Quillblade (4 page)

One of the airships suddenly pulled away from the
airdock. Missy stared. Its engines must have already been primed and waiting.

Arthur had seen it too. ‘The Warlord has launched another airship. We should prepare for battle.'

The captain nodded and passed Shin the tiller. ‘I believe it is inevitable. Master Clemens, please load the forward cannon.'

Missy's mouth went dry. This was most definitely not what she had in mind when she had dreamt about stealing the airship. Why had the captain wanted to leave so early? Why hadn't they just waited until the Warlord had finished his inspection and disembarked? What was the captain
thinking?
Missy tried to find out, but like last time his thoughts were hazy, as though he
wasn't
thinking. It was almost as if he was intentionally shielding his thoughts, but that was impossible. No one knew Missy could read people's minds. It wasn't something normal Bestia communicators could do.

Missy suddenly realised there might be something she could do, something other than trying to figure out why the captain had been so keen to flaunt the theft in the Warlord's face. Most communicators could only project their message-images a few feet, which meant Bestia communication required two Bestia, one near the sender and another near the receiver. Missy was not a normal communicator. Not only was she telepathic, she could also send her mind over great distances, well beyond the range of most communicators.

As the captain gave the order to come about, Missy sent her awareness out again. This time her mind flew past the Warlord and the scurrying airdock workers. She moved down the airdock, over the crowd gathered below to witness the launch of the
Hiryû,
and then sped towards the Warlord's residence. It was as if she were physically flying over the rooftops and neatly paved streets of Itsû, over the black and red Shôgo buntings and the street vendors and the small parks. But she wasn't
really
flying. She couldn't feel the rush of air, or smell the pork sizzling on a nearby vendor's cart. Her body was still back on the
Hiryû,
but her mind was whizzing through the city. She could sense the people and other creatures of Itsû as she passed them by, and she knew that if she concentrated she would be able to read their thoughts. But this wasn't a sightseeing tour. She needed to find Iki in the grounds surrounding the Warlord's residence.

Lenis was already moving as the airship came about, his body rolling automatically with the sweep of the vessel beneath his feet. The Bestia hutch was open. Lenis rarely closed it, trusting his Bestia to stay put. They must have sensed his agitation, though, as the five that remained in the hutch, Ignis, Atrum, Aqua, Terra, and Lucis, were squirming around one another, making it difficult to lift Ignis out.

The captain wanted the cannon loaded, which meant two things had happened. First, it meant they'd managed to steal the
Hiryû.
Second, it meant the Warlord had sent his other
airships out after them. The
Hiryû
was vastly outnumbered, and their only real hope was to put as much distance between them and their pursuers as they could. Trying to fight would only get them killed, but it wasn't in Lenis's nature to question a direct order.

Ignis squirmed in Lenis's hands as he picked him up. He was smaller than Aeris, his ears were more pointed and his tail was far shorter. Ignis had an affinity for fire and was wriggling so much Lenis had to hold his face close to the Bestia's pointed head to make sure Ignis heard him.

‘The forward cannon, Ignis,' Lenis said slowly. ‘The dragon figurehead, do you understand?' The tiny creature paused in its fidgeting to lick him on the cheek. Ignis's tongue felt like a tiny sliver of flame against his skin. ‘All right then, off you go.'

Lenis lifted Ignis over his head and placed him in the tube above the hutch. The Bestia sped towards the bow and Lenis gave him time to reach the figurehead, then picked up the speech tube. ‘The cannon is loaded, Captain.'

Moments later a woman's voice echoed down through the tube. ‘I've got them in range, Captain.'

‘Thank you, Miss Florona,' the captain replied. ‘Master Clemens, you may fire when ready.'

Lenis reached up to pull a small cord next to the tube Ignis had run down, sending the signal to fire. He knew fighting wasn't the answer, but now that they were engaged it would take a miracle to get them out of here. No, not a miracle. It
would take a stunt, a really reckless one. Thankfully, reckless stunts were Lenis's specialty. He moved towards the Bestia hutch again.

Missy saw the ball of fire erupt from the
Hiryû
's figurehead. It engulfed the forward part of the Shôgo airship and the wooden timbers caught instantly. Even inside the crystal dome, Missy could hear the cries of panic as the flames began to spread down the deck. Soon the fire would reach the balloons that kept the airship afloat. She hoped Iki would do as she promised, and that she would get here in time.

‘Bring her about again, Miss Shin,' Captain Shishi said.

Shin swung the tiller, more gently this time, and pointed the
Hiryû
north-east.

