CHAPTER 4

—

I

—

Soon after entering the village, it became clear that a new day had begun. Inviting smoke rose from chimneys of brick and stone, and there were people out scrubbing dinghies in their cramped yards. Small fish flopped in the streets, and beside every house hung sharp harpoons and nets of flexible steel. The air smelled of salty breezes and fish. Compared to other fishing villages, the slope from the back of the mountains down to the beach was much gentler, and there was quite a bit of level land. The white building that could be spied halfway up the slope appeared to be a weather station, and at the very top of its dome-shaped stone roof a piece of surveying apparatus that looked like an antenna shook in the wind.

Apparently recognizing the truck’s owner at a glance, women bundled in fur coats and mufflers and gloves while they repaired nets or poured pots of boiling water on the frozen streets smiled with familiarity toward the vehicle, but as soon as they noticed D they slipped into a daze. In what must’ve been an attempt to reduce the risks during freezing weather, rubber mats dotted the sloping streets and stone steps. Everyone’s breath was white.

Was summer really coming?

Going through the center of town, the group came to a road that overlooked the beach. A short while earlier, Ban’gyoh had gotten out of the truck.

“I am in your debt. May God’s blessing be on you!” he’d said, repeating his thanks over and over as he departed.

On a stretch of sand that must’ve been a mile wide, power boats large and small lay on their sides like strange denizens of the sea’s depths. The ships that challenged the freezing seas with anywhere from five to fifty fishermen aboard had high-powered engines one would never expect from their deceptively slow appearance, and they could glide between the icy chunks with the grace of a skater. In a manner of speaking, these ships were the fishing village’s advance guard. Apparently under repair, a number of the vessels were suspended by rigging of wood and steel. Waves rolled in from the gray sea their prows still faced, and the wind carried the music of those jostling chunks of ice.

Suddenly, D shifted his gaze inland.

Following his eyes, Su-In found the elevated stage that could be glimpsed through the grove of evergreens. “That’s the band tower for the summer festival,” she said. “They’ll be having it back there pretty soon. There’ll be dancing and concerts and games—all kinds of stuff.”

“Summer?” said D.

“Yeah,” Su-In said with a nod, a faraway look in her eyes. “Even way up north in a dead little village like ours, summer still comes around, you know. And when it does, we have our celebration.” A hint of expectation skimmed across the face of the same woman who’d earlier muttered her own doubts about whether summer was coming. “It’ll be here in just three days. Out on the Frontier, summer might come to different places at different times, but ours will be here in three days.”

Having followed the shore road for half its length before turning right, Su-In’s truck then ran alongside a broad drainage ditch for five minutes before it halted. The west side of the stone house was enveloped in steam—this was because the water running down the side of the street was actually boiling hot. No doubt it was the result of a water-heating system somewhere.

A gray-haired old man who must’ve heard the truck’s engine came out of the front door dragging one leg behind him as Su-In pulled onto the property.

“Allow me to introduce you. This is my grandfather, Han. Grampa Han, this is Mr. ‘D.’ He’s been kind enough to come all this way with a message from Wu-Lin.”

The old man had a harsh glint in his eye as he looked D over, but he soon broke into a smile. “Welcome! Any friend of my granddaughter’s is a friend of mine. Come on, now. Step right inside and don’t be shy!”

Once they were in the living room, the chill had dissipated. The hot water running down the side of the street also circulated through the stone walls and floors to heat them, and the insulating properties of the rocks themselves now served to hold the warmth very well. Su-In and the old man seemed mesmerized by the bead D placed on the table with his left hand. After hot coffee was set out and Grampa Han had been informed of Wu-Lin’s demise by Su-In, the old man didn’t say anything for some time.

“And she died because of that bead?” Su-In finally ventured.

“Most likely.”

“Who killed her?”

“The same kingpin back in town that hired the man we met on the ship and his colleagues. Gilligan was his name.”

“And what’s he doing now?”

“He’s dead.”

Su-In stared at D. “You paid him back for my sister, didn’t you?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

“Why? Now, I don’t know what line of work you’re in, but by the look of you I take it you’re a warrior or a Hunter. Did my sister hire you then?”

“Gilligan wasn’t a Noble.”

Su-In’s eyes stretched wide with surprise. “So, you’re a Vampire Hunter . . . Come to mention it, I’d heard there was one out on the Frontier so good-looking it was scary, and that he had an odd name . . .”

