Quillblade (30 page)

‘The Demons are too powerful.' The Warlord's voice was rougher than ever. ‘Reports have come in from Gesshoku that a Demon Lord is massing an army just outside of the village. They will overrun our land and the Wastelands will devour us all.'

Lenis shrugged. ‘Maybe, but fighting each other benefits
them
more than
us.
'

He felt something stirring far beneath Lord Shôgo's fear, a small spark of determination. The Warlord grunted as he regained his feet. ‘What can we do?'

Lenis took a deep breath. The Warlord of Shinzô was
asking
him
for advice? He tried to calm his racing blood and think of a plan. ‘We have the dragon's egg, but to unlock its power we need the stones of ebb and flow. You sent Karasu to Seisui's temple to get them, so we need you to tell him to give them to us.'

A rush of confusion ran through the Warlord. ‘Akushin Karasu? I gave him no such order. I have not seen him for almost a year.'

Lenis blinked. He hadn't been expecting that, but as he thought back to what the captain had told him about Karasu, something clicked into place. Karasu was a mercenary. He would work for whoever was willing to pay his price. Lenis faltered. Without the stones, they couldn't unlock the egg's power. He looked to the captain, who had been watching his exchange with the Warlord closely, but he offered no solutions.

Assen Chi stepped smoothly into the conversation. ‘Lord Shôgo. Might I suggest you allow Captain Shishi to maintain command of the
Hiryû?
He and his crew can search for Karasu while the rest of your fleet remains in Shinzô to hold off the Demons.'

The Warlord looked from Chi to the captain and then finally to Lenis. His gaze was direct and frank. ‘Take the
Hiryû
and the dragon's egg. Keep them both safe. For the sake of Shinzô.' He bowed to Lenis, so low his head almost touched the ground. The blood rushed to Lenis's face. The last thing he had ever expected out of all of this was that the Warlord of Shinzô would end up bowing to him.

‘How soon can your fleet leave for Gesshoku?' Captain Shishi asked.

The Warlord straightened from his bow and turned to the captain. ‘We cannot leave until the Demons threatening Nochi have been repelled.'

‘Demon. There's only one.' Bakeneko's voice came from the back of the room. The Lilim had abandoned her disguise as the Emperor's cat and was once again robed, as she had been when Yami summoned her to the
Hiryû
's deck. ‘It is Ishullanu, the Demon King.'

Lenis felt his face drain of blood. Ishullanu – the red-eyed man he had met at the World Tree, the one who wanted to destroy humanity, the one who called himself a god – was coming here.

‘We must keep the egg safe from Ishullanu until it hatches.' Captain Shishi turned to the Ostian princess. ‘What did the manuscript say about the egg? When will it hatch?'

Anastasis turned her dead stare on the captain. ‘The dragon egg will hatch at the death of the spring rains.'

‘At the end of spring? You are sure?'

‘That is what it said.'

‘That is months away. We must take the
Hiryû
and flee at once. As long as we keep moving, Ishullanu will find it hard to capture us.'

‘I will hold this Demon King at bay for as long as I can,' the Warlord declared. Lenis felt the man's fear grow again, threatening to douse the spark of resolve he had sensed in him earlier.

‘Ishullanu is not your concern, Lord Shôgo,' Bakeneko said. ‘If you do not take your fleet to meet Shamutar and his Demons at Gesshoku, he will overwhelm the forces stationed there and strike into the heart of Shinzô.'

Lenis felt his stomach sink as he thought of Dango, the old woman who had welcomed them to Gesshoku and said nothing of his soiled trousers. He knew all too well that Gesshoku could not defend itself from a mass invasion. They would need all of the fighters they could get.

‘I will not abandon the Emperor!' The Warlord was indignant.

‘I will take Botanichi to the Temple of Kichi,' the Lilim assured him. ‘His safety is
my
responsibility. Yours is defending this country from Demons, and theirs,' she turned to Lenis, ‘is to stop Ishullanu.'

