The Great Shadowy Figure

Chapter 7

A voice came to the Hunter. But whose voice, and from where? Actually, it wasn’t clear that it even was a voice. Though D heard it distinctly, it was impossible to decide whether it came to him through his ears or crept directly into his brain.

How good of you to come.

“What are you scheming at?” D asked, his voice swallowed up by the darkness.

My thoughts are all played out. And they have been for a long, long time.

“What are you doing here?”

Nothing.

“What did you do to the woman who was up there?”

Nothing. If anything happened to her, it is because she desired it.

“You’re the one who brought her here.”

I didn’t bring her here. She accompanied me.

“Is this where you dwell?”

I’m not anywhere. And at the same time, I’m everywhere.

“Why did you come here?”

I just told you. I am not here. And at the same time, I’m everywhere.

D’s right hand flashed out. A number of stark wooden needles flew off to all points of the compass. A heartbeat later, D’s blade streaked out. Sliced in two, a needle that’d been hurled back fell to the ground.

Is that it? the voice inquired, the epitome of tranquility.

D grabbed another needle in his left hand.

What will you do next?

Suddenly, the voice changed. To a cry of surprise.

You’ve learned that much, have you? Then perhaps you may actually make it out of here alive.

D felt the darkness rapidly receding. At the same time, he sensed numerous presences spring into being around him.

“So, that bastard can even manipulate life?” the hoarse voice groaned. From a position over D’s heart. “Think you can take ’em?” it continued.

Not answering, D pulled his left fist away from his chest. With it came the bloody needle. He’d actually driven that last needle through his own heart, and had now pulled it out again. But toward what end? Though he was a dhampir—actually, precisely because he was a dhampir—there was no blow more certain to be fatal than a wooden stake through the heart.

Moving as if nothing had changed, D advanced three paces. The footing was better there.

The withered tentacles that’d spilled from the tilted pod to his right were now like a nest of serpents, twisting and writhing hypnotically. Hairy legs slid from the end of one of the pods lined up to his left. Overhead, there was the sound of flapping wings.

“Here they come,” the hoarse voice said in the barest whisper.

There were countless gleams in the darkness. Eyes. From this side and that, growls and the sound of gnashing teeth pressed closer. Even the sound of something licking its chops could be heard distinctly. All of them were famished. They had hungered ever since their deaths.

Tentacles whistled forward on the attack. The tips split open in a cruciform manner, exposing the tiny mouths within. If even one of them latched onto its prey, it would suck up the flesh and organs in an instant. Only the empty skin would be left behind.

Not even looking, D swung his blade. At some point, he’d shifted the sword to his left hand. One blow—just a single swipe―left hundreds of those deadly mouths scattered across the floor.

D pivoted to the right. A pinwheel of light spun around.

The arachnoid creatures pouncing on him were decapitated with ease, spilling a disturbingly colored ichor. It quickly corroded the floor where it landed, sending up white smoke as the stone evaporated. Untouched by the spraying ichor, D moved with the grace of a dancer. A stark flash described an elegant arc, with the spiders it touched being cut in two as if by a machine. D’s blade had seized control of the airspace. Anything that entered that area was certain to be cut down.

Suddenly, the path of his blade was upset. The spiders’ corrosive ichor had eaten through the floor. Then, there was the sound of flapping wings going on the attack.

D reeled. For the beating of the wings produced ultrasonic waves. Cracks shot through the walls and floor, and fragments that’d been reduced to dust fell like rain.

The attackers were pierced by an equal number of needles, each one impaled like a spit-roasted pig. Without another glance at the plummeting forms, D swung his sword at a new foe. The enemy had numbered in the hundreds, but those ranks were definitely thinning.

All of a sudden, his opponents were gone. They vanished as completely as if they’d all been caught in a massive explosion.

“They ran for it!” the hoarse voice remarked. “But what could make ’em take off so—”

D’s face was bleached by stark illumination.

The dazzling ball of light ahead of him increased in brilliance as it pushed through the shadows. It was the living fireball.

D planted his foot lightly on the floor, and then his form sailed through the air. A stark gleam of light danced toward the delicate balance maintained by the walls and columns.

The thousands of tons of rubble coming down were met with light which instantly reduced it to ash.

