Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

It was a joyous feeling to have so much power, and Samuel raised a smoking finger at the astonished Grand Master as the fire spell ended. Anthem was aghast and ran to the balcony. He leapt out the window and vanished into the night air. It was obvious he hoped to draw Samuel outside, for Anthem could not act freely in the confines of the palace. Samuel was happy to comply, for it would be a much sweeter victory if his teacher could fight with all his potential.

He stepped to the balcony, with the wispy veiled curtains evaporating in fire as he brushed through them, and watched the old man hopping madly down towards the city. He took a moment to look back at Alahativa, who remained staring at him with pure horror. He knew he should have killed her and taken the rings from her there and then, but he had time to do as he pleased. She could not escape him. He could find her any time he wished and somehow the more terrified she was,the better. He would leave her there, guarding the Emperor and return for them both as it suited him.

He turned back to the scene below. It was now the time that he had been awaiting all his life. He was become the most powerful magician in the world. All he had to do was kill the strongest of the Lions of Cintar, and it would seal the fact. And that would not be difficult at all.

He vaulted from the balcony, exploding it to tumbling rubble as he leapt, and alighted atop a great,blue-tiled,domed roof across the courtyard; perching himself upon it like a predator ready to pounce. Anthem had hiddenhimself. He wasburied away beneath a distant home and was feverishly covering himself in every spell he could muster. Samuel could feel the man’s thudding heart calling to him, shouting aloud from his hiding spot. Across the city, tiny fireflies of people were looking up at him and wailing, abandoning their celebrations and fleeing through the streets in panic. He revelled in their fear as if it was a declaration of his triumph. Above them all, the Star of Osirah blazed away, now almost directly above them and taking up the sky like a new moon. The city lay bathed in its ominous silver twilight.

‘Fear me!’ the being called Samuel commanded and his voice boomed across the city and shook the foundations-but the people did not understand; for it was the Ancient Lick spilling from his tongue.

He had given the old Lion time enough to prepare, so Samuel took his turn to act. Picking up a distant temple, he heaved it high into the air with magic, spilling bricks and flailing Paatin towards the ground. He gestured with his hand and the building flung itself onto Anthem’s hiding spot with a distant clatter and echoing rumble. Both buildings vanished behind a plume of billowing dust, but Anthem was unharmed. He had darted away to another spot just in time.

It was quite an amusing distraction and Samuel continued the game, decimating parts of the city. It seemed there were still some guards and wizards left in the palace, for some spells came bouncing off him, and missile fire came whizzing past him. One arrow struck him directly, burying itself through the middle of his chest, but the thing dropped out of him without effect, as if slipping from clay. While he had any magic remaining,he was beyond harm, and he had barely even begun his work. With a simple glance, he turned the soldiers in the square and shooting from the towers around him to flames, one after another, setting them to dance as if in frantic praise of him. Some he flung wailing from the heights and others he simply crushed with magic, for the easewithwhich he could destroy them and the way he decided each of their fates was thrilling. For simple amusement, he left one Paatin crossbow-man standing,while two on either side of him fell to cinders. Then, as the man sagged to his knees and thanked Alahativa for sparing him, Samuel dropped a massive roofing-stone on top of him. The joy of destruction was simply delightful.

The entertainment would have continued longer if Samuel had not felt a rumbling in the pattern, for old Anthem-the wily fox-was summoning something mighty, just as Samuel had hoped. It came screaming through the ether and Samuel waited with excitement for the thing to arrive. He had hoped Anthem would do something like this and now he felt he would have a challenge worthy of his attention.

In the midst of the city, something appeared in a shimmer of air. There was no fiery explosion to herald it, but the buildings all around the summoned thing cracked and fell regardless, as if,out offear, they had given up holding themselves together. It stood five storeys tall and howled in fury at being called into existence, but Anthem’s will was tethered to it and the creature had no choice but to follow the directions of the old man, safe in his hiding place across the city. The beast was an enormous biped, cloaked in fur and with the head of a goat. It screamed again, baring teeth like swords, and the city trembled. People screamed and took flight. It looked directly to Samuel and began striding over the buildings, crushing all who strayed beneath its cloven feet.

Samuel leapt, springing across the city, and came down upon the beast like a hurled missile. He laughed with glee as he kicked out at the thing, for he yearned to see what such a magic-filled attack would do to the creature. With a lurching jar, he stopped short of his target, for it had snapped him out of the air with its massive clawed hand and thrown him tumbling away. He crashed through buildings one after another and came to a rest buried beneath a shattered wall of stone. Three rocks came spilling onto his head, but each one felt like nothing more than a tap from a finger. Dusting himself off, he stepped from the pile and launched himself aloftonce again.

The beast was striding directly towards him, ignorant of the buildings it toppled with each step. Three quick spells shot out from Samuel in succession and the beast roared with each, black blood squirting from its face. Samuelimmediately felt disappointed at the sight of this, for it signalled that the thing was merely an oversized animal of flesh and blood, and he would dispose of it quickly.

After landing once more, he sprang back up in the direction of the creature. He came down on a rooftop beside it and began running at once. It turned to reach out for him, but it was inordinately slow and,with his heightened speed,he was easily away, leaping between rooftops, peppering the beast with spells that took chunks out of its fur and flesh. The thing slashed out wildly and demolished walls each time, but it was incapable of harming him.

Feelingthatthe fight was entirely one-sided, and growing tired of such an affair, Samuel decided to put the poor thing out of its suffering. He jumped to the creature’s feet and readied a blast to kill it. The snarling beast bent over to look at him and Samuel sent a ribbon of power up and through its neck. Its enormous head came crashing down beside him and its body tumbled, flailing, into a three-storey cluster of dwellings.

It was quite a pathetic attempt at summoning and Samuel was just beginning to think the old Lion had lost his touch, when a bulge in the ether beganto movetowardshim. He staggered for a moment, realising that something much bigger was already breaching the pattern, and he smiled.

‘I have no choice but to destroy you, Samuel!’ came the bellowing voice of the old man, carrying across the city,and then he was there,standing astridea four-towered temple a hundredpacesaway. ‘You have become an abomination, Samuel-can’t you see? If I don’t stop you now, you will only grow stronger. You will lose yourself and do terrible things beyond your own control. Some evil compulsion is already consuming you.’

‘This power is my own, to do with as I wish,’ Samuel spoke back in reply, setting the rubble to tremble as his voice carried far and wide.