SONG OF THE FALL

CHAPTER 4

I

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Sent scurrying back to the guard barracks in full retreat, Bazura pounded on the door. Though he’d used the medicine and bandages in the survival kit he always carried to patch himself up, he hadn’t been able to close the wounds at all, and the lifeblood running down his cheek left a vivid impression on him. Having burrowed through the ground until he reached the road, then running the rest of the way, he felt like his heart was just a tattered bag ready to explode.

I’ll get you for this, D, he thought, swearing vengeance even as he slumped against the door anemically. The problem was, the door wouldn’t open.

“What in blazes are they doing?!”

Circling around for a peek through one of the windows that had light spilling from it, he gasped in horror. There were four or five men lying on the floor, covered with blood. After turning away and taking a deep breath, he looked in again.

“What the hell?!”

Apparently the combination of exhaustion, fear, and anger had played a trick on his eyes. His men were all sitting there diligently maintaining their weapons.

When he opened the door and stepped in, the place was pervaded by a strange chill. Perhaps it was just his imagination, or maybe it was nerves, but everyone looked paler than usual.

“Something happen?” someone asked as they all noted his injuries.

“You could say that, I guess. D’s still alive,” he replied as he set his crossbow down on the table.

“We know,” one of them replied.

It took a second for the warrior’s eyes to bug at that remark.

“You know? How the hell is that?”

“Someone told us,” someone else said.

Why are these jokers bunching up around me?

“Yeah? Who?” Bazura asked them.

Shit! Jock’s got between me and my bow.

“Her.”

All their eyes were trained on something behind him.

When Bazura turned his gaze to follow the others’, his eyes were etched with the image of a woman in a white dress.

“Who—who are you?” he stammered.

The girl’s face was right in front of him. Her breath was cold and had the perfume of an autumn night.

“So, we meet again,” whispered a young lady he’d never seen before.

__

“We’ve got trouble!”

Sensing the urgency in the shouts of Cecile’s father, the sheriff raced back into the holding area.

In one cell, Lyle was clutching his chest.

“What’s the matter?” asked the lawman.

“The kid had a knife hidden on him. He was trying to use it to pick the lock when it suddenly slipped and he stabbed himself by mistake. The mayor’s gonna be furious!”

More than anything, it was the last remark that robbed the sheriff of his composure.

“Damn fool,” he muttered as he hastily unlocked the door, but the second he opened it, the wheezing figure on the floor pounced on the sheriff and drove his fingers into the lawman’s solar plexus.

“Well, I’m off,” said the boy.

“We’re counting on you. Rescue her, then the both of you better take off for someplace else.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll come back for you.”

Reaching through the bars to give the girl’s father a firm pat on the shoulder, Lyle then left the holding area. Of course, the sheriff had been locked in the cell previously occupied by the boy.

Stepping into the office, he grabbed a rapid-fire crossbow and about fifteen arrows and left with them strapped to his back.

“Hold on, Cecile! I swear I’m gonna rescue you,” the boy declared, hope and determination blazing fiercely in his heart.

Using the sheriff’s horse, it took him twenty minutes to get over to the same place as the previous night. It reeked of blood. Though he knew it’d been splashed there on purpose, Lyle still went pale.

“Cecile—are you okay?” he cried out as he hammered on the door like a man possessed.

“Lyle! What are you doing here?” a feeble and astonished voice replied through the door. “I’m begging you, just leave me be. If you fight the will of the village any more, they’re going to kill you and my father.”

“Then I’d rather be dead!” Lyle exclaimed as he tried to pry the lock off the door with a massive knife. “They give up one person to save somebody else. If that’s what I had to do to survive, I wouldn’t be able to hold my head up for the rest of my days. What do you think will happen if they do this every time a Noble shows up? I just can’t let this same thing keep happening to girls like you until all the Nobility have finally died out.”

“The sun’s gone down. The Noble will be coming soon. Hurry up and get out of here.”

“Don’t worry. D said it himself. You’ll be safe for two days. We’ll take your parents with us and get plenty far away from here.”

“We can’t. My mother and father would never be able to leave their home.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’ll make it easy enough for them to live elsewhere.”

The lock came off. When he shoved the door open, Cecile stood just beyond it, her face a complete mess. As Lyle approached his sweetheart, she took a step backward.

“I, I don’t . . .” the girl stammered. “What should I do?”

“For starters, let’s get out of here.”