‘They've launched two more airships, Captain,' Andrea called.

‘We need to get out of here, Captain.' Arthur was scanning the air around them. ‘We've slowed one of their vessels but they've got four or five more they can send after us in a matter of moments. We'll be surrounded and outmatched.'

‘A wise suggestion,' the captain agreed. ‘Miss Shin, please turn the
Hiryû
to the north.'

‘The north?' Kenji frowned. ‘That'll take us right over the Wastelands.'

Missy felt an unpleasant feeling spread through her at the mention of the Wastelands. She'd rather face a whole fleet of
Shôgo airships than go
there,
but the thought of flying over tainted ground didn't seem to bother the captain at all.

As Shin turned the
Hiryû
towards the north, Missy pleaded silently.
Please, Lady Iki, get here in time!
A moment later she heard the shrieking of cranes. A flock of them, a hundred or more in number, rose up between the
Hiryû
and their pursuers. In the midst of the flock was a pure white Bestia with a wingspan wider than Missy was tall.

‘What's
that?
' Kenji pointed out of the crystal dome.

Missy turned to the navigator. ‘The cranes of Itsû.' She was so excited her voice squeaked. Iki had responded to her call for help! The cranes' bodies would shield the
Hiryû
from the other airships, and their minds, though small, were so numerous they would distract the Warlord's Bestia communicators, making it harder for them to coordinate an attack.

‘Extraordinary.' The captain stared at the birds in their wake.

Lenis had to keep reminding himself that the theory was sound. Just because no one had ever tried to do anything like this before didn't mean it wouldn't work. Atrum was no bigger than Ignis, but his tail was almost three times the length of his body and his fur was entirely black. Lenis pulled him out of the hutch. There was no reason this
shouldn't
work.

‘Okay, Atrum, just like I taught you.'

Lenis carried the creature over to the engine block and placed him in a compartment just below where Aeris stood.
Atrum's blind eyes stared at Lenis for a moment, and then the Bestia vanished.

‘Well, here we go.'

‘The cranes might distract them for a moment, but ...' Arthur's voice trailed away.

Missy turned to see what had caused the first officer to falter. Her mouth fell open as she stared at the
Hiryû'
s deck. ‘Little brother, what have you done
this
time?'

Missy looked out of the crystal dome at the
Hiryû
's wake. There was something comforting about seeing the clouds skidding past and behind them. It was far less unsettling than looking forward and seeing nothing. She didn't know how Lenis had managed to cloak the airship, but however he had done it, the vessel was only visible from the inside. She could still see the bridge and everyone in it, but anything outside was simply gone, as though it wasn't there at all. Whatever Lenis had done had left their pursuers far behind. While they were escaping, Missy had been listening to the chatter between the airdock's Bestia and those on board the Warlord's other airships. None of them knew which direction the
Hiryû
had taken. That didn't stop her stomach trying to fall out every time she looked across the invisible deck.

Missy's gaze dropped to the world beneath them. She had no idea what this countryside used to look like, but three
hundred years of being infected by the Wasteland taint had turned it into a wretched wilderness. Any trees still growing down there would be twisted, with dark bark and leaves. The undergrowth would be sickly, clinging to life only by draining the tainted sustenance offered by the wasted land. The grasses would grow only in tight clumps and would be sharp and stiff.

She knew all of this from speaking to Puritan airship traders who plied their trade in the diseased parts of the world. The
Hiryû
was too high for her to see any of it for herself. All she could see were wide stretches of brown and grey soil, interspersed with patches of unnatural green and yellow. A faint miasma that wasn't quite fog lingered in the hollows of the land and gave the terrain a haunted atmosphere.

No animal could survive for long in the Wastelands. Only Demons could.

Missy shivered.

‘A bleak sight, isn't it?'

Without her realising it, someone had come up behind Missy. It was the old Shinzôn man she had seen behind the podium during their escape. He wore a multi-layered robe of different shades of brown with long, wide sleeves and trousers that were of that strange Shinzôn design that made them look like a dress. Even though they were on an airship, he wore a pair of wooden sandals, and his hair and beard were wispy. Missy knew plenty of old slaves; the lines etched into their faces made them look haggard. The crinkles around this old
man's eyes made him look kindly, as though he had spent a lot of time laughing.

Missy turned and bowed.

The old man inclined his head. ‘Your name is Misericordia Clemens, isn't it?' ‘Yes, sir.' Missy kept her body bent almost double. ‘People call me Missy.'

