Voyages of the Flying Dragon

by Ben Chandler

  ‘She’s really taking this whole herald thing seriously, isn’t she?’ Lenis asked without taking his eyes off her performance. A couple of people had appeared on the airdock. One was a woman who looked to be in her fifties with steel-grey hair and a deeply lined face. The other was a boy Lenis’s age. He had blond hair and looked vaguely familiar.

  The captain answered Lenis’s question, ‘I am sure her motives are pure, Mister Clemens. The Demon threat is –’

  ‘Demon’s wings!’ Andrea hissed and leapt over the railing onto the airdock.

  ‘What’s that all about?’ Lenis asked as he followed the captain to the gangplank.

  Andrea strode across the airdock, passed a startled Heidi and the duke, and went right up to the couple that had just arrived. Without any warning Andrea pulled back her arm and slapped the boy squarely across the face. Lenis heard the smack clearly across the airdock. The boy’s head snapped back. He reached up to rub his cheek but made no move to defend himself or retaliate.

  ‘Hey, sis,’ the boy mumbled around his swollen cheek.

  Andrea slapped him again. ‘“Hey, sis”? Is that all you have to say to me?’

  ‘Well, nah,’ the boy retorted, ‘if you gimme a minute without smacking me.’ Andrea raised her hand again. The boy shied away, but the Hiryū’s lookout restrained herself. ‘Uh, how you doin’?’

  ‘Angelus Draconus Florona, you miserable son of a –’ She reverted to her native Ellian tongue, and Lenis was sort of glad he didn’t understand the string of invectives she hurled at the boy.

  ‘Calm down, Andrea,’ the woman with the grey hair said. ‘It’s not his fault you missed the airship.’

  ‘Ursula,’ Andrea almost spat the name. ‘What are you doing here?’

  The woman shrugged. ‘The usual.’

  The captain cleared his throat quietly. ‘Do you all know each other?’

  ‘Captain Mayonaka Shishi,’ Andrea said, ‘may I present Ursula Klinge, captain of the Geschichte. And this Demon spawn is my brother, Angelus.’

  That explained why the boy looked so familiar. He was even dressed like his sister, in a loose-fitting white top and brown pants. He wore an oversized coat open over his clothes and had the sleeves bunched up by the elbows, making him seem shorter and younger than he actually was. Lenis looked from the boy to Andrea and back again.

  ‘Hey,’ Angelus said when he caught Lenis staring.

  ‘Oh, hey,’ Lenis replied.

  The boy pointed behind Lenis. ‘You the cabin boy on that airship?’

  Lenis glanced over his shoulder at the Hiryū. ‘Um, no. I’m the engineer.’

  Angelus whistled through his teeth. ‘Wow. Epic. You must be, like, a genius or something.’

  Lenis blushed and looked down at his boots.

  ‘The Geschichte?’ the captain asked. ‘Was that not the airship you came to Shinzō on?’

  ‘It was, Captain,’ Andrea replied. ‘They abandoned me in Yukitoshi.’

  ‘We had to leave early to miss an incoming storm front,’ Ursula interjected.

  ‘Funny. Usually the cabin boy is sent out to round up the crew when that happens.’ Andrea looked pointedly at her brother, who flinched again.

  ‘Give the boy a break, Andy,’ Ursula said. ‘It’s not his fault he couldn’t find you in time.’

  ‘Don’t call me that, Lucy.’ Andrea crossed her arms over her chest.

  Before they could get into a real fight, Heidi came over and started talking to them in Heiliglander. Soon Andrea, Ursula, Heidi and the duke were all in deep discussion. Captain Shishi and Lenis stood by helplessly. Neither could understand what was being said. Lenis was used to not knowing what was going on around him, but it must have been a new experience for the captain.

  ‘They’re talking about taking you to Kolga’s temple,’ Angelus said suddenly. ‘That’s what you wanna know, right? Neither of you can speak Heiliglander?’

  The captain inclined his head.

  The boy pushed his sleeves back up. ‘My big sis made me learn when we left home. “We ain’t never goin’ back,” she said, “so get used to it”.’

  ‘You’re both from Ellia, right?’ Lenis asked.

  ‘Yeah, from up north near the Wastelands’ border. Except the border’s way further south since the Demons ran amok up there.’

