by Ben Chandler
‘We were searching for you, Sir Karasu.’
There was a pause. ‘Indeed? What an extraordinary coincidence that you have found me here, of all places.’
‘The gods do not deal in coincidence.’
Lenis almost snorted. The captain was an advocate of what he called the Way. He didn’t believe in fate, or in letting gods or anyone else direct his destiny. Is he joking?
It’s a ploy, Missy replied. He’s trying to throw Karasu off guard.
Is it working?
Shh! I’m trying to listen.
Lenis stifled a retort. The ropes leading up to Karasu’s airship were twenty paces away, behind the two guards. Although Lenis was confident they could sneak around them, he was worried about the ropes. He couldn’t hold Missy’s hand and climb at the same time. They would need a diversion. He had wanted to save that for later, in case Karasu returned to his airship, but he didn’t see any way around it now.
He edged them around the two oblivious guards until they were almost touching the airship’s hull. Then he stopped and squeezed Missy’s hand again.
Missy, I need you to send a message to Aqua.
Aqua? Missy asked, still half-listening in on the confrontation brewing at the southern end of the square.
I sent her around the wall, Lenis told her. She should be close to the burning ruins now.
What do I tell her?
Just tell her it’s time. She knows what to do.
Lenis felt his sister depart. The part of her that could communicate with Bestia was gone, flying out along the western edge of the square in search of Aqua. Lenis tried to maintain his calm while he waited for her to return. She wasn’t gone that long, but every second felt impossibly drawn out. From one heartbeat to the next Lenis expected battle to break out in the square, or for Karasu to withdraw to his airship. The crew would try to stop him from leaving, but their focus would be on protecting the remaining townsfolk.
Suddenly Missy was back. Okay, she got the message, but what is she going to … Missy’s mental voice trailed off as a high-pitched squeal came from the west. Oh.
Billows of steam rose up from behind the encircled townspeople. Aqua’s affinity for water meant that she could draw moisture out of the air and condense it. The colder the air the better, and though the heat of the fires was intense, the mountains of Heimat Isle were very cold. Aqua had no trouble generating enough water to douse the coals of a burnt building, which sent up clouds of steam and set the overheated rubble shrieking in protest. She probably wasn’t strong enough to put out the whole town, but that wasn’t why Lenis had sent her over there.
As he had expected, everyone in the square turned to see what was going on.
Come on! Lenis snatched his hand from Missy’s and lunged for the nearest rope.
His sister followed suit and soon the two were struggling up the side of the hold, Atrum wrapped around Lenis’s neck. It took a little over a minute for them to gain the deck, and as soon as they did Lenis grabbed Missy and huddled down against the railing, their hearts beating wildly in unison, sure that someone had glanced over and seen her.
Lenis forced himself to calm down and sensed his sister was also struggling to slow her own rapid heartbeat. Atrum curled up between them, wedged between their heaving ribcages. The small, black-furred Bestia remained as composed as ever and began smoothing down his rumpled fur with his tongue.
I don’t think they saw us, Missy said into Lenis’s mind.
He nodded. What’s going on in the square?
They weren’t distracted for long. They’re still talking. Lenis?
Mmmm?
I think the captain’s trying to buy us some time.
That’s impossible. Lenis hadn’t had time to discuss his plan with any of the others. There was no way Captain Shishi could have known what the twins were doing. Missy hadn’t even known until they had started out, but the captain had surprised Lenis several times in the past. Perhaps he had seen them as they climbed the ropes. Did you scan his mind?
I can’t, Missy admitted. He never seems to be thinking anything whenever I try, but it’s the way he’s talking to Karasu. He’s not taunting him into a fight and not trying to negotiate for the release of the townspeople. It’s like he’s stalling.
Lenis felt himself smile as his heart slowed to a more natural rhythm. The more Lenis got to know the captain, the more of a mystery the man seemed. We’d better hurry up, then.
