THE DARK FOREST
THE DARK FOREST
CHAPTER 5
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I
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As the Hunter and the girl returned to the wagon, they were met by Granny’s wrath-filled visage. Despite having defeated the sand men by some means even D didn’t understand, she didn’t seem confident in herself. There would be more trouble related to Tae, it seemed.
“The water’s shot,” Granny said, pinning Tae with a reproachful gaze as she did so. “Before she ran off on us, the girl left the spigot on the tank open. We’ve shut it again, but given the number of us, what we have won’t last half the day. If we spread it thin as possible, we’d still only get three days.”
“If there were only half as many of us, it’d last six days,” Clay interjected with amusement from high in the saddle. “Care to see who’s gonna get to drink that water?”
The space between all of them was strung with invisible threads of tension.
“You’ve got a point there,” Granny said, looking as she did at Lance from the corner of her eye. “I suppose we can’t let those that aren’t pulling their own weight drink our water.”
Lance lowered his eyes. He was well aware of where he stood.
“How long would it last between four people?”
At that abrupt question, Granny stared at the young man in black with astonishment. “Well,” she replied, “barely a day and a half, I suppose.”
“Make it two.”
“I suppose we can manage that. But traveling by day should be a lot more painful for you than it is for us.”
“The night makes up for it. He can have my share.”
The old woman turned and exchanged glances with Clay. “Now, this is a surprise. I didn’t know you were one to worry about anyone else. And here I thought you had liquid darkness flowing through you instead of blood. That’s very kind of you, but me and Tae will take it instead.”
But Granny was in for yet another surprise.
Sulkily, Clay said, “I don’t want any either.”
Not only did Granny have her mouth agape, but Lance didas well.
Gazing steadily at D, Clay said, “If he ain’t drinking, there’s no way I’m gonna keep wetting my whistle. If anybody could accuse me of taking the easy way out, I’d never live it down.”
“Oh, dear me, if that’s not enough to bring a tear to my eye,” Granny said, bowing her head as if deeply touched. “I’ve lived a good long time, but I’ve never heard anything as fine as all that. Yes, indeed—you men can be mighty impressive. Good enough. I’ll give both your shares to Tae.”
It was just like the crone to make no mention of what would become of her own share of the water. But just then a third shock was delivered to Granny.
“That won’t be necessary,” the girl declared.
“How’s that?” asked Granny.
Everyone turned to the girl, who met them with a distant look in her eyes. She was staring off in the same direction she’d headed during her escape. The fact of the matter was that Tae had someone to guide her.
“What do you make of this?” the old woman said to D.
“Apparently there was no need to bring her back,” the Vampire Hunter muttered in a low voice from the back of his horse. A weary shadow hung on his gorgeous countenance. The sunlight and scorching heat of the desert were foes of the highest order for those who descended from the Nobility. Even for the greatest of dhampirs, the physical exhaustion was far more intense than it was for human beings.
Tae leapt down from the driver’s seat. Granny reached out for her with one hand, but D stopped the old woman.
“The desert’s definitely calling out to the girl,” the Hunter said. “Given how it wrecked our water supply, it could be calling us, too.”
“What do you suppose it’s up to?”
“We’ll just have to go see.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” asked the old woman.
“There’ll be danger no matter where we go.”
“Okay. I can’t very well let my merchandise run off. I’ll follow along right behind. Right behind you, that is. Otherwise, you’re liable to say none of this is any of your concern and keep right on going.”
“Would I?” D muttered, tugging on his reins.
Tae was already walking away. The footprints she left in the sand were pathetically small. As if guided by those tiny tracks, the rest of the party advanced. The moment the girl disappeared behind a massive sand dune, D turned and looked back.
“Worried about the sandstorm?” Granny asked.
Needless to say, she got no reply.
Clay passed his vigilant gaze from left to right. While he was on his guard for sand men, it should’ve come as little surprise that a mischievous grin lingered on his lips. Even matters of life and death were little more than a game to this warrior.
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The group continued for more than three hours. The sun had risen even higher, burning deep black shadows of the party into the sand.
“Say, mister,” Lance called out to D from the driver’s seat of the wagon, where he’d taken Granny’s place. Having cowed him with threats about his share of the water, the crone was now stretched out beside him with the canopy shading her face—her concern for Tae keeping her from going inside. At first, Granny had been quite worried about the girl as she headed off so purposefully, but after seeing the steadiness of Tae’s steps, the old woman complied with D’s instructions not to interfere. She refrained from calling out to the girl as she walked away, however, anxiety about protecting her merchandise kept her countenance stiff.
“What is it?”
On hearing D’s reply, Granny was more surprised than anyone. Having this Hunter actually reply when someone called out to him was like seeing the whole world turned upside down.
“How about you switch with me and come take the driver’s seat?” Lance suggested. “It’d be a lot easier on you. There’s shade from the sun and everything.”
“Don’t worry about it,” D replied.
“Yeah, but—”
“I’m used to it. Have you ever ridden a horse before?” the Hunter asked.
“A little. I could handle one if it was just walking along like that.”
“Your job is to make the wild places green.”
“I’ve lost my faith in doing that,” Lance confessed.
“Why?”
Granny had been silently listening to the pair’s conversation, but her eyes bugged out then. Anyone who knew D would’ve had exactly the same reaction. The very thought of D—the great Vampire Hunter D—wanting to know anything about anyone else boggled the mind.