“Is that bastard out of his mind?” the left hand said, squeezing the words out in a tone of amazement. “That critter’s the biggest show-off in the galaxy. It’ll keep burning until the whole world’s a cinder!”

“Where’s the extradimensional portal generator?”

The stone wall in front of D collapsed. And then it turned red hot and started to melt.

“From the layout of the ruins, it’d be on the same floor.”

Was Earth fated to melt, then?

“There’s another,” the hoarse voice continued, “in the central control room.”

“Where’s that?” asked the Hunter.

“Judging from the devastation, it’d be on the floor where we found the lady.”

There was a door about five yards away. D ran.

“It’s no use,” said the hoarse voice.

Blistering heat caught D from behind. In about two seconds, he would burn up in that atomic furnace.

D’s surroundings all burst into flames.

Just then—the shadows grew deeper. The fireball’s light was dimmed in a heartbeat, making it one with the faint gloom.

D bounded, splitting the creature’s three-foot-diameter body both horizontally and vertically. The resurrected destroyer had been sent to join its compatriots.

“Looks like we won’t be needing the control room after all,” the left hand said wearily. “I know what it was that kept you going. The moonlight energy and my power. But what made that critter suddenly go out, now that—”

Not replying, D surveyed his surroundings. They were melted. Everything was.

“Let’s head back.”

“Going up ain’t gonna be easy!”

“Where’s the high-speed elevator?”

Thinking for a while, the left hand replied, “Oh, there’s one back the way we came. But no way is it still working.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Well, I can try.”

That didn’t prove necessary. The Hunter went back down the corridor, and when he came to stand in front of the doors at the far end, they opened down the middle with a metallic squeal.

“What the hell’s this?” asked the hoarse voice.

Remaining silent, D slipped through the doorway.

Less than a second after the doors closed, they opened once more. The Hunter knew he was on the floor with the idol when he saw the two women standing there.

The elevator brought the group back to the surface in less than a second’s time.

As soon as they were out, Valerie put one hand against the rubble-shrouded doorway. The doors and the rest of the elevator were swallowed up by the earth. Only the hole remained.

D had already noticed the change in Valerie. “What happened?” he asked Shyna.

Valerie was vacantly staring straight ahead. It seemed as if she’d finished doing something.

“About half an hour after you set out, she suddenly got up.”

The archeologist had stuck both hands out in front of her without saying a word, then lowered them and walked to the back of the chamber. Sensing that the woman was being manipulated by some power beyond her comprehension, the android Shyna had done nothing to stop her. Following along after Valerie, she came to where the woman had halted in front of the high-speed elevator. The doors were warped and the roof of the whole facility had caved in, so it seemed utterly impossible that it would work, but when Valerie put the palm of her right hand against it, the power lamp lit up. What’s more, the elevator worked. And then it had gone down where D was.

“The woman is infused with a power I don’t understand. However, I’m at a loss as to how that connects to her actions up until now.”

“It’s his power,” the hoarse voice groaned. “Only, when he thought you were gonna get roasted to death, he used the girl to save you. When she put out her hands at first, that’d be when the living fireball’s energy was cut off. The timing matches up perfectly. And then there’s the elevator. Don’t know what the intent was there.”

Shyna countered, “We can’t say for certain that she was being manipulated. It may be that she subconsciously sensed you two were in danger and went into action. Though it was probably limited to you being in danger.”

Needless to say, by you Shyna was referring to D. It seemed the girl simply couldn’t get along with the left hand.

“Return her to her senses,” D said.

“I’ll give it a shot. But it’s gonna be an uphill battle!” the left hand grumbled as it touched Valerie’s brow.

At that instant, the archeologist dropped to the ground like a felled tree.

“It worked!” Shyna remarked with apparent admiration.

“Not my doing. It happened a split second before I could touch her.”

“Well, what happened, then?”

“You mean you can’t tell, you damned wind-up toy? She just fainted all of a sudden.”

“Mind how you speak to me!”

“I thought I told you two to knock it off.”

The left hand let out a scream. D had squeezed it into a fist.

“A thousand pardons,” Shyna apologized.

“We can’t leave her in the camp,” the Hunter told her. “I know it’s a bother, but kindly carry her back to the castle.”

