Alara Unbroken by Doug Beyer

Author:Doug Beyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, General
ISBN: 9780786955824
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 2009-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

NAYA

Ajani’s rolling fall was halted by a prone gargantuan, the same beast that Ajani had seen the elves riding before. Its body lay clumsily on the ground as its huge legs tried to find purchase. The beast harrumphed in annoyance through its mouth harness.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” asked a feminine voice.

Ajani looked up and saw that he was surrounded by elves. There were dozens of them, noble smooth-skins with sharp features and elegantly swept-back ears, all in the hand-embroidered robes of ceremony. The one who had spoken, a young elf girl with flowers in her dark hair, appeared to be in charge.

Ajani looked around for Marisi, but the old nacatl had disappeared. Next he checked for his axe. He spotted it nearby, but one of the girl’s attendants stepped on it with his foot, shaking his head, and Ajani didn’t reach for it. Instead he addressed the girl.

“Forgive me for trespassing, elves,” he said. “I am Ajani of the Wild Nacatl. I sought a nacatl near here, but he escaped … when the earth shook. What happened?”

“We do not know,” said the elf girl. Her syllables formed a steady rhythm, not quite a melody, but with a rising and falling tone that sounded like a pulsing heart. “But now you must go. This is a holy place, not meant for your kind, and we have business here.”

Ajani beheld the Relic of Progenitus. He had heard of the place, reported to be the resting place of the elves’ hydra-god, Progenitus. The mound on which the stone disk rested had shifted during the earthquake, and it stood precariously slanted.

“I fear you are in danger here,” Ajani said.

In the underbrush near the Relic, he spied a bowl of black dragonscale. It was the same kind of artifact he had found in the ashes of his den’s home fire, mingled with Jazal’s remains.

“Is that … yours?” Ajani asked, gesturing to the bowl.

“It belongs to Progenitus. But no nacatl is allowed near the Relic,” said the elf girl.

“I don’t mean your Relic,” said Ajani. “I mean that black bowl.” If the elves knew something about it, then maybe it could help him find Marisi, or learn his plans. But even if they didn’t, the presence of the dragonscale bowl surely meant danger.

One of the elf attendants retrieved it. “Anima,” he said. “It’s a spell vessel.”

“What’s a spell vessel?” Ajani asked. The attendant had called her the Anima, Ajani realized. He knew little of elf culture, but he knew that the Anima was a place of honor among the elves—a leader, but not like a kha, more like a high shaman. The elves, particularly the Anima, were said to know far stranger mysteries than even the eldest nacatl shamans. “If you’re the Anima, then you might know something about it that I don’t,” said Ajani.

The Anima took the bowl and inspected it with a frown on her face. Her eyes had a light gray haze over them. Ajani wondered if she

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