Voyages of the Flying Dragon (8 page)

Yami reached into his robe and silently offered her something wrapped in a leaf. She recognised it as one of the balls of rice that had become a staple of her diet ever since she had joined the
Hiryū
's crew. It had been warmed by Yami's body heat, but she was too hungry to care. She bit into it, not even bothering to unwrap the leaf, which turned out to be pretty sour but edible all the same.

Yami took out another rice ball and handed it to Heidi. The Heiliglander eyed the ball suspiciously and sniffed at it before biting into the rice. Her face scrunched up at the taste, but she chewed and swallowed and took another bite. Missy washed down the rice with some water from her canteen. There wasn't much left, but she offered it around anyway. Both the captain and Yami drank but neither ate. Missy thought about asking them if they were hungry but couldn't find the energy to form the words. Her mind felt fuzzy. She closed her eyes, just for a moment, and fell instantly asleep.

She came to as someone shook her shoulder. Her eyes opened so slowly it felt as though she was dragging them up.
Then she had to blink a couple of times as white light blinded her. Eventually her vision cleared, and the blurry outlines of her companions solidified.

Missy brought both hands up to rub her face. ‘Sorry. Didn't mean to nod off.'

The captain offered Missy her own canteen. She swallowed the last mouthful it contained. ‘I am afraid we must keep moving, Miss Clemens. I fear your brother may need us.'

The captain's words brought Missy more fully awake, and she accepted his hand to help her stand. ‘How long was I asleep?'

‘Not long,' Yami told her. ‘Less than half an hour.'

Missy sighed.
I suppose that's more than I should have taken.

Yami bent in close and whispered, ‘Short sleeps are best. If you sleep any longer your mind sinks deeper into your dreams, which makes it harder to wake. It is an old swordsman's trick.'

Missy was only half-listening to his advice. She
really
had to pee, but where was she supposed to go? She looked around in vain. They were in yet another corridor, like any of the others they had passed through so far. There were no rooms on either side, not even an alcove. But if she didn't go soon she was going to burst.

‘Um … which way are we going?' she asked, hoping the others didn't hear how desperate she was.

‘This way.' The captain pointed off in one direction.

‘Could you … ah … excuse me for a moment.' Missy turned and went the other way, hurrying to get beyond Lucis's light and, she hoped, the range of everyone's hearing.

‘Are you all right, Miss Clemens?' the captain called after her.

She half-turned but didn't stop. ‘Yes, sir. Won't be long.'

Missy was walking in the dark now, but with Lucis's light behind her she noticed a turning in the corridor just ahead. She almost ran around it and then crouched down next to the wall. The sound of urine hitting stone sounded awfully loud to her, and she knew the others must be hearing it. Her face went warm. She noticed an acrid stench crawling up the back of her throat. Someone had been there before her with the same idea. She tried not to think about the fact she might be crouching down in someone else's urine.

‘You're no god.'

Missy screeched and jumped hastily to her feet. Heidi had come around the corner. Missy could see her silhouetted against Lucis's light.

‘Miss Clemens?' the captain called out to her.

‘It's all right,' Missy replied, though she wasn't sure it was. Heidi was glaring at her. The girl was squeezing her sides and shaking slightly. Missy didn't need her brother's empathic gifts to know the Heiliglander was furious. ‘What do you want?' She tried to put force into her words but failed.

‘You're no god,' Heidi repeated in a harsh whisper.

Missy stood taller. ‘What are you talking about?'

‘Gods don't
pee
.' Heidi leaned closer.

Missy took a step backwards, feeling like a fool. She'd led the girl to believe that she was the god Magni so that she would help her find Lenis, but she hadn't bothered to put any effort into her ruse. She was suddenly aware of how dependent they all were on the girl. Heidi had been the one to lead them here. If she decided to abandon them, they'd be lost in the tunnels under the mountain. Missy tried to remember the way back to the mineshaft, but she couldn't. She hadn't been paying attention, relying instead on the others to guide her. Another thought occurred to her – how did Heidi even know her way around down here? She claimed the miners had sealed the tunnel once they realised where it led. Had they had a chance to explore first? Missy needed to focus, but her mind didn't seem to want to work properly.

‘I don't know what you're talking about,' she said, playing for time. Should she call the others for help? How would Heidi react to that?

