‘I don’t believe you,’ the Koian woman said from her bed. ‘This is my son. He is not what you say. It is you who are the demon!’
The head midwife had not understood anythingof what Cang was saying in the Old Tongue, and she had already taken care of the afterbirth and tied the child’s cord and placed the babe back against its mother. Wiped and cleaned, wrapped in a soft cloth, the child wriggled on her chest. She offered the baby her nipple at the direction of the midwife, but it squirmed and smacked its lips and would not take anything into its mouth.
‘He will not feed,’ Cang said, ‘nor drink. He has no need of air or sunlight or any of the things we require for life. He cannot be killed. All he will do is grow and develop until he is ready to take back his kingdom. The spell that destroyed Hol would have turned his mother to ashes around him, but he would have survived. Only Starfall, the greatest spell ever conceived, has the power to defeat him.’
The Koian struggled with the babe, but it wailed reluctantly and turned its head erratically as she attempted to thrust her nipple between its lips.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Samuel asked. ‘You’ve said yourself that man has tried many times to avert this fate. What if you are helping to achieve exactly what Lin desires? What if you are the one who has brought about his return with your damned plans? Perhaps this is the way it always ends?’
‘I have spent my life studying the remains of other Ages, Samuel. I admit that most ancient history is unknown eventome, but I am willing to bet that none hasever achieved a plan of such sophistication. This half of the world will be cleansed of all life. Such a thing has never happened before.’
There was a flash of magic and Eric reappeared within the main chamber, visible through the doorway and standing in the middle of the stone circle. Cang started out and Samuel and the others followed, leaving the Koian with her child.
‘Did you know of this, Balten?’ Samuel asked with concern, marching up beside the tall magician.
‘Not all of it, Samuel. Cang kept the details to himself to keep his plan safe. I did not know most of what he has said until recently. I am sorry it has come to this, but there is nothing we can do.’
‘How was your journey, Master Pot?’ Cang asked of Eric.
Eric looked quite excited. ‘I made it. I found another chamber just like this, lined with blue tiles. It was empty, so I came back. We can leaveatany time.’
‘Wait a moment,’ Samuel told him. ‘Before you do anything to help them, we need to settle something with Cang.’
‘There’s one more thing you should hear, Samuel, before you do anything rash,’ Cang announced. ‘You may have noticed that you have lost much of your wonderful magic. Lin now has need of it and has called it back unto himself. Mother and father are no longer required to care for him. You could throw him into a ditch if you felt the inclination and he would still survive, although I would guess he would be mighty angry about it, flailing about in the dirt for years-but I doubt that has ever happened. Asforyou two, the instinct to care for him is natural and his parents would always have felt the need to care for him. But,if I were you, I would be careful what you do from this point on. You will find you are no longer nearly as powerful as you were. Any curses or blessings that Lin had granted you have been taken back. You are nothing more than a common man and she, a common woman. You can live and die separately as you wish, for that part of Lin’s legacy has now ended. Any powers you have left are what you may have cultivated yourself over your short life. I can see already that is something, but you are now nothing more than an ordinary magician.’
‘I still don’t believe you, Cang. Your words are poison and,even if it were true, his fate is not decided. People can change. Perhaps he will be the saviour of the world and not its destroyer. Everything you know you have learnt from stones and books. They could be wrong. They could be nothing but stories for all we know.’
But Cang only scoffed. ‘Of course not! He is the King of Demons. He will not throw down his crown and be a humble farmer or a poet, no matter how hard you may wish for it. His only purpose is to harvest us and devour our very souls!’
‘To what end?’
‘He is absolute evil! That is the only reason he needs. He has already begunpreparing himselffor the task. Have you guessed why you and the woman seemed to lack all presence, Samuel?’ Samuel looked at his hands and, despite the fact that he could no longer see magic, he could sense power shimmering around his skin-something he could never do before. ‘You have lost that blessing and we can sense you now easily enough. As magicians, we can sense other living things. Everything has energy within it. It is the boundary of their selves, where the extent of their life force ends, and what we can feel are the vibrations that occur at the edges of this energy.
‘The boundary of my power is larger than most and,to see it,I must stand in an open space, where the walls do not get in the way, for it is only the edges that give themselves away. I can then see it, shimmering around me like moondust or glitter. Lin had left half of his power to you and half to the girl-a vast reservoir of energy. To see such power,you would need to look to the horizon, or further, out to the edge of this world, towards the stars. You had access to almost limitless supplies of power, the remnants of every soul who has died since the last Age, gathered and awaiting Lin’s return. You were not invisible, Samuel, but hidden at the core of a power that surrounds this very world. Now that power is his. If you had known how to properly harness it, you could have been something akin to gods yourselves. But,as you have found, it takes the experience of a god to wield such power, and you seem to have enough trouble dealing with your own petty woes and worries. Now, I have dallied enough. I must kill you, for I had hoped you would be completely powerless once the demon was born, but it seems you did develop some skill by yourself. I can’t risk you escaping away with that demon. He needs to wait here for his end.’
Cang raised his palm without further ado and Samuel had only that instant to prepare himself. He cast up a shield of spells, but was startled when nothing appeared before him. In the moment it took to remember that he could no longer see his magic, a blast from Cang had him flying onto his back and he screamed with pain upon the stones.
‘Eric!’ he cried.
But Cang kept the other back with a warning glare. ‘Stand back and do not interfere, Master Pot. I have no need of you, either, although I would not readily see you dead. Now I have witnessed your Journey spell,I can cast it for myself. Do not tempt me.’
‘You may not need me, but I can still cause you some grief,’ Eric called out, and summoned a fistful of magic into each palm. He was still on the dais, and he aimed his spells at the stones beneath his feet. ‘Harm Samuel and I will destroy the circle. You may have learnt the Journey spell, but you still need this circle to focus on your destination.’
‘Damn you, boy! Don’t be foolish. I have been to the other temple many times. I don’t need some rocks to find my way.’
‘That may be so,’ Eric responded, ‘but if you have only just learned my spell,then you have had no time to master its details. It is quite tricky, as you can understand. It took me years to perfect. If I were you, I wouldn’t risk burying myself inside a mountain. Even the slightest mistake can be fatal.’
Cang was enraged and the floor around him crackled black as furious magic seethed from within him. ‘Damn you twice, boy! Very well. We will not harm him, but the demon child must stay to meet its fate.’
Meanwhile, Lomar, quiet all this time, crepttowhere Samuel lay upon the floor and helped him to his feet. ‘Ready yourself, Samuel. I will save the child and its mother, but you and Eric will need to distract Cang and Balten while I get them away. When I call to you, do whatever you can. If I can get them to the dais, we can escape. Then, I will return for you.’
Samuel nodded and Lomar backed away, bound for the birthing room.
‘You’d better take care, Cang, or you will find yourself stranded here beneath your star,’ Samuel called and Cang again spun round to face him.
The knotty magician made a cruel smile. ‘Then so be it. I was hoping to escape and help the survivors of this mess to recover, but if you insist that we all need to die, then so be it-but whatever happens, I will not allow the demon to leave this valley.’
Lomar then came stepping out of the side room. He had his cloak bundled up andhemoved stealthily, but Cang immediately turned towards him and knew what was happening at once. He seemed to have eyes in the back of his head.
‘What are you doing, Lomar, you insolent fool! Put the child back with its mother!’ he roared and that was when Samuel struck.
He knew he had little power left, but he had not spent the last few minutes being idle. He had spent his time
