VAMPIRE HUNTER D 27: NIGHTMARE VILLAGE

© Hideyuki Kikuchi, 2018. Originally published in Japan in 2010 by ASAHI SONORAMA Co. English translation copyright © 2018 by Dark Horse Books.

 

No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of the copyright holders. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric intent, is coincidental. Dark Horse Books TM and the Dark Horse logo are registered trademarks of Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

Cover art by Yoshitaka Amano

English translation by Kevin Leahy

Book design by Lin Huang

 

Published by

Dark Horse Books

A division of Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

10956 SE Main Street

Milwaukie, OR 97222

DarkHorse.com

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kikuchi, Hideyuki, 1949- author. | Amano, Yoshitaka, illustrator. |

Leahy, Kevin (Translator) translator.

Title: Bedeviled stagecoach / written by Hideyuki Kikuchi ; illustrated by

Yoshitaka Amano ; English translation by Kevin Leahy.

Other titles: D--Mashō Basha. English

Description: First Dark Horse Books edition. | Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse

Books, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017018316 (print) | LCCN 2017018786 (ebook) | ISBN

9781630081621 () | ISBN 9781506701998 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Vampires--Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Horror. | FICTION /

Fantasy / Paranormal.

Classification: LCC PL832.I37 (ebook) | LCC PL832.I37 D28713 2018 (print) |

DDC 895.6/36--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018316

 

First Dark Horse Books edition: August 2017

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

 

Mike Richardson President and Publisher Neil Hankerson Executive Vice President Tom Weddle Chief Financial Officer Randy Stradley Vice President of Publishing Nick McWhorter Chief Business Development Officer Matt Parkinson Vice President of Marketing Dale LaFountain Vice President of Information Technology Cara Niece Vice President of Production and Scheduling Mark Bernardi Vice President of Book Trade and Digital Sales Ken Lizzi General Counsel Dave Marshall Editor in Chief Davey Estrada Editorial Director Chris Warner Senior Books Editor Cary Grazzini Director of Specialty Projects Lia Ribacchi Art Director Vanessa Todd-Holmes Director of Print Purchasing Matt Dryer Director of Digital Art and Prepress Michael Gombos Director of International Publishing and Licensing Kari Yadro Director of Custom Programs

Those Called by the Rain

chapter 1

I

From off somewhere in the urgent pattering of the rain there came a far deeper echo like a rumbling in the earth. The room began to quake a bit.

“Oh damn!”

Grabbing the traveling bag resting by his side, Bligh used it to hit the girl and the procurer lying to his right.

“What in the—?!”

“Just what do you think you’re doing?!”

Looking them in their irate but still sleepy eyes, the man told them, “The ground’s rumbling. There’s a massive landslide on its way!”

And with that he jumped down to the dirt floor ahead of them. As if from the force of his landing, the building then shook quite clearly.

Exiting the hotel, Bligh ran off toward a hill to the west he’d noticed before checking in, and behind him was the sound of voices and footfalls. At the very least the other two from his room, plus another girl who’d been staying in the big room, had been saved. No matter what fate the future might hold for them, at the moment his heart was clearly carved with the words Where there’s life, there’s hope.

Bligh didn’t invite them to join him. The rest would depend on the luck of each individual.

Rain lashed him from head to toe. The wind was blowing in exactly from the west.

That figures, he thought to himself. First a landslide, then a downpour right in his face. That was still kid stuff. All he needed now was to be surrounded by an angry mob and some cannibals, and then he’d finally be ready to throw in the towel.

After he’d run for about three minutes, two shadowy horses and their riders passed him on the right. Apparently there’d been customers willing to take a private room at that old spook house of a hotel. On passing the man in the hall, Bligh had gotten the impression he was a traveling warrior. The other one with him was probably his wife.

Bligh finally turned and looked back. Lightning flashed. He would’ve killed for an umbrella. All five of the other figures were using their arms to shield their faces and heads. Fortunately most seemed to subscribe to the Frontier traveler tradition of not changing into pajamas, and all either had their baggage on their back or in hand.

What about the hotel staff? Bligh wondered.

He squinted his eyes in that direction just as the lightning flashed once more, and by its light he saw the rickety form of the two-story building fold like a house of cards.

They’ve had it, I guess.

