Quillblade

by Ben Chandler

  ‘We have a problem!’ He pointed out through the crystal dome.

  Arthur glanced up from the map table. ‘The Ostian airship? It’s been there for a couple of hours or so. I saw some officials get off and head towards the tower after the other delegates.’

  ‘It’s not an Ostian airship! The figurehead!’

  Arthur frowned, but he looked at the docked airship. Attached to its bow was a red dragon, just like the one on the Hiryû. It was the same figurehead Lord Shôgo had carved into all of his airships. Arthur said something in his own language and then picked up the speech tube. ‘All hands on deck. I think we’re about to be discovered.’

  ‘Have the others returned yet?’ Lenis asked as he followed Arthur out onto the deck.

  ‘Only Tenjin, Hiroshi and the doctor.’

  ‘We have to get word to the others.’

  ‘Too late,’ Yami said calmly from the railing.

  Lenis hurried over and noticed the lines of guards moving towards the Hiryû. Each carried a halberd and wore a crimson tabard with the Ostian three-star insignia emblazoned on the front. This alone was cause to worry, but Lenis felt something else moving within the throng of armed men. He drew in a sharp, whistling breath.

  ‘What is it?’ Yami asked quietly.

  Lenis shivered as he recognised what it was. ‘There’s a Demon with them.’

  ‘What?’ Arthur leant over the railing and scanned the guards. ‘You mean a Lilim?’

  Yami shook his head. ‘No. It’s a Demon.’

  Lenis looked at the swordsman. The usually composed warrior was covered in sweat. Strange emotions were rolling off him: rage, shame, and a disturbing hunger Lenis knew only too well from his time amongst slave-traders and warriors. Pure, savage battle lust. It was so at odds with what he normally sensed from the man that it made him grab his sleeve. ‘What is it?’

  Yami snatched his arm away. ‘Gawayn. He senses the Demon too.’

  Arthur grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the railing. ‘Get below decks. Now! We do not want to fight them. There are too many of them.’

  Yami nodded, but remained where he was.

  ‘Move!’ Arthur shouted.

  ‘Won’t help.’ Yami shook his head. ‘Too strong. Have to ... knock me out.’

  ‘What?’ Lenis demanded.

  Tenjin had come up behind Arthur. ‘Gawayn will not be contained in the presence of Demons. We need to immobilise Sir Yami or he will have no choice but to fight the Ostian guards when they reach the airship. Knock him out and bind him securely.’

  Yami nodded. ‘We have no other choice. We cannot fight so many.’

  ‘We could make a run for it!’ Lenis really didn’t want to see Yami beaten into submission.

  The cursed swordsman placed his hand on Lenis’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. ‘We cannot leave without the others. There is still a chance we can talk our way out of this, but if Gawayn starts to fight the Ostians we will lose that chance.’

  Lenis nodded. Arthur set his face into an even grimmer expression than usual and brought his fist down on the back of Yami’s skull. As the small man fell, the Kystian took off his belt and bound the man’s hands behind him.

  Lenis crouched down beside Yami. ‘Is he all right?’ The roiling emotions he had felt from the swordsman were subdued, but still present.

  Arthur grunted. ‘Should be. I didn’t hit him that –’

  ‘Untie me, knave!’ Yami shouted. The emotions Lenis had felt before flared up in force. The bound man glared at them and Lenis started. It wasn’t Yami anymore.

  This was Gawayn, the long-dead Kystian warrior full of violence and fury. His physical features had altered Yami’s calm visage. The bones of his face, the breadth of his shoulders, even the intonation of his voice, all matched Arthur’s. He looked now as he had done when he had been standing on the forecastle of the Hiryû, battling the Demon who had attacked them after they had fled Yukitoshi. He wasn’t a Shinzôn swordsman any longer. He was a Kystian.

  The cursed man struggled against the leather that bound him, but Arthur had done his job well and, despite the man’s obvious strength, he could not loosen it.

  ‘What is the meaning of this outrage?’ Gawayn’s archaic intonation was different from Arthur’s, yet strangely similar. ‘There are Demons about! Unhand me!’

  ‘Sir Gawayn.’ Arthur knelt next to the man and tried to help him to stand. ‘Calm yourself.’