“All you folks have these incredible abilities,” Lance replied. “By comparison, I’m just a plain old farmer. I can’t do anything but reclaim soil and plant things. And then, when I found myself out here in the middle of the desert, I couldn’t even save myself without help from all of you. I’m pathetic. You know, I’m twenty-five now. Do you suppose there’s still time for me to become a Hunter?”
D’s head didn’t turn, but his eyes slid to the side. “What do you think?” he said.
Finding himself at the end of D’s question, Clay clucked his tongue. “Sheesh. If it was that easy for every sodbuster and his brother to become one, we’d be up to our asses in Hunters. Guys like you should be Vegetable Hunters or Piglet Hunters,” he told Lance.
“That might not be bad,” the man replied.
“Bah,” Clay said, spitting in disgust. “You’re completely hopeless. You could die out here and I bet there ain’t a single soul who’d miss you.”
“You’re right. My mother and father were both carried off by a flood.”
Sitting there beside Lance, Granny donned an expression that seemed to say, “Heaven help us.”
“What sort of things did you plan on planting?” asked D.
“Anything. If it’ll grow with fresh air and water and sunshine, then anything at all.”
“Well, that’s what you should do.”
“Damn straight. That sort of shit suits you,” Clay said spitefully.
“It’s a job we can’t do,” D remarked, putting a sullen look on the younger Bullow’s face. “I can swing a sword, but I don’t know how to plant seeds. I can kill Nobles, but I can’t raise a single vegetable. There wouldn’t be a problem if all the Hunters were gone, but people can’t live without food.”
“Maybe in theory that’s true . . .” Lance conceded. “But a Hunter gets some appreciation when he takes care of something, right? No matter how much of the earth we’ve made green, no one has ever thanked us for it. Yeah, I sure wish I could use a sword a bit more like a dhampir.”
His envious remark was rocked from the air by an explosion of laughter.
“What’s so funny?!” asked Lance.
Holding her belly, Granny said, “How could you not laugh at that? You’re the only person I ever met who wanted to be a dhampir. I get it now. Seems farmers don’t know a whole lot about the world. You’d best stick to planting seeds for the rest of your days.”
“What’s so funny about dhampirs? That’s a pretty good thing to be, isn’t it?”
“Take a good look at our young friend here,” Granny said, staring at D with a fierce look in her eye. Her gaze seemed to harbor what could be taken for hate, which surprised Clay as well as Lance. “Absolutely perfect from head to toe,” she continued. “What more could you ask for? Any woman—any man, for that matter—can take just one look at him and get lightheaded. But he treads a path that’s painful as hell.”
Lance didn’t know what to say.
“Tell me,” the old woman said, “have you ever fished off a river-bank? Fun, isn’t it? I’m sure you’ve picked flowers and seen sunlight sparkling in the breeze, too. Everyone does those things, but he can’t. Sunlight burns his flesh like a blowtorch. If he fell into running water, he couldn’t even move his limbs properly. Touch a rose, and he’d scream and wither away. A gentle breeze? If it blew against him, it’d rip the skin and muscle from his bones. Did you say something about people appreciating dhampirs?” Granny asked. “Let me give you some facts about just what sort of rigmarole goes on when one of them comes to work for a village. For starters, while the dhampir is there, no women or children are allowed to leave their houses at all. In cases where it’s really bad, they’re all locked up in one spot and don’t come out again until business is taken care of. Any hand or foot that comes into contact with the dhampir gets scrubbed and dis-infected until the skin comes right off it, and in the case of livestock, the animals are put down on the spot. That much they could stand. But the whole time they’re in a given village, not a single person will ever look them in the face . . . and that’s hard to do.”
The words came like flames from the crone, but D listened without comment. Stunned by this bombshell, Lance and Clay both gazed at the woman’s wrinkled face in disbelief.
As if she’d just noticed them, Granny snapped back to her usual self. “Goodness me,” she said, pressing her hand to her mouth as if she’d just told a joke. “That was terribly rude of me. Let’s just pretend I didn’t say any of that. Okay, everyone? Is that all right, D? Don’t make such a stern face,” she told the Hunter. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she added, “That’s the way you always look, isn’t it? Well, at any rate, tell me you don’t hold it against me.”
The Hunter said nothing.
“Oh, come now. You can’t take the hysteric outburst of an old lady that seriously. Please. Just say this one thing for me. Tell me you don’t hold it against me.”
“It didn’t bother me,” said D.
“Don’t tell me it didn’t bother you; say you don’t hold it against me. As a special favor to an old woman.”
“I don’t hold it against you.”
“Thank you kindly,” the old woman exclaimed, breaking into a grin as she raised one hand in thanks.
Wearing a look that absolutely defied description, Lance gazed at D.
“I guess dhampirs got it pretty hard, too,” said Clay, who sounded unusually introspective.
Ahead of them, a few low mountains of sand appeared. They were perhaps twenty feet high or more, but the inclines were gentle. Tae began climbing them with a regular gait. Granny switched her wagon into low gear.
Tae and D were the first to reach the summit; next came Granny’s wagon. Then Clay galloped up last. All halted there. There was no wind to welcome them.
“I see,” Granny said, sounding deeply impressed. “I suppose that’d make anyone want to give up farming.”
About two hundred yards off, the desert underwent a remarkable transformation. No trace remained of the boundless sea of sand. Lush green filled everyone’s field of view, and it stretched off without end to either side. The scent of cool ozone tickled the nostrils of all. The towering trees seemed to reach heights of easily four hundred feet. The desert had chosen to greet the party with a massive forest.