‘I saw you,' Heidi hissed. ‘You follow the foreigners around like a child. You grow tired like a mortal. You
piss
like a mortal!' Missy wished she'd stop bringing that up. ‘Who are you? What are you doing here? What do you want with me?'

Missy hesitated. She had to convince the girl they meant no harm, that they could help each other. Bluffing hadn't worked. Could she make Heidi believe she was a god, like she
had compelled everyone in the square to answer her?
No!
She recoiled from the thought. She couldn't. She
wouldn't
do that. That only left one option. The truth.

‘No,' she said, looking down at her feet, ‘I'm not a god. I'm not Magni.'

‘I knew it!' Heidi grabbed Missy's shoulders in a crushing grip. ‘You are a fraud! Why? Why did you do it?'

Missy tried to twist away from Heidi's grip, but the girl didn't let go. Missy suppressed the urge to call for help. It was her fault Heidi was here. It had been her decision to use the Heiliglander to guide them to the temple. It was up to her to make it right.

Heidi was gripping Missy so tightly she could feel the girl's worn-down fingernails digging through her shirt and into her skin. Missy forced herself to look into her eyes. Their intensity frightened her. Without even meaning to, she reached into Heidi's mind and was bombarded by memory fragments. The town square. Karasu. The fires. The people of Fronge. The burning. The dying. Missy pulled her awareness away. Heidi's chin was thrust forwards. Strands of blonde hair had escaped their braid and were stuck to her face by sweat, dirt, and ash. This close, even in the shadowed corridor and through the grime, Missy could see the spattering of freckles that covered Heidi's cheeks.

‘I'm sorry,' Missy began, choking on her own words. She tried again, ‘I'm so sorry. The man in the square – Karasu – he took my brother. I just want to get him back.'

Heidi suddenly released her shoulders. ‘Your brother?'

Missy nodded. ‘His name is Lenis. We were sneaking on board Karasu's airship when it took off. I escaped. Lenis didn't.'

‘You were sneaking onto his airship?' Heidi was peering at her through the gloom. ‘Why?'

Missy sighed. ‘It's a long story.' Heidi didn't move or say anything. The silence stretched on until Missy felt compelled to continue. ‘He has something we need. We've been searching for him. It was only luck we were passing by this way when we saw the smoke …'

Heidi sniffed loudly and rubbed a grimy hand across her nose. When she pulled her hand away, Missy saw tears clinging to her eyelashes. ‘You have been hunting this man, Karasu?' Missy's throat tightened. She nodded. ‘And when you find him, what will you do?'

‘Get back my brother, somehow, and the stones. They're the things he has that we need.'

‘Will you kill him?'

The words were uttered so calmly it took Missy a moment to react. ‘What? I … I don't know.'

‘You don't
know
?'

‘I hadn't thought that far.' Her response sounded lame, even to her. What had she expected would happen when they confronted the mercenary? He wasn't likely to just hand over the stones. Missy shivered and brought her arms around herself. ‘I don't know.'

‘But you have power!' Heidi grabbed her again, though this time not as hard. ‘I have seen it. At your bidding, we all obeyed. The Vaettir do as you command.' Missy instinctively picked the meaning of the unfamiliar word out of the girl's mind.
Bestia
. ‘You can destroy the man who … the man who …' Heidi sagged to the ground, still clinging to Missy's shirtsleeves. Great sobs wracked her frame, and Missy felt tears of her own coming. ‘You … can … avenge … them …'

Missy gasped. ‘I … I can't.'

‘Why not?' Heidi pulled back. Tears had tracked their progress through the dirt on her face. ‘Why can't you?'

Missy thought of the Quillblade she had given over to the captain's keeping. What Heidi said was true. She did have power. Power to read people's minds, to compel them to do as she wished. With the Quillblade she could harness some of the Thunder Bird's power, could even summon him if she had Lenis's help. The thought of her brother pulled her up short. She remembered the look in his eyes when he had first seen her holding the Quillblade. The
Hiryū
had been under attack. There was fighting on the decks and she was going to join in. The
shintai
had somehow reacted to her emotions and the anticipation of battle, but Lenis had regarded her with his sad eyes and had brought her back to herself.

