As Samuel dusted himself off, the shelf fell aside and Ash clambered to his groggy feet. Samuel gritted his teeth as Ash checked himself over. The man’s face was brimming with jubilance as he realised he was still alive.
Ash laughed. ‘How magnificent! The power of the Staff protects me, Samuel. And I have not even begun to draw on all power it contains. I was foolish to underestimate you again, but I cannot go on until you are dead-I know that now. I can sense all kinds of incredible things and I feel now that it was our destiny to meet here, but I cannot have you distracting me any further.’
‘Such magic will destroy you, Ash!’ Samuel called out. ‘It takes a lifetime of experience to wield such power. Such a burden will be the end of you.’
Ash laughed aloud. ‘We shall see!’
A deadly beam of heat struck out again and this time it struck true, piercing Samuel through the middle, blackening the stone wall behind him. Ash gave a triumphant yell, until he realised that Samuel was still standing unharmed. The young magician was actually grinning in defiance of Ash’s attack.
Another Samuel stepped from the curtains. Ash again raised his staff and blasted this second Samuel. He, too, remained untouched by the fire, even as the curtains behind became flames.
‘Damn you!’ Ash roared. ‘Such insolence!’
With that, Ash raised the Staff of Elders and closed his eyes in concentration. Only a magician should have been able to call such ancient magic, but Samuel could sense the Argum Stone pulsing into life, acting as a conduit between Ash and the Staff of Elders, channelling power into the man-not even a magician-against all known laws of magic. The air began moving within the room and loose pages on the floor slowly rolled over and began to brown and smoulder before the spell had even begun. Ash brought the Staff down to strike the floor and opened his eyes once again, igniting his spell with wild fury. A storm of sparks burst into being and swept around the chamber, scorching everything they touched. The room filled with a hurricane of intense flames and swirling smoke, howling madly with a deafening noise. As quickly as the spell had appeared, so too it faded. Everything not made of stone had vanished-even the walls were scored and covered with blackened marks. All the shelves and ancient books that had lined the chamber had been turned to glowing embers and blackened residue, smouldering and settling in the corners of the room. Even Dividian’s charred remains had been swept away and obliterated. There was nothing left standing except for Ash. In moments, everything had been utterly destroyed.
Samuel lay panting, gripping the outside wall of the tower with all his resolve. Smoke billowed in plumes out the window through which he had just barely managed to escape. His robes were burnt and singed at the edges. He could hear Ash laughing inside and could feel the energy, ever mounting, as Ash opened himself to more and more power from within the Staff of Elders. Samuel’s heart was thumping in his chest in steady rhythm to the pulsing, grinding power that was emanating from inside. It was too much power for any human to wield so quickly. Soon Ash would not be able to contain all the magic he was calling and something very dire would happen. At the very least, the man would be incinerated by wild mage-fire as it burst from within him. Hopefully, that would happen before too much damage was done.
Ash’s laughter slowed and stopped and then his voice carried clearly out the window. ‘For a moment, I actually thought I had killed you, Samuel, but now I feel very glad that you are still alive. I wish you could feel what it is like to have this power. I have truly become more than I could ever have dreamed, and with every passing moment-’ His voice was changing. It seemed to be echoing from the air all around. ‘-I become even more.’
Samuel cried out as a shrill ringing filled his head. It was an unbearable pain, as if his mind was skewered with pins. It finished as abruptly as it had struck and, as he recovered his senses, Samuel had a strange feeling of motion and he could hear the wind whistling in his ears. He opened his eyes to see the ground flying up at him. His spell had broken and he was falling like a stone towards his death. It took a moment for him to recast his wall-walking spell and he desperately pushed his hand out to touch the tower wall. The spell formed true on contact with the stone and Samuel’s descent began to slow, with his hand brushing the smooth stones until eventually, and with a sigh of relief, he finally came to a halt. He hugged the tower with all his will while his heart slowed its feverish pace. In a few fleeting seconds, Samuel had dropped nearly half the height of the tower.
