Quillblade

by Ben Chandler

  Namei snapped her mouth shut, opened it again as if she was going to say more but then thought better of it. She sighed and then pushed past him.

  Lenis watched her go, unsure of what he could say, or if he even wanted to say anything. ‘Be careful.’

  She paused for a moment before climbing up to the deck.

  For the next half an hour the Hiryû was full of activity as the crew set about completing their preparations. Lenis watched them come and go from inside the engine room where he worked quietly with the Bestia. The others carried armloads of rope and provisions out onto the deck and brought snow and wind back in with them. The usually warm engine room caught the brunt of the frigid air that swept in through the open hatch.

  Lenis knew that a quick getaway was out of the question. In this weather the engine would take too long to warm up before they could flee the airdock, and then there was the time it took to unfurl the balloons and fill them with air. The Shôgo’s forces would discover what they were doing long before they were ready and be upon them before they could launch.

  Lenis made small adjustments to the engine as he tried to figure out a way of warming up the engine block, filling the balloons and launching the Hiryû before the Shôgo’s forces boarded them. For the first time in a long time he felt he had a real stake in what was going on. He wasn’t just doing what the captain said to help the others escape; Lenis was doing this for himself. Hope stirred deep down inside him, and he wasn’t about to let a bunch of Shôgo warriors take it away from him. If there were a way for them to get out of this and away from Shinzô, he would find it.

  Andrea’s voice suddenly came through the speech tube and Lenis jumped. ‘Captain, we’re out of time. They must have been watching us because they’re on their way up the airdock now.’

  ‘It is time,’ the captain replied. ‘Master Clemens, start the engines.’

  Lenis stared at the engine block and sweat broke out all over his body. His brain was ticking over, formulating a plan. It was a risky one, beyond risky. He was sure no one had ever been stupid enough to try it before. It would almost certainly cause him serious injury, being this close to the engine. The Bestia, too, might get hurt. The whole engine might blow up! If Lenis hadn’t just felt the faint stirrings of hope he would never have even attempted it, but he had, and it was worth it.

  Sensing his resolution, Aeris jumped into Lenis’s arms and they started to move. Lenis opened the engine block and placed Aeris on the ground beside it before hurrying back to the hutch, banging his knee against the engine as he did so. Ignoring the pain that shot through his leg, numbing it from the knee down, he scooped up Atrum, Ignis, Lucis and Aqua, all at once. Sensing his turmoil, the Bestia writhed around in his arms and Ignis started to climb the side of his head.

  Gritting his teeth against the Bestia’s claws, Lenis pushed Atrum into the compartment below the engine block. Then he hunched Aqua and Lucis into the crook of one arm and reached overhead with the other to open up the pipe that ran from the engine room up through the Hiryû’s holds. With some difficulty he juggled Lucis into the cavity. When she was secured in the pipe Lenis wrested Ignis from the top of his head, wincing from the scratches the Bestia inflicted on him, and held him next to his face. This was the dangerous bit. The Bestia felt his fear, but they trusted him. Lenis inwardly cringed. He was willing to risk his own safety, but what right did he have to endanger his Bestia?

  ‘They’re almost here,’ Andrea’s voice came to him.

  ‘Master Clemens,’ the captain’s voice followed, ‘we need the balloons full and the engines running.’

  ‘Atrum, cloak us!’ Lenis shouted and the compartment below the engine block was suddenly empty as the Bestia vanished. That bought him a moment to think, but only a moment. Was there anything else he could do other than what he had planned? He couldn’t think of a thing. There were too many factors. The snow. The height of their mooring. The distance from the airdock to the ocean. The approaching warriors. If only he had time, he was sure he could come up with an alternative. Of course, if he had time he could just do things the proper way, waiting for the engines to heat up in their own time.

  Time. He was all out of it and only had one plan. He was going to do what any engineer with a week’s experience could have told him was a dangerous and idiotic thing to do. He was going to switch the Bestia powering the Hiryû without shutting down the engines first.

  Lenis pushed aside his doubts and placed Ignis in the engine block. ‘We have to warm up the engines, Ignis. As fast as you can!’