“I’ll tell you all I know,” D said, his coolness slicing through Su-In’s astonishment.

 

When the young man finished giving them the facts, Su-In had her face hidden in her hands. Although no sob escaped her, her shoulders were quaking. Tears fell without end from Grampa Han’s eyes, soaking his lap.

“So—I was just wondering if my sister had a peaceful death,” Su-In asked, her voice somewhat muffled.

“Yes.”

“But she still had enough time to ask you to take care of the bead?”

“Would you have preferred she’d died without saying anything?” asked the Hunter.

“That’s not—”

“Of course she wouldn’t have wanted that,” the old man said.

“We’re not going to get her body back, are we?” said Su-In.

“No, but she still looked so lovely.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m done here. Thanks for the coffee,” D said as he got to his feet.

“Wait,” Su-In called out to stop him. “Are you just going to leave?”

“My business here is finished.”

“Terrifying people are headed toward our village to get this bead. Worse yet, they’re probably already here. Please—you’ve got to fight them.”

“Give them the bead. No matter what its value may be, it’s not worth more than your life.”

“I just can’t do that. Not after my sister gave it to you at the cost of her own life!”

“I only deal with Nobility.”

If D had seriously made the remark in an attempt to leave, you could say it was a grave error. Su-In’s eyes sparkled. Maybe they were saying that she’d successfully trapped him, or perhaps they were just filled with the purest hope.

“There’s Nobility in this village, too,” she said, staring fixedly at D’s face.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s a big skeleton in the village’s closet, and they don’t exactly let it get out. Just knowing there was Nobility here would be enough to keep folks from buying our fish.”

In the Northern Frontier, hatred of the Nobility was especially strong. In extreme cases, it wasn’t unheard of for an entire town to pick up and move when someone simply discovered a few of the Nobility’s ruins there. And that was nothing compared to what they’d do if the accursed creatures were actually prowling around again—

“What kind of Nobility?” the Hunter asked.

“I’ll tell you that in a minute. Wait. I want to put the bead away first.”

Su-In got up and went into one of the back rooms, returning a short while later.

“Where did you stash it?” Grampa Han asked as he wiped away his tears.

“In the usual box,” Su-In replied casually.

Just then, there was an urgent knock at the door.

“Wonder who that could be at this hour?” Getting to her feet again, Su-In walked over to the intercom beside the door. Coughing once, she asked, “Who is it?”

“It’s me—Dwight!” a man said, his rough voice carrying a strange tension. “I raced right on over here just as soon as I heard you were back. Just a little while ago, your grandfather’s body washed up in ‘the jaws’ by the cape.”

“Don’t talk nonsense—” Su-In shot back, but even as she said these words something struck her and she turned toward her grandfather.

Grampa Han was on his feet. He was probably going to make a break for it.

But that wasn’t the way it went. Right in front of him, a disturbing streak of light raced from left to right. As he looked at D and the blade he held, the old man’s eyes swam with hatred and fear.

“That’s quite a disguise,” said D. “Are you one of the five Gilligan sent?”

“Oh, you know about us, do you?” the old man replied, his fearful tone suddenly becoming more vibrant and youthful. “I’m known as ‘the Indiscernible Twin.’ I’ve had a bad feeling ever since I found out you were the Vampire Hunter D. Tell me something—when did you know?”

“When you asked where she’d put the bead.”

Grampa Han—or rather, Twin—scratched at his gray beard and said, “Sheesh, that was careless of me. But I was so sure of my disguise.”

“So it was you that killed her grandfather then?”

“It sure was. Wouldn’t do to have two of us running around, would it? But after all the trouble I went to disguising myself as her grandfather so I could get all kinds of info out of her before I did her in, in comes this major hurdle.”

Rooted by the vile and stunning confession she’d just heard, Su-In reflexively undid the bolt when she heard another frantic knock on the door.

The young man who flew in had the imposing build of a grizzly bear. Even through his heavy leather coat and trousers the contours of his muscles stood out starkly. A pair of foot-long wooden clubs connected by a leather strap were stuck through his belt. “Morning,” he grunted to Su-In as he raised a hand in greeting, but after he caught a glimpse of the situation in the living room over the woman’s shoulder, his eyes bulged in their sockets. “What in the world?! But you’re—”

“He’s an impostor!”

“What?! An impostor?!”

“I thought she told you we were busy in here,” Twin said with a wink of his right eye to Dwight, and then he reached out in a smooth motion and grabbed hold of D’s sword with one hand.