Her warm body pressed against the grinning Lyle’s chest with an intensity that seemed to promise she’d never leave him again. As she hiccupped, Lyle gently stroked her back.

“Okay, let’s go!” he said, and then he turned around.

At any rate, he’d get Cecile out of town and come back tomorrow to fight the Noblewoman. He wasn’t too concerned about what would come after that. Though he couldn’t allow Cecile to be sacrificed, his own code of ethics as a villager wouldn’t allow him to just run off without taking some responsibility for what would happen in the village. He’d have to do something in return.

But it seemed he was a little too late.

Too much strength went into the hand he had resting on Cecile’s shoulder. Noticing this, the girl looked up and gasped in a low voice.

But well within hearing of that cry stood the woman in the blue dress. And the deep red blossom on her chest was surely the work of D’s needle.

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II

__

“She’s back already?”

Pushing Cecile out of the way, Lyle readied the crossbow off his back. Once he’d switched off the safety mechanism, the hammer that’d strike the firing caps rose.

“You smell delectable,” the woman said as she licked her lips.

A blur of black streaked toward the woman’s face. The first arrow was snatched from the air by her hand. The second arrow was deflected.

The woman halted—Lyle’s third shot had gone through the back of her hand. As she stared at it with disbelief, a steel arrow whizzed toward the left side of her chest, and this time it sank into her all the way to the fletching. Surely the woman hadn’t been able to dodge it, since she’d appeared there despite the wound D had dealt her.

Reaching with her other hand for the arrow that’d just pierced her squarely between the eyes, the woman had no sooner taken hold of it than she collapsed on her back in the bushes.

“I did it! Those dark clouds are breaking!” Lyle exclaimed, putting all his feelings into his words as he gave a little jump for joy.

“It can’t be . . . You mean . . . I’m saved . . . ?” Cecile mumbled absent-mindedly as the boy pushed her up onto his horse.

“We don’t have to worry about anyone giving us any trouble now. Let’s head back to town.”

“Sure.”

Even the fall breeze seemed warmed by their jubilation.

Astride the horse, the couple started down the road back to the village in high spirits.

As the rows of houses became dimly visible by the light of the moon, the girl said, “Someone’s coming!”

But Lyle already had his gaze turned in the direction Cecile was pointing.

“No problem. We don’t have a damn thing to worry about anymore. To the contrary, I should get a reward for this.”

So full of confidence and joy, Lyle had forgotten something Cecile’s father had pointed out while they were locked in the jail. To wit, the possibility that there might be a second Noble involved.

The shadowy rider that was approaching them halted.

“It’s me. Lyle. I took care of the Noble,” he declared triumphantly.

“That’s great. Come with me,” Bazura replied. He was accompanied by his men.

__

†

Discovering the remains of the Noblewoman out in front of the sacrificial hut, D got off his horse. Not even glancing at the arrow that’d sealed her fate, he examined the wound left by his needle instead.

“So, she came out even though she hadn’t fully recovered? Guess she must’ve been mighty hungry,” a hoarse voice said, the latter remark coming in a sarcastic tone. It didn’t believe that for a second.

“The legendary lady-in-waiting,” was all that D said.

She’d gone after Cecile knowing full-well how weakened her condition had left her. The only possible explanation was that her mistress had ordered her to do so.

Entering the hut and confirming there was no one there, D then returned to the corpse. Pulling a dagger out of his coat, he pressed it between the woman’s breasts. Sinking into her flesh like a weapon of another sort gliding into a woman’s sheath, the blade gave off a glittering beam of light. No, it wasn’t the blade—the glow spilled from within the woman’s body.

The radiance adding new allure to his handsome features all the while, D split the woman open from her chest to her groin. The flesh buckled out with internal pressure, and in lieu of blood, a dazzling band of light was thrown up into the autumnal sky.

What had she been?

What D saw within her were a number of glass tubes filled with a crimson liquid that seemed to be blood and a chunk of machinery that resembled a heart. And beyond those things—oh, that was the source of the light. A tiny sun, and tens of millions of stars set in the blackness that surrounded it.

The light grew more brilliant.

Like an illusion, D leapt back a good fifteen feet. Before his eyes, the dazzling luminescence consumed the corpse. No doubt this was the result of it coming into contact with the outside world. The extinction of this inner cosmos was so silent and peaceful it betrayed all expectations.

The whole world glowed with an impossibly pale light.

As one form faded away, a new silhouette came to the fore.