“Your word is my command,” Shyna replied with a nod. It filled her with joy to the bottom of her heart that the gorgeous young man had made a request of her.

But just then, Valerie said, “There’s no need for that,” and got up as if on cue.

“Are you okay?” the stunned Shyna inquired.

Valerie thanked her, saying, “I’m fine now. I have a vague recollection of what happened. D—you owe me again!”

“I know.”

Eyeing the ruins—and the camp—Valerie said, “Everyone will be getting up soon, and the new guy will be coming by. I’ll go back to the camp. Otherwise I won’t be able to do my job.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” said D. His remark covered both the murders in the camp and the massive destruction in the ruins.

“I’ll manage somehow,” Valerie replied with a sigh.

Just then, an enormous image of the duke’s face appeared in the air about fifty yards above them.

Shyna was about to address him first, but the duke’s face announced, “I had intended to return, but have become embroiled in some trouble. The bandit scum struck three villages simultaneously. Either their numbers are greater than I thought, or those from other villages are aiding them. Though rather formidable, I should have them mopped up soon enough. Wait for me back at the castle.”

From the duke’s voice, it was evident he was struggling with his pain. Moonlight energy exposures or not, walking about in the midday sun was a Herculean task for a Noble.

“I’m at the excavation site. Send a transport for me. And have a cyborg horse on it, too,” D said, intending to go to the duke.

“Very well,” the duke replied, and his face vanished.

“Please, allow me to accompany you.”

D shook his head at the android’s earnest request, telling her, “You’re to stay with Valerie and guard her. Don’t leave her side unless it would endanger you to do otherwise.”

D’s orders were the duke’s orders.

“Understood.”

The area around the trio darkened. A stocky, transport-type gyrodyne hovered above them. Such promptness was to be expected from the duke.

Leaving the other two there on the ground, D flew off.

“Don’t you think we’d have been better off bringing the scholar lady with us, at least?” the left hand immediately inquired. “She might still be under his influence. Left to her own devices, there’s no telling what might happen!”

“She’s got a job to do. As do I. The duke’s the one I’ve got to watch.”

“No rest for the wicked.”

II

The Pitch Black Gang’s incursions came with lightning speed. Villages were burnt to the ground, and every last inhabitant was slaughtered. They struck at dawn, and there was nothing the villagers could do. The villages had guards. The duke had sent upgraded android soldiers to all three communities. However, the enemy was more powerful still.

Particle cannons upgraded to a level unthinkable for bandit weapons tore through the soldiers’ force fields and armor alike as if they were paper, while electronic scramblers caused the androids’ high-tech guns to run amok. In one village, the soldiers actually attacked the villagers.

On receiving an urgent communique, the duke was speeding toward the first village within five minutes. The bandits offered fierce resistance, destroying half the android soldiers who accompanied him before every last one of them was slain. And these were new soldiers that’d been customized in the aircraft in keeping with the urgent communique.

As there was no longer any response from the second village, the duke hurried on to the third. The entire village was already in flames, and there was no sign of any inhabitants trying to escape. The only figures to greet the duke’s eyes were the villagers lying in puddles of blood. Not one of them still had their limbs attached.

“This is madness,” the Nobleman groaned, and just then he heard laughter from back in the flames where no one should’ve been. For whatever reason, the duke went after him without any reinforcements.

Passing through the flames, he entered the eastern forest. White smoke billowed from his cape and hair.

“So you came? Come on!” the voice called to the duke, egging him on.

In no time he came to an area surrounded by bizarre stones. They were ruins from a time that would have been ancient and unknown even to the duke. Said ruins were constructed by people called “the Wanderers,” but even now no one knew where they’d come from, where they went to, or why they chose to build such a thing in this particular location.

The twisted columns were carved with the faces and forms of legendary beasts. When the duke stepped into the ring they formed, he felt the strength drain from his body.

“You can barely stand now, can you, Duke?”

The voice issued from about ten yards ahead, where someone had appeared atop a towering boulder. It was the boss of the Pitch Black Gang—Vulcan Lura.

“I figure you know this already, but this was a holy place for ancient people. It’s a spot where an unknown energy from the planet flows up to the surface. Seems that through spells and dances, they were able to use it as they liked. To give themselves more power and make the Nobility weaker, or so I’ve heard. I said I’d destroy everything you had someday. Remember that?” Vulcan asked in a tone brimming with a ferocious self-confidence.