At the same time the ground beneath him rumbled and shook, and behind the figures who fell, one after another, something big and black that could’ve been either a wall or a wave was rolling right that way. Just a bit ahead of it, there towered a steep cliff. Since the sides and top of it were devoid of plant life, if it collapsed the heavy downpour would swiftly turn it into a ravenous mud monster, bearing down on them and devouring everything in its path.

“This way. Hurry up!” Bligh shouted, pointing with one hand and running like a man possessed. He could hear the rumbling of the earth much closer.

It was five minutes later that he reached the bottom of the hill. He climbed it without thought of anything else. Fortunately the slope wasn’t very steep, but that also meant it would take some time to reach the summit.

Now that he was on the hill, he could finally let up a little bit. Trees were growing all over it, so it didn’t seem likely to give way easily.

After about a minute’s wait, the rest arrived one after another. There was a plump, oldish man in a jacket with a girl dressed in the inimitable fashion of a traveling country bumpkin, a strangely sexy middle-aged woman whose profession was evident at a glance, and a young couple who each appeared to be about twenty years old, give or take a year. He immediately knew the story behind the oldish man and the country girl, but he wasn’t sure about the young couple. From the way they were dressed, they were probably a pair of sweethearts headed back home from a big town, perhaps even engaged to be married.

Lightning flashed. Everyone was soaked to the skin. Still, the rain kept on pounding them mercilessly and beating down on the hill.

“What the—!” Bligh exclaimed, straining his eyes.

The people had been transformed into inhabitants of a stark white world, and behind them something came into view that seemed out of a dream. She wore a dress as white as snow, her arms and neck were adorned with bracelets and necklaces of gold and jewels—yet all that could be taken away, and still her youthful beauty and lithe form would’ve burned themselves into the retinas of any who saw her, even in a blinding world of brilliant colors.

Bligh stared at her in amazement, forgetting the rain, the rumbling of the ground, even his own fate. Stared at her? No, the world had already been enveloped once again by darkness. Had it just been a fleeting illusion?

The trembling that reached him through the soles of his shoes shook Bligh back to his senses.

“Climb the hill. The landslide’s nearly on top of us!” he shouted, taking the middle-aged woman by the hand and digging the toes of his shoes into the slope.

 

By the time they’d climbed to the top, all of them had reached the limits of their strength. Three of them were women. It was incredible they’d all made it that far.

The rain didn’t let up in the least.

As the shadowy figures huffed for breath like beasts in their death throes, Bligh said to them, “Okay, we should be fine now. I don’t see any landslide coming up this far.”

Bligh looked down at the base of the hill. He couldn’t see very well.

Lightning flashed.

The man’s blood froze. His field of view was filled with a sea of churning mud.

“A-all the way up here?!” he stammered.

Mud surged up to his ankles. When it then quickly receded again, Bligh nearly grew catatonic.

From off to his left, someone asked, “What’s wrong?” While the speaker was still wheezing for breath, the voice was full of vitality.

“Didn’t you just see that?”

“See what?”

A fresh flash of lightning picked out the round-faced old man neatly dressed in a suit and tie, but Bligh’s interest focused at the bottom of the hill. The snarling sea of mud was retreating. And quite clearly back the way it had come.

“What are the chances of that happening?” he groaned in spite of himself, but he actually got a reply.

“None at all!” Framed by the rain bouncing off him, the plump man quivered.

“The god of the mountain must’ve ordered it back or something, eh?”

“Actually, it looked more like it was avoiding the hill.”

“This hill here?” Bligh looked all around, but he couldn’t see anything. He had to wait for the lightning.

“What’s that?” the plump man grunted, cupping a hand behind his ear.

Bligh, too, listened intently.

From up ahead there was the sound of hoofbeats. Two horses were approaching. By the time the pair halted beside them, Bligh had guessed the riders’ identities. It could only be the couple who’d left the rest of them in their dust.

“I’m surprised you got away,” the man said to them from the back of his steed.

To Bligh, he sounded high-handed. He wasn’t at all concerned about their safety. Their continued survival surprised him only to the extent he questioned why they’d been spared. In other words, in his heart he believed they’d have been better off dead.

“Yeah, well, your horses were so fast, we had to speed up chasing you.”