  Ignis was only too happy to oblige. Heat radiated off him in waves as Lenis closed the engine block’s hatch. Ignis’s power continued to build, but Lenis waited until he was glowing hot before pulling the lever that woke the Hiryû. A blast of power exploded from the engine block. The hatch blew open with a screech of tortured metal, sending Aeris and Lenis, with Aqua still nestled in his arms, flying against the far wall. The engine didn’t just come to life, it roared, groaned, spluttered and cracked as the power of the flame Bestia flowed into it. Wave after wave of heat filled the engine room, radiating off the now-glowing metal machinery and the pipes that fed off of it. Lenis felt his skin burning. The engines were too small for Ignis’s intensity. They weren’t going to hold. Any moment now they were going to burst apart, tearing the Hiryû to pieces.

  A scream shattered through the speech tube as the airship wrenched away from the airdock and began plummeting.

  ‘The balloons!’ Lenis tried to stand but the force of their descent thwarted him. Now was not the time to hesitate. He was about to pump air into an engine full of fire. If the airship only exploded he’d be lucky, but it could work. It would work. He just had to trust that his Bestia could work alongside one another, Ignis drawing in his power while Aeris released hers. ‘Aeris ... please ...’

  The tiny Bestia heaved herself upright with her powerful hind legs. Lenis could feel her determination. With one burst of effort she leapt right into the inferno of the engine block. Lenis was blinded by Ignis’s raw power. He shaded his eyes but couldn’t see anything inside the engine block.

  ‘Come on, Ignis! Pull back!’

  A tearing jolt brought the airship to a stop and they were moving, not down but forwards. The speed of their departure brought tears to Lenis’s eyes, and he hugged Aqua to his chest as the brilliance inside the engine block dimmed. His Bestia had done it! The engines had shifted from heat to momentum as Ignis dampened his fire and Aeris pushed pressurised air through the warmed pipes, both of them synchronising their power perfectly.

  Then the Hiryû jerked to one side and began falling again. They’d lost one of their balloons, either because they’d hit something or because the Warlord’s forces had got in a lucky shot. Either way, they were sinking.

  Lenis closed his eyes, ignoring the searing pain spreading across his skin. After everything he and his Bestia had risked, everything they had achieved, they were still going to fail.

  It took longer to fall out of the sky than Lenis would have thought. From all around him came horrible sounds. The Hiryû’s mast-shaft groaned as it was jerked off kilter by its one functioning balloon. Lenis didn’t know if it was strong enough to survive intact, or if it would rip itself out of the side of the airship. Someone, Arthur or the captain, was shouting. Someone else was screaming. There were no words. There was only noise. The deafening roar of the machinery could not quite drown out the terrified cries coming from his companions, nor the disembodied voice shouting incomprehensible commands through the speech tube.

  Aqua felt almost weightless in Lenis’s arms. He tried to remember what he was supposed to do with her. Then they hit something and Lenis went flying forwards until his face smashed into the engine block. It was almost a relief to feel the cold of the metal against his skin, until he realised with horror that it wasn’t cold he was feeling but a heat so intense it tore into his flesh. He wrenche
d himself away and found himself upright and staggering. Images swam before him and the distressed clamour continued as the Hiryû tried to limp along the ground. Aeris! Aeris was inside the engine block with Ignis!

  ‘Ignis! Stop! Enough!’

  Lenis wasn’t sure if the words came out right, but the brightness coming from the engine block faded. The Hiryû was still dragging itself forward, but that couldn’t be right. The friction should have stopped them by now, unless they weren’t moving along the ground but through water. They had somehow made it to the ocean! Their fall from the airdock and subsequent shaky flight had taken them out over the city and all the way to the water. They’d done it!

  Lenis started to laugh, a dreadful, painful laugh. His right cheek still burned and he had to force himself not to touch it. Whatever else happened, they had done it. They had escaped Shinzô.

  Aqua was squirming around in his arms so he let her go. This was no time to lose focus.