Lenis's throat went dry. ‘Stop Ishullanu? How can we do that?'

‘You cannot defeat something as powerful as Ishullanu,' Anastasis interjected in her emotionless voice. ‘An army of Lilim would not be enough.'

The captain placed his hand on Lenis's shoulder. ‘We have the crew of the
Hiryû.
'

Bakeneko suddenly yawned and stretched. ‘Ishullanu approaches. He will be here by dawn. I must get the Emperor to safety.' She disappeared into a bright ball of light, just like she had back on the
Hiryû.
As she left, her voice echoed back to the others. ‘You have more allies than you
acknowledge, Lenis Clemens, if you are brave enough to seek their aid.'

The light vanished. The others looked to Lenis, clearly hoping he could explain what the Lilim meant. Lenis knew exactly who Bakeneko was referring to, and with a sinking feeling in his stomach he realised he'd have no choice but to ask for their help. Again. They needed all of the allies they could find. Even Demonic ones.

‘You want me to
what?
' Missy demanded after Lenis had explained his plan to her.

‘I want you to summon Lord Raikô again.'

‘That's crazy!'

‘Maybe.' Lenis smiled lopsidedly. He hadn't worn
that
smile since they'd left Pure Land. It was the same one he'd wear before pulling off some wild stunt, like scaring Master Gorman out of his wits by making the
Gull
fall out of the sky, or scaring Mistress Kell by flying too close to another airship during a race. ‘But haven't
all
our ideas been crazy since we stole the
Hiryû?
'

‘True.' Missy looked at her brother for a long time. ‘But I couldn't do it even if I wanted to, little brother. I lost the Quillblade back in Gesshoku.' After they'd left Asheim, she'd searched all over the
Hiryû
for the
shintai
but hadn't found it anywhere. She had even asked the crew, but no one had seen it.

‘Well ...' Lenis looked a little sheepish as he reached into his robe and pulled out a long golden feather.

‘Where did you get that?' Missy demanded, snatching the Quillblade from his hands. A familiar throbbing sensation pulsed through the
shintai
into her hand.

‘Namei picked it up off the wall in Gesshoku. She gave it to me after we'd brought you back to the
Hiryû.
'

‘Why didn't you
tell
me?'

‘It's dangerous! I didn't want you to try to use it again!'

‘But now you're
asking
me to use it?'

‘Don't you trust me?'

Missy sighed. ‘Of course. Come on. We'd better catch up with the others.'

The twins had allowed the others to get ahead of them and had to run to catch up. They were all tired. It was close to dawn, and it didn't look as if they would get a chance to rest before Ishullanu attacked. The crew didn't have much time to return to the
Hiryû
and prepare themselves. Missy was panting and they were still several streets away from Nochi airdock.

‘I can feel him now.' Lenis's voice was made short by his own lack of breath.

‘What do you feel?'

‘Anger. Determination. No fear, though.'

Missy grunted. ‘That's not very reassuring. Once he has the egg he'll have everything. All of the Totem, the Jinn. He'll start this war of his between Demons and humans.'

Lenis nodded and they ran on in silence. The change in her brother was obvious, at least to Missy, but she wasn't sure what had caused it. She had been listening with
her
special gift during her brother's confrontation with the Warlord, but things had happened to him that she didn't understand.

Missy wasn't expecting her relief to be so strong when she saw the
Hiryû.
Despite Lenis's assurances, she had feared the Warlord would have taken or destroyed it out of spite. As they started up the airdock, Lenis took Missy's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. When they reached the deck he pulled her to one side. ‘Wait until you can see Ishullanu, then summon Lord Raikô.'

‘What then?'

He grinned at her. ‘We'll see.' Then he hurried off to the engine room.

Missy groaned. Whatever her brother had planned, she could only trust that he knew what he was doing.

