Quillblade (16 page)

‘I'm sorry, Aqua, but we have to get away.'

The Bestia looked at him and seemed to nod. She leapt into the engine block and the room filled instantly with steam. It gnawed at Lenis's burning flesh. He kicked the engine block door closed, but it was so badly warped it wouldn't shut. A moment later he felt the
Hiryû
's motion steady itself as Aqua drew seawater into the engine system, rapidly cooling the overheated machine parts and stabilising their course. They began to accelerate, crashing into waves that nearly sent Lenis reeling again. He reached out his damaged hand to steady himself against a pipe. Pulling away in agony, he felt the airship roll sickeningly underfoot.

‘Lucis. Now.'

He heard the Bestia scuttle away through the pipe overhead. Right now light was far more important than
stealth. If they lost their way they could drive the
Hiryû
up onto the beach where they'd be utterly defenceless.

With Aeris still in his hands, Lenis limped unsteadily over to his bunk. He couldn't decide if it was the unfamiliar rolling of the airship or his battered body that made his steps so unsure. Atrum slunk after them, looking miserable. Aeris was almost unconscious, hanging limply in Lenis's arms. Tears stung the wound on Lenis's cheek, and his leg and hands ached badly, but he couldn't give into the waves of light-headedness that threatened to take him. He laid Aeris gently on his bunk and picked up Atrum, depositing him next to her. He stared down at them helplessly. Their injuries looked severe. This was far beyond his skill as a Bestia Keeper. He needed the doctor.

Ignis jumped up onto the bunk and began sniffing Aeris's singed fur. His remorse was palpable. Lenis tried to force a state of calm over himself, hoping it would spread to the Bestia and alleviate at least some of their pain. When he felt them begin to relax, he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled to the doorway. He could hear the ferocity of the sea as it met the fury of the blizzard, but he couldn't bring himself to consider what he didn't hear. The crew were silent. His mind suddenly filled with awful images of them. Burnt to death by getting too close to an exploding pipeline. Thrown overboard by the
Hiryû
's descent. Lying unconscious after being hurled against the wall, or struggling, even now, as the ocean pulled them deep into itself.

Such thoughts were useless. Everyone
had
to be okay. The Bestia were his concern. He needed to fetch the doctor. Atrum was badly injured and Aeris ... if she ... if she
died
... Lenis had done this to them. It was all his fault.

Namei met him in the hallway and gasped when she saw him. ‘Lenis?'

‘Others?' The movement of his mouth brought fresh pain to his injured face.

‘I think they're all right.' She placed an arm around him as his injured knee gave way. He sagged into her. ‘A bit bruised, but no one's too badly hurt. Those of us on deck were tied to the airship. What happened to you?'

‘Heard Andrea scream?'

‘You cloaked the airship and the deck disappeared right out from under her, but she's all right. I think I should get the doctor.'

‘Yes. Need the doctor. Aeris. Atrum.' Why were his words so slurred? He took a breath and tried to speak clearly. ‘Missy. How's Missy?'

‘I'm not sure. Lenis, you need to lie down. You're hurt. You need the doctor.'

‘Yes.' His mind stopped working. He couldn't think. The hallway suddenly got darker.

‘You wait here,' she told him. ‘I'll go and get Master Long.'

Lenis heard her from far away. Everything seemed so far –

‘Brace yourselves,' a voice seemed to echo out of nowhere. Lenis slouched against the wall, trying to figure out who was talking to him.

‘What is it?' Lenis mumbled.

‘Demon!'

‘All hands on deck!'

Where were all these voices coming from? Something in Lenis's mind registered the order and he pushed himself away from the wall. He had to get to the deck. Something bit gently into his right calf and he looked down, smiling through the haze that had settled around his thoughts. Ignis nipped at him again and Lenis lifted the Bestia into his arms.

‘Come on, then. You can come if you want.'