The man on the horse grinned. “Well, don’t take it personally. We barely made it out alive ourselves. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lyle Brennan—warrior.”

“Sorry we ran off and left you to fend for yourselves,” someone said in a sensuous voice, making Bligh recall there was a woman there, too. “I’m Josette—his wife.”

“Both of you are warriors? Isn’t that cozy.”

“Not my wife. She’s just an ordinary woman.”

“Beg pardon. My confusion came from her being just as quick to run away.”

At the tail end of his sarcastic remark, Bligh felt something cold run down his spine. A powerful thirst for blood.

The warrior moved forward on his horse.

“Now, dear . . .”

Josette’s voice halted his advance.

“Watch that mouth of yours,” the warrior said in an intimidating tone crushed free of emotion, but the rain needled his words.

“Come, come now,” the plump man said, stepping between them. “I’m Bambi Arbuckle. Physician and procurer of women. A pleasure to meet you.” Ignoring Bligh, whose eyes had gone wide, he continued, “Since we’ve all been fortunate enough to be saved, it would be a shame for us to go killing each other now. As for the two of you—have you found nowhere on this hill where we might take shelter from the rain?”

“Over that way, there was one big old tree. Lots of branches to it, so it should be enough to keep the rain off us. It’ll probably let up by morning, anyway,” the warrior’s wife said in a tone that made it seem that she, at least, was sincere.

“Hear that, everybody?” Bligh called out in a tone that ceded nothing to the rain. He knew that the rest of them had gathered around him. “All we’ve gotta do is wait for sunup. Okay, just have to tough it out a little more. So, how far is it to this tree of yours?”

“Roughly five hundred yards.”

“Sheesh—is this hill as big as all that?”

“Bigger, probably. Even by the flashes of lightning, I couldn’t see all the way to the ends of it.”

“Wow.”

“At any rate, let’s get going. That girl and the lady I’ll take on my horse. The other one can ride with my husband.”

The girl Josette referred to was the one traveling with the plump man; the lady was the fairer half of the young couple. Who “the other one” was went without saying.

“Oh, that’ll be a great help!” the alluring woman said, gathering the hem of her nightgown and making a beeline for Brennan’s horse. Extending her hand, she said, “I’m Charlotte. Charmed to make your acquaintance.”

“Lyle Brennan.”

“You’re a warrior, didn’t you say? That’s marvelous!”

In the meantime, the girl and the young woman went over to Josette’s horse and introduced themselves.

“My name’s Beth.”

“I’m Emily.”

“Welcome. The trip’s only five hundred yards, but it’ll be a pleasure having you aboard.”

Just as the rider extended her hand and was about to take hold of the girl, the plump man grabbed his young charge by the collar and jerked her back.

“Just a minute—what do you think you’re doing?” Josette asked angrily.

“I believe I told you I’m a procurer of women. The girl’s merchandise I’m in the midst of delivering to the town of Gillian.”

Bligh and the others could only stare at him in amazement. He had indeed said he was a procurer. However, the plump man had looked so much like a courteous physician, it’d made them forget that fact completely.

“As such,” he continued, “I can’t have the girl leaving my side. Take that young lady’s beau with you instead.”

“No. I’m fine,” the young man protested.

To which Arbuckle replied, “Go on and climb aboard. You should conserve your strength, since there’s no telling what could come next. As I recall—”

“Get on,” Bligh also advised him, and the young man did so without further reluctance.

“Sorry I didn’t introduce myself sooner. Jan Rollin is the name,” he then said.

“The rest of you, wait here. Once we’ve unloaded everybody, we’ll be right back.”

With Josette’s words as a parting gift, the two horses dashed off.

Using both hands to shield his head, Bligh said, “We’ll catch a cold in this for sure, eh?”

“Uh-huh,” the plump man said with a nod, while the girl just lowered her head.

“Miss, just hang in there a little longer,” Bligh told the girl. He then inquired in a calculatedly rude tone, “So, old-timer, what was it you were about to recall, anyway?”

As a doctor, he was accustomed to more deference. Glaring at him, Arbuckle said, “A long time ago, this area had one of the Nobles’ facilities. According to the stories, it was a top secret laboratory built on direct orders from their Sacred Ancestor, no less.”