“We’ve met twice already,” said the girl with autumn tresses. “Let’s make the next time the last. I’ll be by the edge of the pond. Come before dawn. I have the young couple.”

Light scorched D’s retinas, and when it quickly dimmed again, there was no trace of the mistress of fall.

__

Having been notified of Lyle’s escape by the sheriff, the mayor gave the lawman a ninety-minute tongue lashing before returning to his den alone. As the sheriff was leaving, he said he’d try to get in touch with Bazura and join forces to search for the boy, but at any rate they wouldn’t be able to start until after daybreak.

“That little idiot. If he runs off with Cecile, it just means some other girl gets put out in her place,” the mayor grumbled bitterly as he sank back in his recliner.

However, his voice carried an unmistakable element of relief.

“Well, you just keep right on running. You’d best cross the Frontier to somewhere no one’s ever heard of, and make yourself a life together.”

“Is that what you think?” a voice like iron was heard to say from the feeble darkness that collected by the window. The den was only illuminated by a single small standing lamp.

“What, you?! You’re still alive?”

“The Noble’s dead,” D said tersely.

“Are you serious?”

“It was Lyle’s doing. Be sure he’s rewarded.”

“If what you say is true, of course he will be. After all, there’s no greater service he could possibly render to the village. Where is he? And do you have any evidence of this?”

“Once day breaks, I’m sure he’ll be back. And don’t forget about Cecile and her parents, either.”

“Understood,” the mayor said, knowing in his heart of hearts what was right. “I’ll have to make amends to Helga as well. I do try to keep my job as a representative of the village in mind.”

The darkness beyond the window panes and that of the silhouette overlapped.

Once he knew the Vampire Hunter had left, the mayor slowly stretched out in his recliner, this time truly relaxing. This was the perfect occasion to open that special bottle of wine he’d been saving. Of course, the mayor didn’t realize it was a little too early to be celebrating.

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III

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The night was filled with scents—the smell of the grass and foliage just about to head into a long slumber, the aroma of fruit—and that of the moonlight. Perhaps even the rising atmosphere could be numbered among the scents. Billowing up from the waters of the half-drained pond, it was more like a miasma that choked the air and seemed to warp the very light of the moon.

A gnarled giant of a tree towered by the side of the pond, and among its roots a number of figures had gathered. There was no conversation. All kept their mouths shut. These shadowy figures were far removed from the raucous air that always seemed to spring up whenever people gathered. Though their hearts still beat, they weren’t breathing. And the blood that flowed through their veins was cold.

“Damn you—let us down!” an all-too-human voice shouted from a place that didn’t very well suit a human being—a spot halfway up the tree trunk.

Cecile and Lyle were hanging from one of the branches that protruded from the tree—and the cry had come from the boy, of course.

“You fucking stooges of the Nobility! You should be ashamed of yourselves!” he shouted, but the men who’d died and risen again didn’t even seem to notice.

Bazura alone glanced up at the pair, speaking in a tone that seemed to rise from the bowels of the earth, “Truth be known, we don’t really need you. We only brought you along because Cecile threatened to bite her own tongue off if we laid a hand on you. We’ll finish you off soon enough, so keep your pants on.”

“In that case, tell me something. What’s the purpose of bringing us all the way out here?”

The question was one he’d asked repeatedly while they were being brought there, and it had never garnered an answer.

“I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you now. We’re here to destroy D.”

“What?! You mean he’s not dead?”

“I killed him,” Bazura said in a weird tone. “But apparently he came back to life. That’s Vampire Hunter ‘D’ for you. He’s no ordinary opponent.”

“I’m not sure I follow you, but in that case, the battle’s as good as decided. There’s no way he’ll be killed by a bunch of instant Nobility like you jerks. Give up already and go hide in a grave. Once day breaks, I’ll find you and put you at peace.”

“We might have some trouble if it was just us, but we also have her.”

Bazura’s words left Lyle shaken.

“Her? If you mean the Noble who bit the lot of you, I already took care of her.”

The unvoiced laugh that followed shook Lyle as he hung in space.

“You like to boast of such piddling matters. I suppose I should punish you. After all, once D gets here, we’re going to do away with you anyway.”

Taking a few arrows from the quivers on their backs, Bazura and his men planted roughly a score of them in the ground directly below Lyle and Cecile with the points facing up. Then aiming his rapid-fire crossbow upward, he fired a shot at Cecile before Lyle could even try to dissuade him. The arrow sliced halfway through the rope supporting Cecile, and the girl let out a scream.

