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“You bastards!” the grand duke snarled, the gigantic eyes in his enormous face seeming to shoot fire. “My patience is at an end. Off to the great unknown with you!”

The machine man’s mouth snapped open, and what should fly out of it but a space eater. It soared right at them.

The way it flew at precisely the same speed as them seemed a fiendish stroke meant to strike fear in Juke and his compatriot, but rather than cower, Juke raised his left hand. It almost looked as if he was stretching his arm out further than it could possibly go as he leapt up and grabbed the space eater—which had just halted over the racing wagon, formed a ring, and begun to devour itself.

Although Grand Duke Mehmet had seen it himself, he didn’t really understand what had happened. Even if someone had caught it, the space eater should’ve bored its deadly hole through space.

When he realized nothing was happening, the grand duke started after them with earth-shaking footfalls. As he ran, he released another bug, for he’d decided that something must’ve been wrong with the first one. This one would perform its duty in front of the wagon. It flew far higher and faster than the last one.

But damned if Juke didn’t jump up a second time. Fifteen feet he leapt to once again catch the insect in his extended left hand. And in the palm of that hand an unmistakably human mouth opened to swallow the second bug.

Once again Juke landed as beautifully on the roof as if he’d been pulled right down to it, at which point the left hand lauded him, saying, “Good job.”

There could be no mistaking that hoarse voice. With an unfazed expression as it followed Juke’s hand into his sleeve, it was none other than D’s left hand.

On sending the two transporters into the village, where Nobility could be waiting for them anywhere, D had given them his left hand as backup. It was clear why the Duke of Xenon had finally noticed the Hunter’s blindness when he fought without the use of his left hand.

“Is that the last of it?” Sergei shouted.

“Not yet,” Juke replied.

The great black figure was now within sixty feet of them, and he was rapidly closing the gap.

Taking a sharp turn and crossing a bridge, they ascended a slope.

“The front door!” Sergei exclaimed on seeing the gates off in the distance.

—

Peeling himself from the spot where he’d been slammed into the gates, D held his sword in his teeth while he used his empty right hand to pull out the spears that skewered him. He’d probably calculated that the Duke of Xenon would have to stop attacking long enough for his exoskeleton to perform repairs, allowing D some time. Dizziness assailed him. Though part Noble, he’d lost enough blood that he should’ve long since died, after having been impaled and had every inch of his body burned—and he didn’t have his left hand to supply him with more energy. It was surprising that he could even stand. His sword rose.

The blue light vanished from between the exoskeleton’s eyes. At the same time, the duke pounced. Making a vertical leap, the exoskeleton hurled a long spear.

Tracing an elliptical path, D’s blade batted it away. The Hunter’s follow-up stroke should’ve cut the duke from one shoulder to the opposite armpit, but it met only air.

The Duke of Xenon was behind D. He’d moved with unbelievable speed.

D spun around. A third spear pierced his chest.

Landing on the ground, D was driven to one knee.

As the Duke of Xenon touched down safely, he had a new spear glowing in either hand.

Having been pierced by three spears already, D had a nearly bloodless complexion.

The Duke of Xenon raised his right hand high. The first would be a feint—the second the coup de grâce.

“This one will be through the heart.”

At this point, D flowed off to the right.

Crashing through the gates, the cargo wagon appeared.

“D’s compatriots?” the duke exclaimed, suddenly letting a long spear fly.

The wagon made a miraculous turn to the left, but it wasn’t because of Sergei’s skill at driving. He hadn’t even seen the spear. But when they’d smashed blindly through the gates, there’d been an armored monstrosity right in front of them. The horses had cut to the side instinctively.

Not only were they saved, but they also reaped an unbelievable windfall. A scream rang out on the other side of the gates. What staggered into view was the enormous figure of Grand Duke Mehmet. The Duke of Xenon’s spear was buried deep in his chest.

“Duke of Xenon—how could you . . .”

“Wait. This is all a terrible mistake.”

While the Nobleman made a frantic apology, the gigantic Mehmet pulled the spear out of himself and hurled it back at his colleague in the exoskeleton. It pierced the Duke of Xenon through the abdomen and poked out through his back.

“Of all the stupidity—have you forgotten what we’re trying to do here?” he bellowed at his colleague, but Grand Duke Mehmet kept closing on him. The machine man’s mouth opened.

Just then, the giant exoskeleton began to spin like a top. For a second it kicked up dust—and then the massive form sank into the black earth.

“Taking to your heels, eh? Yes, I suppose we can’t very well go about killing our own, can we?”

With nothing left to direct his rage at, the gigantic figure looked all around. The wagon was dwindling in the distance, and there was no sign of D. Presently Grand Duke Mehmet, too, vanished.

The remaining darkness was deep. Having been ordered by the mayor not to go outside, the villagers wouldn’t break that prohibition until dawn, but that was a long way off, and the night was cruel and cold and choked with the reverberations of the deadly conflict.