Voyages of the Flying Dragon (4 page)

Can't you warn the others? We need more time!

It's no good, Lenis! Karasu got tired of the captain's hedging. He's given the order to move out. We have to get out of here!

Lenis felt frustration flow through him. They were so close! He hesitated, and in that moment they lost their
chance to make a clean getaway. The ropes leading down to the ground went taut as someone started climbing up.

The far railing
. Missy thought before Lenis could react. She pulled him over to the other side of the airship. They looked over the side at the twenty-foot drop.

Lenis's mouth went dry. At the least they were going to break some bones.
Missy, I don't think –

Look!

Lenis's eyes followed Missy's finger. He couldn't see anything, just the shadow cast by the hull of the airship, but then something stirred within the darkness and he saw a figure crouched in the lee of the vessel.

Yami!
Lenis didn't know why the swordsman was there, but he didn't care. He knew that everything was going to be all right now.
Missy. Jump down. Yami will catch you.

Lenis –

A shudder ran through the airship.
No time! We're taking off!
Lenis could feel the engines roaring to life. A moment later the airship gave a little lurch. In another second they would lift off the ground and the drop would only get higher. Panicked, he grabbed Missy's hand tight and spun her out and over the railing. He sensed her holding back a cry as he let her go. Missy's sudden appearance overhead had startled Yami, but the swordsman recovered quickly, leaping into the air to catch her.

Lenis!
Missy screamed silently as they landed.

Yami placed Missy on the ground and asked her something. She shook her head and pointed upwards, back
towards Lenis. Lenis threw one leg over the railing, readying himself to jump. The airship suddenly lurched skywards, sending Lenis sprawling onto the deck as Karasu's airship took to the skies.

‘Lenis!' Missy cried aloud, not caring if anyone heard her now.

‘Where is your brother?' Yami asked her. His hand was a reassuring weight on her shoulder but couldn't stave off the sinking feeling inside Missy's stomach.

She pointed above her head, to the place at the railing she thought Lenis would be. ‘He's on board.'

‘
What?
'

Missy had never seen the Shinzōn swordsman so agitated before. Through his grip on her shoulder she felt all of his muscles tense, as though he were about to spring up into the air. He didn't. Karasu's airship was already hundreds of feet above them.

‘We must return to the
Hiryū
and give chase,' Yami told her, taking his hand from Missy's shoulder.

The sinking feeling grew worse, until she thought she was
going to vomit from it. ‘How? Lenis is the only one who can start the engines!'

Yami was visibly shaking, though whether from rage or fear or pent-up energy, Missy couldn't tell. She couldn't even think straight. Karasu had her brother! Her hand was inside her robe before she even realised it, closing around the hilt of the Quillblade and drawing it out. Her fear and indecision left her as the blade quickened, feeding off her negative emotions.

‘We need to talk to the captain.' Her voice was calm and low, and Yami responded to it with a nod.

Together they raced to the southern end of the square. Some of Karasu's guards had been left behind to allow their master time to escape. They pressed close to their captives, menacing the townsfolk with their weapons. Captain Shishi and the rest of the crew were edging closer, their own weapons drawn. Missy strode right between the two groups, Yami close at her heels. She was no longer thinking about what might happen to the people of Fronge. All that mattered was getting her brother back.

‘Where has Karasu gone?' she demanded. The Quillblade thrummed in her hands, its power building to match her own rising fury. Electricity sparked along its cutting edge. No one moved or answered. Missy's eyes narrowed.

‘Miss Clemens,' the captain began, ‘perhaps you should –'

‘Lenis is onboard Karasu's airship!' Missy's scream cracked through the tension in the square, and there was the shadow of the Thunder Bird's cry in it.

Everyone took an unconscious step back from her, except for Yami, who remained immobile behind her shoulder. Karasu's airship had long since disappeared behind the black clouds of smoke still hovering above what was left of Fronge. Missy needed someone to answer her question. She needed to know where Karasu was taking her brother. She held the Quillblade aloft. A bolt of lightning arced from its tip up into the smoke-filled sky. The deep rumble of far-off thunder rolled through the square, impossibly long. She could feel Raikō's presence hovering just beyond her reach, ready to be called.

Missy screamed again, and this time there was no mistaking the avian ferocity in it. ‘
Answer me!
Where is Karasu going?'

Something happened then that Missy couldn't explain. She felt a surge of power, either from the Quillblade or from somewhere deep inside herself, she couldn't tell which. She lowered the
shintai
as her spirit-self suddenly expanded, her awareness going wider than it ever had before. She felt herself spread out until she seemed to envelop everyone in the square. For an instant, she knew what each of them was thinking, their thoughts perfectly clear, but then she was back in the confines of her body, her head spinning, and she was unable to make sense of what had happened. She had seen too many things all at once to be able to focus on any one thing, any one thought. Her mind reeled from the influx of data.

