicker, more dense. After another long turn the passage straightened, and a bright blue-white light beamed in. Glissa shielded her face, her eyes painfully adjusting from the dull glow of the moss that lit the tunnel to the blinding light now cascading down on her.

Slowing down, she asked, “Where is that light coming from?”

“I don’t know,” replied the mage.

“The mana core,” answered Bosh. He nudged Glissa forward with his great bulk. “It is a long way off. We can travel on safely.”

The elf shook her head. “I hope you’re right.”

“Hope it not levelers,” added Slobad. “Slobad not dismantle whole army.”

“No,” said Bruenna, “but the vedalken army will dismantle us if we don’t keep going.”

Not the most ideal set of options.

Glissa took off without another word. Bruenna was right. It didn’t matter what the light ahead of them was. They couldn’t stop. Better to head for the possibility of escape than cower from it and be killed by the vedalken.

The light grew as the comrades ran. Glissa could make out the end of the great tunnel. Back-lit shapes began to form between the light and the thick carpet of moss.

At last elf, goblin, golem, and human burst from the lacuna.

Glissa fell to her knees at the sight before her. Her stomach churned, and her eyes seemed unable to focus. The world she had known, that had been changing daily for days now, was once again turned upside down.

“It’s true,” she whispered. “Mirrodin is hollow.”

The interior of Mirrodin was more beautiful and terrifying than anything Glissa had ever seen in her life. It was as if all the world had been turned inside out and stuffed down the lacuna. Since Chunth’s final words to her, she had tried to imagine it, but imagination fell short of the reality.

A whole world rolled out before them. Spires of crystalline chrome rose from the ground, reaching toward the sky like the trees and brambles of the Tangle, but unlike the great metal forest, these structures were not so close together. At their tops, where branches and leaves should have been, these spires came to a jagged point. The towering growths rose from the ground toward a blinding blue-white ball in the sky.

A low, electrical buzz issued from the hissing core-made up of mana, Glissa guessed-filling the interior of the plane, settling over all creatures and structures as if it were a blanket. It didn’t drown out all other sounds, but it created a barrier that other sounds couldn’t escape. If Slobad or Bruenna were too far away, Glissa felt certain they wouldn’t hear her call their names. The sensation from this all-encompassing noise was odd but somehow comforting to the elf, as if in this wide-open space a little piece of it had been reserved just for her use.

Above the interior “sun,” hanging from the ceiling, more of the pointed chrome monoliths jabbed downward. From where Glissa stood, the interior of Mirrodin looked like a rotting, toothy mouth, poised to bite down on the mana core at its center.

The mossy carpeting continued from the lacuna, covering the ground and everything in its path. Here and there, straight patches had been seemingly stripped away, making lines on the ground like the veins of a leaf. In these openings, polished metal shone through, reflecting the light of the mana core overhead.

In the far distance, a tall blue tower distinguished itself from the rest of its surroundings. It stood above the other pointed towers and ended in a rounded bulb at the top. Though all the other spires were covered at the base by the mossy ground covering, this one was not, and it shone brightly, reflecting the blue-white glow that touched everything.

Looking out over this mythical world, Glissa became dizzy. She felt as if her brain were growing, as if it might burst from her puny skull. There was so much to take in, and none of it seemed to make any sense. The monsters her parents had spoken of in bedtime stories were now all suddenly real. A whole world existed inside her world-but that was impossible.

“What is all of this?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.

“These tall chrome structures are called mycosynth,” replied Bosh. The metal golem lifted Bruenna, pointing with an outstretched finger at the shining structure in the distance. “That is called Panopticon.”

“How do you know all this?” asked the human wizard suspended in his arms.

“I used to live here-”

Bosh’s explanation was cut short by a high-pitched wail. Slobad jumped up and down, pointing toward Panopticon, squealing.

“Levelers! Levelers! Levelers!”