Although the blade didn’t look like it moved at all, it was D’s skill alone that left all five of the old man’s fingers scattered across the floor.

“Damn, that hurt!” the old man said with a grimace. “But it looks like that’s what it’s going to take to get me out of here,” he added as he leapt back. He was still in midair when something black spouted from his right shoulder. A second later, the old man’s body made an impossible bound for the window and disappeared, leaving only the sound of breaking glass behind.

Shouting, “Hold it, you bastard!” Dwight jumped right out after him.

Not entirely sure what’d just happened in the wake of these incredible events, the dazed Su-In looked at D and noticed his eyes were intently scrutinizing his own blade. “D . . .” she said.

Not responding, D brushed the blade of his sword with his left hand.

His masterful swordplay should’ve left the foe who called himself Twin split in half through the clavicle and scapula. But halfway through, it had made no more progress.

There was a strange feeling in his fingertips. About a foot and a half from the tip, something semi-translucent, like a thin film, adhered to his blade. Peeling it off, he found that it was indeed a thin, gelatinous membrane. Dripping with viscous goo, layer upon layer of this membrane had wrapped around the Hunter’s blade, leaving it too dull to cut at all. There was no need for him to wonder where his foe might’ve kept such a substance. Undoubtedly it was part of Twin’s very own skin.

As D sheathed his sword without saying a word, Dwight returned.

“He’s long gone. Jumped into the flume by the street. You have any idea how hot that water gets? It’s gotta be boiling—that bastard dove right in like it was nothing. Goddamn freak!” With the same anger that his voice had carried now in his eyes, the young man stared at D. “And who the hell’s this?”

“I was going to introduce him to you later—this is Mr. D. He ran into Wu-Lin down in Cronenberg and was good enough to bring us a message from her. He’s a warrior.”

At Su-In’s reply, the young man grew visibly angry. “Great! Only the worst kind of musclebound drifter. All of a sudden we’ve got all kinds of freaks pouring into town. Well, they’re not exactly invited to the summer festival.”

“Now, don’t say things like that. He’s here because I asked him to come.”

At Su-In’s firm tone, Dwight’s mouth became a tight-lipped frown and he held his tongue. It wasn’t that Su-In had got the better of him—there seemed to be some other special reason. “Yeah, well, what the hell’s going on here?” he asked. “I mean, what are you gonna do? About your grandfather’s body, that is.”

“I’ll be right over to pick him up. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to leave now.”

Once Dwight had left with a sullen look on his face, Su-In stood there with a pitiful expression.

“I—I’m all alone now,” the girl mumbled, and as she took a step, she staggered. A fit of dizziness had swept over her. Any ordinary man or woman would’ve had the soul torn out of them by the series of tragedies and strange events she’d been through. But her shoulders were supported by cold, strong hands.

“You’d better take the bead with you,” D said softly. “All of them must know where your house is.”

Su-In looked back at D like a floundering student who’d just been given encouragement by a focused instructor. Her deep brown eyes instantly filled with tears—and hope. “Will you stay here with me?” she asked.

“Are you going to hire me?”

“Sure,” Su-In replied with a forceful nod. She wasn’t crying anymore.

“My compensation will be the bead.”

Su-In’s expression reflected surprise for a moment, but she nodded her assent to his condition. “I’ll leave everything to you, then. If I give it to you, I’ll be safe. Thank you.”

Returning to the room in the back of the house, Su-In got the bead and handed it to D.

The two of them went outside.

The glow of dawn had become the heavy light of morning.

—

II

—

Desolate in some indefinable way, the strangely spacious chamber nevertheless retained touches here and there of an otherworldly grandeur. Although outside the vitality of morning had become a light that filled the world, a single shadowy figure came into this place where murkiness yet lingered.

“I smell blood,” said a female voice from somewhere in the darkness.

A few hazy figures could be seen there if you stared hard enough, and though you could definitely make out a fair bit of the intricate carving on the chairs and sofas and tables, the occupants remained mere silhouettes. However, it was the same feminine voice that’d echoed from one of the doorways back in Gilligan’s outbuilding.

“You were beaten, weren’t you? Not as tough as you made yourself out to be,” someone sneered in a grave tone from a heavily draped window.

“I can’t say that I blame you. I’m in no position to laugh, you know,” said a third voice. It was clearly that of “Shin the Manipulator.”