“Well, I suppose that’ll do nicely. Now D has to race here and take all of us out before the love of your life falls onto the arrowheads—that’s the only way to save her.”

“You dirty bastard! Go on and shoot me, too!”

“It wouldn’t be much fun if I did that,” Bazura said, laughing aloud for the first time.

“Lyle!” Cecile cried out.

Turning to the girl, he shouted back, “Don’t talk! You’ll only put more strain on the rope. Just hold still. Don’t move. We’ll get through this!”

“I don’t care anymore,” Cecile said softly. “Anything’s better than dying back in that hut. And I’ve got you by my side. If I fall, I don’t want you to grieve for me.”

Lyle couldn’t scold her for talking anymore. And though her words showed her resignation to this fate, no one could blame her. Twice set out to die, the sacrifice would’ve undoubtedly been a far crueler fate than to be run through quickly. The boy had done all he could possibly do.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you. After I’ve taken care of these bastards and the other Noble that seems to be around, that is.”

“What a lovely sentiment,” Bazura laughed mockingly from below. “You’d best pray D gets here before that comes to pass. Because that’s what we were chosen for.”

At that point, there was an owl hoot from the road sloping down to the pond—a signal from a lookout that’d been posted there.

“Here he comes. Everyone into position!”

At what truly sounded like a command from a former mercenary, the shadowy figures pulled heavy masks up over their noses and mouths and melted into the darkness.

The form of the horse and rider was at the crest of the slope, shimmering with moonlight. Without the slightest pause they cantered down.

Lyle didn’t even think about shouting out a warning. Though Bazura had vanished without saying anything to him, he couldn’t be sure the man wouldn’t put a steel arrow through Cecile at any moment.

When D reached the foot of the hill, black shapes came down around him from all sides. But they weren’t attackers. The things that fell around him broke open easily, sending a powerful stench into the night air. Garlic extract.

Ordinarily, Bazura and the others would’ve been writhing from the smell since they’d been made servants of the Nobility. But the heavy masks they wore must’ve helped to prevent that.

D raced ahead at full speed. Suddenly, his body and that of his mount were thrown forward. The tips of spears jutting from the ground had jabbed into his horse’s belly.

Midair, there were flashes from D’s left hand. Perhaps he’d seen the locations from which the foul-smelling packages had been hurled.

Men who’d been pierced in various spots by rough wooden needles appeared from behind the trees, weapons glittering in the hands of all as they charged at D.

Keeping his left hand over his nose and mouth all the while, D met their attack. All he had was the blade in his right hand—but every time it flashed out, it easily deflected whistling iron spears in flight or sent longswords falling to the ground along with the hands that gripped them. There were about ten men, and running them all through the heart or taking off their heads didn’t even take ten seconds.

“Incredible! Absolutely incredible!” Lyle exclaimed. He couldn’t help but shout at the exquisite display of skill by moonlight.

As D shot a quick glance up at him, an arrow shot out of the ground and severed Cecile’s rope. The girl plummeted, her screams trailing behind her.

While D stood motionless, a silvery flash shot up from beneath his feet. As he took it through the solar plexus, D drove his own sword into the earth and lifted his left hand. He caught the falling Cecile, and a groan that would’ve left most covering their ears rose from beneath his blade and Bazura sent black dirt flying everywhere as he sat up. D’s sword had pierced the man through the back of the neck and gone right through his heart.

Pulling off his mask with trembling hands, Bazura gasped, “You . . . you damn freak . . . Even with my blade in you, you stabbed me right back . . .”

With D’s sword still stuck in his neck, Bazura ambled away. The vitality of this vampire was a thing to be feared.

Though D should’ve given chase, he fell to his knees where he was. His Noble blood had reacted to the stifling aroma of garlic that wafted around him.

The rapid-fire crossbow was raised.

Lyle still hung high in the air.

But it was a second later that Bazura’s silhouette lurched unexpectedly. The blank-propelled arrow jabbed into the ground, and his headless corpse toppled forward.

Behind him, still poised with her shoddy longsword from home at the end of its downward stroke, was the raggedly breathing Helga.

__

“I guess that settles it, doesn’t it?” Lyle said as he returned to the living room after putting Cecile to bed, but only the old woman nodded at his words.

“So it would seem. You did a fine job yourself, you know.”

Caught in a look of admiration, Lyle rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Well then, here’s the money you were promised.” Pulling a rough little pouch out from under the table, the crone passed it to D, saying, “You’ll be going soon, I take it. I sure will miss you.”