Then everyone started talking at once. Each of them, whether they were one of Karasu's warriors, one of the residents of Fronge, or one of her own crewmates, answered her question, whether they knew the answer or not. Those that didn't told her so, but some of them did. Scattered phrases broke through Missy's discombobulated mind. Most were in Heiliglander and came from the townspeople, but a few came from Karasu's own men, who spoke only Shinzōn.

Missy screwed her eyes shut and tried to focus. Slowly, her brain stopped trying to sort through everything at once. A few phrases remained in the forefront of her mind.

‘The temple.'

‘The mountains.'

‘God of the Sea.'

‘The Vision Peaks.'

Whatever Missy had just done, however she had done it, she now knew where Karasu was headed. The mercenary had come to Fronge in search of a temple dedicated to a Sea God and had tortured the townsfolk until they had revealed its location – somewhere in the mountains called the Vision Peaks.

When she opened her eyes Missy noticed that Karasu's men had fallen back behind their captives, placing the people of Fronge between themselves and Missy. She glared at them, her rage building as her mind steadied itself. Missy raised the Quillblade again as Karasu's warriors eyed her over the heads of the cowering townsfolk. More lightning flashed through
the sky to strike the blade, and Missy felt its power intensify. Suddenly she could sense the Demon Lord that had once been Raikō nearby, as if he was being drawn towards her. She was caught in a moment of indecision. Could she,
should
she, summon him? Would she be able to control him on her own?

Karasu's men acted before she could make up her mind. They turned and ran, right through the burning ruins of Fronge. Missy watched them go, using all her strength to reign in her anger.
Let them go. They aren't important. Find Lenis.
She realised she was gritting her teeth and forced herself to relax, taking slow, deep breaths until the intensity of her temper ebbed. She noticed the Quillblade was now shining as brightly as Yami's sword did in Gawayn's hands.

‘Miss Clemens?' The captain's voice was hesitant.

With an effort, Missy unclenched her fingers from around the Quillblade's hilt and let it fall to the cobbles of the square, where it clanged metallically before curling into its feather form again. As it left her grasp the force of her anger fled, leaving her feeling numb and very weak.

‘I'm all right.' Belying her own words, Missy felt her knees give way.

Yami caught her before she could fall. ‘You do not seem all right. What happened?'

Weakened as she was, Missy still felt more like her own self now that she wasn't clutching Raikō's
shintai
, more in control. She looked over at the fifty or so townsfolk who had survived
Karasu's butchering. They were staring at her wide-eyed, as if they feared her as much as they had the Shinzōn mercenary who had tormented them.

‘I don't know, Sir Yami. I think perhaps it was the Quillblade.' Missy regarded the seemingly innocuous feather lying on the ash-covered cobblestones beneath her feet and wondered if she told the truth. The
shintai
had been a part of what she had done, that much was true, but whatever it was had originated within her. Still, she required everyone's help if she was going to save her brother, and she needed them focused on him, not her. ‘I will be more careful in the future. Perhaps Lord Tenjin can explain what happened when we return to the
Hiryū
.'

This seemed to satisfy her crewmates somewhat, for although some still looked at her strangely, no one asked any more questions about how she had compelled them all to speak. They had been privy to the powers of the Quillblade before and witnessed their effects on Missy all too often. Furthermore, they trusted that Kami Tenjin, the one who had given Missy the Quillblade in the first place, would have an explanation for what had happened in the square when they had all felt the compulsion to answer Missy's question.

The captain came over and picked up the Quillblade. ‘Perhaps it will be best if you do not handle the
shintai
until after you have spoken to Lord Tenjin. The double-edged nature of this weapon becomes more apparent with each use.'

Missy nodded as he placed the golden feather inside his robe. She could only agree. The
shintai
did give her great power, but she didn't really know how to use it. Although she and Lenis had wielded it to successfully summon and control the Demon Lord that had once been Raikō in the battle with Ishullanu, it seemed that whenever she tried to use it on her own she got herself into trouble. Lenis didn't like the way it drew on her emotions, either, and that worried her more than she liked to dwell on.

She caught sight of Princess Anastasis over the captain's shoulder and felt a prickling at the back of her neck. If she continued to use the Quillblade, would she end up as hollow as the princess, empty of all emotion save the fury that had overtaken her moments before? It wasn't a comforting notion.

