Elspeth did not laugh. She looked far too tired to laugh, Venser thought.

Instead she took a lanyard from around her neck. At the end of the lanyard was a small bottle. "You aren't the only one with a bottle," she said.

A Phyrexian call cut the air very close by. When Venser looked back, one of the enemy was standing atop the pile of its brethren. Venser held his breath as he waited for more of them to come streaming around that one. He kept waiting. He stood, and the Phyrexian on the pile-one of the ones swathed in layers of black, pitted metal and with a tiny, almost skeletal head bobbing on a thin neck-thought better of things and retreated, dragging its claws as it did.

"I saw only one," Venser reported. n.o.body responded. Elspeth had just poured some of her elixir into Koth's mouth. The vulshok lay back and closed his eyes.

"Did you deliver him from misery?" Venser said, after a moment.

Elspeth's face took on a look of horror. "No, you imbecile. I am sworn never to do what you speak of. He is healing from the inside."

Koth opened his eyes. "I took her before," he said, looking at the fleshling, who regarded him with a blank expression. "I took her to go with me to the surface. I'm sorry."

"That is not something to worry about now," Elspeth said.

We'll worry about it later, Venser thought. Rest a.s.sured about that.

"I only wanted to help my people, who hate me," Koth said.

"Yes," Elspeth said. "We knew you were trying to help."

The single Phyrexian called again from behind. That time a second Phyrexian responded from somewhere farther away. Then they heard the faint screech of another.

Koth heard it too. His eyes popped open and he tried to sit up. Elspeth pushed him back down. "What I gave you is speeding your body's healing process, but it will still take a bit of time."

Venser waited for her to elaborate, or for someone to ask how long it would take, but the guide and the fleshling stared down at Koth as though he were some new and exotic creature they had never seen before. n.o.body appeared to be about to ask any sort of question. One thing was for sure, Venser was not carrying the vulshok who had tried to steal what they were lucky enough to have. Venser looked over at the fleshling, who was still staring down at Koth. What was going on in that one's head, he wondered. He had yet to catch her with any expression showing itself on her smooth face. She almost never spoke. What was wrong with her? He had considered performing an exploration of her brain, but such an exploration took time and energy and he did not have much of either.

"How long until he can walk?" Venser said. On that note, he wondered how long he himself would be able to walk. One thing was for certain, if he sat down again he would fall asleep.

"A bit longer," Elspeth said.

"We do not seem to have that," Venser said. He waited for a Phyrexian call but there was, of course, none when he needed it to prove a point.

"We have to make that time for Koth," Elspeth said, standing with a groan. "Vital parts of him are knitting themselves together as I say this. We cannot move him."

A Phyrexian bawled somewhere far off. Sure, Venser thought. Now you make some noise.

Elspeth drew her sword. Venser had seen her sword look better. Its blade was chipped, and unless Venser was mistaken, it was slightly bent. It's no wonder with all the Phyrexians that had met its keen edge.

Elspeth lowered the blade and faced the pile of Phyrexians. "We'll know when Koth is ready to travel. He will awake and stand, if he survives."

"If he survives?"

"The potion I gave him can sometimes affect individuals adversely."

"Yet you..."

"His kidney was pierced," Elspeth said in a lower tone. "He would have perished without the elixir."

The guide slipped away into the pa.s.sage ahead, to scout, Venser a.s.sumed.

"How did the Phyrexian force know where we were in the first place?" Venser asked.

"An interesting question," Elspeth said. "And one I have been pondering."

"What has your pondering led you to?"

"Nothing," Elspeth admitted.

More Phyrexians called from various parts of the pa.s.sage, drawing toward them. Soon Venser could hear them clicking and gagging just on the other side of the slag pile of the dead. He could tell by the creaking that there was at least one very large Phyrexian. But there was something else too. Something with a voice. He could hear its smooth-toned orders.

"What do they wait for?" Venser said.

"There numbers are not great," the guide said, suddenly behind them again.

Venser waited. He slipped down into a cross-legged position and sat back against the wall. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again Koth was sitting up. He did not look perfect, the potion's effect was not complete, clearly, but he was able to blink and look around.

And there was plenty to look and listen to. Whatever the Phyrexians' numbers when Koth was wounded, they had grown to much more. They were creaking on the other side of the pile in numbers sufficient to vibrate the walls and floor.

"They are just on the other side of the pile," Venser said.

"Yes," Elspeth said. "Nothing has changed."

"Except it seems there are about five hundred of them now."

