Voyages of the Flying Dragon (12 page)

Then Kanu looked to her brother and suddenly Lenis was there with her, inside the boy's mind.

What's going on?
Lenis asked. Like her, he wasn't afraid. What they were experiencing was new, but it didn't feel like it. It felt
right
.

Alka
, Kanu said to them, and then Missy's mind went blank.

Lenis and Missy had joined once before, back in Nochi when they had used their combined wills to control Raikō the Demon Lord. This felt like that, only now that they weren't in imminent danger, the twins could examine their bizarre transformation. Their physical bodies still stood beneath them, holding hands at the end of the stone jetty. Kanu stood across from them, his own hand resting on theirs, his strange skin and nails looking even more alien against theirs. Their hands. Somehow their gloves had come off. They were connected, skin to skin.

What is this?
the part of them that was Missy asked.

I'm not sure,
the part that was Lenis replied.

Now I understand
, a third voice added. They looked up and saw Kanu floating with them, above their bodies. They could understand him now. They had entered a state of being beyond language barriers.
You are you but not you.

Sorry?
Missy asked.

You are split, but here your halves can join.

The Clemens twins' spirit-self quivered. Kanu's words had echoed Ishullanu's and woken something uncomfortable in them.

It was the portion of them that was Lenis that broke the silence.
Who are you?

One who serves,
Kanu replied.
I have been waiting for you for a long time, but you have not come as you should have come. Something has gone wrong. Come.

Where are we going?
Missy asked.

Home.

The twins felt themselves pulled along behind Kanu's spirit-self. As they flew, the colour seemed to leach out of the world. The sky filled with dark clouds. The Lenis part of them recognised where they were going. They were flying back to the temple of Njord.

An instant later they were there, as if naming their destination had been enough to make them reach it. Only this time they didn't enter via a rock shelf or a long tunnel. They had descended to sea level and arrived in front of a set of doors that looked a thousand feet high. Inscribed on the door was a series of glyphs and runes that Lenis recognised from Neti's temple. It was the stylised representation of the World Tree. He wondered then as he did now how the carving came to be where it was.

They passed through the doors without them opening.
They were at least ten-feet thick, though it was hard for even Lenis's mind to calculate accurately in the state they were in. Once inside they noticed that the ocean flowed in under the doors, and that the place was brightly lit, though to them it still appeared in shades of grey.

There were people everywhere. Kanu pulled them closer. They were all like him, with large cheekbones and heavy brows. Their hands and feet seemed strangely disproportionate to the rest of their bodies. They were mostly naked. Only the older ones were wearing loincloths.

What is this?
Missy asked.

This is my memory, Compassionate One.

The Clemens twins shivered again. That was what Ishullanu had once called Missy.

How long ago was this?
Lenis asked. His mind was always the most practical out of the two. Their combined-self maintained that aspect of him.

Long before the Nintunaki died.

As if a dormant memory of their own had stirred, the Clemens twins saw the Nintunaki as they were. Spirits. Beings of pure energy that flowed through this world and kept it connected with the World Tree. But what had happened to them? How had they died?

Kanu went on,
When the Enkidalla and the Ereshkigalla were still young.

And the twins knew that he meant the Totem and the Jinn, and that he was using their True Names, the
names given to them by the gods in the language of the gods.

But Kanu hadn't finished,
And the Kidal and the Shigal and the Marduk were but buds on the World Tree.

He was speaking of the Bestia and the Lilim and of humanity.

And Mashu was but a promise of the gods.

The Clemens twins pulled free of Kanu's hold. He let them go. They floated above the cavern filled with beings like Kanu. Some were swimming, others reclining on the rock shelves that lined the giant atrium. Some few were weaving together the seaweed their fellows pulled up from the ocean floor. There was calmness all around them, but something inside the twins was frightened. Already they had felt something had changed. They knew that if they followed Kanu any further, something even greater would shift inside them. Maybe it was already too late. The connection between them had grown much stronger. When they returned to their separate bodies something would be lost. They wouldn't feel whole any more.