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II
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Though they all recalled what this had to be, it was Granny that said its name. “So, this is the moving forest—it has to be a trap, right?”
“More than likely,” the Hunter replied. “But at least we should be able to find water here.”
“It’s a damn good trick. Never seen an oasis like this before,” Clay said, his eyes sparkling with admiration. But this was no mere oasis. It was a vast forest the likes of which couldn’t be found even in the heavily wooded regions of the north. The vista was more than just magical . . . it was close to miraculous.
“What do we do, eh?” the crone asked.
“Unless we want to roast here, we have no choice but to go on. We have a guide,” D said, turning his gaze to Tae, who’d stopped a few yards ahead of him.
“You have to do something for her,” Granny said. “If you don’t wake her up fast, she’ll wind up serving the desert for the rest of her life.”
“There’s nothing we can do for her at the moment. We’ll have to take the desert itself out of action. For the time being, our hands are tied.”
“Hmph!” the old woman snorted. “Here you are, a dhampir, and you’re completely useless.”
“At any rate, let’s go,” Clay said, raking the fingers of one hand through his hair. Grains of sand rained noisily to the ground. “This trip’s just about bored the hell out of me. I need me a bit of stimulation, I think.”
No one had any objections, and there was little else they could do. Tae began walking again. With nothing to stop them, the party followed along after her into the vast forest. As they entered the shade, cool air swept over every inch of them. They suddenly stopped sweating. Granny shivered.
Tae continued between the boles and their endless verdant riot, her steps free from trepidation. It was obvious she was under someone else’s control. The only sound the party heard was that of grass and dirt under hooves—absent were the songs of the birds and the chirping of the insects. Apparently, nothing lived in this forest save the trees.
“Hey, sodbuster,” Clay called out. “This is a hell of a place we find ourselves. You happen to know what kind of trees these are?”
“Pretty much.”
“Well, I feel so much better then,” the warrior said, his explosion of laughter coursing out between the trees and then disappearing. But Clay soon clammed up.
“This is a psi attack, right?” Granny asked.
“No,” D replied, never taking his eyes off Tae. “This is the real thing. But it’s definitely under the desert’s control.”
“What in the blue blazes does it want with us anyway?” Granny said irritably, and then she quickly looked up.
Lance, who’d been straining his ears, had clapped his hands together. “That sounds like . . . water!” he exclaimed.
“Seems this confounded desert might be good for something after all,” said the old woman.
“Only because it has to keep us alive,” D remarked.
“With that kind of thinking, you’re not cut out for anything but Hunting.”
D looked up. The colossal branches overlapped above them, forming a dense canopy. The reason it remained bright despite the fact that sunlight couldn’t get through was because bioluminescent fungi clung to the bark of the trees.
“There’s something out there,” Clay muttered.
“You’re right,” Granny said. “I can feel it. There are a lot of them, too. I just can’t tell where they’re coming from.”
“I’m sure we’ll know soon enough,” Clay said, putting his right hand on his harp.
After they’d gone on for five minutes, the sound of water was even more obvious to their ears. Another ten minutes passed, and suddenly a waterfall and pool appeared before them. The silvery ribbon of water dropped straight down from a height of thirty or forty feet.
“This is nice! I’m gonna have me a swim.”
But just as Clay made that carefree remark, Tae thudded to her knees ahead of them. Strength draining from her body, she collapsed on her side.
Leaping down from her vehicle, Granny raced over to the girl.
“Is she okay?” Lance asked as he jumped to the ground, too.
D and Clay alone gazed at the dark blue waters that reflected the greenery.
“Doesn’t seem to be anything here,” Clay said after a while.
Without a word, D rode his horse over to the edge of the lagoon. He didn’t so much as glance at Tae or the other two with her. His left index finger went to his mouth. When it quickly came away again, a bright red bead welled from the tip of it. Turning his finger toward the ground, he pressed his thumb against it right next to the bloody bead. A drop of scarlet fell between the waves lapping at the shore, and then vanished in the blink of an eye. Watching the placid surface for a while, D then said, “Looks like you can swim here.”
Choosing a flat spot near the water, the group set up camp. By the time Lance finished taking care of the water tank, it was evening. But that only applied to the world outside the forest—D and his companions were still surrounded by the glow of the luminescent fungi.
“That looks like the end of our water woes,” Granny said with a satisfied nod when she returned to the driver’s seat from an inspection of the tank.
Sitting by the campfire gobbling down the contents of a can of food, Clay remarked, “Sure, but the long and short of it is, we ain’t getting out of here till we put this desert down once and for all. We gotta do something fast. Where’s the thing’s heart, anyway?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be busting our humps,” Granny replied in a bitter tone as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at D, who reclined against a rock some ten or so feet away.
“What’d you do with Tae?” Clay asked as he looked all around.
“She’s in the wagon with Lance.”
“Again? You’re playing with fire there.”
“You needn’t trouble yourself about it. I’m sure he won’t let his guard down this time.”
“I’ll take the next shift from him,” said the warrior.
“Let the wolf watch the sheep? Don’t make me laugh.”
“A wolf, am I? That guy’s a hundred times more dangerous than me,” Clay shot back, his eyes creeping over to D in the shade of a rock.
“That one’s had a different upbringing from you. Got a better character, too.”
“He’s a dhampir. He’s bound to get thirsty for blood sooner or later.”
“If he does, I suppose I’ll just have to chalk it up to bad luck,” Granny replied.