At this point the fourth and final speaker would’ve been expected to say something, but oddly enough, only the same low, beastly growl heard back at Gilligan’s suddenly rolled from one side of the chamber.

“I blew it,” Twin said, not sounding the least bit daunted as he seated himself on the floor in the middle of all the other speakers. Not surprisingly, only the vaguest outlines of his face and body could be seen—no doubt these were the conditions under which they’d all agreed to meet. “I disguised myself as the old man and went there in the hopes of getting the stone and all its secrets from the girl. I’d gotten the geezer to tell me his granddaughter had gone down to Hanbury to buy the latest kind of whetstone, so I was just sitting around biding my time when she came back with a house guest from hell. He was—”

“D,” Shin interrupted in a tone that sent chills down their spines.

“I was pretty sure that’s who it was. My skin veil managed to slow his blade, but I’m still a mess. Another fraction of an inch and he’d have cleaved me to the bone. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it—just say thanks and bye-bye. And on top of everything else, I wound up getting soaked in boiling hot water. The world’s not a complete loss yet if there’re still scary characters like him around . . .”

“Was it someone else that took out Shin?”

“I wasn’t taken out. I just lost an arm.”

“Shin, when did you get back?” asked Twin. “I was sure you must’ve died along the way or something. You’ve got a lot of nerve slinking back here and joining up with the rest of us.”

“Don’t say that,” said the deep voice that interceded. “As luck would have it, I happened to see him on my way here and I asked him to come along. At any rate, he’s agreed to join forces with all the rest of us so we can bring the bead back together.”

“Speaking of that,” the woman’s voice interrupted, “we left it to Twin to get the thing because we thought there was just an old man and a girl guarding it and it’d be foolish for all of us to be fighting each other to get to it first. But now it appears we should start looking out for ourselves again. Whoever takes out her bodyguard should be first in line for it, I say.”

“I don’t think so,” Shin said in a low voice.

“That’s because he put the fear into you,” the woman sneered.

But someone else came to his aid, saying, “I don’t think so, either.” He meant that he agreed with Shin—it was Twin. “It might rub you folks the wrong way, but it’d be a lot safer if we all took him on at once. Underestimate him and you’ll only meet a quick death.”

“I’ll try to ignore your lack of experience, but kindly refrain from making such broad pronouncements,” the woman said, her voice like a thorn—a thorn dripping with poison. “At any rate, our little pact of unity is at an end. I’m going to do as I please,” she added.

“Me, too,” the owner of the deep voice concurred. He then asked, “What’ll you do, Gyohki?”

There was no immediate reply, but after a while a strangely lisping and panting answer came. “I’ll claim it all. His life, the bead—everything.”

“Then it’s decided,” said the man—who could only be Egbert.

“How interesting! Don’t come complaining to us if one of the others bumps you off, Twin and Shin.” Laughing, the woman added, “That leaves just the boy and the old man. Perhaps you can sit around and discuss your retirement. But let me make it perfectly clear that if either of you even thinks of pulling something before we’re done—”

“I know, I know,” Shin said. “We won’t try anything until you’ve taken him out of the picture. That is, if you can take him out.”

“This should be rich!” said Twin, his subsequent laughter rocking the room. “Okay, give it your best shot. Once the rest of you are done, me and Shin will move in. At least try to leave a few marks on him, will you?”

“Well, shall we go? We can leave word back here.”

And with that solemn voice as a cue, every last sound ceased. It was evident that all five of the villains had flown from their meeting place without letting any of their compatriots ever see them, and each embraced their own dangerous thoughts.

 

Although the dull sunlight dribbled through the clouds in the late afternoon to illuminate every last corner of the village, the air and wind remained sharp enough to cut into the flesh. But that same chill air rang high and low with a jubilant pounding and the sound of hammers making preparations for the summer festival, which was set to begin in a few short days.

D and Su-In heard the ruckus from the top of the truck as they headed toward the shops in town. Because the engine was acting up, the truck was being pulled by a pair of cyborg horses. It was hard to imagine that summer would be there soon—despite the fact that it was already in full swing in many other parts of the Frontier. Nevertheless, the sounds of the work seemed to stir up that summertime feel.