‘Well, then, Miss Clemens, you may call me Tenjin.'

That made him Kami Tenjin. The fact that his name didn't have a clan prefix meant that he was a direct blood relative of the Kami clan, which meant he was probably at least as noble as Captain Shishi. Her back was aching, but she didn't know if she was allowed to straighten up. The only advice she had got about dealing with Shinzôn nobility had come from the Puritan crew she sailed with over here. They said that how low and long you bowed depended on your social status. She was a slave, so she guessed very low and very long.

‘Yes, Lord Tenjin.'

She heard him shuffle closer on his wooden sandals. ‘Is there something wrong with your back, child?'

She straightened up so fast she nearly cracked skulls with the old man. ‘Sorry, sir! I didn't know what would be appropriate. We – that is, my brother and I – don't know much about Shinzô.'

He placed a hand on her shoulder, though whether to steady himself or her, Missy didn't know. ‘And yet you came all this way.'

Hadn't he realised who they were? ‘We didn't get much choice, sir. We're slaves. We go where they send us.'

The corners of Tenjin's mouth turned down, though it looked like an unfamiliar gesture. ‘I can see we have much to teach you about our country.'

‘Yes, sir,' Missy squawked, bobbing into a half-bow. The sooner someone told her how she was supposed to address everyone, the better.

‘Perhaps we could make a deal. I could teach you about Shinzô and you could teach me of your country. Is it true that there are no Wastelands there?'

‘Yes, Lord Tenjin.' She straightened again but kept her gaze lowered. ‘That is why it is called “Pure Land”.'

‘Ah. I am impressed you were able to summon that flock of cranes back in Itsû. Tell me, have you always had a way with avian Bestia?'

Missy bobbed her head, her cheeks growing warm. She'd promised Lenis she was going to take it easy! Well,
he
had made the whole airship invisible, and it was possible these people didn't know much about Bestia Keepers, so they wouldn't realise just how different the Clemens twins were.

The old man was silent for a long moment and then, ‘Have you ever heard of Lord Raikô?'

The question was so far from what Missy had been expecting that she looked the old man right in the eye. ‘Lord Raikô?' She dropped her gaze. ‘No, sir.'

‘Ah,' he said and was silent again. Missy thought perhaps he wasn't going to go on, but he added, ‘In the Church of Lahmon he is known as the Archangel Ramiel?'

Missy took it for a question. ‘The Puritan Church broke from the Lahmonian faith a long time ago and no longer preaches about Archangels.'

‘Well, in Shinzô we call him Raikô. He is a great avian Bestia. The greatest, in fact. He is one of the Totem, the lords of the Bestia.'

Missy knew of the Totem. Everyone who worked with Bestia did. In most countries they were worshipped like gods. Their powers were said to be so vast that they could move the oceans, create storms or make wishes come true. In Pure Land they had been classified as the most powerful form of Bestia, an evolutionary form capable of generating enough energy to power a whole country. Though no Puritan had ever seen one, Missy had heard many stories about brave Bestia Keepers who would go out into the Wastelands of the world to hunt them down and bring their power back to Pure Land. Such tales usually had unhappy endings.

Tenjin went on, echoing her thoughts, ‘One day, a young adventurer set out to tame Raikô and gain his power.'

So that was it. The old man just wanted to tell her a story. Missy tried to look interested. She'd never had much time for stories about legendary super-powerful Bestia. She'd rather deal with real Bestia. ‘Oh?'

‘Raikô is also called the Thunder Bird,' Tenjin explained. ‘In Shinzô we believe he has power over thunder and lightning and storms.'

The story was taking on a familiar structure. Like in the ones she had heard back home, some great hero would emerge who needed Raikô's power, perhaps to kill an evildoer, or calm an endless storm that raged around some mystical castle. She said, ‘I guess I can see why someone would want that kind of power.'

Tenjin chuckled. ‘Yes, I suppose I can understand it myself, though I can only wonder what someone would do with that power if they were ever able to harness it.'

‘It would be a great weapon.' Missy's mind was still on storm-besieged fortresses and the maidens trapped deep within.

‘True.' Tenjin turned from her to look out at their wake. ‘But if someone were able to defeat Lord Raikô and claim his power, would they not already possess power far greater than that of the Thunder Bird?'

The old man made a good point. None of the storytellers back home had ever factored that into their tales. ‘I guess so. I hadn't thought of that.'

Tenjin chuckled again. ‘Well, I'm much older than you are.'

Missy suddenly found the old man's story much more interesting. ‘Did the adventurer ever find Raikô?'

