by Ben Chandler
‘I have to get to the tiller,’ Shin said from beside her. Missy nodded. They needed the helmswoman’s skill if they were going to have any hope of escaping their pursuers, but the Demon blocked their way. Maybe they could go through the forward hatch and come up on the other side of it ...
A rain of crossbow bolts flew over their heads and peppered the deck in front of the Demon, which flapped up to the roof of one of the holds. Andrea was standing atop the forecastle, already reloading another cartridge into her automated crossbow. ‘Go! I’ll cover you!’
Namei and Shin made a dash for the bridge. The Demon, as if realising what they were doing, leapt down in front of them but was cut off by Captain Shishi, Arthur and Gawayn. They spread out before it, between the creature and the helmswoman. The Demon lashed out with one giant paw, knocking Arthur to the deck. Gawayn moved in to strike, but its tail wrapped around him and slammed him into one of the holds. Missy staggered back as Andrea lifted her crossbow again.
A cry tore across the Hiryû’s deck. ‘Nue!’
It was Princess Anastasis. She was falling through the sky, her hammer aimed at the Demon’s head. The blow struck true, and the Demon crumpled onto the roof of the hold. The entire deck shook as if they had just run into a mountain. Princess Anastasis stood over the beast, her war hammer held above her head ready to strike the Demon again. One side of its face was badly damaged from the princess’s blow. She brought her mallet down, but the dazed Demon managed to roll. He fell off the hold and went over the railing, spreading his wings to keep from plummeting to the ground. Anastasis’s blow caved in the roof of the hold, and she fell after it in an explosion of timber.
Shin had made it to the bridge and the Hiryû steadied.
Gawayn kicked in the hold’s door, tearing through the rubble, trying to find the princess. She stepped past him demurely, showing no signs of injury.
The captain sheathed his sword. ‘Your arrival here is fortunate, Princess Anastasis.’
‘Nue is Lord Butin’s Familiar.’ Anastasis’s voice was emotionless. ‘Butin won’t be far behind.’
Missy’s legs were quivering so she sat down on the stairs leading up to the foredeck. They had done it again. They’d somehow managed to pull off another miraculous escape! She felt a smile tugging on her lips, but then a shadow passed overhead. She looked up. The sky above them was full of Ostian airships.
Lenis was hauled up on deck by two Ostian guards. Three more stayed in the engine room to secure the Bestia in their hutch. Lenis saw the other crewmembers ringed by heavily armed guards in the middle of the deck. The tension was palpable. Weapons were drawn.
‘Lenis!’ Missy’s voice came from the middle of the crew.
‘I’m okay!’ he called back. One of his guards knocked him to the deck.
Lenis looked up and noticed three airships hovering above them, connected to the Hiryû by rope ladders. Lenis got to his knees and felt two hands gripping his shoulders, holding him down.
‘Give me the manuscript, Princess, and you and your new friends may leave.’ Lord Butin was standing in the forecastle, looking down on the encircled defenders. He was dressed in the same heavy crimson robe he had been wearing when he arrested the crew in Asheim. Lenis felt his heart flutter at the mention of the manuscript. Could it be the same book the crew were after?
‘I don’t have it, Butin.’ Anastasis’s words sounded hollow in the thin air of the encroaching evening. Her face was completely devoid of emotion, and Lenis couldn’t sense anything coming from her except a hatred for the man in the crimson robe. Around her neck hung a small, oblong crystal that caught the diminishing rays of the afternoon sun. The glinting gem drew Lenis’s attention for a moment and false lights began playing across his vision.
Lord Butin considered the princess, the corners of his mouth turning down. ‘I can see that, princess, but you took it from the vaults. Tell me where it is.’
‘No.’
‘You may have given that worthless little Familiar your soul, Princess, but –’
‘I kept a small part for myself, Butin.’ Anastasis took a step towards the Ostian guardsmen. Their hands tensed on their weapons, but they made no move to attack. ‘The desire to kill you.’ Anastasis took another step forward and this time the guards pressed their weapons closer to her. She didn’t flinch as sword points dug into the flesh of her arms.
‘I grow tired of this.’ Butin clicked his fingers and the small cluster of Ostian guardsmen behind him began to move. At their feet lay a bound figure. Lenis hadn’t noticed it before but as they hauled her to her feet he recognised her instantly. It was Namei.