In answer, Missy removed her arms from around Lenis’s neck, being careful to maintain contact until she was holding his hand again. Together they pushed themselves up and looked around the deck. With a jarring sense of dislocation, Lenis noticed that Karasu’s airship had been constructed using the same design as the Hiryū. Airship design was a dynamic industry. Few airshipwrights produced the same vessel year after year, making it rare to stumble across two identical airships. They must have been built almost simultaneously.
It’s just like the Hiryū. Missy’s thought almost exactly matched his own so that, for a moment, Lenis believed his brain had gone around in a circle.
Yeah, but how did Karasu get his hands on an airship almost identical to the Hiryū?
How many vessels did Pure Land’s Ruling Council give Shinzō? Missy asked.
Lenis shrugged. I don’t know. A few? But that still doesn’t explain how Karasu got it. If he stole it, why didn’t Lord Shōgo tell us back in Nochi when he admitted Karasu wasn’t working for him?
Maybe he was lying.
That wasn’t a reassuring thought. They were counting the Warlord of Shinzō as an ally against the Demons now, but Captain Shishi did steal the Hiryū from him, and the Warlord had spent most of the last year chasing after them to get it back. Or had he?
Something occurred to Lenis. It wasn’t the Warlord.
What?
In Asheim, Lenis said, when we were caught. You were in that audience with the prince and the captain, remember?
Yes, so?
There was an Ostian airship docked next to the Hiryū, only it wasn’t Ostian. It had Ostian flags but a red dragon figurehead, just like the Hiryū.
And all of the other Shōgo airships, Missy pointed out.
Right! We thought it was the Warlord, and then Karasu showed up.
It was him! Missy saw the thought in his mind before Lenis could articulate it. That airship was Karasu’s. We only thought he was working for the Warlord!
Lenis nodded. That still doesn’t explain how he got the airship in the first place.
I guess it doesn’t really matter just now, Missy told him. If this airship is like the Hiryū on the inside, too, then we shouldn’t get lost. Where do we look first?
The holds? Lenis suggested, and the two moved to the nearest one.
Lenis took a moment to send his awareness around them, but although Karasu had stationed guards on the ground, there was no one on deck. As quietly as they could, the twins pulled open the door to the first hold a crack, revealing several racks of weapons within. Missy pulled back and shook her head. They moved to the next hold, but this one was full of foodstuffs. The third hold held similarly useful stock, but nothing to suggest Karasu had stored the stones of ebb and flow there.
Lenis suddenly felt his stomach churn. What if Karasu had the stones with him? He pushed the thought aside and screwed up his courage.
Is the captain still stalling? Lenis asked as they moved to the door of the final hold. He figured the most natural place for Karasu to store the stones was in his own cabin. On the Hiryū, all of the holds had been converted to storage areas, but originally two of them had been set aside for cabins. It was possible the fourth hold was Karasu’s own cabin.
Oh, no!
Lenis didn’t need his sister’s warning. He had felt it, too. The engines of Karasu’s airship had started up.
We have to hurry! Lenis reached for the door to the fourth hold.
His sister pulled him back. There isn’t time! Karasu is heading this way.
It’s no good, Lenis! Karasu got tired of the captain’s hedging. He’s given the order to move out. We have to get out of here!
Lenis felt frustration flow through him. They were so close! He hesitated, and in that moment they lost their chance to make a clean getaway. The ropes leading down to the ground went taut as someone started climbing up.
The far railing. Missy thought before Lenis could react. She pulled him over to the other side of the airship. They looked over the side at the twenty-foot drop.
Lenis’s mouth went dry. At the least they were going to break some bones. Missy, I don’t think –
Look!
Lenis’s eyes followed Missy’s finger. He couldn’t see anything, just the shadow cast by the hull of the airship, but then something stirred within the darkness and he saw a figure crouched in the lee of the vessel.
Yami! Lenis didn’t know why the swordsman was there, but he didn’t care. He knew that everything was going to be all right now. Missy. Jump down. Yami will catch you.