Coming down one of the pathways, a mob of artifact creatures sped toward them. The levelers were sleek and curved, like giant metal prawns with killing blades for tentacles and spiked wheels instead of tail fins, which seemed to push them effortlessly through the sticky moss.

At the front of the group, atop a modified leveler, rode a silvery manlike creature. From this distance, Glissa couldn’t make out much detail. Except for its reflective skin, the creature could have been an elf or a human from the outer world.

“Run,” shouted Bruenna.

“No wait,” replied Glissa. “If this place exists, it means Memnarch exists.”

“And?” asked the impatient wizard.

“And,” snapped the elf, “he’s responsible for the death of my parents.” She looked at each of her companions in turn. “This is my destiny. Eventually I’m going to have to face him, for good or ill.”

Bruenna looked down from where she was being cradled in Bosh’s arms. Her face was pale. Sweat ran down her brow, and her eyes seemed sunken. Grimly she smiled. “You’re right.” She shook her head. “But if you try to confront him now, it’ll just get the rest of us killed.”

“But-” started Glissa.

“We don’t have time to argue about it,” said Bruenna, cutting her off as the levelers closed in. “We can avenge your parents and save the world another time. Right now, we have to go.”

“Where?” Glissa turned. The vedalken hadn’t appeared in the lacuna yet, but she knew they were coming, and heading back up the tunnel would mean suicide.

“This way,” said Bosh. “I remember another tunnel to the surface.”

The metal golem took off at a run, charging away from the opening to the blue lacuna, the approaching horde of levelers, and the strange structure he had called Panopticon. Glissa grabbed Slobad by the arm and followed.

They were running again. Glissa was tiring of running. Not even on the hunts in the Tangle did she remember running so much. An elf had her limits. She shrugged. She supposed she was about to find her own.

Slobad struggled against Glissa’s grip, straining around to look behind him as they ran. “They’re gaining.”

“Run faster!” shouted the elf.

“He’s right.” Bruenna looked back over Bosh’s shoulder as he carried her. “Bosh, how far is it to this other exit?”

“A long way.”

The human wizard lifted her arms out to her sides and spoke a single word. Her hands flashed with a blue light. The open space between her upraised arms congealed into a silvery membrane, and Bruenna vaulted into the air.

Hovering above Bosh, she said, “I guess we have no choice.” She looked at Glissa. “We stand and face your destiny after all.”

* * * * *

Malil rode atop a specially designed leveler. This beast had been outfitted with a set of steps and two curved handles. The metal man crouched over the killing device as if he were riding a dolphin. Gripping it with his knees, Malil didn’t so much steer the creature as tell it where to go. Through one of the handles, a magical conduit, the leveler could “hear” his thoughts, and it obeyed his whims. Absent this connection, the leveler would respond to his verbal commands, but that was less satisfying. Malil liked to simply think about where he wanted to go and let the beast take him there.

The metal man had ridden from Panopticon at the head of a battalion. The leveler he rode was slower than the others since it carried his weight in addition to its own, and ultimately, he knew, it was he who held back the entire pack. Once they had the elf and her companions in sight, Malil gave the order.

“Catch them,” he shouted to the levelers rolling along beside him. “Bring me the elf. Kill the others.”

The killers took off ahead of their general. Malil nodded his approval. Soon he would have the elf in his possession, and he would fulfill his orders from Memnarch.

The metal man leaned forward and watched his quarry grow nearer.

* * * * *

Glissa turned. The levelers were much closer than she had imagined them. She had seen these creations before, even fought them, but never had she been witness to so many collected together into one space. The sight was terrifying, and a shiver flushed down her spine, making all the skin along her back tingle.

The metal beasts were close enough now that Glissa could clearly see the humanlike figure at their head. He was tall and thin, not clearly elf or human, and he wore a long blue robe that billowed out behind him as he rode his leveler forward. His shiny silver skin made the expression on his face hard to read, but Glissa thought he might be handsome were it not for the fact that he was charging toward her atop a killing device-the same sort of device that had taken her parents, her sister, and her best friend from her.