Looking down into Heidi's face, though, it was neither the lust for battle nor the disgust at violence she felt. Instead, she knew a great desire to help the girl Karasu had wronged, and she felt an equally powerful sense of frustration that there
was nothing she could ever do that would undo what had been done.

‘All right, I'll help you,' Missy said and then glanced aside. ‘I don't know how. I don't know what I can do for you, but if I can help you I will.' She disentangled herself from Heidi's grip and helped the girl to her feet. ‘I'm
not
promising to kill anyone for you, though. Not even Karasu.'

The Heiliglander wiped at her face with an already soiled sleeve. ‘If I have my way,
godling
, I'll kill him before you ever have the chance to make that decision.'

Missy nodded, troubled by the sudden stillness in the girl. Something was happening inside Heidi's mind. Missy could tell by her abrupt changes in mood as much as by using her telepathic gifts. Heidi was building a wall inside her and trying to force the bad memories behind it. She was clutching at her anger, fuelling her will with it to block out the burning and the dying and the suffering. Missy had witnessed such intentional suppression far too often. New slaves did it all the time, cutting their old lives out of them in the hope they wouldn't haunt them in their new ones. It seldom worked perfectly. Such barriers were dangerous. They could give way at any moment, shattering the minds of those unprepared for the fallout, and they affected people in odd and unpredictable ways, too, sometimes warping their personalities.

Missy didn't know Heidi at all, but she knew she didn't want the girl to lose herself because of what Karasu had done to her home, her friends and family.

They rejoined the others in silence. When Captain Shishi and Yami saw them come around the corner, both of them raised inquiring eyebrows. Missy just shrugged. What could she tell them? Heidi had borne witness to something so horrible that Missy shied away from even imagining it, and they had tricked her into guiding them on to a confrontation with the very man who had been the cause of it all. Already, it was having an effect on her, and Missy didn't think it was a good one.

Without a word they continued on their way, following Heidi around whichever turning she seemed to think appropriate. Yami and the captain, Missy knew, didn't mind silence. She had noticed that Shinzōn people in general tended to avoid needless conversations. Except for Jinsei Hiroshi, the
Hiryū
's cook. He liked to talk so much that Missy suspected he did so whether or not there was anyone there to hear him. For Missy's part, she was happy to shamble along quietly. Her sleep-starved mind settled into a stupor, which she was reluctant to disturb by further conversation with Heidi.

After about an hour of walking, though, Heidi blurted, ‘Tell me about Karasu.'

Missy stifled a sigh. The girl had a right to know who her tormentor was, or at least as much as Missy knew about him, which was precious little. It was the only thing Missy could actually offer her. So she told Heidi about the orbs of ebb and flow, and about Seisui and Raikō, which required
an explanation of Totem and Demons, which in turn led to a recounting of what had happened in Ost. There was no structure to Missy's story. She was barely able to follow it herself. At one moment she was telling Heidi about Gesshoku and the next she was talking about Namei. By the time she was finished, she had told the Heiliglander all about the voyages of the
Hiryū
, from the time she and Lenis had snuck up onto the deck the night before they left Itsū, right up until they had seen the smoke rising from Fronge.

Missy spoke in a dull monotone, too tired to put any emotion into the retelling, so tired it was an effort to keep her mouth moving. For her part, Heidi listened without interruption. She didn't ask any questions and, when Missy had finished, her throat so dry it ached, Heidi simply nodded. If Missy's story had made any impact on her, had done anything other than break up their silent journey, Heidi gave no sign. She had wrapped her stillness so closely around herself that Missy wondered how deep the mental barrier she had erected went, and how thick she had made it.

Some time later, exactly how long Missy had no way of knowing, Heidi held up a hand. Everyone stopped. The Heiliglander leant so close to Missy's ear she actually brushed it with her lips. ‘We are about to enter the temple proper. Ahead there is a sacred chamber.' Missy was shocked by the girl's sudden business-like manner. All signs of her earlier distress had been erased. She might have been telling Missy they were about to enter a public bathroom. Missy
glanced at her thoughts, confirming her fears. Heidi was only thinking about the task at hand. All traces of the horrific images Missy had seen in her mind earlier were gone. Heidi had locked them away somewhere deep inside her. Perhaps, if Missy had the time, she could help her come to terms with –