Lenis –
A shudder ran through the airship. No time! We’re taking off! Lenis could feel the engines roaring to life. A moment later the airship gave a little lurch. In another second they would lift off the ground and the drop would only get higher. Panicked, he grabbed Missy’s hand tight and spun her out and over the railing. He sensed her holding back a cry as he let her go. Missy’s sudden appearance overhead had startled Yami, but the swordsman recovered quickly, leaping into the air to catch her.
Lenis! Missy screamed silently as they landed.
Yami placed Missy on the ground and asked her something. She shook her head and pointed upwards, back towards Lenis. Lenis threw one leg over the railing, readying himself to jump. The airship suddenly lurched skywards, sending Lenis sprawling onto the deck as Karasu’s airship took to the skies.
‘Lenis!’ Missy cried aloud, not caring if anyone heard her now.
‘Where is your brother?’ Yami asked her. His hand was a reassuring weight on her shoulder but couldn’t stave off the sinking feeling inside Missy’s stomach.
She pointed above her head, to the place at the railing she thought Lenis would be. ‘He’s on board.’
‘What?’
Missy had never seen the Shinzōn swordsman so agitated before. Through his grip on her shoulder she felt all of his muscles tense, as though he were about to spring up into the air. He didn’t. Karasu’s airship was already hundreds of feet above them.
‘We must return to the Hiryū and give chase,’ Yami told her, taking his hand from Missy’s shoulder.
The sinking feeling grew worse, until she thought she was going to vomit from it. ‘How? Lenis is the only one who can start the engines!’
Yami was visibly shaking, though whether from rage or fear or pent-up energy, Missy couldn’t tell. She couldn’t even think straight. Karasu had her brother! Her hand was inside her robe before she even realised it, closing around the hilt of the Quillblade and drawing it out. Her fear and indecision left her as the blade quickened, feeding off her negative emotions.
‘We need to talk to the captain.’ Her voice was calm and low, and Yami responded to it with a nod.
Together they raced to the southern end of the square. Some of Karasu’s guards had been left behind to allow their master time to escape. They pressed close to their captives, menacing the townsfolk with their weapons. Captain Shishi and the rest of the crew were edging closer, their own weapons drawn. Missy strode right between the two groups, Yami close at her heels. She was no longer thinking about what might happen to the people of Fronge. All that mattered was getting her brother back.
‘Where has Karasu gone?’ she demanded. The Quillblade thrummed in her hands, its power building to match her own rising fury. Electricity sparked along its cutting edge. No one moved or answered. Missy’s eyes narrowed.
‘Miss Clemens,’ the captain began, ‘perhaps you should –’
‘Lenis is onboard Karasu’s airship!’ Missy’s scream cracked through the tension in the square, and there was the shadow of the Thunder Bird’s cry in it.
Everyone took an unconscious step back from her, except for Yami, who remained immobile behind her shoulder. Karasu’s airship had long since disappeared behind the black clouds of smoke still hovering above what was left of Fronge. Missy needed someone to answer her question. She needed to know where Karasu was taking her brother. She held the Quillblade aloft. A bolt of lightning arced from its tip up into the smoke-filled sky. The deep rumble of far-off thunder rolled through the square, impossibly long. She could feel Raikō’s presence hovering just beyond her reach, ready to be called.
Missy screamed again, and this time there was no mistaking the avian ferocity in it. ‘Answer me! Where is Karasu going?’
Something happened then that Missy couldn’t explain. She felt a surge of power, either from the Quillblade or from somewhere deep inside herself, she couldn’t tell which. She lowered the shintai as her spirit-self suddenly expanded, her awareness going wider than it ever had before. She felt herself spread out until she seemed to envelop everyone in the square. For an instant, she knew what each of them was thinking, their thoughts perfectly clear, but then she was back in the confines of her body, her head spinning, and she was unable to make sense of what had happened. She had seen too many things all at once to be able to focus on any one thing, any one thought. Her mind reeled from the influx of data.
