Voyages of the Flying Dragon (26 page)

Swords were drawn. The crew moved to circle the navigator. Missy stood by, mouth hanging open, unable to believe what Kenji had just said. He was selling them out to save his own life! How could he even
consider
it?

‘Do we have a deal?' Kenji asked, ignoring the crewmembers arrayed against him.

‘A baby Totem?' The woman on the divan clapped her hands together. ‘I have to see it!'

Kenji pointed at Lenis. ‘The boy has it with him.'

‘No!' Lenis shouted, clasping his robe closed and hunching his shoulders, no doubt shielding Suiteki from the man. In an instant both Yami and Captain Shishi were standing between them, swords levelled at the navigator's chest.

‘What is this, Mister Jackson?' the captain asked in a low voice.

‘Don't bother killing me,' Kenji said. ‘If you do, the
Brotherhood will destroy the
Hiryū
before you set foot outside the temple.'

‘You do not disappoint me, Kenji!' the woman cried. ‘Tell me, what game are we playing today?'

Kenji shook his head. ‘No game, my Lady. I want to live. You like powerful objects. Seems like a fair trade to me.'

‘Kenji!' Shin cried. ‘You cannot do this!'

Somehow, Missy found her voice. ‘I can stop you, you know.'

Kenji turned to look at her. ‘Yes. I know.'

Missy shook her head in disbelief. ‘Then why?'

Kenji shrugged. ‘I'm glad you asked.'

Just then Michael shouted from the entryway, ‘Demons are attacking Haven!'

The woman flicked her wrist towards the back of the hall. ‘Deal with it.'

‘There's a Demon Lord with them,' Michael called back. ‘We think it's Etana.'

The woman pushed out her bottom lip. ‘Him again. What a shame. I was having fun. You.' She pointed at the captain. ‘Captain Whatever-Your-Name-Is. You have weapons. Go and defend my Haven.'

‘Lady, you're crazy,' Andrea said. Her knives were drawn and held at the ready.

‘Etana has to go through your airship to get here,' the woman pointed out.

‘She's right.' Arthur looked to the captain. ‘We can deal with Kenji later.'

The captain nodded, once, and relaxed his stance. His eyes never left Kenji's face. ‘Mister Clemens, please bring Suiteki and stay behind me. Sir Yami and Miss Clemens, please remain here with Mister Jackson. Everyone else should come with me.'

Slowly, the captain turned away from the
Hiryū
's navigator and moved beyond the ring of crewmembers. Lenis followed him so closely he was almost stepping on the captain's heels. One by one the others fell into step behind them.

Missy was still staring at Kenji. ‘Why? Why are you doing this?'

The navigator remained where he was, standing before the woman on the divan, between Missy and Yami. ‘You're the telepath.' He turned his head and smirked at her. ‘You tell me.'

She was tempted, so very tempted, but something held her back. It wasn't that she felt she owed this man anything. During their time together on the
Hiryū
, Missy had never fully trusted him. Besides, he'd just proven that any trust in him was misplaced. It occurred to Missy just then that he had planned this all along. He was their navigator. They relied on him to plot the right course for them. He had known the Brotherhood wanted him dead for turning against them. It would have been so simple to convince the captain to come here, to lure them to Haven so he could barter the only weapons they had against Ishullanu for his own life.

The man's treachery was appalling. Missy had never encountered such betrayal before. Not since her father … she felt her fury rising, her fingers twitching, yearning for the Quillblade. Why was she holding back? Why
now
, after everything, did she not enter the man's mind, find the truth, force him to … He deserved it! He had tried to sacrifice them, their
mission
, just to save himself. And he was acting as though it didn't even matter! Anything Missy did to him, anything she
made him do
, would be small punishment for that.

But Missy didn't even attempt it. This wasn't about him. She had decided not to manipulate anyone ever again. There was no excuse for it. Not even if that person was now her enemy. Nothing gave her the right to force him to think as she desired. What was it Lenis had said to her?
For a telepath you don't use your brain very much.
Well, she would show him. It didn't matter what Kenji had done, Missy could still get them all out of this. There was more at stake than their own lives.

She turned to the lady on the throne-like divan. ‘So, you like
shintai
?'

The woman tilted her head towards Missy. ‘What's a
shintai
?'

Missy cursed. First mistake. Tenjin had once told Missy that there was no word for a
shintai
except
shintai
. She'd have to do better than that. ‘It's a weapon. A gift from a Totem. It holds some of their power.'

‘Oh, those. Yes, that's right. I have a … fondness for them.'

Okay. This was better. ‘What do you know about them?'

The woman chuckled. ‘This seems like an odd time for a lesson in arcane paraphernalia.'

Missy shrugged and hoped she looked nonchalant. ‘We've got nothing else to do until the Demons are taken care of.'

‘I like you,' the woman said. ‘You may call me Vixen.'

Missy raised her own eyebrow, attempting to mimic the woman's manner. ‘That's a ridiculous name.'

‘Who said it was my name? If you'd prefer, try Füchsin. Or what about Kitsune? There's always Volpe. Every word for fox is beautiful.'

‘How about
renarde
or
hu li
. There's also
lisitsa
. That's Garsian.'

The woman clapped. ‘I
do
like you!'

