Quillblade by Ben Chandler

her, Missy!’
    Missy pulled her arm out of her brother’s grip. She placed both her hands on Lenis’s shoulders. ‘Calm down, little brother. It was just a dream.’
    â€˜I’ve had it more than once.’
    Missy looked over her shoulder and saw that the others were almost at the wall. ‘How often?’
    â€˜Every night since we came to Shinzô.’
    Missy took a deep breath and turned back to Lenis. ‘Describe it to me.’
    Lenis told her about the blue light, the dragon’s silhouette, and about how Apsilla had asked Lenis to save her daughter. When he was finished Missy let out a long breath.
    â€˜It could be a Bestia calling out to you ... I don’t know, Lenis. Sometimes, when Bestia are far away, they will reach out to a Bestia communicator through dreams, but ... Have you ever had any dreams like this before?’ Lenis shook his head. ‘There’s not much we can do about it now. Let’s catch up with the others. We can ask the captain –’ Lenis went even whiter and Missy hurried on, ‘or Lord Tenjin about it later.’
    Lenis remained silent as Missy led him to the wall. It rose before them, ten feet high, six feet thick, sturdy, stone, but it seemed paltry compared to the threat of the Demons. Missy had already decided they would be twenty feet tall and capable of knocking down the village’s defences without any effort.
    As they drew nearer Missy noticed the villagers had come out to join them. They were surprisingly well armedwith swords, bows and spears. The weapons had obviously been well maintained, even if the houses of Gesshoku had not, which was mute evidence of the reality of life near the Wastelands.
    They reached the wall and Missy climbed up the thin ladder in front of her. Lenis followed. As her head appeared over the top of the wall the wind pushed back into Missy’s face. It carried with it the sickly-sweet odour of unclean things and made her gag. ‘What is that?’
    Tenjin was leaning on the edge of the wall, looking out over the field below. His breath was shallow, making his words rasp. ‘It is the miasma of the Wastelands. Wrap a scarf around your face so you do not get too much of it into your lungs. It can cause sickness if you are not careful.’
    Missy felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to see Namei offering her a scarf identical to the one around her own neck. The cabin girl showed her how to wrap it around her head to protect her nose and mouth without suffocating herself, before offering another strip of fabric to Lenis.
    â€˜Thank you,’ Missy said through the muffling cloth. Namei nodded.
    Lenis, halfway through securing his own scarf, pointed to the horizon. ‘Look!’
    Missy turned towards the west. A wall of fog seemed to be bearing down on them, and beneath it shadows swirled and writhed. She could hear a low growling coming from behind it. Missy shuddered. It was like the commotion she had heardearlier. It had to be the Demons. They were communicating telepathically with one another in a language she could not understand. But if they could talk to one another, then they were more than just the mindless horrors she had heard stories about. They were intelligent.
    Savage, relentless, intelligent Demons. As Missy’s terror grew she felt an answering tingle in the Quillblade, hidden inside her shirt.
    â€˜Here they come.’ Captain Shishi drew his sword. The rasp of the metal sent a chill down her spine.

Lenis struggled to breathe through the strip of cloth Namei had given him to cover his mouth and nose. The scarf wasn’t enough to block out the acrid vapour that rose up from the plain below the walls of Gesshoku. The Demons were close enough now for Lenis to see the red gleam of their eyes and the green-tinged foam that flecked their maws. They came in a surprising range of sizes and shapes, from lumbering bear Demons and sturdy ox Demons, to swift-footed rabbit