Quillblade

by Ben Chandler

  ‘What then?’

  He grinned at her. ‘We’ll see.’ Then he hurried off to the engine room.

  Missy groaned. Whatever her brother had planned, she could only trust that he knew what he was doing.

  The rest of the crew hurried around the deck. Some made their way to the bridge. Yami, Arthur and Andrea moved to the forecastle. Missy shuddered at the red stains up there that no amount of scrubbing had been able to remove. Leaving them to take up their positions, she went to join the others on the bridge.

  The captain addressed her as soon as she was in her seat. ‘Can you try to find Ishullanu, Miss Clemens?’

  Missy shivered. She had only heard about Ishullanu from Lenis, but somehow the Demon King’s name conjured up feelings of dread deep inside her. ‘I’m too tired, sir. If I found him and he wanted to he could take and bind me, just like Lord Raikô did.’

  The thought of being bound to a Demon terrified her. She had only narrowly escaped before Lord Raikô had succumbed to the Wasteland sickness. It would be far worse to be shackled to the Demon King, the one responsible for the sickness that was slowly devouring the world, the one strong enough to take control of other Demons. It was bad enough they were going to try and defend Nochi from him.

  ‘Get what rest you can,’ the captain told her. He picked up the speech tube. ‘Master Clemens, please start the engines. Miss Shin, set a course circling the capital.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Shin and Lenis answered together.

  A few moments later the Hiryû pulled away from the airdock. Missy’s nerves were too tight to allow her to rest. All she could do was stare out of the crystal dome at the stars.

  ‘It is almost time,’ the captain said to them in a low voice. ‘We are about to face the King of the Wasteland Demons.’ Missy looked around at the others. Their faces were pale in the light of the moon, their lips pressed into thin lines. ‘We are the last hope for Seisui’s ... no, for Apsilla’s daughter, for the last of the Totem. Whatever happens here will affect the whole world.’ Captain Shishi stared ahead, out over the dragon figurehead and on to the horizon. ‘Please, do your best.’

  The captain fell silent and the crew settled in for a nervous wait.

  A couple of hours later Lenis called through the speech tube, ‘He’s almost here!’

  Missy was instantly alert. A faint light told her that the dawn was approaching.

  ‘Be ready.’ At the captain’s order, those on the bridge moved to the deck.

  ‘This is it,’ Shin said to Missy as she locked the tiller in place and followed the others. Missy nodded, her chest tight, and trailed along behind her. The Quillblade tingled inside her robe as though hungering for her fear.

  The crew of the Hiryû stood arrayed along the airship’s railing. The captain stood next to the first officer. The records keeper stood with the cook and the doctor, the Ostian princess and the lookout beside them. On the opposite side the navigator and helmswoman stood with the cursed swordsman. Missy went to stand with them. Her brother came on deck, flanked by five of his Bestia. Aeris was still powering the engines, but the others were there. Lenis joined his sister and drew her to him. ‘Are you ready?’

  Missy nodded into his shoulder and pulled back. ‘I am ready, little brother. Are you?’

  ‘I am ready, sister.’

  Together they turned to the west, holding each other’s hand, surrounded on all sides by their companions. Missy drew out the golden feather she kept by her heart.

  On the western horizon a shadow obscured the stars. It grew larger, pulling in the light of more and more of the celestial bodies until the west was completely blackened. The wall of darkness met the growing dawn in the east and a silhouette emerged out of the twilight it created. It was a serpent, coiling through the heavens. Along its length sprouted many pairs of feathered wings. Horns like the antlers of a great stag grew out of its head. Its irises were red and glowing, two bright spots in the horrible haze.

  It spoke. ‘Well, my gentle one, have you come to make war against me? I would that you and your sister were safely away from this place.’

  ‘We will not run,’ Lenis shouted over the distance that lay between them. ‘Nor do we wish to fight. Leave this place, Ishullanu. Take your madness elsewhere.’

  The great serpent laughed, its tongue lashing the damp air around it. ‘Think you to deter me from my course, gentle one? It shall not be. Give me Apsilla’s issue that I might claim her for my army. There is nothing you can do but concede to my will.’

