Nissa watched the goblin closely. "What is she like when she is vexed?"

"She is most cruel," Mudheel said. The words stuck to Nissa for some reason, and she looked around before following the others down into the darkest part of the cave. Nissa listened for Mudheel, who finally followed them.

They walked downward for many hours. Anowon was at the head with the glowing tooth pinched between his fingers. The cavern remained large. Large enough for a full grown basalt crawler to move through without touching a scale Large enough for a full grown basalt crawler to move through without touching a scale, Nissa thought.

Each of their footfalls bounced off the wet of the deep cavern and came echoing back to them as deep growls. The others seemed to make no notice of the noise.

But there was another sound, a far quieter but more persistent sound than their footfalls. Nissa stopped and turned her head, angling her long ear for better hearing. The sound was too irregular to be drips. It occurred in sudden bursts and then stopped for a time.

A bluish glow began to appear in the volcanic cavern ahead. As they walked the glow became stronger, until it was bright enough for Nissa to see her hand grasping her staff. The rock on either side of them began to slope downward, until they entered a huge carved cavern with no floor Nissa could see. Many thin causeways of chiseled basalt zigzagged at different levels across the deep chasm and trailed to a tunnel filled with blue light on the far side of the cavern. Multiple levels of stairs and paths joined the chiseled basalt causeways. The middle of the immense chamber was littered with debris, some of it scorched. But the lack of a floor was not the feature that caused Nissa's heart to start beating fast.

Hedrons floating in the air and pointing at skewed angles. In the middle of the chamber many hedron sat side to side and piled on one another, but they all seemed to be pointing loosely at the tunnel on the far side of the cavern. It was as if a great magnet had pulled them into place.

The cavern was so large that Nissa could see neither the floor nor the ceiling, and as she stepped out onto the causeway, the air seemed to ripple and refract.

"Wait," Sorin said. He put one cold hand on Nissa's shoulder and drew her back. "I will go first."

Nissa stepped out of the way and let the vampire pa.s.s. They followed him across the huge cavern and entered another after that and another after that. The light grew brighter and brighter until a glare caught Nissa's eye ahead. Sorin stopped and turned. The corner of his cloak swirled the foggy blackness under the causeway.

"Ahead is the entrance to the Eye of Ugin," Sorin said. "I will talk for us as it is I who will have to sing the containment back to fort.i.tude," Sorin said. He fastened Nissa with a hard look. "Do not speak."

Nissa jerked her chin up. "Must you strengthen the prison?" she said.

Sorin turned his head. The most particular expression played across his face.

"Yes," he said. "I must. Otherwise the Eldrazi will scream free and eat your precious Zendikar in three bites. Do you not hear them? That far off sound? That is them clawing at the walls of their enclosure. They have been scratching for centuries. They never stop."

Nissa heard the same irregular sound she'd heard before, only now it was louder. A long, slow sc.r.a.ping.

"How are they unable to get out?" Nissa said.

"Keeping them contained is the job of Ugin," Sorin said. "The containment spell is one the ancients could never hope to break, without help from outside. To break the spell, the ancients would have to perform an action that is against their fundamental nature."

"They are their own prison?" Anowon said.

"Precisely," Sorin said.

"Yet the spell fails."

"Because of outside intervention," Sorin said.

They all stood listening to the Eldrazi scratching on the walls of their prison.

"We do not want them here," Anowon said.

"No," Nissa said, shaking her head. "We do not. They are the cause of Zendikar's Roils, her gravity wells ... They are strangers here."

Sorin regarded them both for only a moment before speaking. "Zendikar is naturally dangerous. The mana existed here before the Eldrazi arrived and will remain here after they have rotted to dust. Zendikar is savage, and its most savage behavior is in its inhabitants, Ghet."

"Do not call me Ghet," Anowon said. "I will not have the slave masters of my people sucking the energy of Zendikar as they once sucked vampires dry."

"You know know they would leave this place and travel to other planes," Nissa said. they would leave this place and travel to other planes," Nissa said.

"I do not know that," Sorin said. "There is mana in abundance here. That is what they l.u.s.t for."

"They will leave," Anowon said.

"How do you know?"

"I know."

"How can you?"

Nissa turned to look at Anowon. It was a good question, she thought. How could he know? How could he know?

Anowon snarled. "I have read it."