But neither Lenis nor Missy could resist the desire to know. To know who they were and
what
they were. Kanu was the key. He could show them. Hesitantly, they reached out and took a hold of his spirit-self and were whisked through the mountain again.

They passed through solid rock and winding passageways, through chambers and caverns, until finally they reached
a door identical to the one that marked the entrance to the temple, though this one was much smaller. Leading up to it was a large hall that Lenis half-remembered. There! He saw a crack in the wall and knew that if they went through there they would come out on a narrow rock shelf you could dock an airship alongside. This was the same place he had come to with Atrum. Only now the hall was not dark. The torches that lined the walls gave off more light than their small flames had a right to. The floor was covered in kneeling forms and each of them held a candle so that there were no shadows in the vestibule.

Kanu didn't stop. He dragged them straight through the door and into the darkened chamber beyond.

And there was Kanu, standing alone, holding a candle that cast a small ring of illumination, the only source of light in the chamber, making it impossible to see how large it was, or what may be hidden in the darkness. Their spirit-self shivered again.

Then something spoke, and even through the filter of Kanu's memory, the twins knew that it was a god.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR TASK, YOUNG SERVANT?

The Kanu in the memory replied, ‘Yes, Great Apsu, God of the Sea. I will wait for Mashu to appear and I will serve him when he comes.'

LONG AFTER YOUR PARENTS HAVE DIED, YOU WILL WAIT. LONG AFTER THE TITANS HAVE
PERISHED, YOU WILL WAIT. LONG AFTER THESE HALLS STAND EMPTY, YOU WILL WAIT. PERHAPS EVEN LONG AFTER I HAVE CEASED TO BE, YOU MAY HAVE TO WAIT. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

The Kanu from long ago held aloft his torch. ‘I understand and obey.'

Something stirred at the edge of the candlelight. As it passed into the circle of light it glinted. The twins saw it was a claw and knew that it belonged to a dragon, though one much older and larger than Apsilla had ever been. This was Apsu, who was also known as Rinjin and Njord and many other names besides. This was one of the Firstborn, a True Dragon, a Caelestia, the God of the Sea, and that made him Ishullanu's brother.

But who are the Titans?
Lenis demanded.
What is Mashu? What is it you have waited for all these years?

You are Mashu
, Kanu replied calmly.
I have waited for you.

But why?
the twins asked together.

To serve you.

Lenis blinked and was back in his own body. He felt dizzy. His head was still blocked up from his cold, which only made things worse. Kanu was standing in front of them, smiling as only the truly content can smile. Missy was still holding Lenis's hand. He pulled his own away. Something between them snapped, but he didn't want to think about that. He had
so quickly adjusted to feeling and thinking things with her, to being joined with her. Now he was alone again. They were separate. It left him with the vague impression that a part of him was missing. He didn't like it at all.

‘I still don't understand,' Missy mumbled. She sounded miserable. A moment later Lenis realised that she
was
miserable. Whatever he felt at their disconnection, she felt it too.

‘I don't either.' Lenis found their gloves by his feet and bent to retrieve them. ‘I was convinced he'd have some answers. I thought he would
know
.'

‘Know what?' Kanu asked in flawless common tongue.

Lenis and Missy stared at him.

‘You can speak the common tongue?' Missy asked.

‘You taught me.' He didn't even have an accent.

‘Do you know anything else about us?' Lenis asked slowly. At any moment he half expected Kanu to vanish right in front of their eyes. He seemed unreal, like a phantom conjured up by the fog of the Wastelands.

‘You are Mashu,' Kanu said.

Lenis fought back his anger. ‘But what does that
mean
?'

Kanu cocked his head to one side. ‘Mean?'

Missy grabbed her brother's arm. ‘Lenis, calm down.'