Carrying the wriggling creature under his arm, Lenis moved to the stairs. The pain in his body receded as the cold hit him. Ignis's warmth was comforting. The airship rolled suddenly and thrust him against the wall. Still grinning, Lenis righted himself and started climbing. The stairs were slippery. He grabbed a rope tied to the banister with his free hand and hauled himself along it. His hand tingled, but the sensation was very far away so he ignored it.

On the deck the world had lost its colour. Everything was either the deepest black or lit by a fierce light. There was water everywhere, flying at strange angles. Lenis breathed it in as he gasped for air. He was soon soaked through. The light moved in a steady rhythm as Lucis ran through the pipes, trailing radiance in her wake. The rain caught and refracted
the luminescence, dazzling Lenis's vision with needle-shaped shards. The wind surged around him, smashing the water into him from every direction.

Everything seemed unreal. Lenis stumbled forward, or was it backwards? He couldn't see where he was going but the air and water carried him on. He was still smiling, but he wondered now
why
he was smiling. Why
had
he come up on deck? The moaning of the storm seemed very far away, disjointed from the sting of the rain, or was it sleet now? It
was
cold. Ignis writhed in his arms, but Lenis paid him no mind other than to enjoy the small pool of warmth the creature radiated. From somewhere far away he felt a stinging in his face and hands and knee and a dozen other places. He ignored it.

The strange, sweeping movement of the deck beneath his feet seemed to match his stagger so that, as Lenis thought about it, he realised he was walking quite naturally. ‘Guess I've got my sea legs,' he mumbled to no one. This seemed like a terribly funny thing to say, though he couldn't imagine why. The corners of his mouth twitched again.

Lenis's mind registered the shouts of his crewmates coming from somewhere ahead. The foredeck? Or had the storm turned him around and pointed him towards the bridge? Were their cries real, or just more ghostly voices in the wind?

The bubble of confusion that had settled around his head popped and he suddenly realised where he was and remembered why he was there. He hurried towards his friends but
his legs gave way and he fell. He hauled himself up by another rope but soon the deck disappeared altogether and he was shooting forward in a mass of water and wind. He became a part of the tempest. The forecastle broke his mad flight and took his breath away at the same time. He gripped the railing, gasped in a lungful of air, and pulled himself upright.

Suddenly, people were everywhere. Why hadn't he seen them before? At the starboard rail the captain stood with Tenjin and Hiroshi. Captain Shishi and the cook both held bows in their hands and Tenjin held a quiver stuffed with arrows.

Behind him, Lenis could hear someone calling his name. He looked over his shoulder and saw Arthur waving, a cape billowing out behind him. The dark fabric swirled to one side, revealing Namei and Long Liu.

‘For Glory!'

The shout came from above and Lenis looked up. A tall, broad-shouldered man stood in the forecastle. He had long, wild, brown hair and wore chain mail that glinted as if lit by its own power. The scabbard at his side could not entirely sheath the radiance of the blade it contained.

Someone shouted, ‘Gawayn!'

The man gave off rays like the afternoon sun through scattering clouds. Lenis looked on, open-mouthed, as the apparition notched an arrow to his bow and drew it back. The flying shaft took some of the knight's inner light with it up into the darkness.

Following the trail of its light, Lenis saw the Demon. It rose above the forecastle of the
Hiryû,
dwarfing the vessel with its size. It had the body of a centipede, but its legs were giant braziers that gave off a ghastly ice-blue light. Its head was bigger than the crystal dome of the bridge, and its eye sockets were cavernous. One was filled with azure fire; the other was empty, gaping. It swooped its head to strike at the man in the forecastle, and Lenis saw a fissure-like scar running down the right side of the Demon's face, through the empty eye socket.

The man of light once more drew his bow. ‘Get back, wretch!' This time the arrow flew true and pierced the Demon through the forehead. The creature reared and cried out. The light of its legs died, one by one. The Demon crashed into the sea and sent the
Hiryû
backwards on the crest of a wave.