‘Oh my, yes.'

‘And did they fight?'

‘For three days.'

‘Who won?'

‘They both did, in a manner of speaking.' Tenjin brought his hands up and hid them in his sleeves, the gesture so like the captain's that Missy wondered if it was common here in Shinzô. ‘They were evenly matched, you see, and after three days of battle, with neither one managing to gain an advantage over the other, they were both very tired.'

‘What happened to them?' Missy asked. This story didn't sound as if it had a tragic ending!

‘They called a truce, of sorts. The adventurer agreed to leave the Thunder Bird alone in exchange for a single feather from Lord Raikô's wing.'

This was a bit disappointing. After the build-up, she had expected something ...
more.
‘A feather?'

‘A
shintai.
I'm not sure what you would call it in the common tongue. A gift from a Totem? There is no real word for
shintai
except for
shintai.
'

‘What is it?'

‘At times as supple as a chick's plume, at times as strong as steel and as sharp as diamond, and bearing a fraction of the Thunder Bird's power. This is the Quillblade, a
shintai
from Lord Raikô. A powerful weapon indeed.'

‘Whatever happened to the adventurer?' Missy followed Tenjin's gaze over the Wastelands.

‘He grew to be a very old man.'

‘And the Quillblade?'

‘He chose to give it to a very special young woman.'

‘A woman?'

‘Her name was Misericordia Clemens, I believe.'

Missy stared at the old man and then burst out laughing. She had been drawn into Tenjin's story despite herself and was now convinced he had been toying with her all along. The records keeper smiled and removed his hands from his sleeve. As he did so he pulled out a golden feather and presented it to her. Except for the fact it was about two feet long it looked like any other feather Missy had ever seen. Tenjin bowed his head and offered it to her.

There was something about the golden feather that made Missy want to snatch it from him. But still ...

‘I ... I can't accept this.'

‘Nonsense.' Tenjin pressed it into her hands. ‘I am too old to get much use out of it now. I'm afraid it doesn't have a hilt or scabbard, but it's not an ordinary sword!'

Missy held the limp plume up to her face. ‘How do I use it?' She could feel a faint pulsing running through the feather and into her arm.

‘When you have need of it, the Quillblade will draw on your fear or your anger and awaken,' he told her. ‘Until then it will remain as you see it.'

Missy bowed as low as she could.
Wait until Lenis sees this!
But if Tenjin had been telling her the truth, this was a princely gift indeed, and one her enslavement could not
allow her to accept. No Puritan slave could hold a weapon. But maybe Lenis was right and things were different here. Tenjin had promised to teach her about Shinzô. On the other hand, if he were just a silly old man playing a joke on her there would be no harm done either way.

Missy looked to the captain, who was by the tiller talking quietly with Shin. She was about to ask him if it would be all right to keep Tenjin's gift when she paused, her mind drawn elsewhere.

‘Captain Shishi.' Missy picked out the faint telepathic signal even as she spoke. ‘There's an incoming message, sir.' Everyone on the bridge gave her their attention.

The captain left the tiller and moved towards her. ‘Please see if you can decipher it, Miss Clemens.'

Missy returned to her seat and cradled the still-thrumming golden feather in her lap. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the weak resonance coming from the south-east.

‘I think it's Iki,' Missy said aloud. ‘The avian Bestia who helped us with the cranes back in Itsû.'

The captain was right next to her now. ‘What does she say?'

‘It's hard to make out. She must have followed us. I can't explain how she can project her thoughts this far. No, she can't still be in Itsû. Let me try to make out the message.'

Missy sent her mind back along the way the message had come until she felt Iki's mind more clearly. She clutched the Quillblade to her chest and tried to decipher the images
flashing through the avian Bestia's mind. Bestia communication was rarely exact. Stray thoughts from the sender or the Bestia being used to relay the message inevitably intermingled with the original message-images. Communicators were trained to sort through whatever mental material they received, piecing together the true meaning of the message using the rule of internal logic: if it looked as if it went together, it probably did. Miscommunication was common, particularly if the communicators involved weren't concentrating properly or the Bestia were poorly trained, which was why communicators also followed the rule of condensation: the shorter the message, the better.

Missy doubted Iki had been trained to send or receive message-images, but she was eventually able to piece together four recurring thoughts: the
Hiryû,
a fleet of airships flying Shôgo banners, a large bird with lightning arcing from its wingtips, and another winged being obscured by shadow.

Missy gasped and several people asked her what was wrong, but she concentrated on maintaining the telepathic link.