The Quest for Karn

Chapter 21

Venser rushed over. The silver golem was lying on the floor inside the dent it had created by falling. Venser noticed the other, similar dents in the floor.

The golem’s eyes were silver slits and his wide jaw was thrust out. Karn reached out, took a handful of the metal floor as though it were dough, and pulled himself to his feet, where he stood looking down at Venser. Venser noticed with unease that the silver golem was smeared with black oil. What appeared to be droplets of the material dotted his silver body. Venser forced himself to smile. “We have been searching for you, old friend.”

Karn frowned down at Venser. “You are here to destroy me, I know this.”

Venser held up the palms of his hands. “That is not true.”

“You want to,” Karn shook his head once before continuing. “You want me to become a Phyrexian.”

“We want just the opposite,” Venser said.

“We want you to leave,” Koth cut in.

Venser ignored the vulshok. “We do not want you to leave,” Venser said. “We are here to heal the sickness you have.”

“I am not sick,” Karn said. “I should crush you for saying such.”

“Then leave, why don’t you,” Koth said. “Go away, you are not wanted here.”

Venser stepped closer to Karn. “Karn, it is I-your old student and friend.”

But Karn’s eyes popped open wide and his metallic nostrils flared. “You dare approach,” he shoved Venser, who flew back skittering across the floor and into a wall.

“Now you really are going to leave,” Koth said, “in pieces if possible.”

Koth grabbed one of Karn’s arms and yanked him off his feet. The silver golem looked bewildered as Koth took a step, pivoted, and threw Karn down and onto his back. He hopped onto Karn’s chest and his hand went white-hot in a blink. Koth moved to plunge his hand into Karn’s chest, but Elspeth held his arm back at the bicep. Koth struggled to free himself, but Elspeth had better purchase and was able to keep the arm back.

Karn’s face had once again pinched itself into a malevolent expression. He brought his knee up and slammed Koth in the back, sending him over the golem’s head and into wall, where the geomancer lay still.

With the fluidity of a snake, Karn hopped to his feet and stood facing Elspeth. “They are almost here,” Karn said. “When they arrive I will let my children have their way with you,” he said. His slit eyes moved to the fleshling, who was standing next to Elspeth. “They like skin you know.”

“Stop.”

Venser hobbled up to them. By its strange angle, Elspeth could tell Venser’s left arm was broken. The dented helmet was still under his arm. He stepped to Karn’s side. Karn raised his arm to strike when he saw Venser. But the artificer did not cringe.

“Remember our time together, Karn?” Venser said. “Do you remember exploring the Valley of Echoes? Where we found those scrolls and I could not read the writing, but you could somehow?”

The golem’s face softened. He lowered his arm. “I do not remember that, but I should like to.”

“You are Karn,” Venser said.

“… Father of Machines,” Karn boomed. The echo vibrated the walls.

“No,” Venser said, when the walls had stilled. “The creator of Mirrodin. You are powerful and kind.”

Koth’s crumpled form stirred.

“We are here to heal you from what is attacking you,” Elspeth said.

Confusion spread across Karn’s face, and then in a moment the expression changed again. “Or maybe you will help hold up my column.” Karn reached out and clamped his large hands on Elspeth’s head, one hand on each ear. She struggled, but the silver golem’s grip was immovable. He closed his eyes. When he opened them again they were black and glowing.

“Tell me what you remember of your childhood,” the fleshling said.

The fleshling’s words were not loud, but the strangeness of their context stopped everybody.

Karn blinked and his eyes went back to silver.

“What?” he said.

“Your childhood,” the fleshling repeated. “Tell me about that.”

“My childhood?” Karn said. “Did I have one? I cannot remember.”

Venser glanced uneasily at the fleshling.

“When I was a boy,” Venser volunteered. “We knew of this swamp …”

“Tell me about when you learned that all flesh dies,” the fleshling interrupted.

Venser had seen the fleshling in the camp, when she had been healing the people who lived there. He remembered watching her whispering to them. Was this what she was asking them? Questions about their childhoods? Still, if it could help Karn. Venser thought back to when he was a child.

“It must have been when my father never returned.”

The fleshling nodded. “Tell me about that.”

“He went out one day into the swamps to work,” Venser started. “And he simply never came back.” To Venser’s amazement and embarrassment, his voice suddenly broke as he spoke. He suddenly remembered vividly what that felt like, being that boy again and being alone.

“And you knew, someday you would also not come back?”

“Yes, I missed him and I did not want that to happen to him, or to me,” Venser said. His father’s disappearance had set in motion a series of events that changed him forever. He and his mother had had to stay with his aunt, and the man who lived with his aunt. He ran away not so very long after that.

He could feel them now, the tears. They were hot on his cheek but cooled quickly. Venser suddenly became very aware that everybody in the room was looking at him, and he wiped the tears away with the heel of his palm.