The tingling sensation faded, giving way to a palpable anger that heated her blood and steeled her spine. She could feel her lip curl up and her eyes narrow. She didn’t even know who this silvery man was, but already she hated him. He had much to answer for, and if this were the fabled Memnarch, he had an enormous debt to repay.

“Time to settle,” she said, lifting her hands high over her head and drawing green mana from the far-away Tangle. She was surprised how easily it flowed to her. The arcane energies flooded her body, and she felt strong.

Bosh stepped in front of Glissa and Slobad, his hammering footfalls shaking both elf and goblin to the bone. Their big friend came to a stop, and the rumbling of the levelers replaced the pounding of the metal golem’s feet.

For a moment, all four companions were silent, watching the approaching throng. Glissa took a deep breath, channeling the mana she held. Looking out at the charging artifacts, she singled out the closest. As she released her spell, the mana gushed down her arms, ripping across the open air in a green zigzag.

The magic smashed headfirst into the oncoming leveler. The creature exploded. Interlocking metal plates shot out at all angles. The animated device’s wheels spun off wildly, smashing into other levelers who simply ran over the dismembered parts of their one-time comrade without slowing down. The creature’s scythe blades flopped uselessly to the metal ground, tumbling end over end, then coming to rest.

The levelers continued on, the silvery man unflinching.

Over her head, Glissa watched a glowing blue orb race toward the horde. Bruenna, she thought. The spell struck a charging artifact, and its spiked wheels suddenly stopped spinning. The metallic beast shuttered, skidding sideways before coming to a halt. Another leveler plowed into the back of the stalled beast, knocking it over and getting tangled in its bladed arms and steering sail. The two creatures lay on the mossy ground in a heap, forcing the constructs behind to smash into them or drive around.

Bruenna’s spell had caused a break in the advancing enemy line, and the once orderly artifact creatures now looked like a rioting mob.

The first leveler closed in on Bosh, and the golem smashed it to smithereens. With one swing of his heavy fist, he bashed it flat. He swung his other fist. The shriek of metal bending and glass shattering followed a loud crash, and another of the artifacts went down.

As the front line of levelers reached the companions, Slobad jumped atop the first one he encountered. Raising its scythelike blades, the leveler turned toward Glissa. Its spiked wheels tore up the ground, greedily eating up the space between itself and the elf.

Holding onto its steering sail, the goblin pulled a narrow crowbar from his pouch. Jamming it between interlocking plates, he pried the device’s outer shell free, opening a hole large enough for him to stick his fist inside. Reaching in, the goblin tinkered with the leveler’s innards.

Glissa watched it come, the goblin on its back. Seeing him dig into that artifact creature brought a smile to Glissa’s face. When it counted, Slobad was the bravest goblin on Mirrodin.

A whistling sound brought Glissa from her reverie. Diving forward, she managed to duck and tumble away from a second leveler’s blades as they came down where her head used to be. Coming to her feet, Glissa pulled her sword. It seemed silly to try to dismantle a device with a sword. She wished she could turn that pointy blade into a pounding hammer.

But this was no ordinary sword. She didn’t know where it had come from, only that she had found it inside the Tree of Tales in Chunth’s chamber. It was more powerful than any weapon she’d ever wielded, and for that, at this moment, she was grateful.

The blade rang as she bashed back the new leveler’s attacks. Sparing a glance to her left, she saw the leveler with Slobad on its back was almost on her. Looking back and leaning in, she lunged for the artifact’s glowing yellow eye. Her blade struck the seam, lodging between the housing and the lens. Twisting her sword, Glissa popped the creature’s eye from its socket, and the device swung side to side, grasping with its arm blades like a blind man trying to catch a thief.

Glissa turned to the leveler with Slobad on its back. The construct brought its arms together, scissoring down on the elf with its razor-sharp grasp. The artifact was close, closer than Glissa had thought. She rolled backward, falling onto her behind and ducking away from the blades. The creature missed her but just barely, and it opened its arms, ready for a second deadly embrace.