“Have it your way then,” the warrior said. Clay then hit the outer wall of the wagon with his ridiculously large fist. “Hey! Come out here a minute. I gotta have a word with you.”
Both Lance and Tae stuck their heads out.
“My business is with the man of the wagon,” Clay said. “I thought we could take a little stroll and chew the fat.”
“What, with me?” Lance asked, his eyes wide.
“You got a problem with that?”
“No.”
“Then leave the dhampir to watch the women and come with me.”
“Don’t you hurt him,” Tae cried. “He was only looking after me.”
“Relax, missy. I might not look it, but in warrior circles, I’m known as something of a gentleman,” Clay said with a smirk as he tossed his jaw in Lance’s direction.
“D! Granny! Stop him!”
“Let ’em be,” Granny said with a wink. “When men get to quarreling, this is the only way to put an end to it. Now you stop for a minute and think about what it means if a couple of boys are ready to throw down over you. And once you’re done doing that, get back to your sewing.”
“D,” Tae called out, her last hope bound to his name. But then she realized that her expectation wouldn’t be met. There was no sign of the gorgeous youth in black anywhere.
“He’s probably off checking out the area,” remarked the old woman.
Now down on the ground, Tae could be heard to say, “I . . . I’ll go look for him!”
“Now, just hold on!” Granny cried at the slender back of the girl dashing off toward the rocks. The crone reached for the jar on her hip, but stopped in mid-motion. “Ah, to blazes with it!” she said to herself. “She’s at that age, after all.” And then she turned to the two men with great dissatisfaction and said, “Unless the two of you are trying to see who can be the world’s biggest idiot, you’ll knock this off right now.”
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Going to the side of the rock, Tae looked toward the forest. Between the green leaves, a figure in black could be seen in the distance.
“Wait!” she cried out, and just as she did, the black shape melted into the forest. Before she could even think about turning back, her body was moving forward. As she ran, she called out, “D!”
Stopping where D had disappeared, she looked all around. Twenty or thirty feet off to her left there was a section of open ground, and D stood in the center of the nearly circular clearing.
“D!” the girl cried out. She was about to dash over to him when a low command sharp as a blade stopped her.
“Hide.”
Frantically, the girl ducked behind a tree. D had become a statue. Though she strained her eyes, Tae could see nothing around them; perhaps only D knew what it was. At just that moment, something black bobbed up over D’s head. Looking at it from a logical standpoint, the object dropping from above with incredible speed had probably slowed its descent at the end to lessen the shock of impact, but to Tae it seemed to just pop up instead. The slight glint the girl saw was like a blow to her heart.
“D!”
The flash of silver that flew up from the ground forced the girl’s cry back down her throat. Cut in half around its middle, the dark figure thudded to the ground at D’s feet. It was a stark-naked human. However, the hands that grasped something metallic and the legs were abnormally long, reminiscent of a spider. As similar forms dropped from above one after another, Tae gasped.
D’s longsword flashed out, and those it touched fell to the ground dead. A trio of figures that’d landed out of reach of the blade took to the air. They had incredible leaping power, but that was all they had a chance to show. Without time to use the weapons they had in their hands, they were split in half by the arc of the longsword. D moved lightly. A bloody mist billowed toward him, skimming by his body before it hit the ground.
At some point, enough spider people had descended that their milling shapes blotted out the darkness. If they came at D en masse, even he wouldn’t be able to stop all of them at the same time. Perhaps realizing as much, the figures creeping across the ground crouched as one. Before they could advance, they stopped suddenly. A horrifying aura had paralyzed them all—an aura which emanated from D.
“Heading back?” Tae heard the Hunter ask in the same steely tone as always.
The spiders scurried into action. They seemed relieved. For some reason, Tae felt relieved, too.
The bodies of the spider people floated up into the air. Although Tae’s eyes couldn’t detect what supported them, they rubbed their hands and feet together as they vanished into the treetops. No doubt the reason they seemed to be moving in slow motion compared to their earlier descent was because D’s aura had seeped into their marrow.
Suddenly, Tae realized that the two of them were alone.
Turning to her, D asked, “Why did you come here?”
At a loss for words, Tae then remembered what her original moti-vation had been. “Er . . . Mr. Clay and Mr. Lance are about to . . . ” Her voice petered out. She’d just realized D didn’t have a whit of interest in that. What became of his fellow travelers was no concern of his. “How can you be so cold . . .?” she said, the words creeping from her mouth unbidden. She had to wonder what her face looked like as she stared at D. She’d tried to regain some composure, but one after another the emotions seeping from her heart became words. “You don’t care at all what happens to anyone else, do you? You’re nothing but darkness and ice to the very core. No matter what anyone else thinks of you, you can just ignore them like some little puff of wind. I’ve heard that dhampirs have human blood mixed in with the Noble, but that’s a lie. You’ve got nothing but the cold, dark blood of the Nobility flowing in your veins!” she shouted.
As Tae shouted at him, she shook. It felt like the blood was coursing through her body in reverse, and that it was going to freeze—from fear. No matter who or what they might be, anyone who crossed this youth would be cut down. Tae realized for the first time what this Vampire Hunter really was. However, another emotion had welled up with her fright, and it was on this that Tae’s consciousness became fixed. The feeling became a sob, and Tae spun around. If nothing else, she wanted to at least keep him from seeing her cry. Leaning back against a nearby bole, Tae sobbed.
“What happened in Castle Gradinia?” the Hunter asked.
The girl heard his voice, but didn’t sense him drawing any closer. “Don’t come near me,” she said. “Just go back. Leave me alone.”