  ‘The Demons attacked your home?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Angelus kicked at the decking of the airdock with his giant boot. ‘Wastelands got bigger. That’s why me and Andy left. She said it was safer in the air. Not so many Demons.’

  Lenis had heard this sort of story before. It seemed almost everyone in the western lands had lost someone to the Demons. Growing up in Pure Land, Demons had just been scary monsters in tales. They couldn’t really hurt you. They weren’t quite real. Over here it was different. You actually had to live with the Demons on your doorstep. There was no way of knowing when they would attack over the Wastelands’ borders. There was no way to predict when the Wastelands themselves would expand into healthy land. And now Ishullanu was bringing the Demons together. All of them. Lenis wondered how even Pure Land could remain safe when faced with such a threat.

  ‘It’ll be okay,’ Angelus interrupted Lenis’s thoughts. ‘Andy can get real mad, but she’ll settle down. It’s good to see her, you know?’

  Lenis did know. He didn’t understand what was happening between him and his sister, but the idea that they could be separated was too much to bear. It had been a constant threat when they were slaves. The fear of it clung to Lenis still, even now that they were free.

  ‘So you really just left your sister in Yukitoshi?’ Lenis asked.

  Angelus glanced backwards and forwards and lowered his voice. ‘Sort of. You see, Charlie, he’s our engineer, he and Andy had a bit of a thing goin’ on and then he finds out that she –’ Andrea snapped something at him in Ellian and Angelus grinned. ‘Well, let’s just say it wasn’t exactly an accident.’ Lenis found himself smiling back. ‘So, you got Bestia and stuff?’

  The abrupt change in direction caught Lenis by surprise. ‘Um, yes. On the Hiryū.’

  ‘Can I see ’em?’

  Lenis looked to Captain Shishi. ‘Captain?’

  ‘Of course. Just be sure to leave Magni to her rest. The goddess does not like to be disturbed.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Lenis had almost forgotten they were supposed to be carrying the Heiliglander lightning god. Still, as long as he and Angelus stayed near the engine room there was no danger of him stumbling across Missy in the doctor’s cabin, or of him waking up Suiteki.

  ‘Epic.’ Angelus had a large smile on his face. ‘Charlie almost never lets me play with our Bestia. How many you got? We only got two, but the Geschichte’s only half that big. Are they real powerful? I bet they’d have to be to lift that thing off the ground. I once saw an airbarge lift off and it had, like, fifty Bestia powerin’ it. I swear! You can call me Drake, by the way. Short for Draconus. That’s my middle name. Only Andy calls me Angelus. I don’t like it. It’s, like, too formal, or something.’

  ‘I’m Lenis.’

  ‘Come on, Len.’ Drake grabbed Lenis’s hand and all but dragged him towards the Hiryū. Andrea shouted something after them in another language, but if Drake heard her, he gave no sign.

  ‘You must really like Bestia to be an engineer,’ Drake went on, seemingly inexhaustible. ‘I love ’em! Charlie says I might be an engineer one day, but he says I’m too young. I bet once he sees you, he won’t say that no more. Wait till you meet him. He’s a bit stiff, but he’s orright. Gustav’s the one you gotta watch out for. Cook and doctor. What’s with that? Don’t know if he’s carving you up for dinner or stitching up your insides.’

  The boy kept up his monologue all the way to the engine room. He never seemed to run out of breath, and he never paused long enough for Lenis to answer any of his questions. And he asked a lot of questions. In spite of himself, Lenis found Drake’s enthusiasm infectious.

  So did the Bestia. As
soon as Drake spotted them he dropped Lenis’s hand and raced to their hutch. Ignis jumped up into his arms and began licking his face.

  ‘Careful,’ Lenis cautioned. ‘He’s a flame Bestia.’

  ‘Aw, it’s orright,’ Drake laughed, as he held the squirming creature at arms length. ‘I’m used to it. Blitzer’s a flamie too. We’re good pals. And who’s this?’ He put a disappointed Ignis down and ran a hand down Atrum’s back, all the way down the length of his tail. The boy whistled. ‘That’s some tail!’

  Lenis found himself grinning. ‘That’s Atrum, and that’s Aqua. She doesn’t really like –’

  Too late. Drake had already picked her up and swung her into his arms. He was rewarded with a nip on the chin. Drake squealed and let her jump down. The water Bestia stalked off back to the hutch and leapt silkily over its edge.

