Voyages of the Flying Dragon (14 page)

‘Erdasche?' Missy asked.

‘To the north. It is the capital of Heimat Isle,' the captain replied. ‘We have decided to ferry everyone there. The duke must be informed of the destruction of Fronge. It is well known that Karasu is a member of the Shōgo clan. We must take steps to convince Duke Freyrsson that Karasu was acting independently of the Warlord to ensure blame is not laid on Shinzō. Miss Baumstochter's plan will aid in that. You must persuade the duke that Karasu's attack was the vanguard of Ishullanu's invasion.'

More lies. The whole thing felt wrong, but Missy knew the captain spoke wisely. If she could pull off the deception it could save people's lives. It would be worth it.

‘Yes, sir,' Missy said. ‘I will try my best.'

‘Good. Miss Baumstochter can assist in your preparations.' The captain paused and then pulled something out of his robe. It was the Quillblade. ‘I have my misgivings, Miss Clemens, but perhaps you will need this to complete your guise. I suggest you speak with Lord Tenjin before attempting to use it again.'

He handed Missy Raikō's
shintai
. She took it reluctantly. The thing had some sort of power over her, and she didn't like that. She tucked it quickly inside her coat and tried to forget about it.

‘Is there anything else, Captain?' she asked.

‘Have you and your brother had a chance to speak with Kanu?'

How had she forgotten about
that
? Kanu had remained so silent during their discussion of Heidi's plan that Missy had all but dismissed him from her mind. ‘Yes, Captain. He can speak the common tongue, it seems.' She didn't tell him
how
he had learned it. ‘But I'm afraid he doesn't know anything that can really help us.'

The captain cocked an eyebrow at the strange boy. ‘I see. We shall let this go for now. The situation here should be our primary concern. I suggest you begin your preparations.'

‘Yes, sir.' Missy bowed and left the bridge, Heidi trailing along after her. Kanu followed them both.

Lenis returned to the engine room in a foul mood. He considered going through the galley to fetch Suiteki but decided against it. She might have been able to make him feel better, but he didn't want to inflict his bad temper on her. His walk had done little to ease his frustration. He had seen Missy, Heidi and Kanu speaking with the captain up on the bridge as he crossed over the deck but hadn't wanted to join them. When he entered his room the sight of the engines stilled his inner turmoil. They needed checking. He hadn't had a chance since they landed. He had to be sure the first use of the dual-Bestia system hadn't caused any damage.
That was far more important than whatever was going on up on the bridge.

‘Looks like things are back to normal,' Lenis muttered under his breath as he began to check the pressure valves. ‘No one tells me anything.'

‘No one tells you anything about what?' a voice asked from the doorway, causing Lenis to jump so high he nearly banged his head on a pipe. It was Shujinko. The cabin boy was the last person Lenis wanted to see. In fact, Lenis didn't want to see
anyone
just now.

Lenis ignored his question. ‘Did you want something?'

The cabin boy was peering around the engine room, taking in the Bestia hutch, the engines, and Lenis's unmade bunk. No doubt
his
bunk was perfectly made up. ‘I have come to see when you wished to resume your training. You have done nothing for several days.'

Lenis had to grit his teeth to keep from snapping something back. It wasn't as though Lenis had been doing
nothing
for the past few days. He'd stowed away on an enemy's airship and crept into a frozen temple, all with little sleep and no food. Not to mention being captured, and then everything that had happened with Kanu and his sister.

‘Well?' Shujinko prompted.

‘I'm a little busy,' Lenis growled. It was true, too. It's not as if he could just drop everything he was doing because the cabin boy wanted him to. Besides, he probably just wanted the pleasure of knocking Lenis to the deck again.

The other boy made a small noise in his throat. ‘A true warrior hones his skills every day.' He turned to go but looked over his shoulder. ‘A true warrior does not make excuses.'

Lenis felt his anger flare up and had to struggle to hold onto it. If he let it get the better of him, allow it to get out of control, he didn't know what it would do.
Smash the little brat against the wall
, a small part of him said.
Throw him overboard. Show him that
he's
the weakling for being afraid of heights.

A sound broke through Lenis's raging thoughts. One of his Bestia was whimpering. Suiteki wasn't the only one attuned to his feelings. Lenis's anger subsided as he moved around the engine block to check on his charges. Shujinko left without another word. Atrum was sleeping in one corner of the hutch, his tail wrapped around himself several times. He was slowly recovering but still pretty weak. Lenis was happy to let him remain where he was, curled up between the other Bestia. As long as he was kept warm he'd be okay.

Ignis was the one who had whimpered. He was standing up in the hutch, resting his paws on its lip. His stubby tail shook as he wriggled around in distress. When he saw Lenis approach he jumped out of the hutch and up into Lenis's outstretched arms, where he continued to tremble. The flame Bestia had been scared by Lenis's temper, but even though he now had it under control, Ignis was still concerned for him. Lenis held Ignis close and allowed the Bestia to lick his face. In Ignis's excitement his tongue burned hotter than normal.

‘I'm sorry, boy,' Lenis crooned. ‘It's okay now. It's okay.'

But another part of Lenis wondered if it was.

‘There, that's a bit better,' Heidi said, running a critical eye over Missy's new outfit.

She didn't sound too enthused, but the girls hadn't had much to work with. Missy was wearing a leather jerkin over a loose-fitting, ankle-length dress. The dress had probably once been white, but even a thorough wash hadn't been enough to restore the smoke-damaged garment to its former lustre. Heidi had torn it to give it a more battle-ready look, or so she said, but Missy was self-consciously aware of how much leg she was showing.