The duke looked up at his face in silence.

“First, I’ll take your life. Your castle and treasure will come later.”

Vulcan raised the item he carried in his right hand. A crossbow. It was one of the most hated weapons for the Nobility. The only possible reason they hadn’t erased its existence from human memory was the Nobles’ abiding love of nostalgia.

The Thrummm! of the string split the air.

The duke reeled. An iron arrow pierced his right lung.

“How’s that? See, I’m a lousy shot with this thing. I’ve never hit the bullseye with the first shot. I’ll take a couple more. What are you gonna do?” Vulcan asked threateningly, almost mad himself with the challenge.

Nocking a second arrow and taking aim, his eyes met those of the duke, who was still looking at him, prompting him to ask, “What the hell are you staring at?”

Once again the string twanged, putting an arrow through the duke’s left eye to jut from the back of his head.

Not even bothering to reach for the arrow, the duke asked him, “Why do you kill my people?” His was a quiet tone.

“Because they’re your people! We attack other places, too, but here it’s different. It’s just their bad luck to be living in your jurisdiction.”

“Who taught you how to tap the power of these ruins?”

“Last night, I went underground. And down there—I met him,” Vulcan replied, but the way he said it was strange. To an ordinary human, it would’ve sounded like there was a sense of respect. And it could be stated with all certainty that the words came from the very bottom of Vulcan’s heart.

“You learned from the great one, did you?”

“I wasn’t trying to learn anything. And he probably didn’t mean to teach me, either. But we met. I just picked up how to do it—that’s all.”

“Why did you go underground?”

“Because I’d heard something else was supposed to be hidden down there in the neighborhood of those ruins. The ultimate weapon you once used, that could destroy even you. Hell, I hear any Nobles would be turned to dust in the face of that weapon, and there isn’t a thing they could do about it!”

“That . . . I was going to destroy it. However . . . the great one stopped me.”

“Oh, why is that?”

“He found fault with me, a Noble, making use of something that would kill Nobility.”

“So, what was the point in keeping something like that around?”

“The great one told me something. The sun will set on immortals, too. And when it does, that may be of use to you once more, he said.”

“Oh. So people starting to dig up that area is supposed to mean that day’s finally rolled around?”

“You may believe what you like.”

“Doesn’t it bother you?”

“It takes strength to worry about something. And that has long since left me.”

“The Tiger King?” Vulcan murmured. He didn’t spit the words with disgust. Could it be—it saddened him?

“I’m gonna let you in on a secret. That bit about me meeting him was a lie. I never went down in the hole. It was my father that taught me how to control the power here.”

“Your father?”

“He was nothing like me, just an ordinary, sweet old dad. And look what’s become of his son! My father used to blame it on my having my granddaddy’s blood!”

A vicious gleam resided in Vulcan’s eyes.

“I suppose it’s just about that time. So long, Tiger King.”

The string twanged a third time.

There was a sound they never should’ve heard.

“Gaaah!”

It was Vulcan who groaned and staggered. And what was buried deep in the right side of his chest but the iron arrow he’d just now fired?

To the gorgeous figure who’d raced to his side, drawing his blade and batting away the deadly arrow in a single motion, the duke said, “D?”

Getting on the aircraft and racing out there, then following after the duke—there was no problem with that so far as the timing went.

“How did you know I was here?”

“The energy that clown tapped out here was easy for me to sense,” the hoarse voice replied. To Vulcan, who was writhing atop the boulder, it continued, “Where’s your unicorn? Getting a little too big for your britches. See how weak you are without your guardian angel?”

“No, I don’t see,” Vulcan said with a laugh, pressing down on his shoulder. Then his expression changed. For he’d looked into D’s eyes.

“Wait,” the duke said, grabbing D’s arm just as he was ready to pounce. “Leave him to me.”

Reaching for the iron arrow through his eye, the Nobleman pulled it out. The shattered eyeball and optic nerve came with it. The wound quickly closed, an eyeball rising from the depths of the blood-filled socket.

After removing the arrow from the right side of his chest as well, the duke stepped forward.