  Gawayn pulled free of Arthur’s grasp and managed to stand by himself. ‘And who are you, sir, to treat me so ill? Your looks are those of a kinsman, your actions those of a foe.’

  ‘My name is Arthur Knyght.’

  Gawayn tossed his head. ‘Then, Lord Knyght, release me at once!’

  ‘There seems little point to that,’ a rasping voice called to them from the airdock.

  Lenis looked over the railing and noticed the Ostian guards had formed ranks below. Though he could not see the Demon, he could feel it out there, and he knew that the speaker, an old, thin man in a heavy crimson robe, was somehow connected to it.

  ‘By order of His Majesty Yolseph Greygori, King of Ost, I, Lord Butin, Steward of Asheim, order you to disembark your vessel,’ the old man called out. ‘You are hereby placed under arrest for the crime of impersonating officials and for the theft of the imperial airship, the Hiryû. You are to be held until such time as Warlord Shôgo of Shinzô sends word as to your fate.’

  The guards marched up the gangplank with their halberds held out before them. One by one they escorted the crew of the Hiryû to the airdock. Each crewmember had their hands tied behind them and was forced to walk between two guards.

  ‘Unhand me!’ Gawayn fought against his captors, though he could do little while bound. In the end it took half a dozen of them to knock him to the ground and three of them to lift and carry his prostrate body after the others into the city of Asheim.

  Lenis lay against the stone wall. The captain knelt in the corner, meditating. Arthur stood with his arms crossed over his chest by the door to the cell. The three of them had been alone in their cell for ... what? Hours? A day? Two? There was no way to tell. Their descent to the lowest levels of Asheim had seemed so long ago. The others were in cells on either side of them, except for Gawayn, who was across the hall. The Kystian soul had regained consciousness shortly after being confined, and had been screaming for justice ever since. His speeches were laced with a mixture of insults Lenis wasn’t quite sure he understood and dire threats regarding the fates of those who had imprisoned him, and their mothers.

  The only members of the crew Lenis couldn’t sense were Andrea, Shin and Kenji. Either they had somehow escaped the Ostians and were hiding somewhere in Asheim, or they had also been captured and taken to some other prison. His sister was in the cell next to him, close enough he could have reached out to touch her if it wasn’t for the wall separating them.

  It had been a long time since Lenis had spent any time in a cell. Once the twins had been sold to Master Gorman, they’d spent all of their time onboard airships. Lenis felt the walls of the Ostian prison removing him from the realities of time. His mind became listless as he settled into a familiar despondence, waiting for someone else to decide what was to become of him.

  He’d met Terra in a cell just like this one. The Bestia had been huddled into a corner, shedding misery and fur. Lenis had been drawn to his despair and his resignation, something Lenis’s slavery had taught him all too well. He ignored the other Bestia being kept in the storeroom behind the tavern. They were livelier and healthier, but the bond that formed between Lenis and Terra was instantaneous, just like it had been with Aeris and Ignis. At the time the twins belonged to Mistress Kell, a woman who craved speed above all else. She raced anything: airships, landcraft, slaves, and even animals. Her husband had just given her a new landcraft, and when she heard the tavern master had a n
ew litter of earth-based Bestia she sent Lenis to pick out the best to power it. Mistress Kell had him beaten for choosing the ragged Terra, even though he had cost next to nothing, but under Lenis’s care the Bestia had flourished.

  Lenis was worried about his Bestia. The guards had locked them up in their hutch on board the Hiryû, something Lenis never did. He didn’t like the thought of locking anyone or anything up, or of caging them in. He’d been in enough cages himself to know how horrible it felt.

  There were noticeable differences between the slave pens of Pure Land and the prisons of Asheim. At least in Pure Land there was the thought of open air above your cell, and clean, healthy land beneath you. Here, Lenis could feel the weight of all the levels above them and could taste the slight tang of the tainted air that was becoming so familiar. Hovering just at the edges of his awareness were the sensations of rage and despair he had come to associate with Demons. The Wastelands could not have been more than a level or so below them. The fact that Gawayn still controlled Yami’s body was further proof of that.

