She Who Has No Name (The Legacy Trilogy) (73 page)

They then noticed the sand swelling up far away—four rising hills that came sweeping directly towards them from beside the town.

‘
Jidanti!
’ Balten said and he cursed in the Old Tongue.  ‘They’re slow, but difficult to deal with.  We must move quickly.  Samuel, go!  As fast as you can!  We will cover you.’

Samuel went to spring away, but Balten stopped him before he could move.  ‘Don’t leap!  They are ready for that.  Save your magic.  I will provide you with some shields that should last long enough for you to get through to the town.  You will need all your strength when you get there.  Don’t use your ring until you need it, or I fear you will not be able to defeat Om-rah.  He is very strong.’  And he set a wall of spells around Samuel as he had said.

Samuel nodded and
started
away on foot as the other magicians renewed their efforts to defeat the Paatin.  Eric sent his sand-serpent writhing along on one side of him,
throwing
the wizards sprawling in sprays of sand, while Balten picked others off with his precisely
-
aimed spears of glass. 

Still more Paatin stepped in to take their place and Samuel found himself evading spells left and right, bouncing them off his shields with screeching flashes of magic.  The sand under his feet fell away and Samuel leapt as a massive claw came reaching out after him, dripping sand behind it.  It clacked shut just below his knee and the great beast, as big as a three
-
storey house, heaved itself out of the sand after him.  It slowly turned to follow him as the dunes spilled down from its shelled back. 

A jet of Balten’s magic struck it from the far side and the beast gave a shrill cry of fury and began turning back towards him.  Magic flicked along the rim of its shell and smoke gushed from the joints in its segmented legs, but otherwise it seemed unharmed. 

Samuel carried on as fast as his legs would carry him, leaping over Paatin bodies and ducking under spells. 
I cannot fail!  Faster!  Faster!  Or the Empress will die!
he chimed over and over in his head and he felt each breath burning in his lungs. 
H
is legs carried him like the wind.  All he could think of was saving the Empress and her boy.  He could not bear the thought of finding their broken bodies—of losing those he cared about again. 

Tiny sparks of magic shimmered along his muscles and he felt each step becoming lighter than the last. 
What’s happening?
he thought, as the wind began to whistle past his face and he began passing wizards before they could even see him coming.  His sandals padded softly on the sand, but energy saturated his body, driving him along with magic-empowered strides, faster than any Koian warrior.

Cold drops splashed against his cheeks and
,
a moment later
,
a wave of heavy rain fell like a thrown blanket, roaring and slamming itself down upon the thirsty sands.  Lightning shattered the skies and thunder followed immediately with a hellish reverberating boom that petrified the wizards with fear. 

Samuel did not slow
his pace
and he continued past the terrified Paatin as fast as he could.  In a few heartbeats, he had reached the yawning gates of Yi’sit and he continued through
, by now
little more than a blur.

He did not quite know what was happening, but he had no time to question the fact.  Whether the magic that now filled him was his own
or not
, he could not tell,
for
the ring seemed silent upon his finger.  His body seemed to be gathering power
of
its own accord, but he had no time to wonder how.

Water was already pouring off the roofs in rivers
,
and puddles had formed beside every wall.  Common Paatin and the remaining old wizards were standing in the streets, looking upwards and around themselves agog and none of them even noticed Samuel splashing past them.

He reached the Empress’ tower and barrelled up the steps, following a trail of yellow ooze.  Her doorway had already been broken in and
,
as Samuel hurried into her room, Om-rah turned to face him.  The arch-wizard’s enormous form filled the centre of the room and Samuel had to grab hold of the door frame with all his might to stop himself from crashing into the man.  Everything in the room had been broken into countless pieces but there was no sign of the Empress or young Leopold. 

Om-rah raised his arm and pointed to Samuel with a jagged black claw and
,
as he swore at him in some Paatin tongue, his eyes blazed within the darkness of his hood.  Samuel only had an instant to react as a spell burst out from the arch-wizard and shattered the doorway behind him.  He dived aside, rolling beneath the wizard’s other claw as it came sweeping out to snare him.  He dared not call to his ring without a moment to control it, for in the initial moments of receiving its power
,
he was always disoriented.  Instead, he continued rolling, up and away from the enormous titan in the room.  He saw his chance and vaulted out the window as another spell turned the rugs to flames behind him. 

As he tumbled
through the air, the heavy rain pounded down upon him.  He called to the relic on his finger and the ground froze in place, now seeming to rise towards him like a gentle embrace.  A moment later, the power of the ring had settled within him and the street flew up and hit him like a kick to the chin. 

He shook his rattled head and regained his feet, turning back to look up to the Empress’ room.  Om-rah was looking down at him, struggling to squeeze his massive form out the window.  His gaze was locked onto Samuel with hatred and he shoved himself through the window, sending shattered stones
pounding the street
below.