‘Okay, well,' Kenji said, holstering his pistol, ‘where exactly did they say Karasu was going?' The navigator was clearly rattled but was just as obviously trying to carry on as though he wasn't.

Most of Missy's crewmates couldn't speak Heiliglander, so they hadn't heard everything she had during the simultaneous confession. She leant a little more of her weight on Yami and replied, ‘He's going to a temple somewhere in a place they call the Sichtspitzen, the Vision Peaks. He told them he was looking for a temple dedicated to the Blue Dragon.'

‘Apsilla?' the captain asked.

Missy sorted through the myriad answers she had received. ‘I assume so, but the people of Fronge didn't
know who he meant. They don't worship any Blue Dragons in Heiligland, but there is an old disused temple near here dedicated to a Sea God. I think they call him Njord.'

The captain looked thoughtful. ‘Sea God? I wonder …'

‘Captain?' Arthur prompted.

‘In Shinzōn, the God of the Sea is named Rinjin.'

‘And?'

The captain smiled. ‘And, Lord Knyght, Rinjin is the father of Seisui, the Blue Dragon of the East.'

Arthur nodded. ‘So you think this Sea God has some connection to Apsilla?'

‘I do.'

Missy didn't care if there was a connection or not. The temple was where Karasu was headed with her brother, and he already had a strong head start on them. She pushed herself away from Yami and staggered over to the townsfolk. They shied away from her as she approached, which made her wince. They had already seen enough horror today; it had never been her intention to frighten them any more than they already were. She was suddenly glad the captain had taken the Quillblade away from her. The
shintai
fed on her emotions, but it also aggravated them. It wasn't like her to give into anger. She wished she had her brother's empathic gifts just now to help ease the townspeople, but Lenis wasn't here. Missy needed to use her own gifts to get the townspeople to tell her where the Vision Peaks were.

Even without Lenis's empathy, Missy could see the horror and fear that was writ clearly across the townspeople's faces. Missy picked a few at random and scanned their thoughts, bracing herself for fresh memories of what Karasu had done here. She suppressed the images of burning flesh that rose from her own imagination and focused on the task at hand. She was little prepared for what the townspeople were actually thinking. They were, each and every one of them, thinking about a woman. It was clearly the same woman, but each person pictured her in a slightly different way. To some she was tall and slender with blonde hair. To others she was broad-shouldered and carried a hammer. Some pictured her wearing armour; others had her in a white gown. The one thing that linked all these disparate images was the bolt of lightning each person imagined she clutched in her right hand.

For a few moments Missy stood dumbstruck. What could it mean? Who was this woman and why were the townsfolk thinking about her now? And then realisation struck. They were thinking about Missy. They thought she was this lightning-wielding maiden. They thought she was –

A girl of about Missy's age shot to her feet. ‘Do not hurt us, great Magni!'

Missy stared at the girl, trying to suppress a groan. They thought she was some sort of god.

‘What's your name?' Missy asked, stalling for time so she could delve deeper into the girl's mind. She soon found what
she needed. Magni was a goddess with a volatile mood. She was known as the Lightning-Wielder and was rather fond of smiting things with her Storm Hammer. She was a war goddess, which wasn't unusual in the Heiliglander pantheon. They had quite a few war deities.

The girl had long blonde hair in a thick braid down her back, and she wore brown trousers with what must once have been a white linen shirt before the smoke had dirtied it. Over the lot she wore a tan-coloured, ankle-length coat that Missy supposed was made of leather. ‘I am Heidi Baumstochter,' she replied. ‘Named after my father Heid, who was named for the god Heidrun.'

Missy was thinking fast. Her brother, she was sure, would know what to do. He was always better at planning things than she was. And then Missy had her answer. She
knew
what her brother would do. He'd try and pull a stunt. She didn't really like the idea of tricking the townspeople, particularly after what Karasu had done to them, but she was also aware that the mercenary was getting further away every moment she delayed. She came to a decision.

‘Very well, Heidi Baumstochter, daughter of Heid,' Missy intoned in what she hoped sounded like the voice of a goddess, ‘hear me. My fellow god, Njord of the seas, has stolen my Storm Hammer. I, the great Magni, seek the Vision Peaks.' Missy cursed to herself – surely Magni would know where the Vision Peaks were! ‘I mean, I seek a hidden way into his temple so I can retrieve what he stole from me. There
must be a way in that even the gods … I mean, that even my fellow gods do not know about.' Missy winced. As a god she wasn't all that convincing. The people of Fronge were looking at her oddly. Heidi had a definite scowl on her face. Time for something desperate. ‘In exchange for your help in my most important venture, I will wreak terrible vengeance on the man who has destroyed your town.'