Missy's teeth chattered together. ‘I'm freezing.'

‘Gods don't get cold,' Heidi noted unsympathetically.

‘I'm not going to look much like a god if I'm shivering to death,' Missy countered. So far all of their conversations went like this. Missy couldn't tell if the other girl was trying to torture or help her.

‘Hmmm. Good point.' Heidi handed her a thin woollen garment. ‘Wear this underneath. It'll help warm you up. A bit.'

Missy clenched her teeth against the cold and took off the jerkin before pulling the dress off over her head. She stood practically naked behind the burnt remains of a small cottage as she struggled into the woollen shift Heidi had given her. Then she put the dress and jerkin back on.

She didn't feel any warmer. ‘This isn't going to work.'

‘Okay,' Heidi said, and held out another piece of clothing. ‘Put this over the top.'

It appeared to be some sort of long skirt made out of strips of leather. ‘What is it?'

‘It's a battle kilt,' Heidi told her. ‘It'll block some of the wind.'

‘Why didn't you give this to me before?' Missy demanded as she tied the leather cord that held the skirt on. Her fingers were so numb she could barely form the knot, much less pull it tight enough to hold the kilt on properly. It proved to be heavy. With an impatient hiss, Heidi grabbed the ends of the cord and yanked them tight. Missy yelped as the leather cut into her waist.

‘Shush.' Heidi crossed her arms and scrutinised Missy again. ‘Gods don't carry on like little girls. And I didn't give you the kilt before because Magni wears a white dress into battle. I told you. Gods don't feel the cold, or pain for that matter.'

‘Well, this one does.'

‘You aren't a god.'

Missy gritted her teeth to keep from retorting. Heidi had a right to be angry with her, she supposed. Better just to let it pass. ‘Well, how do I look?'

‘You've got it on backwards.' Heidi stepped forward, grabbed the waistband and gave it a tug, nearly pulling Missy off her feet. ‘That's a
little
better.'

‘Great.' Missy suppressed a sigh. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. She felt completely ridiculous, and she was still freezing! There was no way this was going to work.

‘We'll have to find you some thicker boots,' Heidi noted, more to herself than to Missy, who agreed that this was an extremely good idea. ‘And we'll have to do something about your hair.'

‘My hair?' Missy reached up and grabbed her tail.

‘Magni wears it loose, secured by a golden circlet. I suppose we'll have to improvise.' Heidi reached back and grabbed the cord from around Missy's hair. Missy squawked in protest. ‘What did I say about carrying on like a little girl? Do you want someone to hear you?'

Heidi ran her fingers through Missy's hair, separating the strands.

Missy bore the administrations as best she could. ‘I don't look anything like Magni, do I?'

‘How would I know? I've never seen her.' Missy opened her mouth to say something, but Heidi went on, ‘I'm sure no one else has either. The last war was hundreds of years ago. I'm just going by what the priests say, and by the tapestries.'

‘So you're making it up as you go?' Missy demanded.

‘At least you look less like a foreigner!' Heidi countered. ‘Where were you born, anyway?'

‘Pure Land.'

‘With your colouring you must have some Heiliglander blood in you.'

Missy had never thought of that before. For most of her life she had been a slave, and no one cared where a slave came from as long as they did what they were told. ‘Do you think?'

Heidi nodded. ‘And you speak without an accent, which will help. It's your manner that's the problem.'

‘My manner?'

Heidi nodded. She was still staring at Missy in that disconcerting way that made her feel as if Heidi wasn't really looking
at
her. A quick peek into her mind revealed an image of a fierce warrior-maiden in a bloodstained white dress. This must be the great Magni of Heidi's imagination. She was much taller and
older
than Missy was. There was no way this was going to work.

‘You lack confidence, Missy. You need to be more assertive.'

Missy hugged herself and tried to rub some warmth into her shoulders. ‘What do you mean?'

‘You keep looking to others for advice or permission. Look at how you're standing. You're all hunched over like a child out in the snow.'

‘I
am
a … I am standing out in the snow!'

‘I keep telling you. Gods don't feel the cold. You need to stop acting like a little girl pretending to be a god. You're not very good at it.'

‘Thanks,' Missy muttered.

‘You need to start acting like a god. You have to start thinking you
are
a god.'

‘How do I do that?' Missy demanded. Her shivering had intensified, and she was starting to worry about catching a cold like her brother. She wouldn't sound very divine with a stuffed-up nose.

Heidi snorted. ‘You have power. I know you do. I've
seen
it. You called down lightning and thunder back in the town square.'

Missy looked at the Quillblade lying by her feet. ‘That wasn't me. That was Raikō.'

‘I didn't see any Raikō. I just saw you.'

‘I don't –'

‘Yes, yes, you
don't know
! You're hopeless, do you know
that
?' Heidi turned away and stalked off, her hands clenched into fists by her sides. She spun around and strode back, stopping right in front of Missy. Their faces were only inches apart. ‘Look.' Heidi's jaw was clenched tight. Missy could see the veins in her temples throbbing. ‘This isn't about you. You fly in here on your airship and you chase away Karasu, and I'm grateful for that, all right? But this whole “save the world” quest you and your captain are on isn't a game. Demons are real. Karasu is real, and I don't know what he wants from you or you want from him, but he came here, and that means
we're
involved. Fronge. Heimat Isle. Heiligland. All of us! Do you think someone can come and destroy one of our towns
and we won't do anything? Did you think you could just fly off and we'd just sit around and wait for you to fix everything? The world doesn't work that way. So I'm asking … No. I am
telling
you that you are going to do this. I don't care how hard it is for you. You
will
do it.'