  Lenis shuddered, thinking of the Demons prowling around in the rancid air at the base of the four towers that supported Asheim. Were they even now preparing themselves for an assault on the city? Surely this prison would offer them their first taste of human flesh ... his flesh.

  ‘Calm yourself, Master Clemens.’ Lenis jumped at Captain Shishi’s words. ‘We are safe. For the moment, at least.’

  Lenis looked over at the captain and noted his half-lidded eyes, his steady breathing. Then he looked at Arthur and saw that, though his eyes were alert, he too was relaxed.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Lenis was ashamed of the desperation in his voice.

  Only the captain’s lips moved. ‘I do not know. We may need to become jail breakers for a while.’

  If he had any idea how they were going to do that, though, he didn’t elaborate. Lenis rested his head against the floor and pressed his back against the wall. A while later he heard the sounds of footsteps coming from beyond the door of the cell.

  ‘What a situation to get yourself into, Lord Shishi.’

  ‘So it is.’ The captain chuckled. ‘Might I ask who is kind enough to have noticed?’

  ‘Of course.’ The footsteps stopped just outside their cell. ‘I am Shôgo no Akushin Karasu.’

  The captain opened his eyes. ‘Indeed.’

  Lenis remembered the man’s name. Akushin Karasu was the mercenary with the giant sword they had spied leaving the remnants of Seisui’s temple near Gesshoku. He felt a small thrill. If Karasu was here it meant the dragon egg might be close by. The captain had been right all along. Karasu must be after the Ostian manuscript as well. At that thought Lenis’s excitement waned. The mercenary was out there while they were locked up in prison.

  Karasu went on in casual tones, ‘Lord Shôgo will be pleased to have his airship returned to him. We thought you’d lost the Hiryû at sea after that ridiculous stunt back in Yukitoshi.’

  Captain Shishi’s response was just as calm. ‘What were you doing at Seisui’s temple, Sir Karasu?’

  Lenis felt the man’s surprise and heard a soft laugh. ‘I suppose I should ask you the same thing. A hasty man might assume you’ve taken it upon yourself to find Seisui’s egg.’

  ‘Oh? One might assume the same thing about you, Sir Karasu.’

  Lenis marvelled at the captain’s nonchalance, mirrored in the man standing outside their cell.

  ‘I rarely take things upon myself, Lord Shishi. That is one of the many differences between us. Incidentally, your younger brother wishes you a speedy return to Shinzô. He’s in Itsû, trying to salvage the Mayonaka-Shôgo alliance with Assen Chi. Lord Shôgo may even let you see him before your execution.’

  If Karasu’s words made any impact on the captain, Lenis couldn’t sense it. Captain Shishi had wrapped his calm about him like a shield. He continued in the same conversational manner, ‘The Warlord is very kind. He was the one who sent you after the egg?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Whatever for?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘He’s lying!’ Lenis heard his sister’s muffled cry through the cell wall.

  Karasu laughed again. ‘Yes, I am. I just wanted to find out how much you knew about the egg. I needn’t have bothered. You clearly know nothing.’

  ‘On the contrary,’ the captain said. ‘I now know that you don’t have it.’

  Karasu remained silent for several breaths. ‘And apparently neither do you.’

  ‘An impasse, then?’

  ‘Not entirely. The egg is useless without the stones, and I have those.’

  There was another long silence. ‘Stones?’ Captain Shishi asked eventually.

  ‘The stones of ebb and flow, of course, the ones we took out of Seisui’s temple. You really should have gotten there sooner, Lord Shishi. What were you doing back in Gesshoku?’ Karasu chuckled again. ‘I will leave you to your prison, Captain Shishi. Lord Butin has offered to let me read that manuscript you were asking about so we can try to figure out why you stole the Hiryû to come here searching for it.’

  Lenis heard Karasu’s footsteps retreating down the passage. ‘Captain?’

  The captain sighed. ‘It would appear as though our fears have been confirmed. The Warlord sent Karasu after Seisui’s egg. Karasu has the stones he needs to unlock the egg’s power and is about to read the manuscript that may lead him to it.’

  Lenis felt tears of frustration build behind his eyes. If only they had gone after Karasu in the Wastelands of Gesshoku, as Arthur had suggested, they could have ... what? Lenis didn’t know.

