Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

Then he turned to the Koian god-woman and gave her a smile that looked truly disturbing. It seemed he was making an attempt to be welcoming, but it did not suit him. His teeth seemed sharpened and feral,and his cordial air was rapidly evaporating. ‘It’s not often that I can welcome a god into my temple, so I am very honoured to be in your presence,ONamelessOne. You will not be staying long, but I hope my hospitality is befitting of one such as you, who has lived a host of remarkable lives.’

‘How do you know of us?’ It was the Emperor who spoke, and he addressed their mysterious host with suspicion.

‘I know many things,’ the gnarled,old man replied. ‘I have many reliable people under my command,a network of the most trusted and powerful men and women that spansevery continent of this world. I have been on this earth for longer than all your natural years combined and, by any measure, I am perhaps the most powerful man in the world. I build empires,then devour them; I raise kings,then destroy them. I control everything of importance that has, and will be-to a point. There is not much upon this world left to interest me, but I must say that such a collection of individuals comes close,’ and he moved his eyes across them all. ‘I doubt that such a feat has been accomplished since the New Ages began. I have been watching and following the progress of each of you for most of your lives. I am Cang, and I am the leader of the Circle of Eyes. Welcome to my humble home.’

Everyone was quiet and Samuel and Eric looked at each other, unsure of their predicament. Nobody seemed willing to break the silence and Cang continued looking at them with his strangely bared teeth, like a cat about to devour a mouse.

‘So what does this have to do with the current state of affairs?’ the Emperor asked, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the room. ‘Why are we wasting our time here when we could be on our way?’

Cang clasped his hands before him,and he had great,gnarled clumps of hands. He looked like he could tear knots out of tree trunks. ‘This has everything to do with the current state of affairs, especially with your Empress. Patience, Edmond.’ The Emperor however was not worried and did not flinch in the slightest at the sound of his name. ‘I organised for the Empress and her boy to be taken. I even arranged for the Paatin to invade your lands although,admittedly, it would have happened soon enough anyway. I have engineered almost all of the events of all your lives for one ultimate goal. I did all this because I had to, for we have reached a point in time that can no longer be avoided.’

‘What you say is ridiculous,’ the Emperor responded. ‘Such machinations are beyond any one man. How do you expect us to take you seriously?’

It was then that Samuel went to shift his legs and found that he was locked stiff in his seat. The room was so saturated with magic and he had subdued his senses almost to nothing. As such, he had not noticed any Holding spell take effect. They were all stuck fast, until such time as their host decided otherwise. He could not even wriggle his hand into his pocket.

‘Always so self-assured. Then please allow me to illustrate. It was a trivial matter to bring you, in particular, here. You would never have come willingly, being the stubborn goat that youare.So Master Celios, long your faithful friend, planted the notion of an assassination amongst the Order-in the form of a prophecy. This false hope-of a dead emperor and a pliableEmpire-started the self-assured fools out to achieve what they otherwise would never have dared. Finally, through luck and perhaps determination, they succeeded and the Emperor was indeed slain. You certainly proved yourself useful, good Sir Ferse, in those days following the assassination. Master Celios strung you along with his advice and his visions and you never seemed to realise that, most of the time, his wordsveiledmine. From there, I only had to lay some bait to bring you to my door.Stealing away the heir of the Empire was a simple matter. I had the feeling you would come running after him-and I was right.’

The Emperor sat stiffly, as if too angry to even move. It seemed incredible that Cang knew everything about the man. It seemed strange, too, that he curled his words to preserve the Emperor’s true identify, but Samuel was far too enraged to dwell on that. ‘How could you do such a thing?’ he spat out.

With that, Cang’s beady attention shifted over towards him. ‘You, Samuel, were not so simple to procure, but some patience and perseverance haveseen the job done well. From the time my witch hunters found you and had you sent to Cintar, you have been under my control. Did you think you had anything akin to free will? Quite the contrary. Bringing you here was as trivial as asking that it be so, and my servants set to work until the task was complete. I have special plans for you, Samuel. Do not despair. I will need your power in the coming days.’

‘What are you saying?’ Samuel said angrily, ‘-that you have somehow fooled or manipulated us into coming here? That’s nonsense!’

‘It is rare to find a magician with such unique abilities as you, Samuel. One of my closest assistants found you when you were just a child and my witch hunters did the rest. Each step of your path has been carefully crafted-from your uncle to Mr Joshua and Master Kelvin and even your kindly Master Glim. Everyone has served me in one way or another, whether they knew it or not. I know all about Master Ash, of course. He was the catalyst I needed to develop your power beyond anything those Order fools could manage-but even the Order played its role well. Their task was not to make you powerful-they could never manage that-but to make you pliable, and they did achieve that with remarkable success. The result was much better than if I had attempted to force you under my wing. Here you are, exactly as planned.

‘Directing your fate was no more difficult than influencing those around you, and there youwere, dancing at the end of your strings.’ Cang seemed to be revelling in the telling of his tale and he gestured with his handstomimic a dancing puppet, bobbing with his shoulders left and right. It was truly disturbing to witness the jolly look on his face as heenactedhis pantomime. ‘Ash killed your family, didn’t he? He was quite a nasty piece of work. He drove quite a splinter under your nails and I must say I applauded his efforts at the time. How youspurredyourself on just to catch him! It was wonderful how you killed him in the end, and he deserved it, every bit. I thought that was a splendid effort on your part. He was never one for following instructions and he had gotten quite out of hand by that stage. I was glad to be rid of the upstart and you saved me the effort of sending in my agents. You have become exactly the kind of magician that I require: wonderfully powerful and superbly naive-a perfect tool.’

Samuel writhed in his chair furiously. ‘Let me free so I can tear your head off!’

‘Come now. I am only being honest with you, Samuel. No secrets from this point on. This is the promised moment when you willeither join me or die, so please take the moment to consider the decision. You can’t say I have not given you due warning and I’m sure you didn’t think I was only joking. I have a very limited sense of humour, as you may have perceived.’

Cang then shifted his attention towards Eric. ‘Now, Master Pot, I am very glad to see you here andto observewhat potential you also have. It disappoints me that your friend Master Goodfellow did not make it. He could have been useful in the coming days, but it’s true he was little more than a crutch that was holding you back. He was the voice of reason to temper the fire in your bellies, but perhaps he outlived even that usefulness. I would not have thought the two of you would have sacrificed him so easily, but seeingthatyou did, I can only surmise you had realised the same. Even I thought it was a little callous of you to lose your friend for the sake of destroying Ghant, but I can’t say I blame you. Yes, yes. All of you shall have something to offer me.’