“This is dangerous territory. Those things I just fought haven’t given up yet. Cry as much as you need to, then I’ll take you back with me.”
“Stupid Hunter,” Tae cried as she turned around. A powerful wall of black blocked her way. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Repeating the word over and over all the while, Tae pounded him with her fists. It felt like she was hitting solid rock. “I thought you might be okay. I was so happy, because a man like you could be a dhampir.”
“Which of the Nobles fathered the child you carry?”
Tae stopped what she was doing. She thought her blood would freeze, and that even her heart might stop. The girl tried to shut her eyes, but her eyelids wouldn’t budge at all. Words alone came to her with usual ease as she said, “What are you talking about?”
“You’re pregnant. Which of the Nobles is the father?”
Tae couldn’t feel anything anymore. “I don’t know,” she replied.
“Is it his?”
That was all he had to say for Tae to understand. Out of the darkness, eyes that were fiery red points of light drew closer.
“Is it his?” D asked once more.
“I couldn’t help it, you know,” Tae said. The girl thought she sounded like an old lady. “What could I do? Either of them could’ve killed me with just one finger. I had no choice but to do as they told me.”
“When did you realize it?”
“Back when I was still in the castle. Do you know what month it’ll be born? Ordinarily, it’s supposed to take ten months and ten days for a baby.”
“Yes, ordinarily. In the case of this child, it’ll be about six months after you noticed the first indications.”
As if to distance herself from something unseen, Tae took a step backwards. “What do you mean, ‘in the case of this child’?”
“If it’s his child, your baby will be no ordinary dhampir.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Let’s go back.”
“No. Tell me. What’ll my baby be like? It couldn’t be,” Tae mumbled. “It couldn’t be . . .” The second time she said it, she tried to invest the words with nothing but horror. But something had welled up inside her. Although she wasn’t even aware of it, Tae was now hopelessly in its power, under the sway of a sad yet mysterious delight. “Just like you . . .” she continued.
Something cold touched her cheek. Before Tae realized it was D’s left hand, her consciousness had become one with the darkness.
“An awful tale it is, but interesting still,” D’s left hand muttered as it caught the collapsing girl. “I wonder what road the girl will take? Anyway, those characters you faced just now have been keeping tabs on you ever since you were down by the water. That’s why you drew them out here, isn’t it?”
“That was a test, I imagine. For me.”
“Testing your abilities? What for?” asked the voice.
“Don’t you know?”
“Nope,” the voice said, its reply vested with laughter. Malicious laughter. “Come now. You know just as well as I do. This desert has a real nostalgic feel to it.”
D put Tae over his left shoulder.
“Just when and how did things get so crazy?” the voice continued. “I remember something a woman we met once said. She wanted to know why something so good had to end so badly.”
“Do you think this is something good?” the Hunter asked.
“I don’t know.”
D started to walk back. And the voice wasn’t heard again.
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III
.
By the time D came back with Tae over his shoulder, the fight between Clay and Lance had ended. Lance lay stretched out by the edge of the lagoon, spread-eagle. His face was swollen to nearly twice its normal size, and his nose was a bit crooked.
Detecting the Hunter as she washed out a cooling cloth, Granny raced over to him.
“She’s fine. I just put her to sleep. She’ll come around in about ten minutes,” the Hunter said. A light flip of his black shoulder put Tae’s body into the air, and an agitated Granny caught her. Taking a quick glance at Lance, D remarked, “He won, didn’t he?”
“I’m surprised you could tell,” Granny said with a grin. “That fool Clay is laid out in the bushes over yonder. The farmer gave it to him pretty good. But Clay’s not all bad, either. He fought bare-handed to the very end.”
“Get everyone into the wagon. I’ll stand watch,” D said, his eyes on the flow of the waterfall all the while.
“You mean those two yahoos, too?”
“You can have them sleep outside if you like,” D told the old woman.
“I’ll do just that. Good luck with the guard duty.”
As Granny carried Tae in both arms and walked unsteadily toward the wagon, Lance got up. His face was a mess. “Is she okay?” he asked.
“You needn’t concern yourself with her, you useless thug. The nerve of you, going off like you’re something special and getting your good-for-nothing face beat purple in a fistfight. And just so you know, I won’t hear of you asking me for the day off tomorrow,” Granny snarled.
Even after the old woman had vanished into the wagon with Tae, her ill-tempered remarks still hung in the air.
“It seems you beat him,” the Hunter commented.
Raising his head, Lance looked at D with a strange expression on his face. He couldn’t believe the young man would bother to say that to him. “Back in the old days, I was a little hellion,” he said. “Besides, you can’t beat a farmer barehanded. Hunters and warriors came to my village a lot, and they taught me some fighting moves, too.”
“Sounds like he bit off more than he could chew,” D said as he turned toward the bushes Granny had mentioned. The head of a shadowy figure was listlessly rising from them. “Was this about the girl?” D asked Lance.
“Yeah.”
“You really went at it, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t just stand there and let him beat the hell out of me.”
“Well, that may be a bit of welcome news,” said D.
“For who?”
“There’re not a lot of men who’d get their face blown up to twice its normal size for someone else. I bet the girl’s never met anyone like that before. I’ll tell her what happened.”
“Don’t bother. That’s not what I had in mind,” Lance said, sighing.
An arm sheathed in black was offered to the young farmer, making his eyes go wide. Grabbing it by the wrist, Lance pulled himself upright.