“I’ll wait until you’ve pulled that arrow out,” the Nobleman said. “Be quick about it.”

Clucking his tongue with disgust, Vulcan removed the arrow. He quaked from head to toe with the agony of tearing flesh, but he endured it.

Suddenly, the bandit stood as proud and tall as a guardian deity. “Die!” he shouted, hurling the arrow.

For the first time, the duke swept out with his staff.

The arrow changed direction, driving straight into the boulder Vulcan was standing on.

“What the hell?!” the hoarse voice exclaimed in surprise, its cry erased by a roar. For over a hundred tons of boulder had collapsed like so much sand.

Vulcan fell on the far side of the sand mound.

A cry of astonishment that fell shy of actual words flew from the duke’s mouth.

After the roar was over and the dust had settled, a black unicorn stood on the far side of the expanse of sand. Vulcan was on its back and had already taken the reins in hand.

The staff flew from the duke’s right hand. It impaled the unicorn through the throat and Vulcan through the chest, pinning them to the trunk of a tree behind them.

“It’s my guardian angel, that’s for sure,” Vulcan said, glaring at the duke from high in the saddle. “I underestimated you today. Next time, we’ll finish this.”

The unicorn backed up and turned sharply, then ran off into the forest.

“He’s gone,” the duke said, wiping the sweat from his brow. It was a human affectation. Nobles didn’t sweat.

Sheathing his blade, D asked, “Why did you stop me?”

“A whim.”

“I’d have cut him down. You got in my way.”

“I could’ve killed him, too. It was the unicorn that got in the way.”

“I thought as much,” said D.

“About what?”

“Go back to the castle,” D said, and he started walking away, but after a while he looked back.

The Tiger King who’d reduced a boulder to dust with a single shot was silently headed off in pursuit of the fleeing unicorn. Sunlight filtered through the trees, dappling the Nobleman from head to toe. As he went, his was the loneliest-looking back D had ever seen.

III

Work began right on time. The crane hoisted up chunks of rock, and a spiderlike robot used extendable arms to pick through the rubble. In about two hours, a number of small doors had been found beneath a mountain of earth. The electronic cutter’s laser sent blinding sparks flying as it opened a bore hole in the wall by one of the doors, and as a result of the images sent to a handheld viewer by the threadlike fiber optic camera pushed through, the party had discovered a room filled with countless artifacts.

The door had a firm lock on it, which took more than an hour to burn through even with the laser cutter. Dressed in biohazard suits, the survey party members entered the room, where the gleam from golden plates and statues made it impossible to hide their avaricious expressions. Capturing the entire room on film, they numbered each item, then photographed them again individually. But as they did their work as archeologists, they spoke to each other with their eyes.

These plates will fetch a hundred thousand dalas each, easily!

Every last thing’s made of gold. Looks like it. The ancient Nobility really did know how to transmute elements, eh?

An item apiece sound good to you?

Yeah, but freaking Valerie will never go for it.

They looked over their shoulders at the female archeologist they knew had to be watching them.

A day earlier, she’d stepped outside with five of their colleagues and hadn’t come back until that very morning. Their colleagues had all been found dead, but the others in the tents had cleaned up the scene and kept quiet about it. Because it had been clear at a glance what had happened. The only problem was that the wrong people had wound up dead.

Having returned early that morning, Valerie didn’t say anything about the incident either, and they didn’t ask, so both sides had dived headlong into a cloud of suspicion. Only one thing was clear to them. She’s been possessed.

There was something different about the air she had and the look in her eye—actually, anyone who got near her felt her giving off a vibration that threatened to make them pass out, so no one had been able to get any information out of her. Valerie didn’t say a word about the events of the night before and had gone right to work as if nothing had ever happened. But something really was different. Just being beside her, or even the thought of being around her, made them feel like the blood was draining from them, their nerves were misfiring, and their organs were failing. Sooner or later, we’re gonna end up dead—that was the feeling that’d intensified.

The mood in camp changed when a survey member checking the three-dimensional radar in the tent shouted, “Hey, we’ve got something here! There’s something way underground. A spot twelve miles down. Can’t get a good image on it, which is no great surprise, but it’s there sure enough.”

“What’s there?”