“We are not machines,” the fleshling said. “The real secret the Phyrexians are trying to hide by keeping me in captivity is that flesh is stronger than metal. They are obsessed with flesh for this reason. They cannot copy the strength. This is a secret they do not want known.”

Venser could see a change occurring in the fleshling’s eyes. They began to glow strongly with a blue and then a green light. Very soon the air went thick with light and an intense buzz wormed into Venser’s ears. The fleshling laid her gaze on Karn. The colored air between them began to bend and distort and her smooth brow furrowed in concentration.

Venser had seen it happen from far away, but being so close, he felt the power radiating from the fleshling’s sweaty visage. Her chin began to quiver as he watched.

Karn yawned.

The fleshling blinked.

“What happens now?” Venser said.

“Do you feel different?” Elspeth said to Karn.

The silver golem’s eyes narrowed as the black oil droplets popped out all over the metal of his body. “Why would I feel different?”

The tramping of millions of metal feet was starting to vibrate the room. Karn heard it too. He smiled. “They are almost here,” he said. “And then you will have something.”

Karn reached out and grabbed the fleshing by the scruff of her leather jerkin. “I will hold you for my children, as they are partial to flesh.”

Venser exhaled. It was worse than he had imagined. Without Karn, he knew that Mirrodin was truly lost, no matter what Koth said. They couldn’t leave, so they were also lost. They could not hope to prevail against the Phyrexians without Karn.

“His heart is too far gone to the contagion,” the fleshling whispered.

“His heart?” Venser said. “How do you know it is his heart?”

“The heart is where it finishes. Usually they look like Phyrexians by the time the heart if converted,” the fleshling said.

“And if his heart were clean?”

The fleshling frowned. “Then I suppose he would be healed. His body is healed now.”

“That is so?” Venser said.

“Yes. Does he not look himself?”

He did look like himself, except for the black oil droplets. Venser looked out over the throne room. How many would die if he didn’t act? How many more would suffer and die? Karn would eventually become fully Phyrexian, and then all the planes would know to fear metal. They would all fall.

Elspeth came to stand with Venser. “Do we have a plan?” Elspeth said to Venser. “Your face betrays that we do not.”

“I have no plan. We’re trapped in this room with Karn,” Venser said, then to the fleshling, “But what if Karn had a new heart?”

“If the heart was uninfected then he would be healed.” Karn had her by her jerkin. The silver golem was listening to the thunder of his minion’s feet with a smile twisting his large face.

“Is my heart infected?” Venser said.

“No, none of us is near that stage,” the fleshling said. She tugged against Karn’s huge fist. He turned his gaze and stared intently at the skin on her neck.

Venser nodded. But I have other things wrong with me, he thought.

“Once the contagion reaches the heart it is too late,” the fleshling said. “Nothing has reached our hearts.”

Elspeth sighed. “Surely there is another way,” she said.

“What would that way be?” Venser said. “Take somebody else’s heart? Who? You?”

“Not you,” Elspeth said.

The fleshling was looking from one to the other of them. “How would you do what you speak of?” she said.

Karn let go of the fleshling. The black oil droplets had disappeared, and his eyes were once again open and not slit. He sat down on the ground and watched the argument calmly.

Venser closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Yes, he could do it, he thought. He had built up just enough mana over the last hour to do such a tiny jump and teleport his heart into Karn’s chest. But just enough, and he would have, obviously, just one chance.

“Lie down, Karn,” Venser said.

Karn leaned back and eased himself to the shiny floor.

“Let us consider other possibilities,” Elspeth said. “There are always other options.”

Venser laid a hand on Elspeth’s armored shoulder. “This is what must happen. You know that. I know it. In fact, I think I always knew it would happen this way. My life is almost done as it is. What runs its way through my body will not release me from its grasp. I’ve known since you and Koth came to my studio and brought me here. The moment I saw the first Phyrexian I knew Karn would be at the heart of this in some way. I had my fears that he would succumb to the black oil. This is something I have been thinking about-resigning myself to the possibility that I would maybe have to make this sacrifice. Imagine other planes with others people. I imagine that child in the bogs in Urborg, searching for his father. He had a chance, as must others in our time. You know as I do that the Phyrexians will take this place and move to another. They must be stopped. Here sits the one who, maybe more than any other, can stop their spread. And he is my friend. I will not let him fall like a dog to this sickness. You cannot ask me to let that happen.”

Elspeth looked over at Karn. “I see the oil droplets on him again,” she said. “You had better hurry.”

Venser closed his eyes and turned to Karn. A second later the artificer’s body crumpled to the floor. Released by his limp arm, Venser’s dented helmet went rolling along the floor lopsidedly before clanking to a stop against Karn’s metal leg. The silver golem’s body gave a violent jolt and lay still.