I'm a storm on the horizon

Shattering the silence

You can run but you can't hide

-- Smash Into Pieces, Deadman

Irímé and Shizuki hid in the bathroom for what felt like an eternity. Occasionally faint noises reached them, too distant and indistinct for them to tell if the monsters were attacking someone else or simply wandering around the spaceship. Shizuki gradually stopped trembling. His tongue continued to rapidly dart in and out.

After a long silence Shizuki uncoiled and slithered down to the floor. He turned back into a boy. "They've gone. I can't smell them any more. And I smell fire." He looked hopefully up at Irímé. "Can we go see what's happening?"

Irímé hesitated. He weighed up their options. None of them were good. Outside were monsters which would try to kill them. Neither of them were armed. Irímé wasn't at all confident in his ability to transform into a dragon when he wanted to, and there was no room on the spaceship anyway. Shizuki was a child. If they went outside and were attacked they wouldn't have a chance.

The bathroom was small. There was the toilet stall behind them, the sink and its shelf, a towel, a window that couldn't be opened, and nothing else. Nothing to defend themselves with and nowhere to hide if the monsters broke through the door.

"Wait here," he told Shizuki firmly.

Shizuki shook his head. "Uh-uh. I'm coming too."

"It's too dangerous!"

Shizuki turned back into a snake and wrapped himself around Irímé's chest again. Irímé considered trying to pull him off, but gave up after a futile first attempt. Shizuki could hold on very firmly in this form, and his grip was almost painfully tight.

"If we see any monsters I want you to run as far away as you can," Irímé warned.

Shizuki thought for a moment, then nodded.

Moving the suitcase away from the door took a long time. On his first attempt Irímé pulled it too hard and it scraped noisily against the floor. He froze, waiting for a monster to charge at the door. Nothing happened. At last he gathered the courage to try again. This time he moved it very slowly, barely an inch at a time, so that it made no sound.

He unlocked the door and slid it open far enough to peer out. Shizuki tried to get his head around the door too. Irímé took one look at the state of the spaceship's seating area, pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket, and tied it around Shizuki's eyes. He hissed a complaint.

"Sorry, but you shouldn't see this."

The floor was covered with puddles and smears of blood. Something lay on the carpet. With a shudder Irímé realised it was someone's finger.

He tiptoed out of the bathroom, picking his steps carefully to avoid the blood. Shizuki had gone very still. He continued to flick his tongue in and out.

Irímé's foot landed in something that squelched. He looked down and promptly wished he hadn't. It was a chunk of bloody... something. He took a deep breath and fought back the urge to be sick.

If the monsters had left the spaceship then there was a chance it could be used to escape. Assuming, of course, that they hadn't damaged its controls. And also assuming there was someone still alive somewhere in the city who knew how to pilot it.

As he passed the door leading to the cockpit Irímé tried to see what state it was in. The door was open and the cockpit was covered in blood.

When they reached the main door Irímé removed the handkerchief. Shizuki raised his head above Irímé's to get a good look around. Then he slithered to the floor and turned into a boy again.

"Something funny in there," he said, pointing at the spaceport.

Irímé's heart sank. "Funny as in 'ha-ha', or funny as in 'we're going to die'?"

"Funny as in 'never smelt anything like it'." Shizuki stuck his tongue out again. "It smells like bones."

"The monsters?"

He shook his head emphatically. "They smell rotten. Like the meat that went bad so Father buried it and it made the flowers grow."

Irímé blinked. "...But is the smell of bones good or bad?"

Shizuki stuck his tongue out. It was still forked, which was much more disturbing when he was a boy than when he was a snake. "I think it's good."

After their initial attack was defeated most of the monsters crawled into small rooms or hid under furniture. Abi discovered that the best way to deal with them in this situation was to send her phoenix-fire into each room and let it destroy them. In the first few rooms it also destroyed the rest of the room. After experimenting with how strong to make her spells, she finally managed to make the fire target the monsters and only mildly singe everything else in the room.

There was a dreadful smell of smoke all through the spaceport now. She opened every window she passed, but it didn't do much to help.

Lian went upstairs and dealt with the monsters hiding up there. Abi wasn't sure what he was doing. Judging by the shrieks and scraping sounds that occasionally reached her ears, it sounded like he had found a sword somewhere and was stabbing the monsters to death.

For the last few hours Abi hadn't heard anything from Ilaran. She occasionally felt flickers of emotions that weren't hers, but she had so many other things to worry about that they were easy to ignore. Now he did the telepathic equivalent of throwing open a door and yelling at her.

Is Shizuki with you?

Before answering Abi stepped back into the room she'd just cleared and closed the door. No use in allowing something to sneak up on her while she was distracted. She crossed the room and leant out the window so she could breathe clearly.

Shizuki? What are you talking about? Why would Shizuki be with me?

He's missing. We can't find him anywhere and we think he may have stowed away with Irímé.

Abi's blood ran cold. I haven't seen Irímé. I don't know where he is.

Ilaran was silent for a while. Abi could feel his horror and dread as clearly as if it was her own.

Tell me this. Is there anything there that could harm Shizuki?

Abi looked at the scorch-marks where the monsters had been and tried to figure out what to say. Directly overhead a monster screeched in agony. Several metallic clangs ran out and the screeches stopped.

No need to answer that. I can tell by your reaction.

I'll find him, Abi tried to reassure Ilaran. I'll send him home as soon as I do.