Then everyone started talking at once. Each of them, whether they were one of Karasu’s warriors, one of the residents of Fronge, or one of her own crewmates, answered her question, whether they knew the answer or not. Those that didn’t told her so, but some of them did. Scattered phrases broke through Missy’s discombobulated mind. Most were in Heiliglander and came from the townspeople, but a few came from Karasu’s own men, who spoke only Shinzōn.
Missy screwed her eyes shut and tried to focus. Slowly, her brain stopped trying to sort through everything at once. A few phrases remained in the forefront of her mind.
‘The temple.’
‘The mountains.’
‘God of the Sea.’
‘The Vision Peaks.’
Whatever Missy had just done, however she had done it, she now knew where Karasu was headed. The mercenary had come to Fronge in search of a temple dedicated to a Sea God and had tortured the townsfolk until they had revealed its location – somewhere in the mountains called the Vision Peaks.
When she opened her eyes Missy noticed that Karasu’s men had fallen back behind their captives, placing the people of Fronge between themselves and Missy. She glared at them, her rage building as her mind steadied itself. Missy raised the Quillblade again as Karasu’s warriors eyed her over the heads of the cowering townsfolk. More lightning flashed through the sky to strike the blade, and Missy felt its power intensify. Suddenly she could sense the Demon Lord that had once been Raikō nearby, as if he was being drawn towards her. She was caught in a moment of indecision. Could she, should she, summon him? Would she be able to control him on her own?
Karasu’s men acted before she could make up her mind. They turned and ran, right through the burning ruins of Fronge. Missy watched them go, using all her strength to reign in her anger. Let them go. They aren’t important. Find Lenis. She realised she was gritting her teeth and forced herself to relax, taking slow, deep breaths until the intensity of her temper ebbed. She noticed the Quillblade was now shining as brightly as Yami’s sword did in Gawayn’s hands.
‘Miss Clemens?’ The captain’s voice was hesitant.
With an effort, Missy unclenched her fingers from around the Quillblade’s hilt and let it fall to the cobbles of the square, where it clanged metallically before curling into its feather form again. As it left her grasp the force of her anger fled, leaving her feeling numb and very weak.
‘I’m all right.’ Belying her own words, Missy felt her knees give way.
Yami
caught her before she could fall. ‘You do not seem all right. What happened?’
Weakened as she was, Missy still felt more like her own self now that she wasn’t clutching Raikō’s shintai, more in control. She looked over at the fifty or so townsfolk who had survived Karasu’s butchering. They were staring at her wide-eyed, as if they feared her as much as they had the Shinzōn mercenary who had tormented them.
‘I don’t know, Sir Yami. I think perhaps it was the Quillblade.’ Missy regarded the seemingly innocuous feather lying on the ash-covered cobblestones beneath her feet and wondered if she told the truth. The shintai had been a part of what she had done, that much was true, but whatever it was had originated within her. Still, she required everyone’s help if she was going to save her brother, and she needed them focused on him, not her. ‘I will be more careful in the future. Perhaps Lord Tenjin can explain what happened when we return to the Hiryū.’
This seemed to satisfy her crewmates somewhat, for although some still looked at her strangely, no one asked any more questions about how she had compelled them all to speak. They had been privy to the powers of the Quillblade before and witnessed their effects on Missy all too often. Furthermore, they trusted that Kami Tenjin, the one who had given Missy the Quillblade in the first place, would have an explanation for what had happened in the square when they had all felt the compulsion to answer Missy’s question.
The captain came over and picked up the Quillblade. ‘Perhaps it will be best if you do not handle the shintai until after you have spoken to Lord Tenjin. The double-edged nature of this weapon becomes more apparent with each use.’
Missy nodded as he placed the golden feather inside his robe. She could only agree. The shintai did give her great power, but she didn’t really know how to use it. Although she and Lenis had wielded it to successfully summon and control the Demon Lord that had once been Raikō in the battle with Ishullanu, it seemed that whenever she tried to use it on her own she got herself into trouble. Lenis didn’t like the way it drew on her emotions, either, and that worried her more than she liked to dwell on.