As lightning spread across the sky, Lenis lost all sense of himself. The noise of the storm and the sea disappeared. He could no longer feel the weight of the deck beneath him. He felt neither heat nor cold. All he could feel around him was water.

Missy shivered and, for an instant, felt nothing at all. All sensation dimmed. Even the cloak binding her to Raikô seemed to vanish. In that single moment she thought she must have died. It reminded her of how she had felt standing atop the walls of Gesshoku as Lord Raikô had reached out and separated her spirit-self from her physical body.

The moment passed as it had back then, though she couldn't remember how long ago that had been, and she was in the Totem's hall again, watching Raikô slip further and further into his madness, the Wasteland taint slowly consuming him.

Missy was still dimly aware of her body, lying prone somewhere far away, but panic suddenly overwhelmed her. Had it finally given out? Was that what that weird feeling, or lack of feeling, had been? Had she
died,
at least in a physical sense? How long could a body survive without its soul? As she watched the diseased Totem writhing in his attempts to fight his inevitable decay, Missy wondered if he had doomed her to this spirit-existence forever, leaving her with nothing to return to but a rotting corpse.

For a moment Lenis thought he saw his sister in a hollow hall lit dimly by a wavering fire. Though the image faded quickly it stayed with him throughout his dreams. Faces came and went. Captain Shishi, Long Liu, Namei, and the rest of the crew, one by one. The figurehead of the
Hiryû
rose up before him, its wooden scales changing from painted red to glinting blue. With a horrible wrenching sound it tore itself free of the vessel, leaving the hull of the airship to plummet to the ground as it soared away.

YOU MUST SAVE MY DAUGHTER, the dragon trumpeted to him as he sank, helplessly, with the airship.

I have to find the World Tree!
Lenis thought suddenly and felt himself rise above the deck. Detached, he watched the
Hiryû
fall away below him. As he looked down he saw Yami standing in the forecastle, now bereft of its figurehead, and watched as he transformed into a giant of a man, haloed in light.

I have to find it!
Lenis called apologetically.

He couldn't read the look on the strange man's face, so he raised his gaze to stare at the horizon. Far in the distance he saw a tree standing taller than a mountain. Its boughs spread from the east all the way to the west, crowning the world. In an instant Lenis realised he had found the World Tree at last.

‘ ...nis, wake up. Lenis?'

He heard the words but struggled against them, trying to re-enter his dream and discover some clue as to the World Tree's location. Suddenly he could feel hands holding him down and, though he fought as best he could, his body was too weak.

The voice returned. ‘You're having a bad dream. Wake up, Lenis, it's all right.'

‘No!' He tried to shout but it came out a croak. ‘No, it's not all right. I saw it! I saw it!'

‘Doctor?'

‘Let him go, Namei, he'll settle in a moment.'

The weight around his shoulders disappeared and Lenis opened his eyes. His vision filled with Namei's face and his panic quietened as he realised where he was. He was in his bunk in the engine room and Namei was next to him. The doctor stood just behind her, somehow managing to look stern and amused at the same time. Lenis could feel something was wrong. It took him a moment to realise that most of his skin was numb. He was wrapped up in bandages, too.
Scattered memories came back to him, and he thought he could feel an echo of pain in his injured face, hands and knee, but something was holding it back. Not so the throbbing in his chest. He felt battered and bruised and terribly weak, but he was otherwise safe aboard the
Hiryû.

‘What happened?'

Namei lifted a shallow bowl to his lips. She helped him raise his head to drink and then lowered him down again. ‘You went overboard during the crossing. Gôshi Yami pulled you out.'

‘Yami?'

‘He turned into Gawayn to kill the Demon, but when he saw you go overboard he became Yami again and dived in after you. We managed to lower a rope and haul you both out. We didn't think you were going to come back to us.' This last part she said quickly, as if afraid she might stop herself before finishing.

‘I don't understand ...'

‘You nearly died!' Namei shouted and then ran out of the room.