“I don’t know. But it’s something really enormous. Just from the parts it’s bouncing off, it’s a hundred fifty feet long, a hundred fifty wide—and I don’t know how tall. Figuring in for the parts that are fuzzy, and this is something serious here!”

“A new set of ruins?”

A buzz went through the group.

“I don’t know. What should we do?”

“Let’s get the camera in closer. Get it strapped onto ‘the mole,’” said a cheery voice. It was brimming with strength from his high hopes for this new discovery.

“Oh no you don’t,” Valerie said, cutting them off right there.

“What are you talking about?!”

Everyone—even those who were in other tents and couldn’t see her—glared at the woman. This was a major discovery, something in a whole different dimension from some plates and idols. They’d probably go down in history. So what did she think she was doing?!

The eyes the men trained on Valerie were already bloodshot. She met them with a look that was cold—actually, it was an utter void.

“You’re not to touch what’s down there,” she informed them in a tone as flat as a machine’s.

“Have you lost your mind? This is the find of the century!”

“We’ll all be heroes of the academic world. So will you.”

“You’re not gonna get your way on this, Valerie!”

Her colleagues weren’t on her side any more.

“You know, Pike and Jimemem got the same sort of thinking into their heads,” she said.

Her colleagues’ expressions changed.

“So, you were the one who killed them after all?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then we’ll just have to make you pay for that crime!”

Apparently “greed,” the thickest component in human blood, allowed the others to forget their fear of Valerie.

They all pressed forward a step, but then, down at their feet, a white-hot beam of light arced around, and the men had to back away from the blaze on the stone floor. Before they could look up for the source of that beam, a supple shape landed on the stone floor, taking the form of a girl in an azure dress.

“Thank you, Shayna.”

“It’s Shyna.” Aiming her index finger at the men, the android girl asked, “What shall I do?”

“Huh?” said Valerie.

“Shall I get rid of them right here and now?”

“No, don’t do that. They’re my colleagues—after a fashion.”

“Very well,” Shyna replied, lowering her finger.

The men were so relieved, they started feeling lightheaded.

Time flowed along peacefully for a while.

“Say, Valerie,” one of the men began in the sort of voice a dying man used to address his physician. “Why are you against excavating that thing? It’s down a good sixty thousand feet. Digging it up sure won’t be easy. We’d need to get heavier equipment from the Capital out here.”

“In that case, better to just let it lie there, then. It’s—”

“It’s what?”

Glared at by reproachful eyes, Valerie found herself perplexed. Still, she seemed to be searching for an answer. Her expression swiftly faded, and her eyes became a sandy void.

Shyna slowly raised her index finger. And pointed it at Valerie.

“It’s something bad.”

“What do you mean?” another man said, baring his teeth. “You supposed to know what it is or something?”

“It’s—the ultimate weapon.”

“The what?!”

Everyone bugged their eyes.

“It’s something Duke Van Doren used long, long ago to slay enemy Nobility. No one’s supposed to touch it.”

“Is this a joke? If it’s as dangerous as all that, why bury it in the ground instead of destroying it? That had to have been a hell of a lot more trouble than smashing it to bits.”

“Forget it,” Valerie said, her voice suddenly thin. “Forget all about it, and never speak of it again. Or else—”

“Or else what?”

The men were practically snarling at her. Murderous intent swirled at the bottom of that hole like the dust of antiquity. The sun was high.

It was almost noon when D and the duke returned to the castle. That was due to the duke’s making the rounds to encourage the villagers who’d survived the attacks.

“Thank you,” a certain boy said, taking the duke’s hand.

“Are you not afraid of me?” the Nobleman asked.

“No, not a bit. I see nothing to be scared of. Nothing unjust, nothing ugly, nothing detestable.”

The boy was blind.

“Come with me to my castle. I shall give you the use of your eyes before the day is out.”

“No, I’m fine the way they are now. I may not have my sight, but everyone’s kind to me.”

“Very well, but if you should ever change your mind—I’ll be waiting!”

“Thank you for the offer,” the boy said, bowing his head, and a moment later he exploded. It was a heroic sort of suicide bombing made possible by the power of spontaneous human combustion.

Inside the aircraft, the hoarse voice ridiculed the duke, saying, “They don’t love you, do they?”

The duke didn’t reply, but on returning to the castle, he invited D to his chambers.

