Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

Wizard-spells tinged and whizzed from Samuel’s shields. The attacks were steadily growing in number and strength,and would soon start taking their toll upon his defences. He needed to find a way to disable as many of the wizards as quickly as possible, and so, unfettering his poised and readied power, he set the sands to tremble.

The Paatin spells ceased at once as the wizards sensed his magic approach. They felt the threat of his spell looming, and they readied themselves to meet it.

The dunes shuddered and the sands began to shift. Some wizards ran, while the stronger ones set their defences in place. A hissing sound began as the sands swept over them and the dunes began to waver. Up and down,the hills of sand began to heave, rolling like waves in the sea,and wizards screamed and fell as they lost their footing or were swallowed from sight entirely. Many of the wizards were more skilled than Samuel had expected, and they remained balanced, protected in shells of magic and safe from harm.

In response, Samuel called for his ring to give him even more.

The pain buckled his legs and he fell to one knee, but he could not relent yet. The spell was doing its work and,moment by moment,the dunes raged higher, crashing down upon each other with a thundering roar,accompanied by thescreamsof Paatin men and women.

Around Samuel, the sand shimmered and danced as the vibrations rattled it,andwhen he could take no more of the magic burning in his bones, he quenchedthe flowand the tempest before him immediately fell flat.

Almost at once, a dozen spells flew in all around him, and Samuel was aghast to see so many blazing spots of wizards still speckling the flattened sands. He struggled to re-open his channel to the Argum Stone and re-establish his defences. His head throbbed and his temples felt skewered by needles.

Struggling to his feet, he began casting out streams of lightning to the nearest of the Paatin wizards. Some fell, but others withstood his blows and responded with savage spells of their own. Striding forward, he began to pick them off one by one, but his bodycould not lastat this rate. This was far more than he could manage alone.

Two blazing balls of magic seemed to heed his call and they came crashing down beside him: Eric and Balten-charged with power and readied.

Eric released his magic first and a jet of desert sand erupted from beneath a nearby wizard. The man went flying and the spell continued away, forming an arch of churning sand that then dived upon another hapless wizard. The wizard had prepared a shield of magic, but the unstoppable weight of the sand drove down upon him and he disappeared beneath it. Moments later, the torrent of sand sprang up beneath the next wizard-and it continued like that, leaping from the desert like a serpent, picking out its prey and thundering down upon them.

Balten clenched his fist and streams of sand flew up from beside them, glowing hot and raining downin the form ofspears of glass upon the wizards. Dozens of Paatin went down, pierced and shattered by the missiles, yet so many still remained to bar them from reaching Yi’sit.

‘Rest a moment, Samuel,’ Balten called beside him. ‘Calm your spells. You are overspent.’

‘Heisnearly to the city!’ Samuel said, desperately trying to recover his breath. He quelled his defences and,at once,the cool night air felt refreshing on his skin. ‘We must stop him.’

‘These wizards are proving stubborn,’ Eric said, continuing to wreak havoc with his sinuous spell of magic and sand. ‘There are too many of them.’

Balten continued his work, but raised his eyes to the heavens. ‘Your spells have upset the elements,’ he said and Samuel followed his gaze a-high, for the stars had disappeared and the night sky had become impenetrable blackness.

‘What is it?’ Eric asked, but a shimmer of lightning answered his question.

‘Clouds? Here?’ Samuel asked.

‘The balance is broken,’ Balten told them. He sniffed the air and looked surprised. ‘I smell rain upon the wind.’

‘Is that possible?’ Samuel asked.

‘It does rain sometimes, even here, although the season is not correct. Our magic has drawn the storm.’

‘Somehow, I don’t think the Paatin will thank us,’ Eric said.

‘Not when they are all dead,’ Samuel said.

They then noticed the sand swelling up far away-four rising hills that came sweeping directly towards them from beside the town.

‘ Jidanti! ’ Balten said and he cursed in the Old Tongue. ‘They’re slow, but difficult to deal with. We must move quickly. Samuel, go! As fast as you can! We will cover you.’

Samuel went to spring away, but Balten stopped him before he could move. ‘Don’t leap! They are ready for that. Save your magic. I will provide you with some shields that should last long enough for you to get through to the town. You will need all your strength when you get there. Don’t use your ring until you need it, or I fear you will not be able to defeat Om-rah. He is very strong.’ And he set a wall of spells around Samuel as he had said.

Samuel nodded andstartedaway on foot as the other magicians renewed their efforts to defeat the Paatin. Eric sent his sand-serpent writhing along on one side of him,throwingthe wizards sprawling in sprays of sand, while Balten picked others off with his precisely-aimed spears of glass.

Still more Paatin stepped in to take their place and Samuel found himself evading spells left and right, bouncing them off his shields with screeching flashes of magic. The sand under his feet fell away and Samuel leapt as a massive claw came reaching out after him, dripping sand behind it. It clacked shut just below his knee and the great beast, as big as a three-storey house, heaved itself out of the sand after him. It slowly turned to follow him as the dunes spilled down from its shelled back.

A jet of Balten’s magic struck it from the far side and the beast gave a shrill cry of fury and began turning back towards him. Magic flicked along the rim of its shell and smoke gushed from the joints in its segmented legs, but otherwise it seemed unharmed.

Samuel carried on as fast as his legs would carry him, leaping over Paatin bodies and ducking under spells. I cannot fail! Faster! Faster! Or the Empress will die! he chimed over and over in his head and he felt each breath burning in his lungs. His legs carried him like the wind. All he could think of was saving the Empress and her boy. He could not bear the thought of finding their broken bodies-of losing those he cared about again.

Tiny sparks of magic shimmered along his muscles and he felt each step becoming lighter than the last. What’s happening? he thought, as the wind began to whistle past his face and he began passing wizards before they could even see him coming. His sandals padded softly on the sand, but energy saturated his body, driving him along with magic-empowered strides, faster than any Koian warrior.

Cold drops splashed against his cheeks and,a moment later,a wave of heavy rain fell like a thrown blanket, roaring and slamming itself down upon the thirsty sands. Lightning shattered the skies and thunder followed immediately with a hellish reverberating boom that petrified the wizards with fear.

Samuel did not slowhis paceand he continued past the terrified Paatin as fast as he could. In a few heartbeats, he had reached the yawning gates of Yi’sit and he continued through, by nowlittle more than a blur.

He did not quite know what was happening, but he had no time to question the fact. Whether the magic that now filled him was his ownor not, he could not tell,forthe ring seemed silent upon his finger. His body seemed to be gathering powerofits own accord, but he had no time to wonder how.