She opened the door warily, looked back and forth along the hall to make sure there were no monsters waiting to pounce, and ran to the nearest flight of stairs. Trails of bloody footprints covered the landing. The first room she checked was full of decapitated bodies. So was the next one. Lian's method of dealing with the monsters was clearly effective, though much more violent than Abi's.

But I suppose being burnt to death is very violent, she thought. It just doesn't seem as brutal because it doesn't leave bodies.

She found Lian in the spaceport's control room. He was surrounded by headless corpses, and when she opened the door she was just in time to see him behead the last monster in the room. He had indeed found a sword somewhere. It was the strangest sword she'd ever seen -- made of black metal that barely reflected the light, and with a very elaborate hilt and a cross-guard decorated with what looked like bones. Abi forgot about Ilaran and Shizuki when she saw it.

"What in the Nine Heavens is that?"

Lian wiped the blade clean on the clothes of one of the corpses. "It's Heifaren."

"It's what?" Abi knew the names of every sort of blade in both Saoridhlém and Seroyawa, but she had never heard of that type of sword.

"Heifaren. It's my soul-weapon."

What in the world is a soul-weapon? Abi wanted to ask, but just in time she remembered the reason she'd come. "We have to find Irímé. Shizuki's with him and we have to send him home before something awful happens to him."

Lian frowned, puzzled. "Who's Shizuki?"

Abi considered trying to explain, but decided it would take too long. "A friend who stowed away with Irímé. He's too young to be here and his father's looking for him."

"Have you found Irímé yet?"

"No. I suppose we'd better check that spaceship. If he's not there he must have left the spaceport before the monsters got here."

At the back of her mind lurked a string of thoughts she tried to ignore. What if Irímé hadn't avoided them? What if they found he and Shizuki had been turned into monsters? These ones couldn't be exorcised like Ilaran had been. She couldn't kill either Irímé or Shizuki herself, but could she stand back and let Lian kill them? What would she tell Ilaran?

Those thoughts stayed with her as she and Lian ran downstairs. They turned towards the door that led out to the landing area and stopped. Abi looked at what faced them and forgot all of her thoughts.

A crowd of snarling monsters blocked the door. It charged at them en masse. Lian's sword slashed off the heads of the first few monsters. Abi gathered her magic and conjured up the strongest fire she could manage. She threw it at the monsters. Most of them were incinerated instantly. The ones that weren't halted their charge, giving Lian a chance to behead them all.

Abi couldn't help checking the faces of the still-intact monsters, terrified of seeing Irímé's or Shizuki's. She didn't recognise anyone, but the faces were such a mess that it was hard to see what they looked like.

"Wait here," Irímé told Shizuki sternly.

He stepped out of the spaceship and climbed down its stairs. Nothing sprang at him out of a hiding place. The ground was perfectly flat and he could see there was nothing lurking nearby. He eyed the main building of the spaceport suspiciously. It was the only obvious way out. But anything might be hiding in there.

There was enough space here to turn into a dragon without injuring himself. Irímé thought for a moment, then turned back to Shizuki.

"Listen, Shizuki, remember I promised to take you flying?" Shizuki nodded. He didn't look as enthusiastic about flying any more. "Wait there for a minute, and then--"

A chorus of shrieks filled the air. They were abruptly cut off by a hissing noise that turned into a roar. Irímé spun round, expecting to see monsters streaming out of the buildings. Instead he saw a blaze of blue fire shoot through the spaceport doors. He recognised it at once.

"Abi!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Immediately he realised the stupidity of trying to get her attention from this distance. He didn't like the idea of bringing Shizuki into possible danger, but he also couldn't leave him here while Irímé went to find her. He turned back to Shizuki.

"We'll go flying later. Come on!"

Shizuki hopped down from the spaceship and turned back into a snake. Once again he wrapped himself around Irímé's chest. As soon as he was secure Irímé ran towards the spaceport.

"Abi!" he yelled when he was close enough to be heard. "Abihira!"

Lian heard something before Abi did. His head snapped up and he paused in the middle of beheading a still-moving corpse. "What's that?"

Abi prepared another fire spell. "Where's it coming from?"

"Outside." The door was so dirty now with smoke that it was impossible to see through it. Any number of monsters could sneak up on them. "It sounded like someone shouting."

"Abi! Abihira!"

Abi's spell dissolved. "Irímé!"

She ran to the door and flung it open just as Irímé reached it. There was a confused moment when they bumped into each other and stumbled back, and then another confused moment when Abi tried to hug Irímé and almost squashed the... was that a snake clinging to him? Lian stayed in the background until they both calmed down. He got a shock when the snake let go of Irímé and turned into a boy, then another shock when the boy walked up to him and stared at him like a bug under a microscrope.

"Why do you smell of bones?" he asked.

Lian liked to think he knew how to deal with children. Until now he hadn't realised that he only knew how to deal with small children like Zi Yao. He stared blankly at the boy, unsure if this remark was meant as a personal insult or simply a tactless non sequitur.

Irímé finally noticed his presence. "Who's that?"

Abi laughed awkwardly. "You're not going to believe this, but this is my brother."

"...He can't be. I've met all your brothers."

"My oldest brother."

"But he's dead, isn't he?"

"He smells dead!" the boy piped up. Neither of them seemed to hear him. Again Lian didn't know how to answer.

Abi said, "Yes."

"Then what are you--" Irímé broke off. He stared at Lian, and in particular at his soul-weapon. Then he looked at the now-headless monsters. "...I think you should start at the beginning."