Glissa scooted back with little room to move. The leveler behind her still flailed blindly. The one before her leaned down, ready to take her head from her body. The killing device brought its blades together, right down on her. Pushed back against a flailing, blinded leveler, she had no room to move. Glissa cringed, bracing for the impact-but it never came.

The artifact creature veered to its right, turning away from Glissa and lunging at the flailing leveler behind her.

“Kill it,” shouted Slobad from the creature’s back. “Cut it up.” The device followed his orders.

Glissa rolled away and got to her feet. The two levelers cut into each other. Sparks flew as Slobad’s fighter slashed through the blinded monster’s torso. The goblin leaped onto the back of another device, his crowbar gripped in his three-fingered hand.

Bosh smashed devices with both fists. Bruenna froze the oncoming monsters in their tracks or blasted them away with gusts of wind. Slobad turned them against each other or dismantled them as fast as his little fingers could pry them apart. Glissa battled them back with her sword and her magic.

Still, the mass of sharpened creatures came on, endless and unrelenting. The flood of levelers swarmed over Bosh. Their spiked wheels pushed them up his body. Their scythe blades struck him, and his body rang out like a tolling bell. In a matter of seconds, the giant metal man disappeared under a pile of killing devices.

A high-pitched squeal filled Glissa’s ears. Slobad had jumped from one device, and he now rode on the back of another. His arm was buried to his elbow inside the creature’s metal frame, and his face was held tight in a pinched, pained expression. With the fist of his other hand he beat on the leveler’s hide, pushing, pulling, and squirming to get his hand free. Something had gone wrong. Slobad was caught.

The leveler he rode reached its arms back and swiped at the goblin. Slobad ducked, but the tip of the creature’s scythe blade caught the side of the goblin’s head. A chunk of Slobad’s scalp sliced away, and blood spurted down his neck.

Glissa’s heart sank. Her stomach felt as if she’d swallowed a bottomless pit, and the hairs along her back and neck stood at attention. She watched as the beast took another swipe at Slobad. The goblin disappeared from sight.

The creatures swarmed in, climbing on each other’s back to reach into the sky and pluck Bruenna from where she flew. Glissa heard the human wizard scream as she was brought back down to earth. The horde of metallic monsters closed in on the elf, blocking out the reflected blue-white light from the mana core.

Thrashing about with her blade held high, the elf fought off one leveler after another. Scythe blades fell to the ground. Eye sockets went flying. Spiked wheels were cut in two. Still, the circle closed down, and there were too many to fight on her own.

Slipping her blade into the crease between two metal plates, Glissa lunged to kill another leveler. As she stretched out, a sharpened claw tore into her side, then a spiked wheel collided with her leg, and the elf fell backward onto the ground.

In seconds she could feel her arms pinned and her legs immobilized. Someone pulled the sword from her grip, and the tip of another blade touched her exposed belly. Spreadeagled, limbs held firm, a deadly weapon pressed against her gut, Glissa thought about her family-and Kane. She was going to die, and with any luck, she’d see them again in whatever place elves went to after they left the horrors of this world.

Even the thought of seeing her parents again couldn’t quell the fear inside her. Life on Mirrodin had been no picnic, but she didn’t want to die-especially not at the hands of a leveler. Over the past few rotations she had come to believe, really believe, that she had a destiny, a greater purpose, but her quest had become a monumental failure. She had traveled to bring her parents’ killer to justice, only to be slaughtered in the same fashion. It seemed tragic.

She wasn’t the only one here. She had friends now, friends who had followed her to this place. Though she couldn’t see them, their faces flashed in her mind: Slobad, Bosh, even Bruenna whom she’d only recently met. They were all going to die.

Glissa’s fear once again gave way to anger, and she screamed. Not a shriek of terror or the startled scream of a little girl, but a feral, predatory screech that dripped of power. She took in a deep breath. The pounding of her heart filled her head, and the grinding wheels of the levelers filled her ears. She looked up at the metal beasts holding her down, and she hated them. She wanted to smash each and every one into greasy bits of scrap metal.