  Arthur uncrossed his arms and began pacing in front of the door. ‘Karasu now has everything he needs to find the egg. We have failed.’

  Lenis heard more footsteps and he sent his awareness into the corridor. What he felt was unusual, unsettling. There were two people outside. No, not people. He felt a strange surge of power radiating through the wall. ‘Everyone get down!’

  Captain Shishi threw himself over Lenis, and Arthur braced himself in the far corner of the cell. There was a booming sound, the wall shook violently, and then an explosion tore the door off the cell and sent it flying into the back wall. Lenis choked as he gasped in a lungful of dirt, though the captain’s body shielded him from most of the debris. He covered his mouth with his shirt and tried to breathe normally as the air slowly cleared.

  ‘Get up,’ a monotone voice said. ‘It’s time to go.’

  The captain lifted himself from Lenis, and Lenis looked up at the gaping hole in the wall. The silhouette of a young woman stood in the open space where the door had been. She held a hammer, the head of which was the size of an ale barrel. When Lenis could see clearly he noted that the girl was no more than seventeen or eighteen, and sitting on her shoulder was a small, dark creature wearing a miniature crimson gown.

  The captain brushed grey dust from his hair and robes. ‘It seems we must thank you. It is a pleasure to meet you ...?’

  ‘Anastasis.’ The girl stepped back out of their cell and lifted her hammer again. ‘Princess Anastasis Greygori.’ She swung her mallet into the next door, smashing it open.

  Lenis’s mouth fell open as he tried to sense what the girl was feeling. It was as though she felt nothing at all, as if she were empty, while the creature on her shoulder was full of a welter of conflicting emotions. The two were linked in a way Lenis could feel, but not understand. That must be a Lilim, and the two must have a pact. Was this the source of the unsettling sensation he had felt earlier? He was suddenly very glad Bakeneko had refused to make a pact with him.

  The Lilim was just over two feet high and had red eyes, blue-black skin, two small, leathery wings sprouting from its back and a long, pointed tail that wound around the princess’s waist. It had long, blue hair and, except for two small fangs, an almost human face.

  It spoke. ‘Hi! I’m Disma. Pleased to meet you!’

  The princess moved to the door on the o
ther side of Lenis’s cell and caved it in with her hammer. A moment later the rest of the captives stumbled, choking, out into the hallway.

  ‘Lenis!’ Missy pushed through the others and grabbed her brother. ‘Are you all right?’

  Lenis nodded into her shoulder.

  ‘If you don’t mind me asking,’ the captain said, ‘how is it that a princess has come to rescue us?’

  ‘We broke into the royal vault.’ Disma flapped her wings in what might have been annoyance. ‘Now we need to get out of Ost. A friend of yours told us you had an airship that could outrun anything else in the air.’

  ‘Why did you need to break into the royal vault if she’s a princess?’ Lenis found it much more comfortable talking to the Lilim than the empty princess.

  ‘Lord Butin sealed the vault.’ The Lilim spun around to look back at them as Anastasis walked off down the corridor. ‘No one can get in or out and –’

  ‘We’re wasting time.’ The princess cut her off.

  ‘Wait!’ Lenis called, but she was soon around a corner and out of sight. ‘What do we do now?’

  The captain looked at Arthur. ‘I see no reason not to follow her.’

  Arthur raised one of his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘What are we going to do about him?’ He nodded through the gaping hole the princess had made in the wall of Gawayn’s cell at the Kystian shackled to the wall.

  The captain answered, ‘There can be no question.’

  ‘Gawayn’s presence complicates things,’ Arthur said. ‘How are we going to sneak out of Asheim if all he wants to do is fight Demons?’

  Captain Shishi moved to the hole leading into Gawayn’s cell. ‘Once we get high enough into the city and away from the Wastelands, Yami should be able to assert himself again. We shall just have to reason with Gawayn until then. Sir Gawayn, do you hear me?’

  ‘Of course,’ came the reply.

  ‘We have the means to secure your escape, but we will only do so if you agree to certain conditions.’

  There was a moment of silence, then, ‘Very well. Name them.’