  ‘Then you will not retire?’

  ‘Nay, gentle one. Never.’

  Lenis sighed. The sound of it floated out and around him, and it was full of sorrow. ‘Now, Missy.’

  Missy felt the Quillblade stiffen in her hand as she held it above her head. She could feel the power running through it and she drew that power into herself. With a final look at her brother she threw back her head. ‘Raikô!’ she shouted into the still air. ‘Thunder Bird and Lord of Storms, Master of Lightning and Wind, I summon you!’

  ‘No!’ Tenjin cried, and the others fell back from her.

  Wind swept across the deck, laying the Bestia’s fur and ears flat. Clouds gathered above the Hiryû and rain began to fall.

  ‘I summon you!’ Missy screamed into the growing tempest.

  Ishullanu’s horrible laugh cut through the storm’s current and flooded the deck. ‘You are rash, my compassionate one. You have summoned an ally for me!’

  Ki! Ki! Ki!

  The cry came out of the storm and Raikô, Totem of Thunder and Lord of Storms, appeared out of the roiling clouds. He looked even worse than Missy remembered. His feathers were all but gone and his skin hung like rotten flesh on his frame. His eyes were hazy and his beak was cracked.

  ‘Lenis!’ she cried in fear and panic as the Totem’s empty eyes turned towards the Hiryû and its crew. She thought she could see Ishullanu’s vile tendrils reaching out for the empty Totem. Then she felt her brother pull one of her hands away from the Quillblade. Lenis gazed into her eyes and suddenly she felt something between them snap.

  Lenis turned from Missy’s eyes to look at the Demon that was Lord Raikô. Missy didn’t understand what had happened. Lenis wasn’t sure if he understood it either. Ishullanu had told him that he and his sister were once one bud, separated by the Demon King when he pulled them from the World Tree’s branches. Lenis wasn’t sure what that meant, wasn’t sure he believed anything Ishullanu had told him, but his encounter with the Warlord had taught him something about himself and his sister.

  They were different from everyone else.

  As Lenis looked at the advancing Demon King, joined with his sister in a way neither of them understood, he pitted their combined wills against Ishullanu’s. The part of the Clemens twins that was Lenis formed the heart, the soul. The part that was Misericordia formed the mind. Gentle heart. Compassionate mind. Together, they thrust themselves against Ishullanu’s hold on Raikô’s empty body.

  Ishullanu was obviously not expecting such an attack. He drew his will away from the former Totem, unsure of what had happened and a little frightened by this new presence that had asserted its will against him.

  Lenis blinked, and suddenly he and his sister were seeing through Raikô’s eyes. Ishullanu rose before them, recoiling from what he did not understand. The Clemens twins took control of Raikô’s avian body and turned it against the Demon King.

  The serpent reared, its eyes wild, its many wings beating the already turbulent air into greater flurries. ‘What is this?’ Ishullanu lashed his tail.

  ‘Your miasma robs the living of their will,’ the twins said through Raikô. Their combined voice was an avian shriek that tore through the dawn. ‘You take their minds and souls and leave their bodies to live on, empty, waiting for you to seize and control them.’ The serpent did a slow arc in the air, placing more
space between itself and the twin-possessed Raikô. ‘But yours is not the only will that can command an empty vessel.’

  Ishullanu screamed.

  ‘Flee, Ishullanu, King of Demons! You cannot face us all.’

  The Demon King screamed again and tore futilely at the storm around him. His red eyes grew brighter in the darkness and his screeching drowned out the thunder. The twins’ will advanced on him, their power joining with that of the Totem they had claimed. Flashes of electricity arced between Raikô’s wings. Power pulsed out of him through the charged air. The twins took hold of the storm and turned it against the Demon King.

  With one final cry, Ishullanu fled. His serpentine body writhed through the heavens as Raikô and the twins lashed him with lightning and buffeted him with wind.

  The Demon King cried out to the heavens, ‘Apsilla, Lady of Rain! I summon you!’

  A flash of blue lightning lit the western sky. When its light dimmed Ishullanu was gone, but the storm had turned against the twins. A roar echoed along the underside of the clouds above. Down through the clouds the Blue Dragon of the East came. Her wings beat against the furies of Raikô’s storm and the lightning glanced off her blue scales as if it were nothing more than rain.