Then something inside snapped. Glissa felt as if a door had been opened deep within. Power flowed out over her body, and all her muscles tensed. A wave of green energy exploded over the battlefield, filling the interior of Mirrodin with a bright flash of light-followed by silence. Nothing could be heard, not the grinding of levelers, not the buzzing hum of the mana core.

All was quiet.

The light subsided. Levelers were flung back. As if a switch had been flipped reversing gravity for a brief moment, the killing devices were launched into the air. Their blades flailed. Their steering sails flapped side to side without result. Just as suddenly, the switch was re-engaged, and the constructs fell back to earth, smashing into other levelers and crashing into a tangled heap.

Glissa was free.

Beside her, Bruenna hovered. The artifact monsters that had pulled her from the sky were thrown away, and the wizard launched herself back into the air-no longer a captive.

The pile of killing devices completely covering Bosh were torn off, tossed to the metal ground like discarded children’s toys. Their heavy carapaces had cracked on impact, sending metallic sinews and glass lenses flying in all directions. Metal torsos collapsed in on themselves, smashing the mechanisms inside. The glowing yellow lights in their eyes went out.

All the climbing devices were flung away, and the great metal golem was revealed. Bosh wasted no time. Stepping over a wall of bent and ruined metal, he reached down and picked up the leveler with Slobad on its back. Squeezing his fingers together, he pinched the beast’s lower back. Its head popped off, and the mechanism’s insides squirted out.

Slobad’s arm slipped free of the creature’s carapace, escaping from whatever had held it, and he climbed up Bosh’s chest, crouching on the golem’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” cried the goblin, holding Bosh’s neck. “Now, run, huh?”

Bosh turned, and his feet resumed their heavy drumming on the metal ground.

From the distance more levelers advanced. Before Glissa, a crescent-shaped portion of the ground was clear of levelers and rubble alike. It was as if the elf’s anger had created a giant gust of wind that had blown everything back, but it had been more than that. Where her spell had touched a leveler, it had been destroyed.

Bosh reached down and scooped up the young elf where she stood. He continued on, Bruenna flying beside him.

Slobad looked at the elf with wide eyes. “How you do that, crazy elf?”

Glissa looked down at her hands. “I don’t know. I just … did.”

“Think you can teach Slobad that trick? Make taking apart levelers easier, huh?”

“Yes, it would,” replied the elf, “but I still haven’t figured out how to do it myself. It just sort of happens.”

Bruenna swooped down closer to Bosh. “Where to?”

Bosh lifted his face, pointing with his chin. “Just over that rise. There’s another entrance to the blue lacuna.”

Glissa wrinkled her forehead. “The blue lacuna?”

“The tunnel we came down,” explained the golem. “It is called a lacuna.”

“I know that, but you said the ‘blue lacuna.’ Are there different colors?”

“There is a red one and a blue one but no green.”

“How you remember all this stuff, huh?” asked the goblin. “Dross finally leak from your rusty head?”

“The Pool of Knowledge,” interjected Bruenna, nursing her injured leg as she flew. “The pond we jumped into that led us down here.” She grimaced. “I told you, my father was right. The vedalken have a way of putting all of what they know-everything every single one of them knows-into the serum inside. Our swim through must have revived Bosh’s memories.”

“Yes,” replied the golem.

“Wait.” Over Bosh’s shoulder, Glissa watched the surviving majority of the leveler battalion start to regain their composure and line up behind the strange metallic man. “We can’t go back into the tunnel … the blue lacuna. The vedalken are inside.”

“This entrance should bring us back to where the tube spilt into two paths. If we are lucky, we will avoid them.”

Bosh headed up a slight incline, and Glissa turned. Just ahead, barely visible in the near distance was the opening to the tunnel the golem spoke of. She looked back to the levelers.

“Better hurry,” she said. “They’re gaining again.”