Lenis felt terror rise inside him as he watched the guard push Namei to her knees at Lord Butin’s feet. Panic and anger surged around the rest of the crew like a maelstrom. No wonder they hadn’t tried to fight through their captors. There was no way they could break through the ring of guards and reach the forecastle before they hurt Namei.
Lord Butin stared the princess down. ‘Give me the manuscript.’
The crew of the Hiryû shifted uneasily, each one gauging the distance between themselves and the foredeck.
The princess didn’t flinch. ‘No.’
Lord Butin smiled as he clicked his fingers again. The Ostian guard pulled Namei’s head back and slit her throat.
Lenis blinked as blood sprayed over the forecastle. He didn’t realise he had screamed until a guard brought something hard down on the back of his head. He hit the deck again but pushed himself upright. The deck had become a battlefield, the crew seething in a collective fit of rage. The ferocity of their attack pushed the Ostians back and filled Lenis with a horrible energy. He pushed himself off the deck, the practical part of his mind assessing the situation even as his heart hungered for something brutal, something immediate on which to vent this strange, animalistic rage.
Lenis felt his fury build inside him, fuelled by the crew’s rage. He had never felt anything this intense before. It was worse than when he was overwhelmed by the Demons in Gesshoku. This time he didn’t faint. He welcomed the rage, took it into himself, felt it grow stronger, felt it harden. And then he wasn’t just feeling it. He was touching it. He turned it over inside himself and it was somehow separate from him. What is this? He didn’t know, but he did know he wanted to do something with it. No, he wanted to hurt someone with it, whatever it was. Lenis saw a guard rushing past, knew he wanted to throw all of this raw emotion at the man, but as he tried to wrestle with the surging mass of anger, the accumulated rage lashed out at him instead, sending him flying backwards.
He hit one of the holds and felt his mind clear, his heart calm. The waves of fury quietened. He watched as the Ostians circled his crewmates. Then he noticed strange, silvery lines running in front of his vision. He blinked, and then again, but they wouldn’t go away. It was almost as if ...
Lenis shook his head to clear it but the fog remained in place. He felt the tender spot where the guard had hit him. There was something about those lines ... the way they moved across the deck ... the way they touched every Ostian guard ... the way they connected all the guardsmen to each other ... no ... not to each other ... to Butin!
Lenis pointed at Lord Butin. ‘He’s a Lilim!’
The pain in his head intensified and his vision doubled. He could still see Lord Butin standing in the forecastle, but there was also a Lilim there, somehow occupying the same space. Its body was a giant spider’s, and thin, silver threads spread out from it, joining it to the Ostian soldiers.
Lord Butin was a Lilim. How was that possible? What gave it control of the soldiers, and of the Demon, Nue?
The next moment, Lenis saw a dark blur fly away from the fighting. In the space of a breath it landed before the strange double-form of Lord Butin. Its eyes were a cold and fathomless black. In one hand it held a blade, no less dark than its eyes.
‘Yami!’ Lenis shouted.
The Shinzôn swordsman stood before Butin with his weapon
raised.
‘For Namei.’ Yami brought his arm down.
The blow should have killed Butin. Lenis saw Yami decapitate him. But as Butin’s head pulled away from his body the image of Lord Butin vanished altogether, leaving the cringing spider-Lilim unharmed. With a cry it leapt overboard. Lenis ran to the railing to watch him fall to his death, but the Lilim landed on Nue’s back. The Demon must have been flying beneath the airship this whole time. Nue carried Butin up and over the Hiryû’s deck, and took a full cartridge of crossbow bolts in the chest from Andrea’s automated weapon. Nue rolled in midair, trying to pull the shafts from its chest. The spider-Lilim clung to its back as the Demon spiralled down past the railing again.
The Ostians suddenly stopped fighting. They looked around dully, as if they weren’t sure where they were or what they were doing. The silver threads that had joined them to what was once Butin had disappeared.
Nue and the Lilim on his back reappeared, further away from the Hiryû and out of range of their weapons. The spider threw back its head and shrieked a bestial howl. The sky darkened and the sound of low thunder rolled along the horizon. The rasping voice of Lord Butin reached the deck. ‘You’ve left the manuscript somewhere in Asheim, Princess. I will find it.’