II

Though the eastern sky lightened, the rain didn’t abate. The tree was so massive it would’ve taken ten grown men just to link arms around its trunk, and its great leafy branches reached out in all directions like helping hands, granting sufficient shelter from the rain, though it could offer no aid in deciding what they should do next.

“I know it was a hard climb up the hill and all, but there’s really nothing to do but go back down again, head to the highway, and wait for a patrol wagon to come by.”

Brennan voiced his opposition to Bligh’s proposal, saying, “Look at this rain. First of all, wagons from the Capital won’t be running on time in this. Plus, I don’t quite think the landslide’s over completely. As a result, there’s a very good chance not just the road out to the highway but even the highway itself is buried in mud.”

“Yeah, but staying here’s not gonna solve anything, is it? If it’s like you say, rescue parties won’t be here for a week and a half or more. So we’ve got no choice but to go to them.”

As Bligh was refuting Brennan, he heard someone say, “Does it hurt?”

Arbuckle had noticed the girl was lying back against the tree trunk. She had a red handkerchief pressed to her right ankle, though the red dripping from it suggested that wasn’t the handkerchief’s true color.

“I cut it on a fallen branch,” the girl said, her lips twisting in pain. Apparently the sandals she wore hadn’t offered much protection.

“Let me have a look,” Arbuckle said, pushing the handkerchief aside and immediately smiling broadly. “It’s nothing serious. However, it wouldn’t do to have any strange germs get into the wound either. I’ll patch you right up.”

And with that, he opened a leather-bound suitcase and began rummaging through its contents.

“Look at that. The girl won’t be able to move. Which means he won’t be able to leave here, either. I guess we’ll just have to wait after all,” Brennan said triumphantly.

“I agree. I’ve had it with running here, there, and everywhere,” said Charlotte, her tone one of fatigue.

Each and every one of them was soaked from the rain and utterly exhausted. If rescue wasn’t soon in coming, they would be sapped mentally even more quickly than physically.

“Well, then I guess this is it for me,” Bligh said, standing up. “I leave the rest to you. Hang in there, everybody.”

Taking his saddlebags off the horse’s back and slinging them over his shoulder, he let out a single sigh before he began to walk away. No one tried to stop him, and Bligh had no qualms about leaving them.

Man, I sure am beat. That was his only thought.

It was at that moment the hill shook. A scream rang out. The quaking didn’t subside. The earth spun. The rain eddied, the dark clouds danced. The sky went around and around.

Bligh remembered letting out a cry of “Whoa!”

His footing was gone without warning, and after feeling like he’d fallen forever, Bligh finally passed out.

 

The man realized he’d just been slapped on the cheek.

Charlotte had her hand back to deliver another but relented, saying, “Well, good morning to you.”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Bligh was cautious, but he quickly sat up and surveyed his surroundings.

He was still at the base of that tree. It continued to rain. What about the others? They were there. Every last one of them.

“Lucky bastards.”

The fortunate individuals in question were all gazing straight ahead. Bligh followed their lead. Or rather, that had been the first thing to catch his eye when he woke up. You might say he was confirming it now.

Little by little, something astonishing had begun to take shape. The ambiguous mist became a solid fog, forming up like clouds, solidifying.

“Hey . . . What the hell is that?”

The others must’ve heard him. However, no one responded.

It wasn’t a vast expanse of ground that spread before them. Filling their rain-hazed field of vision was a panoramic view of a soggy little village. Old-fashioned homes of sticks and mud, a type that could no longer be found even in the most far-flung corners of the Frontier, surrounded a central square, while the eastern edge of that square was bordered by a broad river running from north to south. On the flat land on the other side of the water were about twenty farmhouses and some other buildings that were probably storehouses for grain. About fifty yards north of there stood a sixty-foot-high tower that apparently served both as a lookout point and a sanctuary. Thick forests surrounded the village on all sides, and at its western edge was a rather high hill topped with solid-looking fortifications that challenged the heavens.

At first, Bligh thought it was an illusion. However, the damp walls of the houses glistening with the rain, the surface of the river pounded to a froth, and trees swaying from the rain’s beating soon convinced him that he was mistaken.

“Where the hell are we?”

That got an answer.

“I don’t know. Looks like a really old village,” said Charlotte.