The sun was setting now, and the sky to the east was in twilight, leaving only the west still hung with a hint of daylight. Looking up, Samual saw an unnatural silver light beaming out from Ash’s window and a vast crowd had amassed in the palace grounds far below. People were filling every available open space, staring up at Samuel and pointing at the awesome display of light from Ash’s window. This was more than just magic. Samuel could feel something terrible happening up in that room.
Samuel took one last determined breath and started back up the tower wall, spider-like, and an audible gasp rose from the people below. He still had no idea of what to do or how to defeat Ash. All he knew was that he had to stop the man. If he could even delay him for long enough, perhaps the others would finally arrive to help; or perhaps Ash would make some crucial mistake. Perhaps his flesh would finally fail under the strain of all his newfound power. Perhaps with the Lions, Lomar and Master Glim together they had a chance of stopping the man. He only hoped the others were somehow on their way to help.
Laughter was still emanating from Ash’s chamber. The man was giggling like a child now. He had opened himself entirely to the Staff and magic was gathering into him at a terrible rate. The pattern itself seemed to be shuddering in trepidation.
‘Ash!’ Samuel cried into the window. ‘You have all that you wanted and yet still you have not destroyed me! What good is all your power if you can’t even kill one insignificant magician?’
The smoke within the room had thinned enough so that Samuel could peer in and he saw Ash’s face slowly turn towards him. Ash raised a charred sleeve and wiped the dribble from his lips. He opened his mouth and a dark, coiling vapour ran out and down his chest. It was blood, boiled and fused with magic so that his flesh could no longer contain it. Samuel was horrified.
‘Ah,’ Ash gasped slowly. ‘Ah, the power. I can feel it in every part of me.’ He held his hand up before his face and turned it over, as if scrutinising it in wonder. ‘I am but a shell of flesh.’ The man’s very words echoed with magic. Samuel could feel it rattling against his skin like splashes of rain.
A spell formed and Samuel rolled aside as the window exploded out, leaving a gaping hole. Chunks of dust and smouldering rocks dropped far below into the grounds.
Ash slid out and hovered beside the tower. ‘Now I am coming for you, Samuel. Run.’ he whispered. His voice was hollow and echoing, his lips were parted, yet unmoving.
Samuel realised he was in desperate trouble and scampered away from Ash and around the tower, still maintaining the same height. He lay panting with his back against the hard stones of the wall, looking left and right for any sign of the abomination that had been Ash.
Curiously, a tight white beam of light appeared out of Samuel’s middle. It shone out far to the hills like some form of signal and, when it had ceased, Samuel found a neat smoking hole at the centre of his robes. The pain followed and Samuel screamed out loud. His body had been pierced right through by an intense light, so hot that it had cooked a path from his back out through his chest. The pain was unspeakable, causing him to shriek wildly until he could throw enough spells into himself to dull all feeling. As a result, his vision began to blur and darken at the edges and his head felt thick as tar. Inside him, flesh and organs had been baked and crisped.
Even his fingers and toes had gone numb and Samuel quickly sucked on the fingers of one hand in desperate effort to revive them. He could sense the incredible amount of damage that had been done inside him and realised it was only pure luck that n
one of his vital organs had burst altogether.
A tingle in his spine lit Samuel’s senses and brought him back to alertness. He rolled aside as another beam silently pierced the tower directly beside his head and flashed out into the distance. Smoke seeped out from the two tiny holes that now marked the tower stones. Not wasting any time, Samuel started straight upwards.
The land all around was now cast in shades of grey and the sun was just a glimmering sliver of gold on the horizon. Flecks of silver covered the shimmering ocean, gathering towards a single gleaming point far away but, as the tiny crack of the sun melted and vanished away, the sea, too, became grey and quiet, leaving only the distant clouds with any colour, saturated in pinks and oranges. Directly above, the sky was darkening as storm clouds slowly gathered, and a soft groan rumbled out from amongst them as lightning flickered in their depths.
Samuel continued moving up the sheer, stone wall with labouring breaths. A flurry of silent beams sliced through the tower behind him and always the laughter continued, seeming to issue from the very air itself.
