Well now,” the being said, in a voice that, like his arm, seemed to modulate itself slightly. “I did not expect to find you all the way over here, with these clankers, down here in the muck and the filth. By all rights they should have been scrapped long ago.”
It took a moment for Venser to find his tongue. “Where is here?”
The human chuckled. “Indeed,” he said.
But the crusher and the dark Phyrexians did not see the humor in the situation. The crusher screeched as it adjusted its weight. Its tiny head looked back and forth from the being with the glowing arm to the Phyrexians that stood just behind him. The crusher’s Phyrexians and moriok glanced uncertainly at the pile of flesh that had been one of their own.
The new arrival looked over the dark Phyrexians. He shook his head. “It’s sometimes ridiculous what this Phyrexian taint produces. Their forms are not pleasant, not that I mind the form of a thing. I know they have no control over how they turn out, but so many of their designs have such flaws.” He gestured at the menagerie. If Venser did not know better he might have thought they were laughing. If he had not known that Phyrexians lacked the sentience for humor, even such simple humor as ridicule.
“Flaws or not, there are plenty of them,” Koth said.
The being moved its strange eyes, blue as water, to Koth. He looked him over from foot to spiked hair. “You work with ore, vulshok, no?”
Koth nodded. “I have that honor.”
“You have that honor,” the being repeated.
The Phyrexian crusher lurched forward suddenly. The sound was so loud that Venser felt like moving the hand he had over his eyes to his ear. The being with the moving metal arm turned to the crusher. “I did tell you,” he said.
He sniffed and raised both of his arms. After a series of motions with his hands, the Phyrexian’s arms and legs were gone-the metal that had once been its legs and arms floated in a ball before the Phyrexian’s face. The creature with the glowing arm turned back to Koth. The ball rearranged itself into a throne of sorts and came to rest on the metal floor. Two blue chrome Phyrexians rushed forward and moved the large seat behind the being. Without looking he sat down. The crusher looked on soundlessly.
“Do you work for your ore?” the being said to Koth.
“Our mother provides us with her blood.”
“Your mother?”
Koth nodded.
Venser shifted his weight. To say the vulshok was impressed with the being was a great overstatement. Venser could tell by his friend’s expression that Koth thought the being nothing more than another Phyrexian.
“My mother is dead,” the being said.
Koth seemed not to have heard this. “And what are you then?” Koth said.
“Unfortunately, there are still parts of me that are human,” the human said. He extended his metal arm and moved it before his eyes. “I am Tezzeret. I have lived in filth and muck. I have lived in palaces. I prefer palaces.”
“You are one of the ethersworn,” Elspeth said. “I would know your flash anywhere.”
The being almost smiled. “Ah, a good knight of Bant. What foolishness. This is a little homecoming of a sort.”
“So you are one of these ethersworn?” Venser said.
“No. All hands are raised against me, except those that work for me.”
“How do you bear no blemish of the Phyrexian taint?” Elspeth said. “You clearly bed with these abominations. Do they possess etherium?”
Tezzeret’s eyes stayed on Elspeth. The white warrior stared back. Venser could tell without a doubt what Elspeth thought about the being-enemy.
Tezzeret seemed to read Elspeth’s mind. “I am not your enemy. I am not Phyrexian. I have come to help you, actually.”
“Phyrexian’s are not our only enemies,” Elspeth said.
Tezzeret nodded. He looked back at his chrome Phyrexians. Following an unseen command, his chrome troops leaped on the dark Phyrexians and began savagely tearing at them with their claws. There were more dark Phyrexians, but they were no match for the smaller troops, who moved faster and struck with arms that morphed from claws to needles and then to bludgeons in the blink of an eye. One of the shiny Phyrexian’s claws shot out of its wrists and flew through the air attached with a chain. Venser watched as that Phyrexian’s claw knocked another Phyrexian’s head clean off its shoulders. The tortured snarls and rattle of the Phyrexians fighting reminded Venser of gnarl beasts, but with armor on. It was over when the last black Phyrexian lowered its spear-shaped head and charged at a chrome beast, which stood still and let the spear pierce its chest. Then it began tearing chunks of sinew and metal out of the other’s back and neck. Soon there was nothing left of the dark Phyrexian except for its head impaled in the other’s chrome chest.
“You have something,” Tezzeret said to the chrome Phyrexian with the head through its chest. “Just here.” He made a sweeping motion, as though gesturing to a stain on a shirt after a meal. The chrome Phyrexian cocked its head at Tezzeret, the bladed head jutting out of its chest. Tezzeret turned back to the compatriots and shook his head.
“You can’t do anything with them,” he said. “That one will need work. Now then, did that gain your trust?” Tezzeret looked from one to the other of them. “No,” he said. “I can see it did not. What about you, artificer? Do you trust me some now?”
“I wish you would simply tell us what you want us to do,” Venser said.
Tezzeret paused a moment. “Well, at least there is a glimmer of life somewhere down here. What makes you think you can help me?”
“Otherwise you would not be here showing off to us.”
“I simply want to give you a gift.”
“Don’t think so,” Koth said.
“Nonetheless,” Tezzeret said. “You must come with me and my assistants to get this gift-I cannot hold it any longer.”
Elspeth went to Venser’s side. Her metal brow plate dinged into his helmet as she leaned as close as possible. “This feels foul,” she said.
“Where do you want us to go?” Venser said.
Tezzeret made a fist with his metal hand, and watched the ripple that action caused in the metal of his arm. An isolated piece broke off and floated above the shoulder. “We will go deeper,” Tezzeret said. “Much deeper.”
“We can go deeper?” Koth said.
“Oh yes. You are still in the caverns here. We will go into the Phyrexians.”
An involuntary shudder passed through Elspeth. She frowned.
“And if we refuse to go with you?” Venser said.
“Then I will simply leave you,” Tezzeret said. “Your metal guide may or may not be following you still. Have you forgotten about the silver creature? Who do you think sent it?”
Venser stared at Tezzeret.
“And you will neither find your way out nor what you seek, whatever that is,” Venser said, “without my help. And there are more clunkers in this cavern, and the light gets brighter. I can shut it off.”
“Can you?” Koth said.
“Yes.”
“Do that and I’ll follow you to the Testicles of Nyrad,” Koth said.
Tezzeret closed his eyes. A moment later the light simply shut off. He smiled, showing an array of brown, chipped teeth that were as dull as his arm was luminous. If I had an arm such as that I would want a pair of teeth to match, Venser thought. But the blinding light was off, and Venser could not help but smile himself.
“A simple request,” Tezzeret said. “Do I have your trust now?”
“Absolutely not,” Venser said.
But Koth was so happy he jumped in the air. Venser watched him. “But apparently we are traveling with you,” Venser said.
