by Ben Chandler
‘So? I just wanted to be alone! Can’t you understand that? You’re always right there!’
‘Just stop it! Stop acting like a child!’
‘I’m acting like a child? What about you? Did you have fun playing dress-ups, oh, great Magni?’
‘That isn’t fair! I was just trying to help!’
‘Oh, really? And I suppose I’m not doing anything?’
‘I didn’t say that!’
‘You didn’t have to!’
‘That’s enough!’ The captain snapped. He had approached during the twins’ fight and was now almost close enough to touch them.
‘Yes, Captain,’ Lenis said simply. ‘It is enough. I’m sick of this airship, and I’m tired of all of you. Do you know how hard you are to be around?’ Lenis turned away from Missy and scanned the gathered crew. ‘No. You don’t know, do you? Everything you feel, I feel. Everything! Your emotions radiate off you like a stench, and you don’t even realise that I can sense them, that I have to sense them. Every one of them. All of it. It’s so draining. I just want some peace!’
Missy felt his hand waver. The tip of the Quillblade drooped. She couldn’t tell what it was doing to him. She had hoped it would draw off some of his rage, but now she was beginning to worry it would go too far and he would end up like she had the last time she’d used it.
Missy reached up with her free hand and placed it on Lenis’s shoulder. ‘It will be all right, little brother.’
He shook his head. ‘No, Missy. It won’t.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘She can read your minds.’
‘Lenis!’ Missy cried.
‘It’s true.’ Lenis looked around at the crew again. Missy didn’t take her eyes off him. ‘That’s how she fooled everyone into thinking she was Magni. It wasn’t the Quillblade. It wasn’t her costume or her acting abilities. She made them think she was a goddess. She manipulated them with her brain.’ He caught Missy’s stare again. She could see herself reflected in the tears that filled his eyes. ‘We’re both freaks. We aren’t even human.’
‘Lenis,’ Missy whispered. He had said it. The thing that had sprung up between them, that had kept them apart ever since the incident with Kanu on the jetty. He had said it, and now it was out in the open and there was no denying it. It was true, and now the others knew it too. Missy bowed her head as she started crying. Her forehead rested against Lenis’s chest, but he didn’t move to put his arms around her, to comfort her.
For a while, nobody spoke or moved, and then Missy became aware that they, too, were crying. Hiroshi was sobbing noisily behind her brother’s shoulder. Even Arthur, the stoic Kystian noble, was sniffling. The sound made Missy snap her head back. They were all crying.
Missy shook her brother’s shoulder. ‘Lenis, stop!’
‘What?’ He looked down at her blearily.
‘It’s you! It’s coming from you!’
Snot was running out of his nose. ‘What is?’
Missy’s hold on Lenis’s wrist had slackened. She gripped harder now. ‘The sorrow. It’s not ours. It’s yours! Calm down. Relax. Let go of the Quillblade.’
Missy had to use both of her hands to pry the shintai out of her brother’s grasp. It fell to the deck with a metallic clang and then reverted to its supple feather form. Missy instantly felt better. She heard the others stirring behind her. Noses were being blown. Faces were being wiped on sleeves.
The captain cleared his throat. ‘I believe we need to have a discussion.’
Shujinko returned to consciousness in the doctor’s arms. The cabin boy hadn’t been moved. They were all still standing there, encircling Lenis and his sister. Lenis felt raw. Trapped. Exposed.
‘What just happened?’ Kenji demanded. His right arm was in a sling. Lenis stared at it while all the others began asking questions.
The captain silenced them with a sweeping gesture of his arm. ‘Let us give Mister Clemens a chance to explain.’
Captain Shishi turned to Lenis and waited. Lenis stayed silent. What was there to say that he hadn’t already said? Let them pass judgement on him and be done with it.
Lenis felt tiny claws dig into his leg through his pants. Suiteki climbed up his clothes and buried herself inside his robe. The baby dragon pushed herself hard against his ribcage. He could feel the beating of her heart and something else. She was reaching out to him as she always did, although this time she wasn’t seeking comfort but offering it, pushing it against Lenis’s frayed emotions just as he had so often wrapped his own sense of calm and reassurance around her. Was this some manifestation of Totemic power, some skill passed down to her from her mother or grandfather that she was just now trying for the first time? Or had she learned it from him, by watching and feeling what Lenis did so often and so instinctively?
