Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

‘You can usually hear them?’

‘I hear their voices, their thoughts, their woes and their desires each night in my dreams. I pass their concerns to Empress Moon and she,in turn,acts upon them. In this way, our society remains perfect and peaceful. Without me, the people are lost. But now the voices are quiet. I fear my people have all been killed, and that is a loneliness I cannot bear; far worse than anything you can experience, Magician.’

He was almost feeling sorry for her, when her final statement raised his anger. ‘You have the audacity, woman, to assume you know about me? You know nothing about me or what has happened to me. My parents, my friends and everyone I have ever loved have all been killed! I have suffered more than a spoilt girl like you will ever know.’

The god-woman’s eyes opened wide,glowering with fury in the shadow of her hood. ‘ Good! ’ she hissed and stormed off towards her countrymen, who had already begunpreparingthe sled.

Ambassador Canyon looked at Samuel with concern, while Horse’s gaze was stony andlacking inemotion. Only Daneel watched on with open mirth as he began signalling for them to make ready. Samuel stalked over to the sled and reluctantly began helping Canyon and Horse to finish loading it.

‘She is not used to speaking openly,’ Canyon said. ‘She is easy to misunderstand and she misunderstands others.’

‘You’re not going to berate me for upsetting her?’

‘No,’ Canyon said. ‘It would be good for her to learn to speak civilly. The world she knows has already ended and will never return. She should get used to things being different.’

It was a surprising statement from the man.

‘Horse,’ Samuel said, changing the topic. ‘Would you teach me how you fight?’

‘Why would you want him to do that?’ Canyon asked.

‘Magic can be unreliable at times. Fists can serve better in many circumstances. I was in quite a number of scraps in my youth and,at one time,I could hold my own, but it’s been a while. What do you say?’

‘No,’ Horse said, matter-of-factly, continuing at his work.

‘Why not?’ Samuel asked, hoping to detect if the man was taking any subtle suggestions from Canyon.

Horse stopped and looked at Samuel levelly. ‘I cannot teach you to fight. I have seen you move and you already have all the pieces you need. You just need to put them together in the right way and that is something you must learn for yourself.’

‘It’s a far cry from moving to fighting. Would you say the same to an acrobat or a dancer? I’m sure they move even better than me.’

‘Perhaps, but if you ask me-and it seems you are-moving and fighting are exactly the same. It is only the choice of movements that happen to collide into another man’s face that changes them to fighting. Very well. If you want some simple advice, I will just tell you this: as with your spells, to deliver a solid blow you must use your full self to gather energy and direct it into the final point of contact at the precise moment of impact-a large effort into a small space and moment. As you know, a large enough hammer and a small enough nail can penetrate anything, as long as the force can be passed between them and the nail can survive the blow. That is the key. That is all you need to know. I’ve seen you move and I’ve seen your Turian magic at work. I cannot teach you anything more.’

‘You could teach me many things, I am sure.’

Horse stopped his work. ‘Come then.’ He stood away from the sled and motioned for Samuel to follow him. They moved to a small spot, with Canyon looking on with mirth.

Horse bent and picked up a small pebble. ‘Very well. I will show you something even more useful than how to throw a fist. Most battles are won or lost before the first punch can be thrown. Opponents must be assessed and strategies made before the onset. We will bypass all this and go straight to the most important lesson for any battle. Take this rock,’ and he offered the tiny stone to Samuel, who plucked it from his palm with interest. ‘I will take this stone from you three times using no force. There is nothing you can do to stop me, but you should try your best. Once I do this, I hope you can see what I am trying to teach you. Then, you will begin to understand something about fighting.’

Samuel was intrigued. ‘So I should try to prevent you?’

‘Of course.’

‘How will you do it?’ Samuel asked, to which Horse laughed.

‘That’s the whole point of this exercise. Let us begin now. Are you ready?’ and he dropped into a ready position, poised as if to attack.

Samuel nodded, not sure what would happen, but Horse shook his head and stood straight once more. ‘No, that will never do. If you stand like that,I will easily win. Perhaps I will give you an example. Give me the stone and I will show you how to properly protect it.’

At this Samuel offered the stone and Horse took it back. ‘That’s one,’ Horse stated and smiled with satisfaction. ‘Two more times and I win.’

‘Damn!’ Samuel said. ‘You tricked me! That’s not fair.’

‘I did not state any rules and I clearly told you we had begun. It was fair. Perhaps you didn’t hear me. Let’s try again. You must be alert,’ and he handed the pebble back to Samuel.

Samuel pushed the pebble firmly into a pocket on his left side, away from the ring. He held his hands out defensively and pulled up the hem of his robes,dropping into the same dramatic stance that Horse had previously assumed. ‘You will have to fight me if you want to get it.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Horse and opened his palm, revealing a small rock. ‘I have won already. The rock I gave you was a different one. That’s two.’

‘That’s cheating!’ Samuel said, growing annoyed.

‘There is no cheating,’ Horse said. ‘I have your rock, so I am the winner.’

Samuel grumbled to himself and poked his own pebble from out of his pocket with a finger. He examined it closer. ‘But this looks just like the rock you gave me.’

‘That is not the rock. I had changed them already.’ He stepped closer. ‘Let me show you.’

But Samuel held his pebble away defensively. ‘I’m not going to give it to you.’

‘You’re getting the idea, but I have already won, magician. There is no point in you denying it. Let me show you. If we put both stones together you can see which is the first one. Very well, I see you are cautious-which is good. If you don’t believe me, let’s stop the game here. Let us see which rock is the true one.’

At which point, Samuel passed the stone back to Horse. He held the pebbles together for both of them to see. ‘Oh,’ Horse said, feigning disappointment. ‘You were correct. Yours was the correct one after all. I was mistaken. But now I have your rock, so I win.’

‘What!’ Samuel said with disbelief. ‘But you said we had stopped the game.’

‘There are no rules. I did not state anything more than I had to get your rock. Everything else is your own assumption. The game continues until I win.’ He had a cheeky smile beaming on his face and it was the first time since Ghant that Samuel could remember the solemn warrior looking amused. ‘Only one more time. I hope you can do a little better or you won’t learn anything.’

He handed the pebble back to Samuel, who shoved it directly back into his pocket, somewhat unhappy that he had already been tricked twice. ‘Cheating foreigner!’ he grumbled to himself, but Horse only laughed all the more.

‘I will give you some time to prepare your defences. The first two times were much too easy. You will never learn anything at this rate.’

The Koian warrior went back to finish his work on the sled, where Canyon was laughing merrily to himself at Samuel’s ordeal.