“How’d we all end up here?” Bligh asked.

At his reasonable question, the alluring middle-aged woman shot a quick glance to the heavens and said, “As soon as you started to leave, the ground shook and spun around. While we were all knocked off our feet, we fell here. Given that, this would have to be somewhere underground, though it doesn’t really look that way at all, does it?”

Bligh nodded. His eyes flying from one place in the village to another, he said, “There’s no one around, is there?”

“Yeah, now you mention it,” Charlotte conceded with a nod.

There wasn’t a soul to be seen in the village square or on the streets. It was like a ghost town, yet it didn’t seem the least bit dilapidated. Put some people in it, and the village would soon look like it was ready to begin its day.

“Emily,” someone said in a clingy tone, causing the two of them to turn.

About ten feet away, the young man named Jan was shaking his slumping sweetheart—Emily—by the shoulders. Her labored breathing could be heard all the way over where they were.

Arbuckle was nearby, and he inched closer on his knees and put his hand to Emily’s forehead. “She’s got an awful fever,” the plump man said. “Must’ve caught a cold. Exhaustion might also have a hand in it. If it gets any worse, she’ll come down with pneumonia in no time!”

“Let’s go to the village,” Jan said, looking around at the group.

“I’m against it,” Brennan asserted coldly. “An ancient village just pops up right in front of us all of a sudden. I don’t think there’s anything right about the place. And take a look at those fortifications. What are we supposed to do if there are Nobles lurking up there?”

“Do what you like. I’m going!”

Arbuckle’s decision surprised the group, but they quickly understood it. In his former location, Beth was slumped back against the tree trunk. Her face was flushed and her breathing ragged.

“She’s already got pneumonia. I’ve got to get her warmed up posthaste. What are the rest of you going to do?”

“I don’t want any part of it, either,” Bligh said, shaking his head. “No matter how you look at it, there’s something wrong with the place, and I’ve got no interest in heading over there. Best of luck to you all, okay? Soon as I’ve had a little rest, I’m getting out of here!”

“We’re leaving, too,” Brennan declared, looking at Bligh, who turned away in a snit. It seemed he didn’t like people copying him.

“Well, then off with the lot of you. Off you go. Happy trails,” Bligh told them, waving one hand as he leaned back against the tree trunk. Suddenly he noticed that Charlotte was beside him, and he said to her, “What’ll you do?”

“For starters, the same thing as you.”

“Huh?”

“After I’ve had some rest, then I’ll decide,” she said, sitting right down by his side.

Bligh sensed danger. Is she plotting to make me her own personal bodyguard?

“Well, I guess we’ll each go our own ways, then,” Brennan said, surveying the group once he was high in the saddle. Giving a nod to Josette beside him, he delivered a kick to his steed’s flanks.

The two horses began to canter away. Rebounding spray from the rain outlined both riders and mounts in white.

The entrance to the village was to the east. There was no palisade, probably on account of the Nobles’ castle. The creatures humans feared most, ironically, were the greatest safeguard against monsters and bandits.

“I’m sorry. Goodbye,” Josette said in parting.

Seemingly ignoring that, Arbuckle went over to Bligh and asked, “Are you sure you won’t go to the village with us?”

“Damn sure.”

“Don’t be that way. Granted, there’s something strange about the village. Beyond a doubt. But knowing that, we’re going there anyway because otherwise, the lives of those two innocent girls are certain to be lost. We’d like you to act as our bodyguard.”

“That’s rich talk from a flesh peddler. What are you talking about, innocent? Aren’t you the same son of a bitch who’s gonna sell one of those innocent young girls to the underworld to line your stinking pocket?”

“I’m speaking now as Arbuckle the physician.”

“Don’t try to spin this, you two-faced bastard,” Bligh snapped back. “Are you reading me? As soon as I finish resting up—”

The world was bleached white. By lightning. But that wasn’t the entire extent of it. With a roar to shake both heaven and earth, the colossal tree was split in two.

“Holy shit!” Bligh exclaimed, jumping up.

The others also got to their feet, or else tried to crawl away from the tree. A hundred-and-fifty-foot-tall tree being split lengthwise was a sight more than sufficient to leave them dumbstruck.