“So there you are, you lousy sodbuster!” Clay roared, his massive body being carried closer by an uncertain gait. When his face came into the light, it was nearly twice as swollen as Lance’s. “What do you say to a rematch? I ain’t taking no for an answer.”
“Maybe later,” Lance said, smiling for some reason.
“Shut your hole!” Clay bellowed, and he was about to grab hold of the smaller man when an arm in black restrained him. “What do you think you’re doing?! Let go of me!” he shouted at the Hunter.
“Let him go, D,” Lance said as he rubbed the back of his neck to loosen it up. “I thought I’d settled this once and for all, but if he hasn’t given up yet, there’s not much else I can do. Okay,” he told Clay, “now swear to me again that if I win, you’ll stay the hell away from the girl.”
“No problem, and Vampire Hunter D is my witness.”
The figure in black stepped away from them.
Shouting something, Clay took a swing at Lance. The warrior was stumbling over his own feet.
After ducking the blow, once Lance heard it whistle through the air above him, he rammed himself headfirst into Clay’s stomach.
Ouf! With a howl more akin to an explosion, the warrior’s massive form flew into the air with ease, and Clay landed on his back in the same spot by the water where Lance had been lying. The ground rumbled.
Leaping into the air, Lance slammed his elbow down on his opponent’s solar plexus with the full weight of his body. Something resembling water sprayed from Clay’s mouth; his body shuddered, and the battle was over.
“There won’t be any more rematches.”
Lance nodded at D’s remark. Clay didn’t move a muscle.
Getting to his feet, Lance looked down at his vanquished foe. In a matter of seconds, the same grin he’d worn moments earlier covered his face again. For although Clay’s fierce countenance was contorted with pain, it was also etched with an undeniable smile.
.
Two hours passed.
Even the activities of the fungi might’ve been governed by biorhythms, for a deep blue filled the darkness and enveloped the party by the water’s edge.
D set his saddle down by the campfire and rested his head on it as he reclined there. The men with the badly swollen faces lay covered by blankets a few yards away. Had the moon been out that night, it was so silent that they would’ve heard its beams raining down.
D mentioned the incident with the spider people to no one. His eyes were shut. The Hunter might have considered himself to be the only one they were after, or perhaps he was confident that if they attacked him there he could carve his way through them. Whatever the case, as his gorgeous form lay at rest, there was no hint of tension about him.
The wagon’s door opened without a sound and Granny peered out from the driver’s seat. She was about to say something to D down on the ground below when a rusty voice beat her to the punch.
“Get some sleep.” Most likely, the Hunter had caught some otherwise imperceptible creak from the door.
“Well, I can’t,” Granny said, wearily muttering encouragement to herself as she hobbled down from the wagon and headed over to D rather nonchalantly. The jar on her hip swayed back and forth. Though she gave the impression of being fiercer and more determined than the average old lady, seeing the way she walked just then with her wrinkled cheeks and bleary eyes was like catching a glimpse of some gorgeous dancing girl’s true face laid bare when the makeup comes off back in her dressing room. Surely there were nights when the crone felt an acute longing to open that fabric store.
Circling around behind D’s back, she took a seat. “Have some?” she asked, thrusting a jug of liquor at his refined countenance. It was the cheap sort of fruit spirits that could be found in great quantities at the general store in any post town.
“No.”
Curt as D’s reply was, it was odd that it didn’t seem at all intended to offend the listener.
“Oh, that’s right. I must’ve mistaken you for someone else,” Granny said. Pulling out the cork, she took a swig. Three times her throat bobbed, and after pulling the jug away, the crone wiped her lips with the back of her hand. A long sigh escaped her. “About some of the things that were said to you today—don’t take it personally. And I don’t just mean what I said. From what I hear, Tae had some pretty harsh things to say too, right? Well, I’d like to make up for that. Kindly accept my apologies.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Honestly?” Granny said, breaking into a broad grin like a little kid. “Ah, I’m glad to hear you say that. I didn’t think you were a petty man or anything, but it’s still a relief. We’ve got a long ways to go yet. And we really are counting on you.”
“You should get some sleep.”
“Stop trying to get rid of me,” the old woman replied. Wrapping both hands around her knees, Granny watched the endless ripples on the water’s surface. “You know, don’t you?” she said after some time passed. “You know about the girl—that she’s pregnant. And that it’s probably a Noble’s baby. If someone doesn’t fix it, she’ll be having that kid sooner or later.”
Saying nothing, D continued to lie there with his eyes closed. As to what sort of thoughts passed through his mind, no one could say. “What’ll you do?” D then asked, muttering the question.
“What’s this? You’re actually interested in someone else’s fate? I’ll take her home, of course. That’s my job, after all.”
“In that case, you didn’t need to bring it up at all.”
“Well, there are times I just feel like doing or saying something funny. I bet you get the urge sometimes to just lie out in the sun and get a tan.”
“She’s not going to be very welcome, even back at her own home,” D said, returning to the topic of Tae. “Especially not if she’s going to have a Noble’s baby. And she won’t be able to hide that. It doesn’t matter how strong anyone says she is; strength probably won’t be enough to resolve this problem.”
“You trying to tell me not to take her back?” Granny said in a tone charged with defiance. “Because that’s the one thing I simply can’t do. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—this is my job. No matter what happens later, everyone’s overjoyed at first, and there’s coin in it for me. What comes next—well, forget it. I’d just be repeating myself. You’ve already heard my spiel on the matter, and hearing it again ain’t gonna make it any more interesting.”