The Lilim and its Demon turned and sped back to Asheim.
One of the Ostians said something to Princess Anastasis in their own language, and she replied shortly. The Ostians stared blankly at her for a moment before making their way in an orderly fashion to the rope ladders leading to their airships.
‘They’re just leaving?’ Kenji demanded.
‘Lord Butin was controlling them,’ Disma answered, coming to land on the princess’s shoulder. ‘He clouded their minds. Anastasis ordered them to return to Asheim. They probably won’t even remember this ever happened.’
‘We will go with them,’ the princess added.
‘No, Anastasis. We have to stay.’
‘Lord Butin has returned to Asheim, Disma. If he reaches the city before us I will not be able to kill him.’
‘He is already too far ahead, love. You will have to wait for another opportunity.’
Anastasis did not reply, but she didn’t follow the other Ostians to their airships either. Lenis watched the soldiers fly away. He stared at the horizon long after their vessels had disappeared. Only when he felt Missy touch his arm did he bring his gaze to the forecastle.
The sight of Namei lying in her own blood smashed into him like a physical blow. He fell to the deck. He felt his sister’s arms around him, but he couldn’t find any comfort in her embrace. He couldn’t feel anything. Nothing at all. The lack of sensation pressed in on him like a wall. He couldn’t find a way around it, over it, through it. It was the first time in his life he had ever felt nothing, truly nothing.
Then, through the decks, he could feel the Bestia’s sense of loss from where they quivered, locked in their hutch. He didn’t know how they knew of Namei’s death. Perhaps they had felt it, as surely as he had. Their sorrow sent a crack through him. Tears fell freely down his cheeks. Missy clung to him, weeping.
The rest of the crew were silent. No one moved for a long time. Then Lenis felt someone standing before him. He looked up at a tear-distorted form. Yami knelt next to him and placed his hand on Lenis’s shoulder. ‘I have failed again.’
Lenis was surprised to see the wetness staining the swordsman’s cheek.
Kenji was the first to speak. ‘Why didn’t you give him the damn manuscript?’ The navigator’s words broke down the barrier of numbness that had encapsulated Lenis. The crew’s emotions came surging over him, through him. Anger, remorse, regret, sorrow, fear. He couldn’t separate his own feelings from theirs. He gasped at their intensity, falling back into Missy’s arms.
Anastasis remained calm. ‘Because I burnt it.’
Arthur rounded on her. ‘Which manuscript was it? Did it mention the dragon egg?’
‘Yes, it did.’
‘And you burnt it! Do you have any idea how important that manuscript was?’
‘I finished reading it and no longer needed it,’ the princess replied, unmoved. ‘I did not want Lord Butin to have it.’
Shin clenched her fists. ‘You unfeeling Demon!’
‘That’s not fair!’ Disma interjected. ‘It’s not her fault that –’
‘Enough.’ Though he spoke softly there was no mistaking the tone of command in Captain Shishi’s voice. Everyone fell silent again. ‘Now is not the time for harsh words or anger. We have lost something far more valuable than an old book.’
Arthur turned to him. ‘But, captain –’
‘Master Clemens, will you help me carry Namei down to the deck?’
Slowly, with Missy and Yami’s help, Lenis got to his feet and walked up to the forecastle. He almost slipped in the blood on the stairs but groped for the railing and managed to keep his balance. At the top, Captain Shishi knelt and pulled Namei into his arms. ‘Close her eyes, Lenis.’
Lenis reached over and lightly pressed the lids over Namei’s staring eyes. He smoothed back her hair and wound her scarf around her neck. The red fabric absorbed the blood and hid the remnants of the fatal slash. She looked calm as the captain carried her to the others.
Hiroshi laid a white cloth on the deck and the captain lowered Namei onto it. Then he stood beside her, his head bowed. The crew gathered around her body, maintaining a silent vigil over their friend.
At last the captain broke the silence. ‘Will you speak for her, Lord Tenjin?’