“You can’t!” Lyle interjected hastily. “When I was talking about things being settled, I meant with Bazura and the first Noblewoman. There’s still another major player out there.”

“Relax. She won’t be coming around any more,” Helga told him.

“How do you know that?”

“Just a hunch. But then again, I’m the one who called D here in the first place. Trust me.”

Up until then, D had been leaning back against the wall by the door like a winter’s night given shape.

“I’ll be leaving here tomorrow,” he said simply.

“Hey! Wait a second—”

Ignoring the seriously agitated Lyle, the old woman said in a cheery tone, “In that case, maybe I should get you to take me with you. At any rate, I can’t have much time left. I suppose that rather than staying here to decay all alone, traveling with you and seeing all sorts of things before I die would be a tad better. Oh, don’t even bother saying it. I’ll just follow along on my own anyway. And when I pass away, you won’t need to do a blessed thing for me.”

“The old woman will die, but you won’t.”

Lyle didn’t comprehend the meaning of D’s words.

“What’s that you say?” the crone remarked, raising an eyebrow.

“You said you were going to divine the Noble’s location, didn’t you? What was the result?”

“It was—” the old woman began to reply, but she quickly held her tongue and stared at D.

However, she seemed to give in right away. Turning her eyes to the floor, she continued, “—right in this house.”

“I swam down to the ruins,” D said without ever breaking his pose.

“Is that a fact?” Helga replied.

Lyle rose to his feet in astonishment.

For the first time, old Helga’s voice had been that of a young woman. Strangely enough, the very crone it had come from had her own eyes wide with surprise.

“Wha—what in the world was that?” the boy stammered.

“You saw it, I assume. My ‘abode.’ But I thought I’d melted it completely. Were you able to figure it out just from the wreckage?” she said, her words and the old woman’s both coming from the same mouth.

Not replying, D asked instead, “Why did you appear now? And why was the handmaiden in the blue dress with you?”

“My father crafted the ‘abode’ for me. Actually, it would be more accurate to call it a ‘world’. So long as I remained inside it, I could live forever in a world of light. The blood synthesizers worked perfectly, too. A century ago, my father foresaw the fate of the Nobility and constructed that so I might live on without anyone ever knowing. However, ultimately, I was unable fight my blood. After more than a hundred years of denying myself, I finally couldn’t restrain the urge to drink human blood any longer.”

As she spoke with the stoic voice of the night, the old woman was deathly pale. She was finally learning the truth. And it was being told to her by herself.

“That’s ridiculous . . . Utterly ridiculous. If that were true, why would you call D here?” Lyle asked in a tone of mingled perplexity and fear.

Turning to the boy, she countered, “I—I didn’t do anything. I was just nervous.”

“But it wasn’t me that called you here. It was this ‘world,’” the crone said to the Hunter, thumping her chest coldly. “The world my father crafted was far too intricate, too ingenious. At some point, my ‘world’ knit itself into the human ‘world,’ developed a will of its own, and began to ‘live.’ Why, it even got a heart. And that was why it formed Larna—my lady-in-waiting—and set everything in motion. She was true to the spirit of the original right to the very end.”

“D—I was . . .”

“Do you understand, D?” asked the youthful voice. “In order to destroy me, you’ll have to cut down this tired old ‘world.’ There’s no other way to subject me to your blade. Inside her, I will live on forever, D!”

A flash of light came straight down.

“Perhaps I’d have been better off never meeting you,” the old woman practically mumbled as a white line streaked down her forehead and along her nose. “I wanted to live with you from the first moment I laid eyes on you. I ordered the rabble to slay you so I might drink your blood a moment before your death and make you my servant—no, I never actually planned to make a servant of you. At the very least, I wanted to walk with you once through the autumn fields. It was my favorite season, after all.”

The band of light turned her humble living room into a shimmering world.

“D, I just wanted—” said the crone.

“D, I simply wished—” said the young woman.

The two voices overlapped, and a second later, old Helga’s body split lengthwise.

D saw inside. The sun shone brilliantly over fall woods ablaze with leaves of red and gold, while a fragrant breeze carried the scent of apples and plums. And the light enveloped everything. In this scene there stood a girl in a white dress. Her hair was light green.

It was impossible to tell whether it was the voice of the old woman or the young that finished speaking in the end, saying, “—to go away with you.”

And then the girl split down the middle and dissolved into the endless white light.