Sorin sighed. He looked at the bright light ahead of the causeway. "It is true that the magic we wrought to bind the Eldrazi in their prison has had some ... undesired effects on this plane," he said. "But the prison is not the only reason this place is so wild."

"The hedron stones?" Anowon said.

"Are devices we made to condense mana and keep the containment spell strong."

Anowon's smile was unrestrained and large.

"Then you will cease this travesty," Anowon said. "By your own admission-"

"Enough!" Sorin boomed. Nissa staggered backward, pushed by the vampire's voice.

"I am Sorin Markov," the vampire boomed. Rock dust sifted down from the ceiling of the cavern as his words echoed. Sorin straightened his arms to each side. Blue-black energy snapped around his fists. "I will slay anyone attempting to stop me from performing the task given me."

Sorin's words were like weapons bludgeoning down on Nissa. She found it difficult to stand. The sound was in her, in her head echoing. Mudheel lay face down on the causeway next to her covering his head in an effort to escape the sonic a.s.sault.

Nissa squared her shoulders and stood despite her body's intense desire to fall to the ground. Years of Joraga training had given her the ability to ignore pain, but Sorin's voice was something else entirely-every part of her screamed in agony. Still, Nissa could tell by the shocked expression on the tall vampire's face that he was impressed she was still standing.

Blinking with effort, Nissa twisted her staff and drew the stem sword.

The words Sorin said were unknown to Nissa. But the pitch and timbre of Sorin's voice increased, and she felt those words ringing off the marrow of her bones. Yet still she stood.

Sorin winked at her before turning toward the light at the back of the chamber. He dropped his hands and the light brightened. Nissa could see the huge stone face of a dragon. Arc-shaped patterns filled the wall around the dragon's face and it was from these arcs that the glowing light emerged. The wall appeared slightly fluid. A huge stone hedron covered with markings writhed to the right of the dragon's eyes.

But the hedron was not writhing. Something on on the hedron was writhing. the hedron was writhing.

Nissa squinted for a better look, but in the low light it took more than the usual time to recognize the form of Smara. The kor had straddled the hedron and appeared to be pounding its pocked sides with her fists.

She moaned as she hammered. He body was smeared with dried mud and pebbles. Long, b.l.o.o.d.y abrasions where she'd torn her skin rubbing the mud onto her skin crisscrossed her arms and legs.

Mud had been smeared in circles around her eyes, as well. But her eyes-her strange, large eyes were unchanged. They stared unblinking as she raged with her fists against the stone.

"Why mud?" whispered Nissa.

"To bind the land," Mudheel said, his face still down. "The hedron is the key. It must be destroyed."

Sorin took a deep breath and straightened at the sound of the whispering. He looked out at the hedron, and a deep chuckle echoed from his throat when he saw Smara's sad form.

But the humor was gone as fast as it had appeared. Sorin closed his eyes and opened his mouth and began to sing. It wasn't a song like any that Nissa had heard before. She could not understand any of the words, and the melody was more of a dirge. Yet as soon as it began, a strange change occurred with the dragon's face. The dragon's eyes lit with the same blue glow that emanated from the arced patterns above its head. And the hedron's markings crackled with lightning fire.

Smara fell off the hedron. For a moment Nissa thought the lightning fire had struck her down. But after a second the kor struggled to her feet. Then she fell into a caterwauling run at Sorin, the rags of her clothes fluttering out behind as she gained speed.

It took the kor some time to make her way along the causeways and stairs, but soon she was near. Sorin did not see her. His eyes were closed as he sang. Smara charged across the s.p.a.ce and crashed into Sorin, who let out a grunt and stumbled backwards. Nissa felt the force that had been holding her down release and she rose quickly to her feet, stem sword in hand. But Sorin did not notice her-he was too busy shielding himself from Smara's frenzied attack.

Nissa quietly raced to the hedron. It was large. Some of the white flame playing across its runic surface licked out toward her as she drew near.

From behind, There was a tremendous pop and singe and the air was filled with the smoke of charred meat. Nissa knew that Sorin had ended Smara's rebellion.

She had only moments. Only moments before Sorin dealt in a similar way with her. Looking down at her hands, Nissa realized she had only one option. She had never attempted to seed stone, and she was not at all convinced that it would work. But in a split breath she joined her staff and mouthed the familiar enchantment. She struck the end of it squarely on the hedron, and green fire funneled down its shaft. The fire snapped Nissa back and she found herself sprawled on the ground, half of her staff still clutched in her hand. The other half singed and lying under the hedron. It seemed as though the hedron had absorbed the spell without effect.