Long Liu clicked his tongue. ‘Not good to worry her.' He moved his hands over Lenis's bandaged body, clucking his tongue occasionally. It felt odd; sometimes Lenis could feel the doctor touching his skin and sometimes he couldn't.

‘Am I going to be all right?'

‘Hmm?'

Lenis took a deep breath and forced the words out again. ‘Am I going to be all right?'

‘Oh, I should think so. Just don't stick your face into any more furnaces. The salve will dull the pain of your burns for a time, but don't come begging for more when it wears off. There isn't any, and I don't have all the ingredients I need to make more. Now. Doctor's orders – don't go jumping off any more boats.'

‘I didn't jump, I ... Wait, where are we?' Lenis suddenly realised the airship was still.

‘We reached the southern coast of Heiligland yesterday, Master Clemens,' the captain said from the doorway. ‘Thanks in no small part to your efforts. I hope you have sustained no permanent injuries.'

The doctor left Lenis's side. ‘The boy will be fine. Rest is the best thing for him. Once that salve wears off the pain will return. He's going to need his strength.'

Lenis didn't find that very reassuring, but at least for now he couldn't feel his burns.

The captain nodded as the doctor left the engine room. ‘The crossing proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated. For that I apologise.' He bowed.

Lenis didn't know what to do or say. ‘There's no need –'

‘I think there is. I have dismissed your concerns in the past due to your age and inexperience. I think in the future I will pay them more mind. You possess experience and knowledge beyond your years.'

Lenis was thankful for the bandages covering his blush. This was the first time he had ever spoken to the captain alone.

Captain Shishi went on, ‘You did your work well. When you are feeling better we will continue our journey.'

Did his work well?
Well?
He had always done his work
well!
What did it matter? ‘I did my duty.' Lenis turned his face away. ‘Captain.'

For an uncomfortable moment the captain said nothing. ‘Does that distress you?'

Lenis felt tears come to his eyes and was suddenly too tired to think anymore. ‘We don't all get to choose our fate,
sir.
'

‘Master Clemens, there is no fate in this world. If there were, we would simply allow life to happen without us. What you call “fate” is nothing more than the tides of choices made by the hundreds, the thousands, the millions of people in this world. Each decision we make contributes to the ebb and flow of life. Sometimes the current seems against us, and sometimes it seems we are riding on the crest of a tsunami, but in the end we are less than a drop of water in the ocean.'

Choice?
When had Lenis ever been given a
choice?
The frustrations of the past couple of weeks came pouring out of him all at once. His fear of being sold, of being separated from his sister, was no longer enough to silence him. He was a slave, a child, and the man before him had complete control over what happened to him, but just then, Lenis didn't care.

‘It's all right for you!' He turned back to face the captain. ‘You and the others can do whatever you want while Missy and I are dragged along behind you! You speak about “Ways” and of finding a purpose, but it's stupid! What purpose can a slave have but to do his duty? How is that different to fate? You don't even care that Missy's lying in the doctor's cabin, virtually dead! What have you done for her, for either of us? We were better off in service to the Warlord! At least there we were safe.'

Lenis's throat ached from his outburst and tears ran down his cheeks. This was it. He knew he had gone too far. There was no way the captain could ignore him now. The best Lenis could hope for was to be sold off. The worst lay in the scabbard by the captain's side.

The worst. Missy. Lenis's heart sank. He'd never see his sister again. Who was going to help her now?

Captain Shishi remained calm and silent. After a moment he came and sat on the end of Lenis's bunk. ‘You talk of fate as though it controls you. Fate is what happens when you do nothing, when you allow the choices of others to move you around. Fate is existence
without
purpose. The Way is the purpose we choose for ourselves. That is what I offered you all when we first stole the
Hiryû
– a chance to choose your own fate – yet you believe we stole you and your sister from Lord Shôgo when we stole his airship?'

It was only half a question and Lenis wasn't sure if the captain expected a response. His throat ached as he forced
himself to stop crying. He wiped furiously at his eyes but dropped his hands when he thought about his damaged cheek. Just because it was numb didn't mean he couldn't do more damage to it.