‘Mister Clemens?’ the captain repeated, but it was Missy who answered him.
She told them everything, while Lenis allowed Suiteki’s presence to soothe him. Missy told them about how the twins had combined their wills to control Raikō once he was a Demon. She told them about Fronge, and Kanu, and Apsu. She told them about everything Ishullanu had said about them. About who they really were. About Mashu. She told them about how the Quillblade had affected her, and how she had abused her powers to get what she wanted. Her voice was hoarse by the time she was done. Part way through her story she pulled away from her twin and sat down heavily on the deck. When she finished, she leant against one of the holds and pulled her knees up to her chin.
The crew listened in rapt silence. Missy suspected that at least some of them had known the twins were different ever since the Hiryū had first left Itsū, but they couldn’t possibly have guessed how different they were. She couldn’t tell them now. She didn’t really know.
‘I don’t think I like the idea of being around a couple of kids who can steal my thoughts and play with my emotions,’ Kenji said into the quiet that had greeted Missy’s tale.
‘Shush, Kenji,’ Shin admonished.
‘I’m just saying what we’re all thinking.’ He stepped towards Missy. ‘Am I right?’
Missy didn’t look up at him. She just shook her head. ‘It doesn’t work like that. I don’t just “see” what you’re thinking. It takes effort to go into someone’s mind.’
The navigator snorted and turned away.
The captain tucked his arms into the sleeves of his robe and made a noise in the back of his throat. ‘You have given us much to ponder, Miss Clemens.’
‘What’s to think about?’ Kenji demanded. ‘I say we put them off the Hiryū the first chance we get.’
‘And then who’s going to fly the airship?’ Shin snapped.
‘We can hire new Bestia Keepers in Haven,’ Kenji countered.
‘And what about Suiteki?’ Shin asked. ‘The Totem has a bond with Lenis. All of the Bestia do. We need them.’
Lenis felt a stirring of gratitude towards Shin for her support, but it couldn’t dispel the despondence that had settled over him since his outburst. Neither could Suiteki’s aura. Not completely. As he reflected on the past couple of days – had it only been days? – he realised that his frustration had been building for some time. Ever since Fronge. Ever since Kanu had forced Lenis and Missy to merge and then taken them through his memories. Lenis glanced over at the Titan boy. He was looking at the twins oddly, his head cocked to one side as if he was puzzled by something.
‘Let us not be hasty, Mister Jackson,’ Captain Shishi said. Lenis avoided looking directly at him. He couldn’t meet the captain’s eyes. ‘The Clemens twins have proved to be valuable allies. I have suspected for some time that their abilities were extraordinary.’
‘Yet you said nothing?’ Kenji’s tone was pleading. ‘Captain, can’t you see how dangerous they are to have around?’
‘Might I point out, Mister Jackson, that if Miss Clemens wished to, she could make you decide to keep her around? The fact that she has not speaks well of her character.’
Missy looked up at this. A smile curled her
lip but died when the navigator said, ‘How do we know she isn’t manipulating you right now, Captain? How do you know?’
Lenis felt a chill run through him. The crew would never trust them now. They would never believe that the twins weren’t controlling them. Suiteki suddenly poked her head out of Lenis’s robe and nipped him on the chin. He threw his head back, more startled than hurt, and when he looked back down it was straight into her eyes. Had they always been so blue? And so bright? The more Lenis looked into them the older Suiteki seemed to grow. For the briefest of moments, she wasn’t his baby dragon any more. She was a Totem, and there was more wisdom and compassion in her stare than Lenis felt he could bear. He knew that no matter what happened here on the Hiryū, she would stay by him. They would have each other. Always.
Then the captain spoke and the moment fled, and Suiteki was his little dragon once more. ‘I know this because Miss Clemens cannot enter my mind.’ Lenis and Missy both stared at the captain. ‘Nor can she penetrate Sir Yami’s mental defences, or Mister Hiroshi’s, or Lord Tenjin’s. Shinzōn swordsmen are trained to cloud their thoughts. Those of us who know this skill will teach the rest of you.’
