Voyages of the Flying Dragon by Ben Chandler Page A

There was fighting on the decks and she was going to join in. The shintai had somehow reacted to her emotions and the anticipation of battle, but Lenis had regarded her with his sad eyes and had brought her back to herself.
    Looking down into Heidi’s face, though, it was neither the lust for battle nor the disgust at violence she felt. Instead, she knew a great desire to help the girl Karasu had wronged, and she felt an equally powerful sense of frustration that therewas nothing she could ever do that would undo what had been done.
    â€˜All right, I’ll help you,’ Missy said and then glanced aside. ‘I don’t know how. I don’t know what I can do for you, but if I can help you I will.’ She disentangled herself from Heidi’s grip and helped the girl to her feet. ‘I’m not promising to kill anyone for you, though. Not even Karasu.’
    The Heiliglander wiped at her face with an already soiled sleeve. ‘If I have my way, godling , I’ll kill him before you ever have the chance to make that decision.’
    Missy nodded, troubled by the sudden stillness in the girl. Something was happening inside Heidi’s mind. Missy could tell by her abrupt changes in mood as much as by using her telepathic gifts. Heidi was building a wall inside her and trying to force the bad memories behind it. She was clutching at her anger, fuelling her will with it to block out the burning and the dying and the suffering. Missy had witnessed such intentional suppression far too often. New slaves did it all the time, cutting their old lives out of them in the hope they wouldn’t haunt them in their new ones. It seldom worked perfectly. Such barriers were dangerous. They could give way at any moment, shattering the minds of those unprepared for the fallout, and they affected people in odd and unpredictable ways, too, sometimes warping their personalities.
    Missy didn’t know Heidi at all, but she knew she didn’t want the girl to lose herself because of what Karasu had done to her home, her friends and family.
    They rejoined the others in silence. When Captain Shishi and Yami saw them come around the corner, both of them raised inquiring eyebrows. Missy just shrugged. What could she tell them? Heidi had borne witness to something so horrible that Missy shied away from even imagining it, and they had tricked her into guiding them on to a confrontation with the very man who had been the cause of it all. Already, it was having an effect on her, and Missy didn’t think it was a good one.
    Without a word they continued on their way, following Heidi around whichever turning she seemed to think appropriate. Yami and the captain, Missy knew, didn’t mind silence. She had noticed that Shinzōn people in general tended to avoid needless conversations. Except for Jinsei Hiroshi, the HiryÅ« ’s cook. He liked to talk so much that Missy suspected he did so whether or not there was anyone there to hear him. For Missy’s part, she was happy to shamble along quietly. Her sleep-starved mind settled into a stupor, which she was reluctant to disturb by further conversation with Heidi.
    After about an hour of walking, though, Heidi blurted, ‘Tell me about Karasu.’
    Missy stifled a sigh. The girl had a right to know who her tormentor was, or at least as much as Missy knew about him, which was precious little. It was the only thing Missy could actually offer her. So she told Heidi about the orbs of ebb and flow, and about Seisui and Raikō, which requiredan explanation of Totem and Demons, which in turn led to a recounting of what had happened in Ost. There was no structure to Missy’s story. She was barely able to follow it herself. At one moment she was telling Heidi about Gesshoku and the next she was talking about Namei. By the time she was finished, she had told the Heiliglander all about the voyages of the HiryÅ« , from the time she and Lenis had snuck up onto the