There was but the single sound of a tree falling. Both halves of the trunk had hit the ground at precisely the same time.

Once the wind and quaking had subsided, Bligh called out, “Everybody all right?”

Fortunately, they were all okay. However, their guardian angel against the wind and rain was no more.

“Let’s go to the village,” Arbuckle said, laying a hand on Bligh’s shoulder.

The man shook it off, grabbed his things, and started to walk away. Since half of the tree trunk was blocking the road, he’d have to detour around it.

Once he’d gone as far as the still smoking base of the tree, he turned and looked back. Everyone was looking in his direction. Charlotte was there, too.

If you’re waiting for an invitation, sorry to disappoint you.

Bligh turned around and started walking again. Something about this made him anxious. There was something important here that he was missing. The sudden appearance of a cyborg horse from behind the toppled tree proved it.

It was Brennan. Josette was on behind him, her arms wrapped limply around his waist. Brennan also had the reins to Josette’s cyborg horse in his grip.

“We’re going to the village,” Brennan said with distaste. “My wife got hit by a falling branch, and you can see the shape she’s in. You should turn back, too. The village doesn’t seem to want to let us leave.”

“Now you’re talking nonsense, too?” Bligh said, giving the warrior a scornful look. “I’m leaving. And I don’t think there’ll be any more branches falling.”

He started walking around the horse. Suddenly, his legs sank—or so it appeared, but then his body was neck-deep in the ground, which had been transformed into a morass. Though Bligh clawed at it wildly with hands and feet, he only succeeded in stirring the mud, and he was rapidly sinking. Soon, he couldn’t breathe.

Is this the end? despair whispered to him. No, I’ve still got things to do. I’ll be damned if I’ll die in a place like this . . .

His consciousness drifted away. He sought oxygen—and mud rushed into his lungs.

III

Something heavy was expelled from his mouth and nose, and oxygen came in. As Bligh coughed violently, flecks of mud flew from his stomach and chest.

“Are you okay? You sure are a lucky one, mister.”

It was Charlotte again.

Less than tactfully, Bligh groaned, “You again?”

“Well, excuse me for living. But you should be happy, you know. It wasn’t me that saved you.”

“Huh?”

Before his stunned eyes, Charlotte’s expression shifted strangely, and she replied, “By the time I ran over, you’d already been hauled out, you see.”

“But who—”

“The one who did it was still right there. It was—”

Charlotte squinted her eyes. Her body was trembling. As if she’d just downed the dregs of fear. And it wasn’t just because she was soaked to the skin like a drowned rat.

“It was a Noblewoman, no doubt about it.”

“You can’t be serious?!” Bligh exclaimed, eyes bulging, but half of that was an act. There really could be no doubt about it. Charlotte had seen the woman, too.

“She was wearing this pure white dress, with a necklace of gold and jewels hanging around her neck and down to her chest. And they were all the real thing, too. I didn’t see any fangs, but those trinkets really seemed to suit her. That’s the real proof of being Nobility!”

“Where is she?”

“While I watched, she laid you down right here, and then—poof! she vanished like smoke.”

Bligh didn’t know what to say.

“No, just kidding. A huge bat came down from the sky, and she rode off on its back.”

“That’s a lie.”

If it came to a question of which was less believable, it would definitely be the latter.

Charlotte threw her head back without another word and laughed. “Yeah, it’s a lie. Lies, lies, lies. The whole world is made up of one hundred percent bullshit.”

All Bligh could think was, This is one strange woman.

What was the true nature of the beauty who’d saved him—some manifestation of the will that didn’t want them to leave the village? His interest was focused on that alone.

“Can you walk?” Charlotte asked.

“I think I can manage.”

“Then go on and get walking in whatever direction suits you. I’m going to the village. Everyone else has already gone.”

As the woman stood up again, Bligh finally remembered something he should do.

“Thank you,” he said.

An odd expression flitted across the woman’s face, and she asked, “What’s that?”

“What—just, thank you.”

“Ah, an expression of gratitude. It’s been so long since I heard it, I’d forgotten what it sounded like,” the woman said, starting to walk away. “Whatever you’re aiming to do, you’d better be quick about it,” she told him, “or you and me both are looking at pneumonia.”

And with rapid steps the woman vanished.

The rain continued to batter Bligh.