  The hatch to the engine block was hanging by a single hinge. He nudged it aside with his knee, earning himself a fresh burn, and reached into the furnace to pull Aeris’s scorched body out. Ignis quietened immediately and stepped lightly out of the machine, unharmed. Lenis held a barely breathing Aeris close with one hand and touched the doorway to the compartment below the engine block without thinking. He snatched his hand back, but the damage had been done. His hand was burning. He gritted his teeth and yanked on the metal, freeing Atrum from the compartment. The Bestia crawled out, panting and looking haggard. Lenis looked down at Aqua, who was pressing herself against his injured leg.

  ‘I’m sorry, Aqua, but we have to get away.’

  The Bestia looked at him and seemed to nod. She leapt into the engine block and the room filled instantly with steam. It gnawed at Lenis’s burning flesh. He kicked the engine block door closed, but it was so badly warped it wouldn’t shut. A moment later he felt the Hiryû’s motion steady itself as Aqua drew seawater into the engine system, rapidly cooling the overheated machine parts and stabilising their course. They began to accelerate, crashing into waves that nearly sent Lenis reeling again. He reached out his damaged hand to steady himself against a pipe. Pulling away in agony, he felt the airship roll sickeningly underfoot.

  ‘Lucis. Now.’

  He heard the Bestia scuttle away through the pipe overhead. Right now light was far more important than stealth. If they lost their way they could drive the Hiryû up onto the beach where they’d be utterly defenceless.

  With Aeris still in his hands, Lenis limped unsteadily over to his bunk. He couldn’t decide if it was the unfamiliar rolling of the airship or his battered body that made his steps so unsure. Atrum slunk after them, looking miserable. Aeris was almost unconscious, hanging limply in Lenis’s arms. Tears stung the wound on Lenis’s cheek, and his leg and hands ached badly, but he couldn’t give into the waves of light-headedness that threatened to take him. He laid Aeris gently on his bunk and picked up Atrum, depositing him next to her. He stared down at them helplessly. Their injuries looked severe. This was far beyond his skill as a Bestia Keeper. He needed the doctor.

  Ignis jumped up onto the bunk and began sniffing Aeris’s singed fur. His remorse was palpable. Lenis tried to force a state of calm over himself, hoping it would spread to the Bestia and alleviate at least some of their pain. When he felt them begin to relax, he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled to the doorway. He could hear the ferocity of the sea as it met the fury of the blizzard, but he couldn’t bring himself to consider what he didn’t hear. The crew were silent. His mind suddenly filled with awful images of them. Burnt to death by getting too close to an exploding pipeline. Thrown overboard by the Hiryû’s descent. Lying unconscious after being hurled against the wall, or struggling, even now, as the ocean pulled them deep into itself.

  Such thoughts were useless. Everyone had to be okay. The Bestia were his concern. He needed to fetch the doctor. Atrum was badly injured and Aeris ... if she ... if she died ... Lenis had done this to them. It was all his fault.

  Namei met him in the hallway and gasped when she saw him. ‘Lenis?’

  ‘Others?’ The movement of his mouth brought fresh pain to his injured face.

  ‘I think they’re all right.’ She placed an arm around him as his injured knee gave way. He sagged into her. ‘A bit bruised, but no one’s too badly hurt. Those of us on deck were tied to the airship. What happened to you?’

  ‘Heard Andrea scream?’

  ‘You cloaked the airship and the deck disappeared right out from under her, but she’s all right. I think I should get the doctor.’

  ‘Yes. Need the doctor. Aeris. Atrum.’ Why were his words so slurred? He took a breath and tried to speak clearly. ‘Missy. How’s Missy?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Lenis, you need to lie down. You’re hurt. You need the doctor.’

  ‘Yes.’ His mind stopped working. He couldn’t think. The hallway suddenly got darker.

  ‘You wait here,’ she told him. ‘I’ll go and get Master Long.’

  Lenis heard her from far away. Everything seemed so far –

  ‘Brace yourselves,’ a voice seemed to echo out of nowhere. Lenis slouched against the wall, trying to figure out who was talking to him.

  ‘What is it?’ Lenis mumbled.

  ‘Demon!’

  ‘All hands on deck!’

  Where were all these voices coming from? Something in Lenis’s mind registered the order and he pushed himself away from the wall. He had to get to the deck. Something bit gently into his right calf and he looked down, smiling through the haze that had settled around his thoughts. Ignis nipped at him again and Lenis lifted the Bestia into his arms.