“Join me in a drink,” he said, taking a bottle of elaborately cut crystal from a cabinet of pure gold, then filling a pair of glasses to the rim with deep red liquid. “It’s an exceptional wine I inherited from my grandfather two millennia ago. Grandfather said he saved it for me instead of drinking it himself.”

“What about your father?” D inquired. That was a miracle.

“Grandfather intended to leave his title and position as administrator, this castle and these lands, and all his rights and privileges to me. Father was furious, of course, and he plotted with my elder brother to assassinate Grandfather.”

Nothing from the Hunter.

“Somehow I learned of their plot and destroyed them both. Even now I can feel most distinctly what it was like driving the stakes through their hearts, and lopping their heads off.”

“And what became of your grandfather? That was Duke Jackinesin Van Doren, if I’m not mistaken.”

The duke downed his drink. In one go he drained the contents of a rather large glass—nearly a half quart of liquor.

“I wish I could say that even now in the northern Frontier sectors his name retains the same eternal fame as Lord Greylancer’s, but it’s not nearly in the same league. At any rate, while he may not have been the very greatest of Noblemen, Grand Duke Jackinesin was beyond a doubt a Greater Noble. I destroyed him, too.”

D’s left hand murmured, “Oh, my.”

“The reason for it I don’t recall very well. It may have involved a certain human songstress, or was it trouble over an attack satellite parked in orbit over the castle?”

“You had a younger brother as well, didn’t you?”

“He was in league with Grandfather, so they were destroyed together.”

“By your hand?”

“That’s correct. I drove my staff through my younger brother’s chest with this very hand. My cute little brother, who’d caught sprites with me in the forest so often in our youth.”

Holding his hands out, the duke spread his fingers.

“Why can’t I shake the way it felt? When I lopped off Father’s head, I felt the blade sink into his flesh. When I cut through my elder brother’s spine, so hard it felt. When I drove the stake through Grandfather’s heart, the blood he spat up on my hand was warm. The tip of the stake I drove into my little brother’s chest was stopped by one of his ribs. That feeling, as I smashed through it to pierce his heart—why will it not fade?”

The duke turned his palms toward D.

“See? Just as I said, their blood is on my hands.”

D’s eyes couldn’t detect a single stain on his palms.

“It was the height of winter when I killed Father and my elder brother. There was a raging snowstorm outside my windows. When the deed was done and Grandfather and I embraced, my hands were horribly frozen. It was as if they’d been thrust in the snow since the day I was born.”

The duke walked over to the cabinet. Taking out a fresh bottle, he set it down on the small table.

“It was summer when I destroyed Grandfather and my little brother. A terribly hot night, as I recall. And yet, when I lopped off their heads and pierced their hearts, my hands were frozen to the bone. Ever since, I’ve been ice to my very marrow.”

“Ever in winter?” said D.

“A Tiger in winter,” the hoarse voice added, the remark slipping out. “All alone—a true orphan king.”

The cork was pulled from the new bottle. A heavy aroma filled the chamber.

“I’m not feeling well today,” said the duke. “If you would be so kind as to leave me. Best that you see to what you need to do, D.”

The young man in black left.

With one gulp the duke drained the fragrant liquid he’d poured into the glass. There was more than his mouth could hold, the remainder running out and staining him from neck to chest. Viscous. And red. It was human blood.

“Leavis, Kazel, Sebastian,” the duke said, gazing at three unnatural spaces on the wall. Each would’ve perfectly accommodated a small portrait. “Leavis—I dispatched you myself. Why did I choose to support mere humans instead of siding with you?” he said. “Kazel—the great one took you away. Why didn’t I stop him? When you refused, why did I cut off your arms and legs and deliver you to the great one? Sebastian—you left after blaming me for letting Kazel go so shamelessly. I cut off your legs. And you dragged yourself out. Even now, the streaks of blood remain in these corridors. Should I have taken your arms off as well?”

The duke let out a deep breath. A pair of fangs protruded from a maw dyed crimson.

“And you, D—why do you resemble my sons so?!” the duke howled.

The sun was still high, and there was no one there to hear the voice of the Tiger King in winter.

Taking his left hand away from the door, D slowly started to walk down the corridor. For that day, he had three new incidents waiting for him.