Michael Foster - She Who Has No Name

‘Your heart weighs heavy tonight, Lomar.’

‘It’s true, Samuel. I have been waiting in this city too long and I’m afraid my spiritisnotitsusual self. I can’t say how glad I am to see you. I don’t look forward to seeing you in danger, but I am ashamed to admit I am glad you are here.’

‘This business will all be done soon. Come-let us rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day.’

Lomar agreed and they returned inside to find their beds.

Morning came and Balten led Samuel through the crowded streets, climbing steadily until they neared the foot of the palace, built into the side of Mount Karthma. Just as Balten had warned, as soon as they nearedthe entrance, the guards came running with their spears lowered, and Balten had to jabber at them feverishly until they believed him. He had to draw off his headscarf to prove his point and desperately motioned for Samuel to do the same. The men seemed hesitant and looked as if they would skewer the pair anyway, but another quick burst of gibberish from Balten had them leading the two magicians into the open maw of the great palace entrance.

‘Well, it looks like your plan has worked,’ Samuel said.

Balten replied hesitantly. ‘So far. Let’s see what happens after this.’

Their escorts marched them into the cavernous palace. Thebuildingwas open and airy, filled with water features and decorations;rich tapestries and translucent,billowing curtains. At first, it seemed as if they were heading upwards and Samuel thought they may be going to have their audience with the Queen already, but they took an abrupt turn into a corridor that led them through a layer of spells and into the side of the mountain. Dark tunnels led away from the main passage and each looked ancient and foreboding, dark and uninviting. Already, Samuel could feel the magic-muting properties of the mountain at work around him. The sensationwas dim, but seemed to grow stronger with each stephe tookalong the corridor.

‘I can feel the stones at work already,’ Samuel said.

‘This mountain is where they sourced the stones for your School of Magic,’ Balten stated, ‘and the stones of the Mage Cell in the palace.’

‘All the way from here? How did the mountain possibly get such power?’

‘No one knows-not even Cang. These rocks are older than anything else upon the earth. Their creation is a mystery.’ He was then quiet as he listened to the guards’ banter. ‘It looks like we will not be meeting the Queen just yet,’ Balten muttered.

The guards argued somewhat as they escorted the two and Balten only had a moment’s notice to warn Samuel, before the two were split up.

‘It sounds like they were expecting us. The Queen is going to test our mettle. She could make us wait quite some time down here. Don’t do anything foolish.’

‘I won’t.’

‘And one more thing. Give me your ring.’

‘What? Of course not.’

‘If you don’t, they will take it anyway and everything will be lost. Give it to me and I will return it when I can. Quickly!’

Samuel had no choice but to obey the insistent magician for,either way,he would lose it. He secreted the thing to Balten and the man tossed it into his mouth and swallowed it with a gulp.

‘What are you doing?’Samuelasked Balten with alarm.

‘Don’t worry,’ Balten appeased him. ‘I can get it back later. I’ve swallowed much larger things before. Your ring will be a simple matter to retrieve.’

‘I’m not sure I will want it back,’ he said, but Balten was too busy to reply.

The guards him gave him a rough jab with the points of their spears and Samuel was parted from Balten; the guardsturnedhimaway and into a dim side path.

Another group of guards was waiting at a branch and the first lot handed Samuel over to them. These guards were shirtless and brutish-looking,as if they had spent years under the earth. They were lucky if they had five teeth between them, and they gawked at Samuel with bloodshot, puffy eyes. They lacked spears, but each held a jagged-toothed dagger with loosely veiled desire to use it. One of them grabbed a length of rope and bound Samuel roughly around the wrists and turned his pockets inside out, searching him roughly. They pulled him through a further series of dank passages. It was cold and damp here and already the stifling sense of the mountain above had Samuel feeling halfsuffocated. He could feel the effect of the mountain, but that did not worry him so much as he had feared; he had long grown accustomed to being separated from his magic. It was more the enclosed space that had him worrying and the terrible feeling of an empty pocket without something jiggling within it.

Eventually, they came to a length of rough-hewn passage that had four iron doors along one side. One of the escorts rushed ahead and, throwing his lantern aside, drew three great sets of locks open on one door and laboured topullit open. They pulled Samuel towards the gaping doorway and he only had a moment to see that there was pitchblack awaiting inside, before they pushed him in and through, slamming the door shut behind him. Three rattling clanks sounded as they bolted the door behind him. They left him in complete darkness, chattering awhile amongst themselves, before he heard them sidle back away along the passageway from whence they had come.

Samuel stood perfectly still for the first few moments, controlling his breath and scouring the darkness with his magician’s senses. Anyone else would have been completely blind, but as his sight sprung into clarity, he could make out the faint energy that seeped from the very stone. It took some time to make out his surroundingsandfound that he was in a small and empty cell that had been hacked from the bare stone without precision, leaving the sides rough and uneven. The ceiling was a cluster of smooth stalactites that hung to various lengths. Slowly, as he focussed his senses around the cell part by part, he gained a greater idea of the walls surrounding him. There were some torn rags strewn on the floor and so Samuel collected these together then sat himself upon them, opposite the door,to wait.

He had no idea how much time had passed before the door opened again, except that he had waited many hours, then slept, and then waited again. And he had repeated that cycle at least twenty times without interruption. In that time, he had eaten nothing and had drunk only the drops that formed on the tips of the stalactites above him. He could only reach two of the spikes flat-footed, and one more by standing on his tiptoes and reaching up as far as he could with his tongue. In this way, he had persisted. Without such sustenance, he had no idea how he was supposed to have survived.

He had sensed figures come creeping down the corridor at times, stopping outside his door in complete silence before padding away hurriedly. He had sat still and ignored them all. He supposed it must have perplexed them that he made no sound, but not enough to have them open his door to see what had become of him.

When the door did open, it was with a bright and blinding light. He stood and shielded his eyes but,as something came bounding in upon him, howling and snarling, he leapt aside, almost cracking his skull against the wall. The door shut again, leaving him once more in darkness, but with something angry and growling sharing the cell with him. He could not tell immediately what it was, but its life shone brightly in the cavern against the dull stones. As he made out its shape from the pattern around it, he realised it was a dog of some kind, and it stood in the dark, growling savagely. It could smell him and probably hear him, despite how hard he tried to stand perfectly still. With a snarl,it leapt and Samuel stepped aside, grabbing it around the neck with one deft movement. He was weakened from lack of food, but it was not a large animal and he dropped his weight upon it and drove the beast into the ground. With a yelp, it was dead. He felt little remorse, for he had been allowednochoice but to defend himself.