‘What about him?’ Kenji pointed at Lenis with his uninjured hand.
‘I can’t control it,’ Lenis mumbled, holding Suiteki gently against his chest. ‘Emotions aren’t rational. They’re subconscious. I can’t help myself from sensing them any more than you can stop yourself from feeling them in the first place.’
‘It almost seems as though you’ve got something to hide, Kenji,’ Shin interjected.
The navigator glared at the helmswoman. Lenis could feel the tension beginning to build again. It made him nauseous. He needed to sit down. No, lie down. He needed sleep. Lenis reached up and rubbed at his eyes.
‘Let’s not forget our enemy!’ Arthur said out of nowhere. The first officer had remained still and silent for so long that Lenis had almost forgotten he was there. ‘These children are not our enemy. They are on our side. We should be considering how best to utilise their talents in the coming conflict instead of speaking of abandoning them.’
‘Lord Knyght is correct,’ the captain said. ‘We face so many foes that we cannot begin to fight amongst ourselves.’
‘But he attacked me!’ Shujinko interjected. A swollen cheek and a cracked lip muffled his voice. The cabin boy surged to his feet and advanced on Lenis, who didn’t make any move to defend himself but hunched over a little to protect Suiteki. He deserved whatever Shujinko did to him, but the baby Totem was innocent.
Kanu leapt in front of Shujinko with a snarl, his black claws extended. ‘Leave him alone.’ His words echoed Lenis’s eerily, and Lenis felt a sense of foreboding. Please, not again. He hadn’t realised he’d spoken aloud until he noticed Kanu ease back from his fighting stance, his claws retracting into fingernails again, turning from black to blue.
‘I’m sorry,’ Lenis mumbled. ‘I don’t know what came over me. It all just got to be too much, and you …’ He couldn’t tell them about Namei. They wouldn’t understand. ‘… you caught me at a bad time. I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
Shujinko hadn’t backed off. ‘You will not take me by surprise again.’
The captain stepped in front of the cabin boy. ‘Tensions have been high for all of us. It is difficult to be confined in such close quarters for so long, and the pressure of our quest weighs heavily upon us. We must all make an effort to remain calm, for the sake of our cause and each other.’
‘But what about him?’ Shujinko demanded. ‘What about what he did?’
‘Do not carry on like a child, Shujinko,’ Yami chided. ‘You have defeated Lenis on many occasions in the past. It was only a matter of time before the balance shifted. Being beaten is a natural component of training. Perhaps in future you will hold your sparring partner in greater respect.’
‘This wasn’t training!’ Shujinko protested. A purple bruise was forming above his left eye, swelling it shut.
Yami was relentless. ‘For a swordsman, everything is training. It seems Lenis has been holding back during your bouts. He is stronger than either of us believed.’
‘No he isn’t! He has no skill!’
‘Do not whine! When you face an opponent in battle, they will use every one of their abilities and all of their strength to destroy you. If they are strong they will seek to overpower you. If they are smart they will try to outwit you. If they are skilled they will outmanoeuvre you. Your training and skill are superior to his, and yet Lenis was able to defeat you. Learn from it. Train harder.’
Shujinko glowered and seethed, but he said no more. Lenis wished he could take pleasure in Yami’s chastisement of the cabin boy. This was what he had always wanted, to put Shujinko in his place, but not this way. He had aspired to defeat him in hand-to-hand combat, not by destroying him emotionally. After Lenis had fought the Warlord off in Nochi he had decided he didn’t want to use his powers like that, but when it came down to it he was unable to control himself. Instead of triumph, all he felt deep down, within the cocoon of Suiteki’s love, was shame.
Missy followed along behind the captain and Arthur as they made their way back to the bridge. It was hard to describe how she was feeling. A part of her was actually relieved that she had finally told the rest of the crew all about the twins’ powers, even if it had cost her their trust. One day she would win it back. Missy would do whatever it took to show them that she was on their side.
