Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

Luckily, they did not need to go far and they soon found the passage that held their friend. Eric stepped joyfully out of his cell, thankful he had finally been set free. They grabbed a lamp that hungnearbyand took it with them to guide their way. Samuel explained everything to Eric as they went, hurrying along as quickly as they dared.

They had passed many doors and passages of varying types, diving deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, when they arrived at a sloping passage at the core of the mountain. The tunnel was long and straight, so tight in places that they had to squeeze through, and they continued on until it seemed to come to a dead end. Stooping, Lomar prised open a trapdoor on the floor, first unlatching the multiple iron bars that had kept it sealed shut. At once, Samuel felt the spark of magic lingering inside. An awful stench of rot and filth also issued from the hole and it made the threeof themstep back to get their breaths.

‘We will be needing this,’ Lomar said, pulling a length of study rope from beneath his Paatin clothes.

A narrow shaft led down from the surface and Lomar attached one end of the rope to the trapdoor and dropped the other into the darkness.

‘Balten!’ Samuel called into the hole, but no one answered his call.

‘We will go down. Guard our escape,’ Lomar instructed Eric.

‘How?’ Eric said, looking around himself for some form of weapon, but the others had no answer for him.

Samuel started first and slid carefully down the rope, using his sight to guide him between the walls. Lomar followed with the lantern held firmly between his teeth. The shaft opened out after a short way and they found themselves descending into a widening pit.

As they hopped onto the stone floor, the lantern light illuminated the crumpled figure of Balten leaning against the wall as if mummified. He was alive, but barely.

‘Balten!’ Samuel hissed, squatting down and holding the man firmly by the shoulders. ‘Wake up! We’re here.’

They almost thought he was truly dead, when Balten’s eyes flickered open and he looked at Samuel serenely, as if waking from a pleasant dream.

‘Samuel?’ the withered magician asked. ‘It’s been quite a while. I was beginning to wonder about you.’ He moved one trembling hand, while the rest of his body remainedmotionless,as if pinned to the stone, and he dug into his shredded rags of clothes and drew out the Argum Stone. ‘I believe you have come for this.’

Samuel took the ring and tucked it safely away. ‘By the gods! What have they done to you?’ he asked.

‘Nothing. Nothing at all,’ Balten responded coughing. It seemed as if his life was slowly coming back to him, pulsing out from his core towards his extremities. ‘They left me here, perhaps hoping I would get bored and perish, but I really found it quite peaceful. Some more water would have been nice, but it turned out the stones were moist enough for my needs. I find it quite ironic that the mountain they sought to finish me with ended up sustaining me. I sometimes felt as if the stone itself had thought me worthy of survival and had granted me the blessing of its juices. It’s strange, what passes through one’s mind in times of such solitude.’

‘What have you been doing all this time?’ Lomar asked him.

‘I calmed myself and entered a deep state. It was the only way to survive. I knew you would come eventually and I supposed you would only want the ring, but I thought it would be better if you didn’t have to rummage around through my corpse to get it.’

‘Eric!’ Lomar called up and Eric’s face appeared way up at the top of the hole. ‘Fetch food and water. Go back to the last guard post, but be careful.’

Eric’s face disappeared.

‘You look terrible,’ Samuel stated to the man, who had now started rubbing his arms and moving his head as his blood begancirculatingwith more vigour.

‘It is not so bad. Discomfort can be enlightening. Suffering opens the window to discovery, Samuel. It is not something that can be enjoyed at the time, but the feeling afterwards is nothing short of rewarding. You should try it some time.’

‘I don’t think it sounds very enjoyable,’ was Samuel’s reply.

‘That’s the problem with you Order lot. Old Anthem has filled everyone’s heads with his vision of a perfect world, but it doesn’t exist, Samuel. Without anguish, people get bored. Without stimulation, people’s minds stagnate. A world without some form of chaos would only create a world of blandness. That’s what Anthem could never understand. A society without hardship is like a herd of sheep. They would be very easy to control. Do you think that’s what your teacher had in mind? Perhaps I wouldn’t dislike him so much if it were so.’

‘There’s no time for talk such as this,’ Samuel replied. ‘Come. If you are ready, we must hurry. Om-rah has gone to kill the Empress. We must stop him.’

‘Om-rah?’ Balten said, and the name seemed to rouse him fully. He rose to his feet and cracked his neck slowly from side to side. ‘Then I will come with you. I just need a moment to gather my strength. What else has happened? How long have I been down here?’

‘Quite some time,’ Lomar said. ‘We have had some delays in our plans, but the time is now right to forge ahead.’

Balten took a moment to digest the words. ‘Well,then. It’s good timing that you came and found me. I was thinking of breaking out of here eventually.’

‘Could you have done it?’ Samuel asked. ‘Magic cannot work in here.’

‘Magic works everywhere, Samuel. It is everywhere andineverything. It is a fire that cannot be quelled. This mountain merely seeks to quench our will and stop us from calling our magic to action. As a blacksmith’s forge harbours the air and fire, so too can we create a haven for our will and magic within ourselves. As with any fire, with too little air the flames will suffocate. With too much air, the fire will burn out of control, blundering about in the wind. Just the right balance will result in that sweet spot that all magicsmiths seek. In this state, the fire within us will shudder and roar. It will accelerate and begin to draw strength from within itself, burning white-hot while it consumes little of its fuel.’

‘You have been busy down here,’ Lomar noted, raising an eyebrow.

Eric whistled softly from above and he dropped some bread and a sealed water bag into their hands. Balten took a hesitant sip and then started pouring the water into his parched throat, until the entire bladder was emptied. Samuel was trying to slow him, but the man gulped it all down desperately. He then shoved as much bread as possible into his mouth and began munching on it,like a child with a gob full of sweets.

‘Right! That feels much better,’ he said,his wordsbarely intelligible. ‘We’d better hurry.’ He held the rest of the loaf in his mouth and grabbed hold of the rope, pulling himself up hand over hand.

‘Incredible,’ Lomar said, watching him ascend. ‘He has recovered much of his strength already.’

The two of them started up after him and,once they were at the top, the four of them began away with all haste.

‘There’s just one thing to be wary of, Samuel,’ Balten said as they hurried through the passageways.

‘What’s that?’

‘Do you remember that relic we used in the desert-the one that holds your Great Spell? Unfortunately, I had neglected to leave it behind. It was taken from me by the guards.’

‘What?’ Samuel said.

‘I forgot I had it and it was not so simple to hide as a little ring. It will only take a subtle twist at its middle for the spell to be released.’

‘What kind of spell was it?’ Lomar asked with concern.

‘A very bad one,’ Balten replied. ‘It was not one of Samuel’s better moments.’