“How’s her sewing?”
“She seems to have a real knack for it. She was rattling away at it earlier, too. Not that I have a clue what she’s making,” the old woman said. “So, what do you suppose will happen with her kid? It’ll be a dhampir, won’t it?”
“If it’s a Noble’s child.”
“I was wondering if maybe you couldn’t look after it . . . you being a fellow dhampir and all. You could teach it all it needs to know from the very start. I mean, you’re Vampire Hunter D, after all. It’s not like you couldn’t afford to feed a girl and her baby. I’m sure you of all people could find some way of making a living besides being a Hunter, couldn’t you?”
“Is that what you think?” D asked.
“Yes, indeed.”
“Then why am I still a Hunter?”
Granny nodded gravely, as if she’d been waiting for him to say that. “Because you’re too awkward. Your pride won’t allow you to mix with normal people and live the slow life. That Noble blood is tricky stuff. No matter how you might bend your principles or how much you might try to accommodate the world, you couldn’t allow yourself to do that. I suppose it’d take, say, a hundred years before you’d settle into it.”
“Why a hundred years?”
“What I mean to say is, if they tried at it hard enough for that long, even a Noble could wind up being agreeable to their situation. Of course, I’m not sure there’d be any guarantees where you’re concerned.”
“Why do you think that?”
Granny gazed at D intently. “You’re out looking for something.” She said this casually enough, but the words were tough as steel. “People are always making a big deal about ‘Hunters this’ and ‘Hunters that,’ but if you ask me, they’re all just a bunch of muscle-bound social misfits. There’s only one thing any of ’em care about—being good at killing. When it comes to the worst of the lot, the killing is the whole point of it. Some have wound up plying their skills on upstanding folks; others have been killed by fellow Hunters. Take a peek into their dreams sometime. They’re all either pitch black or blood red. And out of the lot of them, there’s only one word you’ll never find in their heads. I’m sure you know what that is?”
“I don’t know. What?”
“‘Tomorrow,’” Granny said with quiet confidence. “But you have it in you. Heck, it doesn’t even matter whether you think you do or not. And it doesn’t even have to be the word tomorrow . . . it could be dream or hope or rainbow . . . or even love. Don’t laugh. I tell you, there’s a huge difference between those who’re looking for something, and those who’ve never had it. But in your case, I get the feeling it’s something altogether different.”
“What do you think it is?” D asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t even imagine what it’d be. But you’re searching for something, nonetheless. And I bet you could tell Tae’s baby all about it someday, too.”
The Hunter said nothing.
“You should do that. Shoot, once I’ve brought her home, it’s no skin off my nose. Run off with her if you like. There’s a girl who’d be tough enough for a life of one road trip after another. And if she wanted to settle down when the kid got older, you could go back out on the road alone. After you’ve seen to it that the little one has a proper ‘education,’ of course.”
“Sorry to say it, but there’s someone else far better for the job.”
“Huh?” Granny said, knitting her brow as she turned around. Under a lumpy pile of blankets some way off, Lance was staring at them. “Spare me. You think a plain old farmer’s cut out to handle a dhampir? I can just imagine him trying to run away in the dead of night if it went after him. Even a dhampir’s real parents can’t hold back its Noble blood.”
While it wasn’t immediately clear if he’d caught the crone’s remarks of bald-faced contempt, Lance got out of his blankets and lethargically made his way over to the campfire. “I heard your conversation,” he said as he gazed at the flames.
“Well, you shouldn’t have,” Granny said angrily. “D, you knew he was awake and you still let him listen in, didn’t you?”
Of course, D kept his silence.
“I don’t know about all that stuff,” Lance said in a weary tone. “But I’ve got a feeling I’m up to it.”
“Up to what?” Granny asked, her face growing pale.
“Well, you know—making a life with the girl,” Lance replied, flushing madly.
“Sonny, you must still be talking in your sleep. You, a lousy little farmer of all things.”
“What does the girl’s family do?” D asked.
“They’re farmers,” Granny said, somewhat crestfallen.
“Then it doesn’t sound like an odd match at all.”
“That’s right,” Lance agreed. “Leave the baby to me. I’ll help the kid find the life that suits him best.”
“The world’s not as simple as all that,” Granny declared. “For the most part, dhampir men and women are gorgeous. As babies or even small children, they’re goddamn cherubs. Heck, there’s plenty of folks who’ll try to get close to someone they know is a dhampir. But sooner or later, when that Noble blood shows itself the ones who buttered them up with all that sweet talk are the first ones to take to their heels. And what the blazes are those they leave behind supposed to do, eh? You’ll do the same. I’m sure of it. So, stop trying to be so glib.”
“That’s telling him, you old hag!” another voice added nastily.
Lance and Granny turned to see Clay coming toward them.
With his hatred-filled eyes fixed on Lance, he added, “She’s a lot more than a lousy sodbuster like you deserves. Before this trip’s over, you’ll be dead anyway. Then anybody who wants to can woo her.”
“And you think you can win her heart?” Granny asked, glaring at Clay with her hard gaze until he looked away. “You might want to consult a mirror,” she sneered. Granny’s eyes then shifted to Clay’s hip. “Say, does that weapon of yours have any use besides killing?” she asked.
“You’re joking, right?” the warrior snarled back like a beast. His right hand skimmed by his hip, and an elegant note resounded. Apparently, the weapon could also be used precisely as its form suggested. “I got this beauty after killing a Noble,” Clay told them. “Found it in his concert hall. Just look at her, would you? The strings are silver and the body’s gold. And she plays music like you never heard before—music that’s pure heaven.”