  ‘Seisui’s alive!’ the twins heard someone shout, but Lenis knew better. Seisui had died long ago, tortured to death by the sickness of the Wastelands. Only her empty shell remained, and Ishullanu used it now to secure his escape.

  The Clemens twins braced themselves for Apsilla’s attack, but the dragon swept past Raikô to dive on the Hiryû. They turned in time to see the flashing of Gawayn’s blade as the cursed swordsman leapt onto one of the holds. The arc of his sword carved a path through the storm and Apsilla beat her wings in a vain attempt to arrest her dive. It was no use. Her momentum carried her into one of the holds and tore it from the deck, sending the landcraft over the railing.

  The twins-as-Raikô sped towards the Hiryû as Anastasis, once more wielding her giant hammer, leapt at the fallen dragon’s flank. Apsilla flicked her aside with one of her wings, and the twins saw her crash into the railing. The others had entered the fight now, and they pressed Apsilla from all directions. Hiroshi managed to get his kusarigama wrapped around one of her hind legs and its sharpened chain bit through the gaps between her scales. Gawayn was slashing at her flailing wings, but she brought her tail down and slammed the swordsman into the deck.

  The twins threw Raikô’s body through the storm. As Apsilla raised her head to strike at the captain, they dug their talons into her shoulders. Apsilla bellowed, throwing her head back even further and exposing her throat. As their crewmates pressed in on the wounded dragon, the twins used Raikô’s beak to tear through the exposed flesh covering her oesophagus.

  Apsilla’s cry died with her. Lenis pulled his hand free from his sister’s. ‘Send Raikô away, Missy.’

  Somehow, amidst the fury of the storm and the battle, they had remained safe in the forecastle of the Hiryû. The Quillblade fell out of Missy’s numb hand. As Raikô disappeared into the clouds, the shintai turned into a feather and floated down to the deck.

  The rain grew heavier but the wind and thunder ceased altogether. Lenis looked at Apsilla. Though it was dark, her body was clearly visible, glowing with a faint blue light in the dimness. The light grew steadily brighter until Lenis couldn’t bear looking at it anymore. It vanished abruptly and Apsilla was gone.

  Lenis felt something tickling his chest. He saw blue light emanating from the crystal around his neck.

  Missy pointed. ‘What is it?’

  The rest of the crew were making their way to the forecastle.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Lenis reached up to cup the gem.

  ‘The dragon egg will hatch at the death of the spring rains,’ Anastasis intoned.

  A feeling of love and adoration radiated through Lenis as he closed his hands around the crystal hanging from his neck. He felt something ripple along its surface and opened his hand. There, nestled in the middle of his palm, bathed in the pelting rain, was a miniature blue dragon.

  Lenis and the captain leant against the railing and looked out over the imperial city. The gold frames of the roofs cast light into their faces.

  ‘What are we going to do now?’ Lenis asked.

  Apsilla’s daughter was nestled inside his robe, sleeping against his chest. The baby dragon looked more like a lizard than her mother at that moment. She was small enough to stand on Lenis’s palm, and she had no wings. Missy had called her Suiteki, which meant ‘droplet’ in Shinzôn.

  Captain Shishi smiled at Lenis, a warm, affectionate smile that Lenis returned. ‘We cannot stay here much longer. Ishullanu has had almost a week to recover from his shock, and the repairs to the Hiryû are complete. We must keep Suiteki safe at all costs.’

  ‘So, we run?’ The thought of a lifetime spent fleeing the Demon King was far from appealing. Who knew how long it would take Suiteki to mature into a fully fledged dragon? How long would it be before she was strong enough to face Ishullanu?

  As if sensing something of his trepidation, the captain placed a hand on Lenis’s shoulder. ‘Perhaps one day people will read of our exploits in Lord Tenjin’s records. They will hold their breath as we flee Yukitoshi. They will weep when Namei is taken from us, and their hearts will lift with joy when Suiteki is born. They will know how it ends, Mister Clemens, in great tragedy or grand adventure, in victory or defeat. Either way it will not change the great things we have already done, or the sorrowful things that have been done to us. We do not run, Mister Clemens.’ The captain laughed and spread his arms to indicate the horizon. ‘We fly!’