Su-In sat beside D as he held the reins, and her face was as dark and gray as the sea. At the moment, she was headed out to buy the things she’d need for her grandfather’s funeral and to file the paperwork for his death certificate. The cause of death was drowning, but they knew who’d arranged for it to happen. Ordinarily, that was information they’d give to the sheriff. But it was Su-In’s decision not to do so. The enemy was after a single bead. Getting others involved would only cause her more misgivings, and with the festival so close, there was reason to fear the trouble could spread through the whole village. The sheriff would be certain to request the assistance of the Vigilance Committee and the Youth Corps. Relying only on D and herself, Su-In was determined that the two of them alone could meet the threat posed by their attackers when they came.

The real problem was Dwight, but she’d eventually persuaded him. Not only was he head of the local Youth Corps, but he’d known Su-In all her life and was madly in love with her. When she’d asked him not to mention it to anyone else, he’d become belligerent. But a threat of never having anything to do with him ever again finally got his grudging consent.

However, there was no guarantee that word wouldn’t get out eventually—it was a small village. Strange rumors got around quickly, and when the woman had gone to pick up the remains, there was certainly somebody that’d seen D with her and was certain to start whispering about it. Though she’d introduced him as an acquaintance of Wu-Lin’s who’d be working for her for a while, it was too much to expect even the simplest rustic to believe a woman who’d barely turned twenty would be taking in a gorgeous young man with an eerie aura as an ordinary laborer. All she could do was accept that some loss of reputation and a certain amount of talk behind her back were unavoidable.

Her grandfather’s corpse was brought back to their barn, and the doctor raced over to examine it. The wake would be that night, and the funeral was the following day.

Coughing with the cold air as she breathed in, the woman suddenly felt relief and warmth shining into her heart like a thin ray of sunlight, thanks to simply having D there silently driving the vehicle. It wasn’t something the average person could’ve made her feel. So beautiful he seemed shaped by a genius or by the heavenly creator himself, his body shrouded in a daunting aura, so cultured he seemed like a Noble—as they were going to get her grandfather’s remains, she’d wanted him to make it clear he was actually a dhampir, but there was something about the elegant form of this young man in black that was far beyond the ken of ordinary people like herself. There was something entirely different about him.

His form was as human as Su-In’s own, but he was steeped in an air of mystery beyond her or any other human’s imagining—an air that could be felt merely by being near him. For that very reason, many dhampirs didn’t let anyone else get close to them. Warriors and bodyguards who traveled around selling their services were the same way. Su-In knew just from those who’d visited the village in the past that they had what could almost be called a stern disregard for everyone else. While this young man proved far more solitary and aloof than the others had been, for some reason the mere thought of him by her side brightened her psyche, which was otherwise ready to plunge into despair, and made her feel she might just be able to go on another day.

“Have you settled down some?”

Finding herself on the receiving end of this abrupt query, Su-In hurriedly focused herself back on the present. “Yeah. Somewhat.”

“Now that I’m working for you, could you tell me the story behind the bead?”

“Sure,” Su-In replied with a nod, gazing out at the vast expanse of sea to her right. “Most of what I know I heard from my grandfather. I already told you this whole area used to be a hunting ground for the Nobility, right? That was over a thousand years ago. Back in those days, it seems even the northern Frontier was managed by the weather controllers, and they could make it warmer or pleasantly cool. The Nobles’ homes—or rather, their lodges—weren’t just in the woods we passed through last night; they covered the whole area around here. If we hadn’t turned toward the village on that road last night but kept going straight, we would’ve come to the spot where the most extravagant homes were. There’s not much to see there now, but it’s more than enough to convey how lavish it must’ve been way back when. Rumor has it that there are underground factories out there still running.

“Do you know what the Nobility did when they wanted to play here? They went sailing on yachts powered by wind or by light waves, or went walking through the sea in submersible spheres. If you go out around the cape, you can still see the remains of an undersea observatory. But the cruelest and craziest thing they did was to cause widespread mutations in the sea creatures. They scattered food and drugs designed to alter the animals’ DNA over thousands of nautical miles. For the Nobility, it was a simple enough task. Even now you can go to the room of records at the temple and see data captured by the Nobility back then, although it’s forbidden to call up any of the holographic images they have. You see, a number of people have been driven mad by them.

“I’ve only seen photos myself, but there were some incredible things—it’s almost impossible to believe there were ever things like that in our own sea. Giant stingrays that were each six miles wide, barracudas that could swallow three white whales whole . . . When you think of plankton, nothing comes to mind but whale food. But after the Nobility got their hands on them, they were huge, ravenous monsters that could take a big school of seven-foot tuna right down to the bone. There’s this one picture where the whole sea—out to the horizon, or even further—is just covered with them. The Nobility used to get into transparent globes that no tooth could even scratch and drink their wine as they watched these creatures tearing into each other. I suppose you know what their wine was flavored with.”