"Their numbers have increased," Elspeth said.

A figure climbed the pile. A female Phyrexian who had clearly once been an elf. Her hair had twisted into thick cables, some of which were long and moved independently like snakes around her head. Her eyes were black with oil, and some of the oil dripped out of her sockets and down her cheeks. Her left hand was an immense scythe and the other was a claw most terrible in size and aspect. She held up the scythe and all noise from the Phyrexians ceased at once. "Give us the creature who is all flesh."

"Deal," Venser said.

Elspeth turned to glare at him.

"Only jesting," Venser said. "How could we give her to you? Maybe ask her opinion. Perhaps she'll be agreeable to your proposal. You can never tell."

"What do you want with her?" Elspeth said.

"Only that she is our property and you stole our property."

"Springheads have property?" Koth said.

Venser had not heard the phrase springheads used to refer to Phyrexians before. He liked it. But the female Phyrexian bristled at the words. She frowned and disappeared down the side of the pile. When she appeared again, it was with many Phyrexians in tow.

"Now," she said. "Say that again so they know who to slay first."

But Koth had closed his eyes.

"Who are you," Venser said suddenly.

"I am Glissa, the bringer of your death."

She lowered her scythe hand and the Phyrexians began moving forward.

Koth did not open his eyes. Elspeth looked uneasily back at Venser. The guide was unarmed, as far as Venser had ever seen, and sure enough, when Venser looked, the guide was gone. The fleshling was standing back between Venser and Koth. She had no weapon.

Venser looked around him for something to swing. As depleted of mana as he was, there was nothing more he could do but fight hand-to-hand. A twisted piece from a Phyrexian skeleton would work. He was lucky enough to find one lying within reach, and he picked it up and turned back to Glissa. The Phyrexians at her control were almost at the bottom of the pile of dead Phyrexians. Venser counted thirty-four of various shapes and sizes. One had the metal legs of a spider, but with a tremendous thorax that glowed bright blue. Elspeth moved her sword from left to right hand.

Venser had seen her slay countless Phyrexians in a battle, but never when she was so tired and never in one fight, at one time. Plus, any single one of those Phyrexians seemed keen enough to bare them away. They gnashed their teeth and popped their limbs in and out of their sockets as they approached slowly, fanning out to the sides to prevent retreat.

As Venser watched, he knew in his heart that Elspeth would be unable to prevail. It seemed the same thought had just occurred to Elspeth, for she looked down at her battle-scarred sword and then back at Venser.

The Phyrexians were very close, and Venser remembered suddenly when he was a child and he went walking under the linnean trees near his home on Dominaria. He saw the dogs too late. There were sometimes packs of wild dogs in the forests, yet he went there anyway because there were also to be found the ruins of airships and other wrecks of wars long finished. He would collect wreckage and tinker with it. But the wild dogs were hungry and they were especially hungry that day. They stalked him for the better part of an hour. There was no way to know how long they had been watching him with their red eyes. Venser had many times thought that the wild dogs that lived near his house had been some of the bravest creatures that he had ever encountered. Men and women would have their sport killing them, and still the dogs did not flee or shy away. They remained a threat. Find me a beast half as brave here, Venser thought.

He had escaped the dogs by jumping away. It was one of the first times he had ever teleported, which was why he was remembering it. He suddenly yearned to jump away once again.

And so the dogs would have him, it seemed.

The Phyrexians were formed into a crescent around Elspeth, with the left flank facing Venser. Atop the pile Glissa stood watching.

Tezzeret stepped out of the shadows, to the right of the Phyrexians' left flank. When the nearest Phyrexian saw him, it shied back. "This was not the plan," Tezzeret said.

Glissa looked surprised to see him. The Phyrexian advancing on Elspeth stopped.

Behind Tezzeret a cadre of blue-glowing Phyrexians looked on. Tezzeret's Phyrexians were fewer in number, but they looked to Venser even crueler in aspect.

"Plan?" Glissa said.

"Yes," Tezzeret said. "You have your plan. I have my plan. You sent me to get the flesh creature. I had no intention of doing that. Why would I do that when it was I who gave them the creature in the first place?"

The expression on Glissa's face did not change perceptibly at the news. But when she spoke, there was a hitch in her voice that betrayed her unease. "Why would you give them such a creature?"

Tezzeret waved his glowing metal hand dismissively. "The creature is no concern of mine, neither is her innate ability. They will not be able to do significant damage with her. They lack the knowledge." Tezzeret smiled at Venser before turning back to Glissa. "No, I gave her to them to get you out here."