  Missy came up on deck. ‘Let’s just go and think about the destination later.’

  ‘I tell you, there’s hope for her yet!’ Hiroshi shouted.

  The captain looked from one twin to the other. ‘An excellent suggestion, Miss Clemens. What do you say, Mister Clemens, shall we begin?’

  Lenis thought about it for a moment and then grinned. ‘Yes, sir!’

  He hurried to the engine room. The timbers of the restored deck gave off an almost yellow glow. There was something about this fresh light, this golden dawn, that filled Lenis with an enthusiasm he hadn’t experienced the first time he had sailed the Hiryû. Then, too, they had been running away from something, but this time Lenis could sense that they were also running towards something. He could almost see it, just on the fringes of his awareness. Perhaps this was the Way Captain Shishi had spoken of. Perhaps not. What mattered was that he was now moving towards some goal that was his and his alone.

  The Bestia were pleased to see him. Ignis licked at his hands, sending small flashes of heat across his skin. Atrum weaved between his legs, the Bestia’s tail curling along Lenis’s calves. Aqua and Lucis were in their hutch, but they placed their paws over the side when they saw Lenis, wagging their tails and making small mewing noises to get his attention. Terra was curled up on his bunk, but she raised her slender neck when he approached and nuzzled at his hand.

  Aeris was waiting by the engine, calmly cleaning herself. Lenis opened the new hatch and she leapt into the engine block, eager to be off. A moment later they brought the Hiryû to life and Lenis, satisfied everything was running well, left the Bestia to play in the engine room. He came to the middle of the airship and ducked under the mast-shaft, waving to Hiroshi as he passed through the galley. The cook laughed and raised his ladle in salute.

  Excitement ran through the airship like a current of Bestia power. Lenis allowed it to fill him, buoying his own anticipation. It felt good to be moving again, to have his friends and family so close around him. The thought brought with it a stab of grief for Namei.

  He made his way up the stairs and onto the deck. He relished the chill air, the wind, the speed, the height, the slight throbbing of the deck beneath his feet, but he stopped smiling as he came to the stairs to the foredeck. Save for the battle with Ishullanu, he h
adn’t been here since Namei had died. He remembered what she had looked like as she knelt before her killer. Everything before and after that was hazy, as though he wanted to forget all but that last image of Namei, alive.

  Smatterings of her blood had coloured the steps with dark splotches. He was amazed that no one had thought to grind the wood back when the rest of the deck was restored, but at the same time he thought it fitting. On the foredeck, just behind the sweeping neck of the dragon figurehead, were the last signs of his friend.

  Lenis closed his eyes and moved forwards, remembering the games he and Namei and his sister had played with the rune pieces in this spot. He stood in the middle of the foredeck and placed a hand on the back of the figurehead’s neck. Despite the chill of the wind, the wood was warm. He could feel the thrumming of the Hiryû’s flight through the timber. It could have been the fluttering of life just beneath Namei’s skin, her spirit pulsating through the airship as her blood had once run through her veins. It joined with the rise and fall of Suiteki’s breast next to his heart.

  Despite the pain, Lenis smiled. He had once thought that Namei had been just like him, a slave caught up in other people’s fates and the captain’s bizarre pursuit of the Way. He had been wrong. Namei had chosen her own path, had fought to find her own Way, and perhaps she had. Perhaps out of all of them, Namei had first found her true purpose, her Way.

  Lenis opened his eyes and felt the sting of the air. His tears were scattered across the deck behind him. He was embraced by warmth he did not expect, and he opened himself to the life around him, to the spirits of the crew. Whether they knew it or not, whether they could feel it or not, they were all connected. Was this what it meant to have a family? Lenis looked at the discoloured patch of wood beneath his feet. There was something else here. His tears fell into the stain of Namei’s blood. Aeris may have powered the engines that drove the Hiryû through the air, but Namei had been the true heart of the Flying Dragon. How could they go on without her? Somehow the airship had survived her. They all had. But were they truly whole?