Lenis could see Tenjin shaking. The old man had tears in his eyes and Lenis could feel the depth of his grief. His voice cracked when he spoke. ‘Here lies Kami no Tsunochi Namei, daughter of a long line of warriors. Because of this she was chosen as the cabin girl for the Hiryû. In performing her duties with diligence and proficiency she has brought much honour to her family and to Kami clan. Ever loyal to her fellow crewmates, mindful of her duty, and courageous in her actions, Namei will be remembered as the heart of the Hiryû. We are less for having lost her, but we are far greater for having known her.’
Tenjin fell silent and Lenis watched as the others moved forwards to mumble their goodbyes and pay their respects. As each took their turn he felt a little stab of regret and his own grief deepened. Kami no Tsunochi Namei. Lenis hadn’t ever asked her which clan she belonged to. At first he had assumed she was a slave like him, without a clan. When he had learnt she was of a warrior family, he hadn’t thought to ask. But she had been a member of Kami clan, Tenjin’s clan. Lenis wondered how closely the two were related.
Hiroshi knelt next to her body and wept for many long minutes before Tenjin gently pulled him away. When it was Lenis’s turn to speak he also knelt down beside her.
‘I’ll miss you.’ It was all he had.
He suddenly became aware of someone whispering behind him. ‘... wasting time, Disma.’ Anastasis had been standing away from the group, and more than one crewmember turned to glare at her now.
Missy gritted her teeth. ‘What did you say?’
‘We’re wast –’
‘Just shut up!’ Lenis stood up and turned on the Ostian princess. ‘I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. What right do you have to be here, anyway? This is all your fault. I should throw you over the railing!’
The others fell back, clearly as surprised by Lenis’s outburst as he was. Anastasis’s face remained impassive. When she spoke it was in the familiar monotone. ‘I cannot say I am sorry for your loss. I am not. I cannot even say that I wish I were sorry for your loss because I do not.’
‘It’s not her fault.’ Disma was sitting on the princess’s shoulder, her tail wound around her waist. ‘She can’t help it.’
Lenis glared at the Lilim. ‘What are you talking about?’
Disma looked from the princess back to Lenis. ‘We wanted to break into the vault to get the manuscript, but Lord Butin put strong wards around it that I wasn’t strong enough to break. Anastasis had to give
me more of herself to increase my power. Then we were captured and I needed even more power to escape. In the end, she had to give it all.’
‘Give it all?’ Missy asked.
‘Her soul. It was part of our pact. The more a person gives of themselves to the Familiar they bond with, the greater the Familiar’s presence in the physical world, and the stronger the person becomes. I told her not to give so much, that Lord Butin couldn’t do anything to us because the king would intervene, but she wouldn’t listen. Now she can’t feel anything except a desire to kill Lord Butin. It’s not her fault she doesn’t care about your friend. She would have cared, you know, because I do, and I feel what she would have felt.’
Lenis stared at the princess for a moment and then looked out over the railing. ‘That doesn’t change anything.’
‘No, it doesn’t. But I’m sorry for your friend.’
Again the azure crystal hanging around the princess’s neck dazzled Lenis’s eyes. It seemed out of place with the rest of her finery, too simple compared to the rings on her fingers and the elaborately mounted jewels in her ears, too plain. It was just a blue rock on a chain. Pretty enough, but not very expensive-looking. ‘Why did you want the manuscript, anyway?’
‘Because Lord Butin wouldn’t let me see it,’ Anastasis replied.
Kenji made a noise of disgust and turned away.
‘Why were you after it?’ Disma countered.
Tenjin’s head was bowed and his arms were hidden in his sleeve. ‘We are searching for Seisui ... one of the guardian Totem. We are looking for her egg so that we can defeat the Demons.’
Anastasis turned to him. ‘You mean the dragon egg? Here, take it. I stole it from my brother, but it doesn’t matter to me anymore.’ The princess reached around her neck and undid the chain attached to the blue oblong crystal.
‘Anastasis, stop!’ Disma tried to pull Anastasis’s fingers away from the clasp. ‘You can’t just give it away!’
The princess ignored her. ‘This crystal is a royal heirloom. One of our ancestors picked it up in Shinzô hundreds of years ago. I didn’t know what it was until I read the manuscript, and then I didn’t want Butin to get his hands on it. Disma needed more power, though, so I gave her everything. My desire for the crystal is hers now.’ The crew stared at her as she wrestled with her Lilim for the blue gem.