  Drake whistled again. ‘She’s feisty! Who’s this one?’

  For a time, Lenis allowed Drake’s good-natured affection for the Bestia to flow around him. He forgot about his sister and their mission. When Ignis and Lucis both nipped Drake’s ankles and sped off down the corridor, Lenis followed the boy as he chased them through the airship.

  ‘What’s this?’ Hiroshi demanded when they broke into the galley. Ignis ran along the top of his stove, and Lucis jumped onto one of the tables. The boys leapt after them, and Lenis knocked over a rack of Hiroshi’s utensils. Suiteki awoke with a pitiful cry but soon sensed there was no danger about. She started out of her nest, half-wanting to be part of the game, but then decided she’d rather be warm and re-curled herself up to sleep. ‘Get out of here, you little rapscallions. I’ll have both your hides, I tell you!’

  Hiroshi brandished a ladle at them, but despite the cook’s grim expression Lenis could sense that he was amused. Suiteki peeked out from between her coils, snorted, and closed her eyes again. The Bestia and the two boys chased one another up the stairs and out onto the deck. As they emerged into daylight Shujinko appeared before them. Ignis leapt over his head and Lucis dashed between his legs. Lenis was laughing so hard he couldn’t stop himself in time and nearly crashed into the cabin boy. He would have if Shujinko hadn’t shifted his own weight and thrown Lenis over his shoulder to land heavily on his back on the deck. The pain in his ribs came back in force.

  Lenis heard a high-pitched whistle.

  ‘What did you do that for?’ Drake demanded.

  ‘Who are you?’ Shujinko countered. Lenis propped himself up on his elbows and saw the Hiryū’s cabin boy was in a fighting stance.

  ‘Shujinko, it’s all right,’ Lenis began. ‘This is –’

  Drake cut him off. ‘Drake Florona’s my name. What’s your problem?’

  ‘Florona?’ Shujinko turned his head slightly so that he could see Lenis. ‘A relative of Miss Florona?’

  ‘That’s my big sis,’ Drake went on. ‘Why did you have to knock Len over like that for?’

  ‘Len?’

  ‘If you want trouble, fella, you found it.’ Drake raised his hands and coiled them into fists.

  Shujinko regarded him for a moment and then said to Lenis, ‘You and your bodyguard should stop playing around.’ He relaxed his stance. ‘We’re scheduled for departure in fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Dorns!’ Drake snapped. ‘I’d better go. Lucy’d leave me behind in a wink. Later, Len!’

  The boy ran over to and down the gangplank before disappearing from view. Lenis got to his feet. ‘Nice throw.’

  ‘You should have dodged it.’ Shujinko moved below decks.

  Lenis turned to make his way to the rear hatch. Why did Shujinko have to take the fun out of everything?

  Missy came awake slowly. Her eyelids were sticky, and it took her a moment to pry them open. She felt … something. It took her a moment to realise it was pain. For some reason it felt very far away. She tried to swallow but her throat was raw. Her whole body ached, and she was so tired she closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. She couldn’t. The nagging sensation of soreness became more insistent. It seemed to draw closer.

  Not now, she thought, but her body gave her no respite. A moment later it was wracked by a spasm of agony. She cried out and began to struggle feebly.

  ‘Tcha.’

  Something cool was pressed to her lips. The doctor held a wet rag to her mouth. Long Liu squeezed, and a tiny trickle of liquid seeped out of it. It wasn’t enough to drink, just enough to moisten her tongue. She lapped feebly at the rag. Long Liu took it away and brought it back. There was more moisture in it this time, and Missy sucked at it greedily.

  ‘Slowly now,’ the doctor soothed. With his free hand he brushed the hair back from her face. ‘Slowly.’

  Finally, Missy tugged her mouth away from the offered water. ‘What happened?’ she tried to ask. It sounded more like a croak, but the doctor seemed to hear her.

  ‘Magic. Or as close to it as we’re ever likely to see. The energy of the Quillblade.’

  Missy shuddered as last night’s events came back to her. Last night? How long had she been asleep? She tried to ask Long Liu but he shushed her.

  ‘Sleep now.’

  Missy tried to keep her eyelids open but they were growing heavier. Reluctantly, she allowed the rocking of the airship to lull her back to sleep. She had just enough time to realise they were flying again before her dreams claimed her.

