Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

A rope dropped down and Samuel stood to his feet. His muscles felt like dried cords as they slid and pulled his withered limbs into place. He flexed the knuckles of his left hand and he could feel his blood as it began to stream through his veins with renewed vigour. His magic was doing its work, restoring him piece by tiny piece, but it was slowgoing. He would need to be free of the mountain’s embrace and then he would rebuild himself properly.

He grasped the rope and twisted it around and around,so as to knot his hand with it. He waited, and the slack was gathered up, until he stood with his arm held tightly above him. It felt as it his shoulder was going to tear from the joint, but more heaving from above had his toes lifting from the ground and he rose into the narrowed chute, dangling from the rope like an unsightly ornament. At any other time,such a thing would have been excruciating, but his arm was little more than a desiccated ribbon of flesh wrapped around bone-and he felt nothing of it.

As his hand broke the surface of the shaft, arms came down and grasped him, pulling him up and into the narrow tunnel above. Five bare-chested dungeon guards stood there, commanded by Utik’cah. The Paatin commander held a lamp before him, glaring at Samuel wide-eyed and with disbelief. The men looked as tough and burly as could be, but they stood back from Samuel at the sight of him and coughed and choked at his smell.

‘Holy gods of Rah! You live!’ Utik’cah said, staring as if he was watching the dead, now risen.

‘So I believe,’ Samuel returned, and the words felt strange and husky upon his dry tongue.

Utik’cah broke from his stupor,startled to life,andpulleda black bundle from under his arm. ‘Quickly, put these on. Your clothes are rags, Lord Samuel.’

Samuel barely had to touch his own clothesandthey fell from his body readily,threadbare and torn. Utik’cah drew the new Order robes over him and tied them fast at the waist, staring at Samuel with a blend of amazement and anxiety all the while.

‘Why did you save me?’ Samuel asked, looking across at the dark-skinned man.

‘The girl is in labour. Your child is almost born. You must be quick if you wish to save her. I no longer have any love for Alahativa. Her people now run on sight of her, terrified by what she might do. She has become obsessed by war and destruction. Her sole purpose was once the good of her people, but that has long become lost. Even if she takes Cintar, I know she will never stop. In these recent months,she has become a different person. She must be stopped before she drags our people into damnation along with her.’ He pulled something from inside his clothes-a silver rod-and held it to Samuel. ‘Perhaps this can be of some use to you? I know it contains powerful magic.’

‘Put it away and hide it,’ Samuel told him, for he immediately recognised it as the Ancient relic that had been taken from Balten. ‘No good can come of this. There is a spell inside that would kill any who opened it and everyone near. It is too dangerous to use. Not even I can open it safely.’

‘Could it kill our Queen?’ Utik’cah asked, observing the thing in his hands with awe.

‘It would, but it would also destroy the city and everyone in it. Unless she could be lured out into the open desert, it is of little use, and I do notbelievewe have time for things like that. I will take care of her. Do not fret. Put this accursed device away and never let it see the light of day.’

The Paatin seemed disappointed, and pushed the cylinder back inside his robes.

‘Let us hurry,’ Samuel added. ‘Once free from the mountain’s embrace,I will be stronger.’

Samuel went to start off, but the Paatin man grabbed him by the shoulder and Samuel stopped to see what the matter was.

‘Lord Samuel, how can you hope to fight anyone in your condition?’

Samuel looked at the empty sleeve that hung over his right stump and then to his grimy left hand. Even in his new Order robes, he must have looked little more than an animated corpse. ‘I have seen better days, but I can manage.’

‘But Lord Samuel,’ Utik’cah said again. ‘You have no eyes.’

Samuel hesitated, for the words had truly taken him by surprise. He raised his fingers and dabbed them upon his face, touching about where his eyes should have been. The sensation was disturbing, for he felt empty spaces where there should have been matter. He dipped his fingers inside the hollowed and scarred cavities on each side of his nose, exploring within with some reluctance. He could still see his hand, but as his fingers went inside his face,they vanished from his sight. He was rather alarmed, but he could not let such a thing stop him. He was without his eyes, but he could still see. Somehow, in his time in exile beneath the earth, his magician’s sight had compensated for even such horrendous injuries as that.

‘What happened to me?’ he asked.

‘Alahativa ordered you maimed. I am sorry, but we had little choice. We broke your legs and pierced your ears. We burned out your eyes and cut out your tongue. We poured tubs of hungry rats downontop of you-and who knows what became of them? She wanted the most savage of deaths for you. I have no idea why, but she was very angry with you, Lord Samuel, and very afraid. It was only a few days ago that one of the guards came directly to me and reported that you had not rotted away as expected, and that your corpse had moved position from the last time he had looked. I did not believe him, but just moments ago Alahativa sent orders to stop you from leaving the dungeon, and I knew it must be true. I cannot believe my eyes. How is it that you still live after all this time? How is it that you can even see?’ and he waved his hands before Samuel’s face, marvelling again as Samuel followed his hands with subtle movements of his head.

‘I don’t know, but now is not the time to ponder such things. My son is about to be born. Let us hurry.’

They hurried along and Utik’cah sent his men racing in front, with their daggers drawn and holding their torches high, throwing their flickering shadows in every direction upon the jagged rocks. Out of view, the men began shouting and the screams of death and battle sounded ahead.

‘This way!’ Utik’cah said and drew Samuel into a side passage.

Along they raced, with Utik’cah’s lamp providing the only light, but Samuel could sense everything, seeing into the crevices and shadows with ease.

They came to an intersectionofthecorridors and Utik’cah darted across. They wove their way along the criss-crossing passages and followed the spiralling, twisting tunnels that filled the mountain. They were nearly to the surface when Utik’cah stopped abruptly, for a dozen Paatin guards filled the narrow way ahead.

‘Let me pass!’ Utik’cah commanded in the language of the Paatin and Samuel was surprised to find that he could now comprehend what was said.

‘The death of the magician has been ordered,’ replied the leader of the others. ‘Stand aside or join him in death. Alahativa commands it.’

Utik’cah drew his dagger and took a defiant step towards the men, but it was now Samuel’s turn to hold him back.

‘Let me deal with them,’ Samuel said, stepping past his guide.

‘Lord Samuel, you have no magic here and they will not reason.’

Samuel ignored him and continued forward. The guards readied their weapons, but Samuel covered the space between them and was amongst them as a blur of violence. He punched and kicked and smashed his head and elbow into them like a fighting demon and,in a moment,they all lay dead. He would have killed them quicker, but for his missing hand, for he had swung his right arm several times as if it still possessed a fist, letting it pass through the air harmlessly and setting him off balance.