hands from his sleeve. As he did so he pulled out a golden feather and presented it to her. Except for the fact it was about two feet long it looked like any other feather Missy had ever seen. Tenjin bowed his head and offered it to her.
There was something about the golden feather that made Missy want to snatch it from him. But still ...
âI ... I canât accept this.â
âNonsense.â Tenjin pressed it into her hands. âI am too old to get much use out of it now. Iâm afraid it doesnât have a hilt or scabbard, but itâs not an ordinary sword!â
Missy held the limp plume up to her face. âHow do I use it?â She could feel a faint pulsing running through the feather and into her arm.
âWhen you have need of it, the Quillblade will draw on your fear or your anger and awaken,â he told her. âUntil then it will remain as you see it.â
Missy bowed as low as she could. Wait until Lenis sees this! But if Tenjin had been telling her the truth, this was a princely gift indeed, and one her enslavement could notallow her to accept. No Puritan slave could hold a weapon. But maybe Lenis was right and things were different here. Tenjin had promised to teach her about Shinzô. On the other hand, if he were just a silly old man playing a joke on her there would be no harm done either way.
Missy looked to the captain, who was by the tiller talking quietly with Shin. She was about to ask him if it would be all right to keep Tenjinâs gift when she paused, her mind drawn elsewhere.
âCaptain Shishi.â Missy picked out the faint telepathic signal even as she spoke. âThereâs an incoming message, sir.â Everyone on the bridge gave her their attention.
The captain left the tiller and moved towards her. âPlease see if you can decipher it, Miss Clemens.â
Missy returned to her seat and cradled the still-thrumming golden feather in her lap. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the weak resonance coming from the south-east.
âI think itâs Iki,â Missy said aloud. âThe avian Bestia who helped us with the cranes back in Itsû.â
The captain was right next to her now. âWhat does she say?â
âItâs hard to make out. She must have followed us. I canât explain how she can project her thoughts this far. No, she canât still be in Itsû. Let me try to make out the message.â
Missy sent her mind back along the way the message had come until she felt Ikiâs mind more clearly. She clutched the Quillblade to her chest and tried to decipher the imagesflashing through the avian Bestiaâs mind. Bestia communication was rarely exact. Stray thoughts from the sender or the Bestia being used to relay the message inevitably intermingled with the original message-images. Communicators were trained to sort through whatever mental material they received, piecing together the true meaning of the message using the rule of internal logic: if it looked as if it went together, it probably did. Miscommunication was common, particularly if the communicators involved werenât concentrating properly or the Bestia were poorly trained, which was why communicators also followed the rule of condensation: the shorter the message, the better.
Missy doubted Iki had been trained to send or receive message-images, but she was eventually able to piece together four recurring thoughts: the Hiryû, a fleet of airships flying Shôgo banners, a large bird with lightning arcing from its wingtips, and another winged being obscured by shadow.
Missy gasped and several people asked her what was wrong, but she concentrated on maintaining the telepathic link.
Who is the bird? Missy sent.
Another image came to Ikiâs mind. The Quillblade.
Lord Raikô?
The link broke and, though she groped after it, Missy lost track of Iki. Lord Raikô? She felt her physical body clutching the feather Tenjin had given