Samuel reached his goal and leapt over onto the top of the tower, waiting in the eerie silence of dusk while he gained his breath. The wind made a soft whisper and the other palace towers were dark shards in the twilight. The city was grey below, but tiny dots of light were quickly appearing everywhere as people lit the lanterns in their homes. The ocean, spread out vast beside the city, was tranquil, now barely seeming to move at all. Various city sounds seemed to carry up to him on the wind and, occasionally, a distant breaker could be heard striking onto the shoals with a whump and a hiss. At any other time, the panorama would have been marvellous to behold.
A whimpering sound made Samuel turn around and he found Lullander, the magician, splayed out on the tower roof, bawling and whimpering like a child. On spying Samuel, the man leapt to his feet and ran screaming and blubbering straight off the side of the tower, leaping as if to his salvation. His howling faded quickly as he plummeted away.
The wind blew up and the sound of rippling cloth caused Samuel to turn back as Ash rose slowly beside the tower heights, held up by the air itself. Samuel stepped away. He could no longer see the aura around the man as he had dulled his senses so much, but he could still feel the tremendous power threatening to be unleashed within. For an instant, Samuel wished he could get a glance at the weaves around Ash-even for just a moment. He could learn so much just by looking at the spells that Ash had brought into existence through sheer force, but he could not risk it in his current state.
A sickening grin was painted on Ash’s mask-like face. He observed Samuel, but his eye sockets were empty, gaping holes and his skin was taut and dried like bark. The Staff of Elders was clutched so tightly in his left hand that the tendons in his wrist were popping out with strain. The Argum Stone glinted, shimmering on his finger and still feeding magic into the corpse of a man. Somehow, Ash still lived, even as the mage-fire continued to eat through his body. He no longer relied on his own mortality. Such concentrated power was sustaining him beyond all normal reason.
Samuel needed far more power than he had ever summoned before, even if he was just to escape with his life. He sought within himself for the calm he needed and fought to slow his desperate, shallow breaths. There was nowhere left to run. Only his magic could save him, if only he could gather enough of it in time.
‘I see now what the universe is about,’ Ash whispered without motion-his words poured black vapour, his skin was bone white. ‘I no longer care for the trinkets and coins of this world. Even my eyes and flesh are only keepsakes that I willingly discard. What is being an emperor when I can be a god! I can feel the energy, the life, within everything, within you. I want it all,’ he hissed.
Ash lifted his hand and five arcs of raw energy flashed out from his fingertips, striking at Samuel like vipers. Samuel’s legs kicked out from underneath him, sending him sprawling onto his face. He thrashed and convulsed, his cheeks and teeth striking the stones as he flailed about uncontrollably. He could feel the life draining from him, being stripped from his marrow.
Ash stopped abruptly and a wash of pain flooded back into Samuel. He screamed into the floor and choked on the fluid that spilled up into his mouth, coughing it up in volumes, retching pure blood. He rolled over with wide eyes-his muscles felt knotted and torn-to see Ash standing over him, gnarled and twisted like a salt-withered tree.
Ash’s mouth widened, bearing the yellow teeth that still hung from his blackened gums in a hideous toothy grin, but Samuel barely saw the man, for he was looking beyond him, up to the darkening sky. Things were moving high above-enormous leviathans of power colliding and interweaving. A jagged patchwork of light silently zigzagged overhead, leaving tracts of fading scars across the heavens. More lightning flashed in the north and then the south and the rumbling rolled in towards them. Angry clouds gathered above and churned as if in a restless dream.
The pain then stopped and Samuel took a great gulping breath, seeming to taste air for the first time in his life.
‘I can stop the pain for you, Samuel,’ Ash hissed, stooping over him.
Samuel opened his mind and drew magic, but before he could use it, it had vanished again, sucked out by the insatiable creature above him.
‘How sweet is your soul,’ croaked Ash. ‘The more you fight me, the sweeter it tastes. Please don’t give up just yet. Your struggling gives me so much pleasure. There is so much of you to eat-more than you will ever know.’ Ash bent down further and cradled Samuel’s head in his palm. He pressed his grinning face and eyeless sockets against Samuel’s cheek and the stench of boiled meat was overpowering. A distant boom sounded in the sky and was echoed by more flashes of light and thunderous clashes just above.