“And have humans lived here ever since?” D asked. His tone hadn’t been affected at all by the horrible tales he’d just heard.

“It seems they were brought here at the same time the Nobility opened their resort. All the manual labor was done by robots, but it appears that for some of the finer touches they just couldn’t beat human servants. Having more obedient human servants than anyone else was quite a status symbol for the local Nobility. The humans had a number of other uses as well. I’m sure you know all about that, too.

“After a while, the Nobles took all the humans except for a few servants and put them in one place. And then, after giving them the least amount of support possible, they began preying on their former slaves each and every night. In other words, their greatest joy came from draining the blood from humans who fought back. It turns out they’d realized how boring it was to bite into the throat of humans they kept locked up in dungeons or ones who did their every bidding thanks to sorcery or brain surgery. Making it so that the humans couldn’t leave the area they’d been assigned was child’s play for the Nobility. And they just left the humans they’d fed on right there. They’d be found by their fellow humans, who’d hammer a stake through the victim’s heart—one theory has it that the Nobility derived their greatest satisfaction from hearing that pounding and those screams as they closed the lids to their coffins. Whenever the population fell, they could always have as many humans as they liked sent from the Capital. According to the records, it seems that over the course of a decade, the community was completely emptied five times.

“I’m sure you’ve seen with your own eyes the beauty and magnificence of the civilization the Nobility left behind. Exquisite gardens that glittered in the moonlight, dreamily blazing torches soaked in perfume, lodges built of silver birch and crystal, and people in white dresses and black capes roaming the cobblestone streets with neither a sound nor a shadow—why would any species that’d learned to live in such splendor need to drink the blood of humans? When it was time to repaint their vacation homes, why was it the fresh blood of humans they had to use? Why did they have to cut the heads off a thousand people and toss them into the sea to summon their monstrous fish? I wonder if the beauty of a civilization can be completely unrelated to the moral character of the race that created it.

“But one day, an end came suddenly to that age of beauty and cruelty. In no time at all—legend has it it happened over the course of a single night—the Nobility vanished completely. No one knows why. Some scholars attribute it to the weather controller malfunctioning, but it’s been proven those problems didn’t start until much later. At the very least, it was even later that this area was plunged into freezing cold, which caused the mutated creatures to vanish from the seas and left them choked with icebergs. And that was when humans started living here on their own.”

“Aren’t there any legends about what happened?” D asked. He was also looking out at the sea.

A number of power boats were skipping across the white waves, leaving thin trails in the water behind them as they moved toward the horizon. Beyond them was the hazy black outline of what seemed to be the back of some creature.

“Part of the Nobility’s heritage—a tidal whale,” Su-In remarked. “They’re seven hundred feet long, and just one of them could support the whole village for six months. We can eat the meat, use the blubber for making wax, insulating coatings, kerosene, and fuel for our cars, and we can use the bones for handicrafts and to make special medicines to treat asthma and scurvy. And ‘essence of dragon tongue’—an extract of marine flora and fauna that collects in their intestines—makes a perfume more suited to the Nobility than the housewives who live in the Capital these days. The village will be pretty busy up until the summer festival. I’ve got to do all that I can, too. D, I’ll really need you to watch my back.”

Here Su-In took a breath. Closing her eyes, she dug deep into her memories. “This is how the legend goes. One day, a man with more power than even the Nobility came on a ship, brought all the Nobles together in the square, and upbraided them for their cruel misdeeds. When the angry Nobles mounted their battle chariots and charged the man, he not only blew away their war machines but also ripped their very homes from the ground with a single flourish of his cape. It’s said that the frightened Nobility, with one exception, all fled the area then.”

“And that one exception?”

“His name was Baron Meinster. He was the administrator of this region and the very worst of the Greater Nobility, the blackest cancer Noble blood ever produced—in fact, there are records that show making the sea creatures monstrously large and the ‘game’ of putting all the humans in one place so the Nobles could feed on them were both his ideas. A truly loathsome portrait of him survived. And letters have been preserved where his fellow Nobles wrote to acquaintances in the Capital, telling them not to go to his home if invited because even Nobility were known to enter and never come out again. At any rate, he alone defied the commands of the mighty traveler. The battle came the day after the other Nobles left, and it took place at Meinster’s castle. After a conflict that reduced the homes of the Nobles to rubble instantly, wiped out all animal life, and even changed the shape of mountains, Meinster was defeated and his corpse was cast into the sea for all eternity after measures had been taken to ensure he would never return to dry land again. It’s said that even now he prowls the bottom of the deep sea with arms folded, coming up at times to bask in the moonlight and take his sustenance, plotting his return to the land and vengeance against the traveler in black. But that last part is nothing more than legend.

