Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

The Koian woman took a breath. ‘I saw you and I was afraid-not because of what you could do, but because of what it meant. It frightened me because,for once, something that Canyon had told me had been true. He said that we were the same in nature, and we were supposed to have a child that would save our nation. I thought he was lying but,when I saw you consume those people,I knew he was telling the truth. It is not an evil power Samuel but,as with any power,it can be used in many ways.’

‘I will kill them for this,’ he said darkly. ‘We are not pawns to be pushed together and used for their whims.’

‘Do not say such things. There can be no goodto behad from these feelings. Let them do as they wish and let us do the same.’

‘I cannot help it. At times like this, my anger comes boiling up into my heart and I feel there is a dark and terrible thing lurking inside me. It makes me want to kill and rend and tear my opponents to pieces. It takes control of me and it uses me like a puppet-and I let it. Sometimes, I think I will become that thing altogether, and the man called Samuel will cease to exist. Perhaps it has happened already? Perhaps that is what happened to me in Ghant.’

‘Don’t speak like that. I have never seen anything in you but a good and true man. If anything, you are too honest and too pure,and a little more suspicion may have kept you out of this trouble. It is others who have taken advantage of you. Do not doubt yourself, for I will never doubt you. I hope that means something to you. Please…look at me. Why do you keep yourself turned away?’

A flare of magic caught his attention. It was Anthem, far above, rallying his magic and readying himself for battle. With a flick of his wrist and a loud crack,Samuel sent a spell that sealed the door for good, cracking and twisting the stone around it. The lintel warped, seizing the door in place. It would never open again.

‘My teacher is calling me. I must go to him and teach him something in return.’

The Koian woman was puffing quickly, holding onto her belly, but she held one hand out to Samuel as he stepped away. ‘Don’t leave me!’

He could not even turn back to look at her, lest she see his hideous face. Instead, he ignored her and went to the window, where he drew his magic and leapt.

Anthem’s location was as obvious as if a flaming beacon had been set above him.Samuel boundedalong the terraces and rooftops, leaping like a human flea towards the blaze of gathering magic. The Star of Osirah still burned far above them in the night sky, and the people of the citycontinued tocelebrate beneath it, ignorant of what was unfolding in the palace.

Grand Master Anthem was waiting in the hall of the Desert Queen, where Samuel had witnessed their treachery. He was wearing his Order blacks and stood defiantly, straight-backed, in the middle of the room, surrounded by power. Alahativa was waiting to the side, with the Emperor draped in chains beside her. The man looked infuriated, but it seemed he was helpless against her magic. No servants or guards lined the walls. All had fled or been told to leave lest they be consumed in the coming conflict.

‘Samuel,’ Anthem said in greeting, granting a welcoming smile. ‘We have much to discuss.’

‘I want nothing to do with you any more, old man,’ he replied and Anthem scowled back.

‘I see you’ve grown a bitter tongue, but it would pay you to hold it until you have learnt everything there is to tell. Would you not hear how Gallivan and I fared in Garteny?’

‘I have already heard all I need to hear and I am in no mood to listen to more lies and stories. And what would you expect? Look what she’s done to me-my hand, my eyes!’ and he pulled his sleeve up over his stump, to reveal the mottled, pink skin that bulged around his elbow. He raised his chin to let the light fall onto his ravaged face and even the Desert Queen looked disgusted.

But Anthem was resolute and went on. ‘Yet,even blind, you have learnt to compensate for such injuries. You are truly gifted, Samuel.’

Alahativa also spoke up. ‘I applaud you for surviving my dungeon, Samuel. It is a feat that no one has ever accomplished.’

‘Your dungeon is much overrated, witch. First, Balten escaped, and now, so have I. YourEmpire is decaying from within. Even your own people have turned against you. You have lost yourEmpire with your madness.’

She looked enraged by this, despite her best efforts to maintain self-control. After a moment of tussling with herself, she snapped back into her perfect,beguiling smile. ‘Please, give up this foolishness. We all know that without the ring on your finger, you are helpless. You are blind and crippled. This is foolishness.’

‘You are wrong. Without the ring, I am more than I was. I have thrown away that crutch and learned to walk on my own. Without my eyes,I have learnt to see more than ever before. My body is just a vessel. It can be broken, but it can be mended and made new again. With every moment free from your mountain,my strength returns. I wanted to show you, old man, what I have become. There is nothing you can teach me any more. Behold.’

With that,he opened himself up like never before and his own fresh, untainted magic surged into him. Wonderful power rippled within him and boiled around his form. It was boundless power, and it was his to control. He willed it tobeconcentratedin his withered eyes and shattered stump,and it glittered there like the sun glimmering on still waters. Anthem and the Desert Queenheld their arms up to shield their eyes, for the light blazing fromSamuel’swounds was blinding. The magic swelled inside his skull, grasping and mending the flesh, creating and stitching matter where there had been none. He called from his memory all the sensations that he knew should exist, and filled his spell with his intent that he should be made whole, and his magic went to work. The orbs of his eyes grew into place,like tiny buds blooming into maturity, and,when he felt the spell was complete-when he could feel his eyeballs pressing and sliding against the backs of his eyelids-he let the magic subside and he opened his eyes.

The world appeared before him as it had before, cast in shades of colour and light, marked by depth and dimension, yet enhanced by his superior magician’s sight . But he did not rest there. He steered his magic towards the stump of his arm and watched as the veins and flesh rippled forth from around the shattered bone, knitting themselves anew. Meat and tendons stretched themselves across the bone that grew out from the wound. A layer of skin spread about to envelope the flesh, pale and soft, before it browned to match the skin around it, and soft hairs and freckles grew in place, exactly as he remembered each of them. His forearm grew voraciously up to the wrist, and then spread out as his hand came into being. The hand divided and five fingers sprouted into place. Pink nails slid out from beneath the cuticles as the digits rounded themselves off and sealed themselves closed.

When he was done, Samuel let his magic dissipate and the blinding light he hadcastabout himself flickered from existence. He turned his hand over before him and flexed his fingers, forming a fist and relaxing it, marvelling at the muscles bunching under his skin.

‘I was but a shell of flesh,’ he said into the room, ‘but now I am something greater. The tree has become the fire.’

His new flesh felt and looked exactly as it had done before-before it had been so suddenly hacked from his body. His senses all throughout his being felt heightened and he could feel the tiny,individual pieces of himself at work, all doing their tasks and assisting each other: minuscule motes that toiled individually yet together, forming the flesh and matter that comprised his whole. He was not a creature of flesh, playing with magic-he was the magic, riding upon a vessel of bone and meat that it had crafted, and the more power he summoned,the greater he became.