An unholy suffering filled Samuel as Ash began his work once more. All was darkness and pain as Samuel twitched in Ash’s thirsty grasp. His bones felt skewered with pins, as if his very veins were being pulled out through his skin. Yet, somehow, Samuel’s mind disregarded the pain and the agony that pierced his tortured body, and locked onto a sudden obvious fact.
Amun morbata? The words had been misspoken.
Dividian had summoned the power to transform and awaken the Argum Stone, and he had spoken the ancient phrases required to transform the artefact into its new state, and yet, after all that tremendous effort, it seemed incredible that he could make a simple error in the final words. Unless, having realised Ash had betrayed him, had Dividian knowingly subverted the ritual? Was it a subtle message meant for Samuel? Whatever the reason, the spell was incomplete and the Argum Stone was vulnerable. Given time, it would revert back to its dormant form, but that could be hours or days or weeks away. Ash could do untold damage in that time.
If he was to survive, if he was to save the city and all within it from utter destruction, Samuel needed to get the thing away from Ash here and now-and he had only scant moments to do it.
Then, with his mind desperately searching for answers, the thunder sounded once more and Samuel knew what to do.
Ancient words came dancing onto his tongue, appearing almost from nowhere. ‘Karem abatu-’ he began, forcing them through his broken quivering lips. ‘Mendar arrellum; daedus mantati hellevar…’
‘What’s that?’ Ash asked, tilting his head to one side like a curious dog. ‘What are you whispering about, boy?’
‘Amun…morbayah,’ he whispered and, abruptly, the pain ceased once again.
Ash screamed and reeled back, dropping Samuel’s head thudding to the stones. He stood to his full height, screeching in pain as the Argum Stone flashed white-hot upon his finger. He held his claw-like hand before his face in sheer disbelief and howled at it like a raging banshee. Finally, his finger cracked off, withered and baked all the way through, and crumbled to dust. The Argum Stone bounced to the ground at Ash’s feet while Ash was left trembling and wailing, cleft from his source of power.
Waves of harmonious energy sang out from the powerful relic, making a resonant s
ong in Samuel’s ears. With the sealing-phrase spoken, the Argum Stone transformation was now complete.
Free of Ash’s grip, Magic surged back into Samuel like a wave heaving up and pounding itself down upon the shore. He threw up one hand as if clutching at the very ether and he was instantly filled with raw, pulsing power. His skin and bones and tissue and mind were brimming with magic, replacing the terrible pain that had wracked him only moments before. His body was already spent but, while he could still draw a breath, his magic could sustain him. He and Ash were vastly different. He would never have let himself be overcome by such deranged power.
He stood up without effort-as if carried by strings-with magic filling his ears like a thousand frantic drums all beating as one. He revelled in the power and the world seemed new and clear around him. Somehow, driven by desperation and sheer desire, Samuel had found his strength. It had come to him like a sudden revelation, but this time he was not overcome by it or light-headed or filled with rage. His undivided attention was set on destroying Ash, and all his magical fury lay readied for that task, trembling to be released.
Above, the sky bellowed and flashed. Thunder boomed and crackled in the heights, slapping at the tower with each release and making it shudder. A titanic storm had gathered, trying to balance the immense volumes of power being summoned and spent below. The heavens were voicing their rage.
The wind struck up and began howling like a madman, dragging at Samuel’s tattered clothes. Irshank’s robe had all but been burnt and torn from him. If not for his magic, Samuel would have been tossed from the tower like a straw doll.
Samuel looked to Ash, who was frantically searching the stones with one ruined hand, the Staff of Elders still clutched tightly in the other. His desperate fingers came upon the Argum Stone and the gasp of joy was audible, even above the storm, as he rejoined the great sea of power it offered him. His head rose slowly and he stood back upright like a ghoulish scarecrow. A wicked grin formed below his empty sockets.
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