‘Why are you called “Fox”?' Missy countered. She needed to get her talking about
shintai
again. Kenji had mentioned she had a collection, and a plan was quickly forming in Missy's mind.

Fox placed a hand over her heart. ‘I am the High Priestess of the Fox God.'

‘And you have a
shintai
given to you by this Fox God?'

Fox's eyes narrowed momentarily, and Missy thought she had misjudged the woman. She felt sweat starting to gather at her brow but resisted the urge to wipe it away. Equally strong was Missy's desire to read the woman's thoughts. She'd never had to do this before, to assess someone based solely on what she could see and hear and guess. To distract herself, she
deliberately turned away from the divan and began examining a pair of Bestia lounging nearby. They looked a bit like foxes themselves, except their red fur crackled with fire.

‘I may have something of the sort lying around here,' the woman said eventually.

Missy knelt down and began running her hand over the Bestia's fur. It was hot to the touch but didn't burn. As she'd guessed, these Bestia had been around humans for a while. Missy wondered just how long Haven had been out here. Parts of it had seemed very old, but she had noticed newer bits on the way in. How had it managed to repel the Wasteland taint?

She glanced at Fox out of the corner of her eye. ‘You aren't sure?'

The woman clicked her tongue. ‘Kenji was right about you. How bothersome. Why do you care if I have one of these …
shintai
?'

Missy straightened and looked Fox in the eye. ‘Because I want to know if you can use it.'

Lenis followed along behind the captain, clutching Suiteki close to his chest. It was impossible to tell whose heart was beating faster. Never before had Lenis sensed such distress in the baby dragon, not even when the Demon Lord had attacked the
Hiryū
. Whether she was reacting to Lenis's own shock and fear, or because she could sense the mass of Demons descending on Haven, the tiny Totem wouldn't hold still.
Lenis was used to her squirming around in his grip and managed to keep hold of her, ignoring the welts her claws raised in his flesh.

Kenji had betrayed them. Lenis had always found the navigator to be insincere. His empathic gifts meant he could always tell when someone was being false. Still, he had never suspected Kenji would, that he
could
, deceive them all so horribly. Not like this. Somehow, Lenis had always believed, despite how wary he was of the man, that Kenji shared the same goals as the rest of the crew.

His head reeled. If he had been wrong about Kenji, whom else might he have misjudged? How much did he really know about the other members of the crew? He suddenly realised it might now be too late to find out any more about them.

As the crew rushed through the indiscriminate buildings of Haven, Lenis could feel the Demons closing in. He could sense them, as surely as he could feel the crew's growing anticipation. Maybe it was because Lenis was stuck at the bottom of a ravine with the Demons up above him, but it was as though their aura was bearing down on him, suffocating his empathic senses in the collective fugue of their sorrow. And above them all was the raging hunger of a Demon Lord. Etana. Lord of Fury. Former Jinn. Warden of Retribution. He was up there, and he was coming closer.

As they emerged from beneath the netting that covered Haven and caught sight of the
Hiryū
, Lenis had to bite back
a sob. His airship was safe. His Bestia were safe. His relief was short-lived. The settlement of Haven was at one end of a narrow ravine. It was not much wider than the
Hiryū
's wingspan, but it was very deep. Bestia lit the darkened crevice brighter than daylight ever could. The fierce whiteness of their illumination cast equally sharp shadows up the walls on either side of them. The airdock was a narrow shelf built along one wall. Dark-robed figures moved along it, towards the far end of the ravine. The crew made to follow. And then Lenis felt –

‘Stop!' He shouted.

‘Mister Clemens –' The captain began.

‘No!' Lenis pointed above them.

They all craned their necks back to see what Lenis was trying to show them. There was nothing visible beyond the Bestia's light. They couldn't even see the lip of the ravine wall. It was far too high.

The captain placed a hand on Lenis's shoulder. ‘I do not see –'

Lenis shook his head. He could
feel
them.

‘Wait,' Andrea said. ‘Did anyone else see that?'

‘What?' Shin asked.

‘They're climbing down the walls.' Andrea's voice was hushed, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. ‘That must be over five miles high …'

‘Higher,' Lenis mumbled. He knew from the
Hiryū
's descent that they were almost twice that high. This was mountainous country and the ravine ran deep.

Andrea cupped her hands to her mouth. ‘They're climbing down the walls!'

If any of the dark-coated defenders of Haven heard her, they didn't seem to believe her. None of them stopped or turned back, leaving the
Hiryū
's crew to face the incoming wave of Demons alone.

‘And if I can use this
shintai
thing?' Fox was leaning forwards with her elbows on her knees and her chin resting atop her clasped hands. ‘Not that I'm admitting I have any such item in my possession, of course, but if I
did
, why do you want to know if I can use it?'

Missy straightened from her scrutiny of the Bestia and took a deep breath. This was it. She turned back to the woman and noticed Yami had not so much as twitched a finger out of his original position. Somehow the fact that he was there gave her courage.

‘I need to know if you can use it because I want you to teach me how,' Missy said. ‘
Something
has been keeping Haven safe from the Wasteland taint. I'm willing to bet it's you and your
shintai
. If you have that sort of power, I want you to teach me how to wield it.'