There was no familiar, glowing dent where her staff had struck the hedron, and Nissa began to despair her effort. From behind, Sorin sucked in air for an incantation that Nissa suspected would almost surely be his last, fatal strike against her. All for Zendikar All for Zendikar, she thought as she sank back, expecting the blow from behind. All for the forest. The brilliant stars and the face of the moon All for the forest. The brilliant stars and the face of the moon.

When the blow did not come, Nissa turned. Sorin was standing with his eyes closed, still singing. A certain blackness emanated from his mouth like fine smoke as he sang.

Then a crack appeared in the hedron. Nissa turned in time to see. At first the crack was as thin as a spider's leg, then it widened, and a second later the tip of a bright, green leaf unfurled from within, and the crack widened. Nissa leaned forward just as a shoot, thick as her arm, uncoiled and rented the crack wide. The crack traveled up the hedron until it stopped at the tip, and the hedron broke cleanly into two pieces and tumbled with a tremendous crash onto the stone floor. Green arced from shard to shard, and then the fire blinked out altogether.

Sorin's voice boomed louder from behind. But clearly the vampire could not undo what had been done. Moments later his song took on a high, screeching sound, and then stopped abruptly. Nissa looked back at Sorin. His eyes popped open to reveal corneas the color of molten gold.

"Well," Sorin said, clapping his hands together. "This is my queue to leave. You, my dear fools, can deal with the consequences. They will be far worse than anything I can do to you." The vampire brushed a hand down his tunic, and Nissa turned her attention back to the broken hedron.

The hall echoed and shook as the hedron halves rocked in place. But instead of quieting when the halves came to rest, the cavern continued shaking, until large chunks fell from the darkness above and the cave floor began to pitch. The eyes of the stone dragon's face were still glowing. She smelled Anowon suddenly standing next to her.

"Well?" Nissa said to Anowon who said nothing, but stood at the edge of the causeway looking down into the darkness at the bottom of the cavern.

As the cavern shook, small jags of lightening snapped between the hedron halves. Nissa closed her eyes and squared her shoulders as she waited for the last moment. Zendikar would flourish once again and the Eldrazi would be gone forever.

Mudheel was next to her retching-he wiped the corner of his mouth and looked up at the hedron with tears streaming down his face. "Mistress ..." he said. "No."

The cavern started to shake. Three ma.s.sive tremors shook the cavern sending more rocks showering down. And from somewhere deep in the mountain came a sound so ominous that Nissa turned away from the face of the dragon and started running. But the sound followed her, like the moan of ten thousand undead, and something else-a rushing roar.

"Out," Anowon yelled above the roar.

They ran. Twice Nissa almost slid off the causeway, catching herself at the last moment. Of Mudheel, there was no sign.

They crisscrossed over the causeways with rocks falling all around until they saw the light of the cave entrance ahead. The cavern shuttered again and Nissa turned back for a final look at the Eye or Ugin. Something was rising out of the depression under the causeway. Shapes danced in the darkness. The shadow of a tentacle larger than any she'd ever seen flopped on the causeway behind, shattering it to pieces. She felt the stone around groan and buckle as it came undone and fell to bits.

The drakes were still perched atop the crystals when Anowon and Nissa burst out of the cave mouth. The small dragons surveyed them standing in the billows of dust issuing from the cave's mouth. Then they took off and flew away.

The ground began to shake more violently. The roar behind suddenly swelled to a deafening bellow and Anowon and Nissa leaped back against the rock next to the cave mouth.

And just in time. Moments later enormous tentacles snaked out of the cave mouth, followed by jagged, bony arms. The very mountain began to come down around the tentacles. What could only have been an Eldrazi t.i.tan glided out of the hole, its tentacles slathered in mucus.

Nissa began to run. The others followed. Whatever was coming out of the cave mouth was huge. The ground was fracturing under it. Nissa glanced back as she ran-the red tooth, the spire at the top of the mountain, cracked and tumbled down over the creature's bony neck. Nissa and Anowan ran as hard as they could until the ground was not shaking as much. Nissa stopped and turned.

As Nissa watched, the creature nuzzled its bulbous bone face into fine scree and rubble which was all that was left of the mountain. In appearance the beast looked much as a brood lineage, but larger by far. As tall as a turntimber tree. And the smell! The smell made her want to die. Rotting meat and mushrooms and sulfur from the very bowels of the rock.