“Oh hell.”

With that single complaint he got to his feet, and then he, too, started toward the village at a jog.

 

They had all assembled in a large building that seemed to be some sort of local meeting house. The stone ceiling, walls, and floor were impervious to the rain. Surprisingly enough, there were rows of wooden chairs set up in the main hall, and an electric heater made of steel was glowing red. A pair of synthetic fiber mats had been laid out on the floor beside it, with Emily lying on one and Arbuckle’s charge, Beth, on the other. Both were in their underthings, but that was unavoidable. Their dripping-wet clothes were still where they’d been thrown on the floor. Josette or someone had probably put the girls in a dry change of underwear. There was no sign of Brennan or Jan—or Josette, for that matter. They’d no doubt gone off to search for necessary supplies.

“How’s the warrior’s wife doing?” Bligh asked Arbuckle.

Looking toward the windows, the procurer replied, “It was an incredibly superficial wound. After a little rest she was fine again, and went out with her husband to look for food and weapons.”

“I thought as much. How about those other two?”

“For the time being, an antifebrile is keeping the fever in check. Just getting them out of the rain was a great help.”

“And you had that fever medicine on you?”

“I am a doctor, after all.”

“Spare me, flesh peddler,” Bligh spat back.

As he was saying that, Charlotte walked past him and over to the plump man. “I’ll give you a hand once I get changed,” she told him.

“Most kind of you. This girl is one matter, but if I let the other one die, it may cost me my life.”

“You’re a doctor, so how’d you wind up running girls, eh?”

“The workings of the world.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Traveling bag in hand, Charlotte opened the door to the adjoining room and, after checking that it was safe, stepped inside and closed the door again.

“By the look of it, this was built three thousand years ago,” Bligh said, surveying the room. “They just stacked stone on stone, and threw in an electric heater. That’s it. But I’m surprised anything this old is still around.”

“Indeed. And without a speck of rust. Plus, the village has working electricity.”

Arbuckle’s words sent a chill through Bligh. This village—it’s alive, he thought. Only, there aren’t any villagers around. No—

“I’d say there’s someone here,” Arbuckle stated with a grin. It was one that could’ve been taken as either ironic or nihilistic. “New villagers, that is.”

Us, Bligh realized, and then he recalled what Arbuckle had said earlier. “Hey, is this the Noble lab you were talking about?”

“Yes, most likely.”

Emily turned a shocked look their way.

“An entire village from three millennia ago has turned up in pristine condition. Can you think of any other reason for that?”

“Why’d it come back?”

Arbuckle remained silent.

“Don’t worry on my account,” Emily said in an emotionless tone.

“We’re their new lab rats, aren’t we?” Bligh continued.

“Now, I wouldn’t exactly—”

“Can you think of anything else?”

Arbuckle put his hand against Emily’s forehead.

“No, that’s just too . . .” the pretty young lady groaned, turning her face away.

“Her fever’s come down a lot, but we can’t let our guard down just yet. I wrote them a note with the drugs we’ll need, but do you suppose there’s a doctor’s house around?”

“Not to worry,” Bligh replied. “The Nobility will fix her right up. Hell, they’ll even throw a little immortality into the bargain. Might not be so bad after all!”

“Stop it!” Emily cried, and though the doctor held her shoulders down, she shook her head forcefully. “You said something about being lab rats—what kind of experiments would they use us for?”

“That I don’t know. Only that they were top secret. But this was a facility built on direct orders from the legendary Sacred Ancestor. It wouldn’t be an ordinary blood-manufacturing plant.”

With Arbuckle’s words, a certain figure crept back into Bligh’s mind. Is that Noblewoman in charge of the place or something? It was strange that he didn’t actually speak these thoughts out loud. And he didn’t know why.

Bligh went over to the westward-facing windows and peered out through spotless glass. Beyond the rain and the swaying forest, he could see the fortifications. The only way out of here is to go up there and talk to ’em, is that it? the man thought. It felt as though all the blood were draining from his body.

After he’d been looking out the window for a while, Charlotte returned, saying, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

When Bligh turned around, he was expecting her to be covered with mud, but suddenly she was wearing a clean change of clothes. She’d been sexy even after the rain had washed off all her makeup, but now that she’d reapplied her cosmetics, she was alluring to a numbing degree. She gave off a deep aroma, like a lily whiter and more conspicuous than the moon.