He let out a long breath. ‘Sorry. It's just frustrating.'

‘I know,' she said.

‘What are we going to do?'

Missy looked into his eyes, but he couldn't tell what she was looking for. Perhaps she was trying to see some evidence
of their recent connection, or she was trying to confirm to herself that they really were two different people. ‘He says he wants to … help us.'

Lenis knew she was about to say ‘serve us' but had stopped herself. ‘Help us do what?'

Missy squeezed his arm and then let go. ‘Don't tell me you've forgotten about Ishullanu?' She knew he hadn't, of course. She also knew that he didn't want to think about the Demon King right now. ‘We still need the stones of ebb and flow if we're going to unlock Suiteki's power.'

‘So, what? We use Kanu as bait, or did you just want to trade him to Karasu for the stone and be done with it?'

‘No, of course not! I didn't mean –'

‘Whatever.' Lenis turned and strode off down the jetty, back towards the artificial shore. ‘I need to be alone.'

He increased his pace until he was almost jogging. Anger roiled inside of him, mixed with an overwhelming frustration. Kanu had been no help at all. He'd only made things even more complicated than they already were. That, and he'd somehow brought the twins together. Thinking about it made Lenis's skin crawl. They had fused so totally that Lenis hadn't been Lenis any more. He became a part of whatever it was they were, whatever Mashu was supposed to be. He had thought things with his sister,
felt
things with her, and he didn't like it. People weren't supposed to get that close to one another. It wasn't natural.

I'm not natural
.

He pushed the thought away. He was gifted, that was all. Special. He wasn't a freak. It was bad enough he'd had to listen to the Demon King's madness, as if Lenis could trust him anyway! Whatever the gods thought the Clemens twins were, or were
supposed
to be, they weren't. It was as simple as that. Maybe they were going to be this Mashu thing, whatever it was, but that wasn't how things had turned out. Lenis was Lenis, Missy was Missy, and that was that.

Lenis stalked back down the stone road towards the wall of Fronge, glad he had left Suiteki behind when he went to fetch his winter coat. He needed to be alone, to be
himself
for a while. He wasn't angry with Missy. That wasn't it. After all, this wasn't
her
fault, but being with her at the moment was the last thing he wanted. He needed to put as much distance between them as possible. Lenis had never feared the connection between them before, never even thought about it really, but now it loomed up like some terrible fate, waiting to dissolve who he was and make him into something the gods wanted him to be.

Lenis liked being himself. He liked the way his mind worked, the way a part of it was always calm and rational, able to mull over complicated problems on its own. He liked the way he could sense the feelings of others. He didn't want to give that up and, he suddenly realised, he didn't want to share it, either. It was what made him unique.

The wall came and went, and Lenis didn't even notice the guards that let him through. As he emerged on the other side
his feet took him to the north, away from the remains of the town, away from the
Hiryū
. A stiff wind had come up. Lenis bent his head as he walked into it. He entered a stand of trees. The breeze cut off abruptly. He kept walking, head still down, avoiding trees by watching for their roots.

So it was that he nearly ran right into Anastasis.

Lenis jumped back. He hadn't even felt her presence, which meant Disma wasn't with her, and that was odd. ‘Oh, sorry,' he stammered. ‘I didn't see you there.'

The princess said nothing. She just looked at him. Her stare as blank as always, with eyes that never seemed to reflect any light. Her hair lay flat against her skull and may once have been almost yellow but was now so dull it just looked like dirty straw. She was wearing the same dress she always wore, the crimson one with the fancy cuffs, but it was little more than a rag now. It had once been pristine, but Ostian court attire could not long withstand the harsh conditions of airship travel. Lenis had never seen her in anything else. He wondered if she ever washed her clothes. He had been on airships for so long that the smell of unwashed bodies was too familiar to be repulsive, but Anastasis didn't seem to have a scent. Perhaps she had given that part of herself to her Lilim as well as everything else.