But there were differences, aside from its immensity. The small plants eking out an existence in the scree withered to black smudges on the stones as the t.i.tan neared. A stone pig fled its burrow in terror, but fell to sludge as it pa.s.sed near the t.i.tan's tentacles. Nissa felt the terrible power as well. She felt the force within her body pulling toward the tentacled menace, as iron to a magnet. It was hard for her to work her lungs at pulling air. Next to her, Anowon shuddered and slipped down the rock they were huddled against.

The next t.i.tan to emerge from the ruined mountain was nothing more than a ma.s.s of tentacles. The porous latticework structure floating above it sc.r.a.ped the top of the cave mouth as it was born from the cave mouth. Nissa blinked and found herself crumpled next to Anowon on the ground, she did not know she was holding her breath until she exhaled.

The last t.i.tan used its split arms to drag itself out of the mouth of the cave. It was a long creature, longer than the other t.i.tans ... and more terrible somehow. Once it had pulled its rear tentacles out of the cave, this t.i.tan straightened itself. Its chitinous exoskeleton crackled as it stood taller than anything she'd ever seen. Nissa found herself cringing.

All standing together, the t.i.tans moved down the canyon. The very light around them bent as a desert mirage might, and the rock they moved over cracked to dust. As they neared the edges of the canyon, great chunks or red rock broke off and desiccated to dust filtering down to the canyon floor.

The last t.i.tan slithered to the middle of the canyon, and even its sound did not adhere to the normal rules of nature. Instead of the crushing sound that should have been heard as it made the rocks flat, Nissa heard a high-pitched squeak and low, moaning roll as the sound in the canyon bent and reverberated in the t.i.tan's dominion.

The terrible creatures moved close and as their tentacles wound together they began to make a sound that Nissa could not have imagined in her worst nightmare. At once it was the shriek of wounded warthogs mixed with the sharp cut of a gale wind. The t.i.tans raised their clinging arms and began to bellow at the sky.

Nissa glanced at Anowon, expecting to see the fear that she herself felt at seeing these ma.s.sive creatures screaming at the sky. But the vampire would not meet her eyes, and when he did it was not fear of the Eldrazi that she saw. It was hunger. He's hungry He's hungry, she thought with a dull dread.

Mudheel was gone. That left Nissa, alone with a vampire who had not eaten in days. Had not Sorin told her that Anowon was always trying to drain her? And that he, Sorin, kept this from happening? She did not doubt it seeing the hungry look in Anowon's eyes just now.

But by this time the t.i.tan's vocalizing had become deafening. Some of the canyon walls singed to vapor and the rest compressed to powder and blew away in the hot wind. Nissa watched as the creatures, their tentacles intertwined, moved down the canyon, knocking down walls. When they came to the mountain, they did not stop. The rock simply fell to pieces at their touch. And they stopped for a moment to nuzzle the rubble until it, too, was nothing more than powder sucked dry of any mana.

Nissa lay on the ground, exhausted. When she looked up Anowon was watching her, his chin resting on arms crossed over his knees. The pupils in his strange dark eyes were narrowed to points as he stared.

Rocks clattered and a form lurched out of the dust, dragging one leg. Nissa hopped to her feet and felt for the stem sword. But the figure turned to her and chuckled.

"Oh, this is rich," Sorin said. "You managed to break what could not be broken, and you almost did me to death in the process. Now you you are responsible for what happens to your precious Zendikar." are responsible for what happens to your precious Zendikar."

Nissa's mouth must have gaped. "I did not know the seeding would undo such a desperate enchantment," she stammered.

Sorin took a deep breath and released it. "What is done is done."

Nissa looked to the path of destruction left by the t.i.tans.

With his most arrogant smile Sorin turned his eyes on the other vampire. "Anowon, come here."

Anowon did not move, did not even meet the vampire's eyes. "I do not serve you, Mortifier," Anowon said. "You should be dead now."

"I should," Sorin agreed. "But now that the elf has released the scourge, I will be needed elsewhere."

"First you will come with me to Guul Draz and answer for your crimes to the Septumvirate in Ib Nimana," Anowon said.

"Thank you for the invitation, but I will have to decline," Sorin hobbled over to a rock and sat down. His great sword clattered on the talus as he bent and sat down.

Nissa took a deep breath.