“Why, whatever are you looking at?” she inquired in a tone that had confidence to spare.

“Nothing,” Bligh replied, playing dumb. No good could come of encouraging a woman like that.

Before long, the other three returned. At any rate, they had assembled all the essentials—dry clothes, blankets, flashlights and electric lamps, canned goods, jerky, a plastic tank of drinking water, cups and paper plates, forks and spoons.

“We found medicine, too,” Josette said, handing Arbuckle a plastic bag containing several white packages.

Pulling out a few of the boxes and taking some tablets from them, he filled some cups with water from the tank and made the girls down both.

“That puts Emily in the clear,” said Arbuckle, “but the other one’s not so simple. We’ve got to move her to a well-equipped hospital as soon as possible. Where did you find these drugs?”

“In the general store,” Jan replied. “There wasn’t a soul around, but it sure was well stocked.”

Taking a look at the box the medicine was in, Arbuckle said, “It was manufactured—almost three thousand years ago.”

That sent a stir through the crowd.

“That’s in keeping with the style of the houses,” he continued. “It would seem this village has been awaiting our arrival for the last three millennia.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jan asked. When Arbuckle explained about the laboratory, the color quickly drained from the young man. “What kind of place have we wound up in? Why the hell is this village even here? Where’s it been all this time?”

“Probably in that hill,” Arbuckle said.

“What?” Jan exclaimed, and he wasn’t the only one who bugged his eyes. They all did.

“I can’t say for certain,” the plump man continued, “but from what I saw during flashes of lightning, the top of the hill was about the same size as this village. When you think about the timing of its appearance, and the way we felt like we’d fallen underground but the next thing we knew we were back where we started, it kind of makes sense. We’re still up on top of that hill.”

For a while, no one said anything.

“Okay, let’s get ourselves something to eat and think about our next move,” Bligh finally urged them.

“There are some tables and chairs in the prep room next door,” said Charlotte.

All of them got changed and, while it wasn’t quite a meal, they had something to eat. After that, the air of danger that’d been hanging over them dissipated and they settled down.

“I don’t think we can expect to be left alone like this for long,” Brennan stated in typical warrior fashion. “Until we destroy whatever it is that keeps interfering with any attempts to flee, we can’t get out of the village. And it’ll be night soon.”

While all of them were put off by his deep voice and somewhat nasty tone, they could also sense the ugly truth that his words carried: When night came, the dead went into action.

“I want no part of any of this. How can we just sit back and wait for the Nobility to drink our blood? Doctor, would it be all right for me to leave and take Emily with me?” Jan Rollin asked, rapidly sinking into a manic state. It was plain to see from his wardrobe that he hadn’t been born on the Frontier. His good fortune in not having to spend every day since childhood shoulder to shoulder with dread of the Nobility had now become his terrible misfortune.

“If you could find some way to keep her completely out of the wind and rain, I suppose it would be okay, but it’s just plain impossible. Something will get in your way.”

“We only came out to the Frontier on a sightseeing trip from the Capital. We didn’t want to come into direct contact with the Nobility. Now that it looks that way, we’d like to get out of the village, the sooner the better.”

“Why don’t you try telling that to whoever’s running the place,” Arbuckle said. Seeming to have suddenly thought of something, he asked the Brennans, “Weren’t there any weapons?”

“Nope, nothing. Not so much as a knife,” Josette replied, shaking her head.

“What’s the story with that? They wouldn’t even be able to fix dinner, would they?” Bligh said in an incredulous tone.

“It probably means the Nobility had to take good care of their lab rats. Give them all the food and water they want. Protect them from external threats. They’d have no need for weapons.”

“In that case, I guess we’ve no choice but to cut some wood and sharpen it to a point, eh?”

“Right you are, Doctor,” Brennan concurred, though he seemed to append the title as a dig at the man. “All of you probably have at least a pocket knife on you. We brought back some wood for stakes. Now, let’s get whittling.”

And saying that, he took a paper bag he’d kept set down away from all the other supplies they’d laid out and dumped its contents on the floor. What spilled from it was a bunch of branches that’d all been cut a little over two feet long.