Captain Shishi nodded once, as if to himself. ‘Forgive me. I did not think to formally grant you and your sister your liberty. I do not know how such things are done in Pure Land. We do not enslave people in Shinzô. Those who serve others are not slaves. They are free to seek employment elsewhere. You and your sister came to us with the
Hiryû –
that was the course others had chosen for you – but no one on the crew considered you to be a part of the airship.'

Lenis stared at him through moist eyes, unsure of how to feel. The Clemens twins had come with the
Hiryû.
The Puritan Ruling Council had included them with the gift of the airship. The other crewmembers who had flown the airship to Shinzô had all gone home, all except Kenji, who had chosen to stay. Is that what the captain thought the twins had done,
chosen
to stay, like Kenji? Had this all been some big mistake?

‘You mean,' Lenis croaked and had to cough to clear his throat, ‘you mean we aren't slaves anymore?'

‘The only person aboard the
Hiryû
who considers you to be a slave is yourself.'

Lenis turned away again and squeezed his eyes closed. All of it had been for nothing. His fear of being sold, of showing too much of himself to the others, of losing his sister. All for
nothing. The captain hadn't stolen them at all. He had freed them. Freedom. What was it? What did it mean?

An image came to Lenis of the slave pens on the shores of Blue Lake. Beyond the lake had been the purple mountains that blocked the horizon. He had often looked up at them when he was younger, wondering what might lie beyond. In his imagination he had only ever had to cross those mountains to be free. But then he had grown up and started working on airships, and he had seen that what was behind those snowcapped peaks was no different than what was on his side. No matter where he went, no matter how far he travelled from the slave pens, he was never free. And now he was, he didn't know what freedom was supposed to look like. It certainly wasn't what he had imagined it to be as a child.

‘Captain Shishi?'

‘Yes, Master Clemens?'

‘Why did we steal the
Hiryû?
'

‘I became a
shugyosha,
a wandering swordsman, when I realised the world was decaying and my people were doing nothing about it. They were more concerned with politics, while I wished to know what was happening to our world. I journeyed to the temples of Shinzô, believing there was a link between the Jinn, the Totem and the Wastelands.' Captain Shishi peered out of the engine room's porthole as though it were a portal to his own memories. ‘I met others who believed as I did, that the Demons were growing stronger as our guardians weakened. When I was commissioned to captain the
Hiryû,
I saw it as a chance to break free of Shinzôn politics. I thought I – no, I thought
we
could make a difference.'

‘But, Lord Knyght ...' Lenis was trying to make sense of it all. What had brought them here? Where were they going?

The captain laughed and brought his attention back into the confines of the engine room. ‘Did you know that Lord Knyght was banished from Kyst?' Lenis shook his head. ‘He sacrificed his standing in an attempt to protect his country from his own king's greed. It seems the ruler of Kyst was intent on destroying what little of the world remained in his quest for greater power.'

Lenis filed this information away to share with his sister later. He hadn't thought of Arthur as a hero before. ‘He's like you then, isn't he? You're both trying to make things better, while everyone else is ignoring the situation.'

Captain Shishi bowed his head. ‘I am honoured you think so highly of me.' He stood abruptly. ‘I will leave you now to your rest. I am sure when you are better you will be able to help us with the Bestia.'

A terrible feeling pulled at Lenis's stomach. He hadn't even thought of the Bestia. Flashes of memory came back to him of Aeris and Atrum, charred by Ignis's power, and Ignis ... had Ignis gone over the side with Lenis? This led to a greater realisation. He couldn't feel any of them next to him.

‘Where are they?' He tried to sit up and pain ran through his body. His vision swam, but he ignored the discomfort.

Captain Shishi turned back to him. ‘We do not know. They abandoned the
Hiryû
when we reached the coast.'

‘They
what?
'

‘They have left us. When you are well again you must help us find them.'

Lenis fell into his pillow. ‘Aeris ...' He sank back into unconsciousness.