“Then play something.”
“Excuse me?!”
“Don’t give us that sour puss,” the crone said. “You’ve gone and got our attention. Now, why don’t you play us a tune that’ll tug on our heartstrings? If you can’t manage that, a lullaby will do.”
Clay snorted angrily. “Right. You’re flat out of luck. I don’t use it for useless crap like that. This little treasure keeps me alive. You think I’d play it for a bunch of scum like you?”
“Sure you wouldn’t play it for her?” D said.
Everyone turned toward the wagon then, even Clay. A tiny figure was crouched in the driver’s seat. The eyes that looked at her held so many various emotions that Tae had to divert her own gaze from them.
“You’d like to hear a tune, wouldn’t you?”
The girl’s pale face bobbed sharply in reply to Granny’s question.
“Well?” D asked. Astonishingly enough, it almost sounded like he was ribbing the warrior.
Clay remained hesitant.
“Oh, is that how it goes? The Frontier’s top warrior turns down a young lady’s request? You can kill folks just fine, but can’t even make one girl happy—I guess men aren’t worth spit these days.”
“You’ll eat them words!” Clay said in response to Granny’s insults. He began grinding his teeth together as his whole body trembled with rage. It wouldn’t have been strange if he’d unleashed an explosion of ultrasonic waves just then. “It’s really more than your grubby little ears deserve, but I’ll play you one of my best songs. Just don’t get so swept up by my sweet voice you go and jump in the lagoon or anything.”
Granny and Lance cried out with surprise and delight and clapped their hands.
Clay’s rough fingers took to the strings. It was as if the white darkness gave birth to the sounds. Granny’s smirk disappeared.
The song was about a man and a woman who lived on the Frontier. The man traveled, and the woman chased along after him. And then both the man and the woman grew tired and settled down into their own lives without ever meeting each other. Long, peaceful days stretched by, and then one day the woman suddenly recalled her old love and gave up everything to follow after him.
High and low, Clay’s voice flowed along the ground and danced across the sky in a way that made Granny bug her eyes. His voice was so rich, his notes so precise. The warrior had undergone a remarkable transformation into a troubadour.
Having laid the weary heroine to rest in the cold earth, Clay intoned a few words of prayer, and then halted his fingers on the harp.
The very first applause came from the farthest away. As the men gazed silently at the pale and dainty hands the girl was clapping together, they realized she was weeping.
“Damn, you’re good!” Granny said in a voice perilously close to tears.
“Damn straight I am, hag! See, sodbuster?” Clay said, glaring around at the others with loathing before puffing his powerful chest out in Tae’s direction. “How’s that? Pretty great, wasn’t it? Unlike a certain Hunter, I got more than just looks going for me. Yeah, I reckon anybody with an eye for men could tell in a flash who’s the best around here. How about it, missy? Forget about going back home—oh, that’s right! As long as the sodbuster’s alive, I ain’t supposed to woo you. Well, don’t take it too hard.”
And having said everything he wanted to say, the younger Bullow went right back to his blanket, pulled it up over his head, and went to sleep.
Turning to each other, Granny and Lance grinned wryly. Even Tae was smiling. Some people could prove useful in the most unexpected ways.
For a long time, no one moved or said anything.
“Why don’t you get some sleep?” D finally suggested.
“I believe I will,” Granny said as she got up. “You get some shut-eye, too,” she told Lance. Her tone was amazingly amicable.
Lance didn’t move. Though he kept staring at her, Granny said nothing more to him and climbed up to the driver’s seat.
“Head inside now,” the old woman told Tae.
The girl didn’t move.
Granny’s brow furrowed. Fine blue veins bulged to the surface. The crone then let out an exasperated sigh. Shooting Lance a look he wouldn’t soon forget, she hunched her back and disappeared into the wagon.
Both hands folded neatly in her lap, Tae sat staring straight ahead. Seating himself by the fire, Lance wrapped both hands around his knees as he gazed straight ahead, too. Tae watching Lance. Lance watching Tae. The pile of logs must’ve collapsed, because the flames danced wildly and released a flurry of sparks.
As Lance closed one of his hands around the other, they were both trembling a bit. “Um, I . . .” he mumbled. He sounded like someone else entirely. What would come next?
The flames blazed, and Tae patiently gazed at the emaciated young man.
“Stupid bastard . . .” a jet-black voice grumbled from under the blankets.
Clay’s hand crept to his harp, and then stopped suddenly. Something slim and white had zipped between his hand and the instrument, pinning his blanket to the ground. Even without seeing the finely honed tip, he knew it was a wooden needle. Rattled to his very bones by anger and horror, Clay then heard the steely voice of the one who’d hurled it.
“Human or dhampir, no one knows what’s going to happen.”
Lance turned to D in astonishment. In the Hunter’s words he’d heard the very thing he’d been struggling to say. I want to spend my life with you. An almost heartbreaking decisiveness surfaced on his face, and he headed toward the wagon.
D’s eyes thrust open and caught a glimpse of ripples on the water’s surface. Black as the darkness, the Hunter jumped up. Something whizzed loudly through the air, and whatever it was then spattered black blood all around him.
A cry of pain arose nearby.
When D looked back, Lance was pinned on the ground with what looked like a black spear protruding from his chest. The body of it stretched back to the lagoon, painting a gentle yet disturbing parabola that sank back into the water at one end. There was no mistaking what it was—a tentacle tipped with steel.