The matter with her brother was far more serious. Whatever had caused him to go into a rage, whatever reason he had for attacking Shujinko, in the end he had turned on her. They had never fought. Not like this. They had disagreed any number of times, but they had never thrown accusations at each other, never tried to wound one another. He had as good as called her stupid. Worse, he had accused her of abandoning him. There was just enough truth in that to sting. Missy hadn’t abandoned him, but she hadn’t sent her spirit-self after him either. And why hadn’t she? She hadn’t thought twice about hurling herself into the inferno of Fronge. Why hadn’t she gone after her brother? The fact that it simply hadn’t occurred to her did little to ease her conscience. It made no sense, even to her.
There was nothing to be gained from dwelling on the matter. She’d made a mistake and now they would both have to find a way to live with it. As Missy settled into her chair she had to admit to herself that the argument hadn’t been all one-sided. She had called Lenis a petty child, and she’d done it to hurt his feelings. That wasn’t at all like her any more than Lenis’s violent outburst was like him. Perhaps they had spent too long on board together. With everything the crew had to deal with, someone was bound to snap eventually. Missy just never imagined it would be Lenis. He was always so controlled, and she’d come to rely on that more than she realised.
Captain Shishi cleared his throat. ‘Are we far from Haven, Mister Jackson?’ Missy could tell from his tone that the fight and the twins’ revelations had unsettled him.
‘Give me a minute to work out where we are,’ Kenji replied.
The navigator avoided her stare. Missy wondered why he of all the crew seemed so concerned to hear about the twins’ abilities. Perhaps Shin was right and he did have something to hide. Missy was briefly tempted to find out what it was and cursed herself for it. That wasn’t the way to go about winning someone’s trust. Always in the past she had told herself her telepathy was harmless. It wasn’t until she was confronted by someone’s outrage at the idea of it that she was forced to consider how much of a violation it really was. She wondered how Lenis dealt with feeling their emotions. Missy could choose not to use her gift, but he had no way to stop sensing the feelings of others.
Kenji turned to face the captain. ‘We’re close. There won’t be any lights, so we’re going to have to move carefully.’
The captain nodded and picked up the speech tube. He hesitated before calling down to Lenis. ‘Mister Clemens, please decrease our speed.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Lenis�
�s voice sounded hollow, devoid of any emotion. Missy tried to convince herself it was just an effect caused by the speech tube.
For the next few moments, Kenji kept looking from his charts and maps through the crystal dome of the bridge and back again. It seemed like a pointless exercise. Night had fallen during the events on deck, and the sky around them was illuminated only in brief flashes as Lucis ran through her pipes.
Missy gathered her courage. ‘Do you want me to search for you?’
Kenji glared at her. Missy thought for a moment that he was going to refuse out of spite. Eventually, he said, ‘You’re looking for a Bestia called Pog.’
Missy nodded and detached her spirit-self from her body, glad to leave the bridge behind. Her spirit-self didn’t need eyes to see, so she wasn’t bothered by the darkness. She felt the mountains around her and the sky above her and made wide, sweeping searches of the valleys around them. She was only halfheartedly trying to locate Pog. The sensation of being free of her body was refreshing. The cares that plagued her were left behind, shed along with her physical husk, and so it was with some disappointment that she found a rather large Bestia who responded to her call. Pog had four short legs barely long enough to carry his barrel-like body. He had almost no nose or tail and his ears were long and floppy. He was one of those rare Bestia whose elemental affinity was so rigid he couldn’t leave it behind. For an earth Bestia that meant he spent most of his time submerged in mud.
Pog didn’t like new people. At first Missy thought he was going to ignore her altogether, but she battered away at his mind until he was forced to acknowledge her. She kept the message short. Just a picture of the Hiryū and an airdock. She also threw in an image of Kenji Jackson. The navigator had been here before, so the airdock officials might recognise him.
‘All done,’ Missy said once she had returned to her body.
‘You found Pog?’ Kenji asked.
‘Yes, and I’ve arranged a landing. If we edge around the shoulder of that mountain there,’ she pointed to portside, where Lucis had just illuminated a rock face, ‘we’ll see a signal. We have to fly in pretty low. From what I can gather, the city is sort of under the mountain.’