  ‘Come on, then. You can come if you want.’

  Carrying the wriggling creature under his arm, Lenis moved to the stairs. The pain in his body receded as the cold hit him. Ignis’s warmth was comforting. The airship rolled suddenly and thrust him against the wall. Still grinning, Lenis righted himself and started climbing. The stairs were slippery. He grabbed a rope tied to the banister with his free hand and hauled himself along it. His hand tingled, but the sensation was very far away so he ignored it.

  On the deck the world had lost its colour. Everything was either the deepest black or lit by a fierce light. There was water everywhere, flying at strange angles. Lenis breathed it in as he gasped for air. He was soon soaked through. The light moved in a steady rhythm as Lucis ran through the pipes, trailing radiance in her wake. The rain caught and refracted the luminescence, dazzling Lenis’s vision with needle-shaped shards. The wind surged around him, smashing the water into him from every direction.

  Everything seemed unreal. Lenis stumbled forward, or was it backwards? He couldn’t see where he was going but the air and water carried him on. He was still smiling, but he wondered now why he was smiling. Why had he come up on deck? The moaning of the storm seemed very far away, disjointed from the sting of the rain, or was it sleet now? It was cold. Ignis writhed in his arms, but Lenis paid him no mind other than to enjoy the small pool of warmth the creature radiated. From somewhere far away he felt a stinging in his face and hands and knee and a dozen other places. He ignored it.

  The strange, sweeping movement of the deck beneath his feet seemed to match his stagger so that, as Lenis thought about it, he realised he was walking quite naturally. ‘Guess I’ve got my sea legs,’ he mumbled to no one. This seemed like a terribly funny thing to say, though he couldn’t imagine why. The corners of his mouth twitched again.

  Lenis’s mind registered the shouts of his crewmates coming from somewhere ahead. The foredeck? Or had the storm turned him around and pointed him towards the bridge? Were their cries real, or just more ghostly voices in the wind?

  The bubble of confusion that had settled around his head popped and he suddenly realised where he was and remembered why he was there. He hurried towards his friends but his legs gave wa
y and he fell. He hauled himself up by another rope but soon the deck disappeared altogether and he was shooting forward in a mass of water and wind. He became a part of the tempest. The forecastle broke his mad flight and took his breath away at the same time. He gripped the railing, gasped in a lungful of air, and pulled himself upright.

  Suddenly, people were everywhere. Why hadn’t he seen them before? At the starboard rail the captain stood with Tenjin and Hiroshi. Captain Shishi and the cook both held bows in their hands and Tenjin held a quiver stuffed with arrows.

  Behind him, Lenis could hear someone calling his name. He looked over his shoulder and saw Arthur waving, a cape billowing out behind him. The dark fabric swirled to one side, revealing Namei and Long Liu.

  ‘For Glory!’

  The shout came from above and Lenis looked up. A tall, broad-shouldered man stood in the forecastle. He had long, wild, brown hair and wore chain mail that glinted as if lit by its own power. The scabbard at his side could not entirely sheath the radiance of the blade it contained.

  Someone shouted, ‘Gawayn!’

  The man gave off rays like the afternoon sun through scattering clouds. Lenis looked on, open-mouthed, as the apparition notched an arrow to his bow and drew it back. The flying shaft took some of the knight’s inner light with it up into the darkness.

  Following the trail of its light, Lenis saw the Demon. It rose above the forecastle of the Hiryû, dwarfing the vessel with its size. It had the body of a centipede, but its legs were giant braziers that gave off a ghastly ice-blue light. Its head was bigger than the crystal dome of the bridge, and its eye sockets were cavernous. One was filled with azure fire; the other was empty, gaping. It swooped its head to strike at the man in the forecastle, and Lenis saw a fissure-like scar running down the right side of the Demon’s face, through the empty eye socket.

  The man of light once more drew his bow. ‘Get back, wretch!’ This time the arrow flew true and pierced the Demon through the forehead. The creature reared and cried out. The light of its legs died, one by one. The Demon crashed into the sea and sent the Hiryû backwards on the crest of a wave.