Voyages of the Flying Dragon by Ben Chandler

Missy’s shoulders in a crushing grip. ‘You are a fraud! Why? Why did you do it?’
    Missy tried to twist away from Heidi’s grip, but the girl didn’t let go. Missy suppressed the urge to call for help. It was her fault Heidi was here. It had been her decision to use the Heiliglander to guide them to the temple. It was up to her to make it right.
    Heidi was gripping Missy so tightly she could feel the girl’s worn-down fingernails digging through her shirt and into her skin. Missy forced herself to look into her eyes. Their intensity frightened her. Without even meaning to, she reached into Heidi’s mind and was bombarded by memory fragments. The town square. Karasu. The fires. The people of Fronge. The burning. The dying. Missy pulled her awareness away. Heidi’s chin was thrust forwards. Strands of blonde hair had escaped their braid and were stuck to her face by sweat, dirt, and ash. This close, even in the shadowed corridor and through the grime, Missy could see the spattering of freckles that covered Heidi’s cheeks.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ Missy began, choking on her own words. She tried again, ‘I’m so sorry. The man in the square – Karasu – he took my brother. I just want to get him back.’
    Heidi suddenly released her shoulders. ‘Your brother?’
    Missy nodded. ‘His name is Lenis. We were sneaking on board Karasu’s airship when it took off. I escaped. Lenis didn’t.’
    â€˜You were sneaking onto his airship?’ Heidi was peering at her through the gloom. ‘Why?’
    Missy sighed. ‘It’s a long story.’ Heidi didn’t move or say anything. The silence stretched on until Missy felt compelled to continue. ‘He has something we need. We’ve been searching for him. It was only luck we were passing by this way when we saw the smoke …’
    Heidi sniffed loudly and rubbed a grimy hand across her nose. When she pulled her hand away, Missy saw tears clinging to her eyelashes. ‘You have been hunting this man, Karasu?’ Missy’s throat tightened. She nodded. ‘And when you find him, what will you do?’
    â€˜Get back my brother, somehow, and the stones. They’re the things he has that we need.’
    â€˜Will you kill him?’
    The words were uttered so calmly it took Missy a moment to react. ‘What? I … I don’t know.’
    â€˜You don’t know ?’
    â€˜I hadn’t thought that far.’ Her response sounded lame, even to her. What had she expected would happen when they confronted the mercenary? He wasn’t likely to just hand over the stones. Missy shivered and brought her arms around herself. ‘I don’t know.’
    â€˜But you have power!’ Heidi grabbed her again, though this time not as hard. ‘I have seen it. At your bidding, we all obeyed. The Vaettir do as you command.’ Missy instinctively picked the meaning of the unfamiliar word out of the girl’s mind. Bestia . ‘You can destroy the man who … the man who …’ Heidi sagged to the ground, still clinging to Missy’s shirtsleeves. Great sobs wracked her frame, and Missy felt tears of her own coming. ‘You … can … avenge … them …’
    Missy gasped. ‘I … I can’t.’
    â€˜Why not?’ Heidi pulled back. Tears had tracked their progress through the dirt on her face. ‘Why can’t you?’
    Missy thought of the Quillblade she had given over to the captain’s keeping. What Heidi said was true. She did have power. Power to read people’s minds, to compel them to do as she wished. With the Quillblade she could harness some of the Thunder Bird’s power, could even summon him if she had Lenis’s help. The thought of her brother pulled her up short. She remembered the look in his eyes when he had first seen her holding the Quillblade. The HiryÅ« had been under attack.