Glissa glanced away quickly.

"Oh," Tezzeret said sadly. "You know I have deactivated that portal you just looked to."

"What do you want?" Glissa said.

"Only your death," Tezzeret said. "Geth is already mine. With you gone I control every Phyrexian in this place."

"The Father of Machines controls his children," Glissa corrected.

"Can't you see that he will never be Phyrexian? It is an impossibility."

"How wrong you are," Glissa said. "And without me, you will not be able to control him."

"That may be true," Tezzeret admitted. "But what if someone else were to ascend that throne of his? This thought has just occurred to me, but what if it was someone like me? I have some metal to me after all."

Glissa did not speak for a moment. "Why would you want that?"

"What an army!" Tezzeret said. "I would be the master, after all. I could utilize such an army to great effect."

"The madness from your arm has greatly affected your brain." Glissa said.

Tezzeret's smile disappeared. "That," he said, "is uncalled for. You have hurt my feelings. You have never known a person more in touch with his facilities as me. Now, I have a choice for you."

"You can step away from Karn, and let me take your place, or-and this next choice is possibly the more favored by me, as I don't like to have an enemy lingering-you can die at my hand. Either way, I cannot endure anymore of my current situation. My master sent me here and now I will make of it everything that I can."

Glissa nodded, as if weighing the pros and cons of Tezzeret's plan.

Meanwhile, the Phyrexians from both sides waited. Some even sat down. Venser caught Elspeth's eye. He pushed out his chin toward the end of the pa.s.sage they had been traveling down when Glissa's henchmen arrived. Elspeth winked.

Glissa spoke. "So you are here to kill me?"

"You were supposed to have died at their hands with the main force of your soldiers, I am only here to finish."

"That was a bad plan," Glissa said. "I'm sorry, but it is, and it shows your inability to read a situation correctly. That is a necessity in a leader. You must learn that, or you will make other more critical mistakes than this."

"Enough talking now," Tezzeret said, clearly not liking what Glissa was saying.

"I agree," Glissa said. She snapped her fingers and the pile of Phyrexians she was standing on began to wriggle and then to shake.

Venser stepped forward and tugged on Elspeth's tunic. He gestured her to follow, and they both took ten steps back, so they were not in the middle of what was about to become a battlefield.

The pile of mangled and melted metal lurched forward, Glissa standing atop it. Tezzeret stood still and then the pile suddenly unfolded arms and legs and stood crablike to fill the pa.s.sage. It wasted no time in snapping a claw made of the spine and three legs of other Phyrexians around Tezzeret.

Glissa screamed in triumph, and smiled to show long teeth dyed green with lamina.

But Tezzeret started pushing his head into the creature's fist. He appeared to be squeezing together into a ball, until only his banded ropes of hair were visible. In a moment even that was gone. The Phyrexian giant opened his hand, and to everyone's surprise, nothing fell out.

Venser and Elspeth took ten more steps backward. It had worked before when the Phyrexians were searching for their portal. They had been able to sneak away then, why not again? The guide was somewhere in the shadows waiting for them. Elspeth tapped the fleshling on the shoulder as they stepped back. Glissa was busy staring at the giant's open hand and did not seem to notice their movements.

The fleshling squatted down and with Elspeth's help, they lifted Koth between them.

Two hands appeared on the giant's chest. One was metal and one was flesh, but both parted the metal chest as if it was a fallen autumn leaf. Tezzeret's head poked through the hole, his eyes glowing.

Glissa, standing on the giant's right shoulder, reached around its head and swung her scythe in a wide arc.

Tezzeret held up his etherium arm. The scythe appeared to pa.s.s through the arm. A moment later the top of Glissa's scythe hand fell away, a blue seam glowing on the metal where the scythe had struck the arm. But not before the metal of the giant's shoulder began to vine up around Tezzeret's leg. In a moment it was entwined up to his waist. Tezzeret pulled to free his legs, but to no avail. Glissa took hold and swung around the front of the giant's head and planted her feet squarely in Tezzeret's face, snapping his head back.

Then the Phyrexians who had come with Glissa and Tezzeret fell upon one another with the tremendous sound of metal crushing into metal. The ground became a melee of blurring arms and black oil spatter. A Phyrexian nearby punched another's teeth in, still another tore off an arm and cast it spinning aside.

When they were sure that all the Phyrexians and Glissa were busy, Venser, the fleshling, Koth, and Elspeth took ten more steps back. The shadows began to fall in around them, and they turned and ran.