The hulking wizard leapt and splashed down beside Samuel.  He made a sound of sheer malice as he raised himself to full height.  His cloak had been singed and all but burnt from his body and Samuel could now see that there was very little
that was
still human about the man.  He resembled more a burrowing grass beetle, for his skin was a jet-black carapace—little more than an armoured shell.  His arms and legs were covered in bristles that looked like glistening blades and his hands were nothing more than cruel pincers.  His head was that of an insect, utterly black with flat eyes that reflected the light like polished plates of ebony.  His mouth was a razor-sharp set of mandibles and they clacked together as he bellowed, attempting to force the Paatin language out of his alien throat.

Despite his horror, Samuel did not hesitate and raised his arm, sending out a spray of incandescent flames that hissed in the rain.  Om-rah stepped through the fire and steam unscathed and sent his own spell of lightning flashing into Samuel.  It crackled and flickered around the magician’s defences, arcing and jumping between the puddles on the street, but Samuel also stood unharmed. 

Enraged, the hulking juggernaut came forward, reaching at Samuel with razor
-sharp
claws.  Samuel instinctively leapt aside and the black talons ripped through his shields and caught his robes, tearing them and sending Samuel spinning away.

Om-rah turned after him and spr
a
ng
,
using
his multi-jointed legs.  Samuel also sprang away and he alighted high up on a nearby building as the wizard crashed down on the spot where he had just been.  Om-rah leapt at once after him and, unable to halt the relentless creature’s approach, Samuel again vaulted away.  The building he had just abandoned collapsed as the arch-wizard crashed down upon it, but it did not slow the man-beast at all. 
It
shook the debris from
its
shoulders and followed straight after Samuel, howling with guttural rage again and again as
it
pursued
its
quarry from building to building along the street, summarily demolishing the town as
it
went.

Samuel sent out jets of magic, trying every manner of spell he could recall, but Om-rah’s shell seemed impregnable to assault of every description.  Every spell bounced off the slippery scale or caused little effect
,
and the Paatin arch-wizard kept after him
single-mindedly
. 

He found himself wishing for some decent-sized rocks
with which
to crush the bug for
,
every time he pulled down a wall or grasped something to throw at the wizard,
the object
would crumble into pieces on impact.

Samuel landed high atop another of the domed towers, several storeys above the street.  He called to his ring and swept out towards the hulking giant with a spray of magic that sliced the buildings on either side of the street in two.  As potent as the spell was, it did nothing but
rebound
against Om-rah’s shell armour.  Each spell burned at Samuel’s core and he was achieving nothing
except
the systematic destruction of the settlement.  If he could not think of something to change the odds, he would wear out and Om-rah would inevitably catch him in his claws.  He shivered as he imagined himself being pushed head first into the arch-wizard’s eager mouth. 

Samuel looked to the dunes beyond the outskirts of the settlement, where the battle was still raging and magic was still flashing wildly.  The rain was freezing on his skin, but he could barely feel it amidst the burning of his magic.  Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the rain stopped and the streets were left glistening, with rippling pools reflecting the pale lightning above and the yellow fires amongst the debris of the town.  Om-rah’s head pivoted as he surveyed the scene around him, for he too was
puszzled
by the weather, if only for a moment.  He sent out another spell that cut Samuel’s dome perch from its foundations and sent it toppling down into the street
,
while Samuel bounded away.

Most of the remaining inhabitants had fled the town and made for the relative safety of the open desert, but the nearby wail of a child had Om-rah and Samuel both turning their heads to see.  Down the next street, a woman ran for cover, cradling a boy in her arms. 

There was a clack from below and Samuel turned back to see the tyrant wizard, but the beast had already gone.  Samuel followed frantically, leaping after the armoured creature as he made for the defenceless pair.  The Order magician crashed into Om-rah with all his might, but it was only enough to knock the arch-wizard slightly off course.  They crashed into the middle of the street and Samuel rolled aside.  Cruel
,
spiked arms lashed out towards him as Om-rah thrashed wildly about. 

Empress Lillith was there, holding Leopold tightly
,
and she looked from Samuel to Om-rah
in
wide-eyed alarm.  Her breath was a cloud of frost.  She turned and fled into the doorway of the building, starting up some stairs and Om-rah climbed to his legs to be after them, ignoring Samuel altogether as he thrust himself through the narrow doorway, spraying shattered stone around him.

Samuel looked up and spied a balcony above.  He jumped up, hoping to catch the woman before the insect could have them.  He climbed over the side just as she came hurrying into the room, with the crashing sounds of Om-rah behind her.

‘This way!’ he called and she ran to him.  ‘Hold onto me,’ he called and she did
the
best she could, with the wailing boy clutching around her neck.  Samuel grabbed her with both arms and jumped from the balcony.  The woman was nearly pulled from his arms
by
the force of the jump and they sprawled awkwardly onto the street.