The rest of the crew hurried around the deck. Some made their way to the bridge. Yami, Arthur and Andrea moved to the forecastle. Missy shuddered at the red stains up there that no amount of scrubbing had been able to remove. Leaving them to take up their positions, she went to join the others on the bridge.

The captain addressed her as soon as she was in her seat. ‘Can you try to find Ishullanu, Miss Clemens?'

Missy shivered. She had only heard about Ishullanu from Lenis, but somehow the Demon King's name conjured up
feelings of dread deep inside her. ‘I'm too tired, sir. If I found him and he wanted to he could take and bind me, just like Lord Raikô did.'

The thought of being bound to a Demon terrified her. She had only narrowly escaped before Lord Raikô had succumbed to the Wasteland sickness. It would be far worse to be shackled to the Demon King, the one responsible for the sickness that was slowly devouring the world, the one strong enough to take control of other Demons. It was bad enough they were going to try and defend Nochi from him.

‘Get what rest you can,' the captain told her. He picked up the speech tube. ‘Master Clemens, please start the engines. Miss Shin, set a course circling the capital.'

‘Yes, sir,' Shin and Lenis answered together.

A few moments later the
Hiryû
pulled away from the airdock. Missy's nerves were too tight to allow her to rest. All she could do was stare out of the crystal dome at the stars.

‘It is almost time,' the captain said to them in a low voice. ‘We are about to face the King of the Wasteland Demons.' Missy looked around at the others. Their faces were pale in the light of the moon, their lips pressed into thin lines. ‘We are the last hope for Seisui's ... no, for Apsilla's daughter, for the last of the Totem. Whatever happens here will affect the whole world.' Captain Shishi stared ahead, out over the dragon figurehead and on to the horizon. ‘Please, do your best.'

The captain fell silent and the crew settled in for a nervous wait.

A couple of hours later Lenis called through the speech tube, ‘He's almost here!'

Missy was instantly alert. A faint light told her that the dawn was approaching.

‘Be ready.' At the captain's order, those on the bridge moved to the deck.

‘This is it,' Shin said to Missy as she locked the tiller in place and followed the others. Missy nodded, her chest tight, and trailed along behind her. The Quillblade tingled inside her robe as though hungering for her fear.

The crew of the
Hiryû
stood arrayed along the airship's railing. The captain stood next to the first officer. The records keeper stood with the cook and the doctor, the Ostian princess and the lookout beside them. On the opposite side the navigator and helmswoman stood with the cursed swordsman. Missy went to stand with them. Her brother came on deck, flanked by five of his Bestia. Aeris was still powering the engines, but the others were there. Lenis joined his sister and drew her to him. ‘Are you ready?'

Missy nodded into his shoulder and pulled back. ‘I am ready, little brother. Are you?'

‘I am ready, sister.'

Together they turned to the west, holding each other's hand, surrounded on all sides by their companions. Missy drew out the golden feather she kept by her heart.

On the western horizon a shadow obscured the stars. It grew larger, pulling in the light of more and more
of the celestial bodies until the west was completely blackened. The wall of darkness met the growing dawn in the east and a silhouette emerged out of the twilight it created. It was a serpent, coiling through the heavens. Along its length sprouted many pairs of feathered wings. Horns like the antlers of a great stag grew out of its head. Its irises were red and glowing, two bright spots in the horrible haze.

It spoke. ‘Well, my gentle one, have you come to make war against me? I would that you and your sister were safely away from this place.'

‘We will not run,' Lenis shouted over the distance that lay between them. ‘Nor do we wish to fight. Leave this place, Ishullanu. Take your madness elsewhere.'

The great serpent laughed, its tongue lashing the damp air around it. ‘Think you to deter me from my course, gentle one? It shall not be. Give me Apsilla's issue that I might claim her for my army. There is nothing you can do but concede to my will.'

‘Then you will not retire?'

‘Nay, gentle one. Never.'

Lenis sighed. The sound of it floated out and around him, and it was full of sorrow. ‘Now, Missy.'