  ‘Mister Clemens, you are needed on the bridge.’

  Lenis heard the captain’s command echo through the speech tube and jumped to obey. They had left Erdasche in the middle of the morning, and it was now almost evening. Suiteki had made the move from the galley to the Bestia hutch, but had otherwise spent the entire day sleeping. This wasn’t all that unusual, but Lenis was aware that the more she slept during the day, the more likely it was that she was going to wake him up that night.

  As Lenis came out on deck he could see the southern coast of Heiligland approaching fast. He had been here before, during their flight to and from Asheim. The lights of a familiar airdock winked on the horizon.

  Lenis turned from the sight to climb the steps to the bridge. The captain was standing with Tenjin near Kenji’s chart-filled table. All three men looked as though they were in deep discussion, but they were speaking in Shinzōn and Lenis couldn’t understand them. Shin was at the tiller, but Arthur was nowhere in sight. That was unusual. He was normally always on the bridge while the Hiryū was underway.

  ‘Ah, Mister Clemens.’ The captain looked up and beckoned him over. ‘I am glad you are here. Your sister is still indisposed and we will need you and Lucis to help coordinate our docking procedure.’

  Of course. Without their communications officer, the Hiryū would have a hard time finding a berth. Lenis could transmit messages using flashes of light from Lucis. It was a cumbersome way of communication, but it was the only option they had at the moment and it had sufficed the last time Missy had lain comatose in the doctor’s cabin.

  ‘Are you discussing our course?’ Lenis asked, nodding towards the map table.

  ‘Indeed. We are almost directly south of our destination. Come and see.’ The captain motioned Lenis over to the table. On top of it was a map of Heiligland, weighted down in one corner by Kenji’s pistol and at two others with metal rulers. The fourth corner was pinned down by a half-filled mug of tea. ‘As you can see, Kolga’s temple is only a short flight north.’

  Lenis scanned the map. He found Erdasche easily and tracked their course north with his eyes. They were headed to an airdock directly across the straight. Above that was a line of mountains, and beyond these, circled in red, was a small X. Lenis should have guessed. It was in the middle of the Wastelands. They’d have to fly over the infested mountains to reach it. Lenis did a few calculations. The flight wasn’t impossible, but it would put a strain on Aeris unless they landed during their flight. He was just wondering if he should use the dual-Bestia system to get them over the tainted ground faster, when the captain tapped a spot far to the west of Kolga’s temple.

&nb
sp; ‘You see here?’ the captain asked. ‘This entire stretch of land is healthy ground. It is almost entirely encircled by the Wastelands, but the Heiliglanders have a settlement here.’ He then tapped a spot on the western edge of the clearing. ‘We could land here and take the landcraft along this terrain, though it is rather mountainous and may prove difficult. If we follow this river here, it will lead us directly to Kolga’s temple.’

  ‘How bad is the terrain?’ Lenis asked. He couldn’t make out what the markings on the map meant.

  ‘It’s bad,’ Kenji told him. ‘Almost impossible for a landcraft to get through, I’d say.’

  ‘So, what do we do?’ Lenis asked.

  Kenji looked at the captain, who nodded. ‘There’s a small settlement to the southwest of the temple. It’s not on the map, but it’s free of the Wasteland taint.’

  ‘How is that possible?’ Lenis wondered. The map showed only Wastelands in the area Kenji indicated.

  ‘We do not know,’ Tenjin answered. ‘I have never heard of such a thing before. Mister Jackson assures us it is uncorrupted, however.’

  ‘Trust me,’ the navigator said. ‘It’s clean. I’ve been there before.’

  ‘What sort of place is it?’ Lenis asked.

  Kenji glanced at the captain and then focused his attention back on the map. ‘It’s a safe haven. Of sorts.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means we can land there and take the landcraft to the temple.’ Kenji hadn’t avoided Lenis’s question, but he sensed the navigator was holding something back. He remembered how Kenji had found them in the streets outside of Asheim’s prison, and how he had facilitated their escape from the city. The navigator had already demonstrated he could be quite resourceful when he needed to be.

  The captain didn’t seem to notice Kenji’s hedging. ‘It is not uncommon for places to be left off a map.’ Before Lenis could figure out what sorts of places might be ignored by cartographers, the captain added, ‘This is especially the case when the people in those places wish to remain undiscovered.’