Missy felt the Quillblade stiffen in her hand as she held it above her head. She could feel the power running through it and she drew that power into herself. With a final look at her brother she threw back her head. ‘Raikô!' she shouted into the still air. ‘Thunder Bird and Lord of Storms, Master of Lightning and Wind, I summon you!'

‘No!' Tenjin cried, and the others fell back from her.

Wind swept across the deck, laying the Bestia's fur and ears flat. Clouds gathered above the
Hiryû
and rain began to fall.

‘I summon you!'
Missy screamed into the growing tempest.

Ishullanu's horrible laugh cut through the storm's current and flooded the deck. ‘You are rash, my compassionate one. You have summoned an ally for me!'

Ki! Ki! Ki!

The cry came out of the storm and Raikô, Totem of Thunder and Lord of Storms, appeared out of the roiling clouds. He looked even worse than Missy remembered. His feathers were all but gone and his skin hung like rotten flesh on his frame. His eyes were hazy and his beak was cracked.

‘Lenis!' she cried in fear and panic as the Totem's empty eyes turned towards the
Hiryû
and its crew. She thought she could see Ishullanu's vile tendrils reaching out for the empty Totem. Then she felt her brother pull one of her hands away from the Quillblade. Lenis gazed into her eyes and suddenly she felt something between them snap.

Lenis turned from Missy's eyes to look at the Demon that was Lord Raikô. Missy didn't understand what had happened. Lenis wasn't sure if he understood it either. Ishullanu had told him that he and his sister were once one bud, separated by the Demon King when he pulled them from the World Tree's branches. Lenis wasn't sure what that meant, wasn't sure he believed anything Ishullanu had told him, but his encounter
with the Warlord had taught him something about himself and his sister.

They
were
different from everyone else.

As Lenis looked at the advancing Demon King, joined with his sister in a way neither of them understood, he pitted their combined wills against Ishullanu's. The part of the Clemens twins that was Lenis formed the heart, the soul. The part that was Misericordia formed the mind. Gentle heart. Compassionate mind. Together, they thrust themselves against Ishullanu's hold on Raikô's empty body.

Ishullanu was obviously not expecting such an attack. He drew his will away from the former Totem, unsure of what had happened and a little frightened by this new presence that had asserted its will against him.

Lenis blinked, and suddenly he and his sister were seeing through Raikô's eyes. Ishullanu rose before them, recoiling from what he did not understand. The Clemens twins took control of Raikô's avian body and turned it against the Demon King.

The serpent reared, its eyes wild, its many wings beating the already turbulent air into greater flurries. ‘What is this?' Ishullanu lashed his tail.

‘Your miasma robs the living of their will,' the twins said through Raikô. Their combined voice was an avian shriek that tore through the dawn. ‘You take their minds and souls and leave their bodies to live on, empty, waiting for you to seize and control them.' The serpent did a slow arc in the air,
placing more space between itself and the twin-possessed Raikô. ‘But yours is not the only will that can command an empty vessel.'

Ishullanu screamed.

‘Flee, Ishullanu, King of Demons! You cannot face us all.'

The Demon King screamed again and tore futilely at the storm around him. His red eyes grew brighter in the darkness and his screeching drowned out the thunder. The twins' will advanced on him, their power joining with that of the Totem they had claimed. Flashes of electricity arced between Raikô's wings. Power pulsed out of him through the charged air. The twins took hold of the storm and turned it against the Demon King.

With one final cry, Ishullanu fled. His serpentine body writhed through the heavens as Raikô and the twins lashed him with lightning and buffeted him with wind.

The Demon King cried out to the heavens, ‘Apsilla, Lady of Rain! I summon you!'

A flash of blue lightning lit the western sky. When its light dimmed Ishullanu was gone, but the storm had turned against the twins. A roar echoed along the underside of the clouds above. Down through the clouds the Blue Dragon of the East came. Her wings beat against the furies of Raikô's storm and the lightning glanced off her blue scales as if it were nothing more than rain.