“Oh, that’s right—there was one other horrible business Meinster was involved in while he was still alive. Not long after some of the inhabitants disappeared from the community where the Nobles confined them, strange creatures were found in the bay or inlets. The shape of them wasn’t entirely human or animal, and they were all shriveled up but still alive, or a torso that still lived without its head, or sometimes it would be the opposite and there’d be just a hand that would grab people by the leg while the severed head was a little ways off gnashing its teeth and screaming for help. All of them still bore some resemblance to people who’d gone missing. You could chop them up and apparently it still wouldn’t kill them, but if you put them in the sunlight they’d dissolve. The reason they knew that Meinster was responsible for this was because a number of those people had been seen dragged into his castle. Because the images they’d conjure up were just too horrible, no one ever spoke of what happened up there, but we can guess.

“But thanks to the legendary traveler in black, that never happened again, either. The story goes that after that, he wiped out almost all the sea monsters so that humans could dwell near the shore, and he released the people from the Nobility’s control before he left. Ultimately, we never did learn who he was or where he was from. Say, D—you don’t suppose he was some relative of yours or something, do you?” Su-In said, gazing at the Hunter’s profile with a rare look of childlike mischief in her eyes.

As always, he was cold as steel. And yet, feeling as if she’d said something completely inappropriate, Su-In quickly faced forward again.

Not seeming to mind at all, D said, “Yet there’s a Noble here. Is it this Baron Meinster?”

“No, his face is—different.”

“When did the attacks start?”

Casting her eyes down, Su-In replied, “Three years ago.”

“Who is it, and where does he dwell?”

“I don’t know. But—” Su-In continued hesitantly, “well, I can tell you for sure that everyone who’s been attacked lived near the beach. Seaweed and salt water were always found at the scene. That’s why everyone in the village says . . .”

“It’s Meinster’s revenge?” D ventured casually. Then, quietly turning to face Su-In, he asked, “It’s that illusion we saw in the tunnel, isn’t it?”

It took some time before Su-In finally nodded.

—

III

—

“But you say it’s not Meinster?” the Hunter asked.

“If you’ll look at the portrait of him in our records, you’ll see.”

“And why did he appear to you?”

“It wasn’t necessarily me,” the woman replied. “It could be he sensed you. And we had that priest with us, too. Nobles have this psychic ability to sniff out their enemies, right?”

“Only a small portion of them.”

“Well, I’m sure he’s part of that group, then.”

“And you say he suddenly showed up three years ago?” said D.

“Yeah.”

“Any idea why that is?”

“No.”

“What do they say around town?”

“No one has any idea, it seems.”

“And has there been anything unusual about the sea?”

Averting her gaze, Su-In said, “Yeah,” again. “At the very same time, fatalities tripled out there.”

That meant the sea had become three times as dangerous.

“Have protective measures been taken?”

“Only during the summer,” the woman told him. “The only time he ever comes is in the week-long period that’ll be starting in three days—and that’s it. That’s all we get for a summer in our village. Do you know of anyplace else with a summer like that?”

“Summer is short everywhere. Always, and for everyone.”

“I guess that’s true,” said Su-In, sounding more like she was talking to herself. “You’re right. Anyway, as far as protective measures go around here, the Vigilance Committee and Youth Corps take turns standing watch. They used to dig pit traps on the beach and rig up nets where they thought the Noble might go, but they gave up when all they ever caught was other folks from the village.”

“Are the corpses of those who’ve been bitten disposed of?”

“After they drive a stake through them, they’re burnt and the ashes are scattered at sea. I suppose that’s not a bad resting place for fisherfolk, though. I hear a really good Vampire Hunter can tell how strong a Noble is just by looking at the wounds. If that’s really the case, it’s too bad none of them are still here,” Su-In said, biting her lip regretfully.

“I don’t suppose you know why he only comes in summer.”

“No, unfortunately.”

“Could you tell me the history of the bead?” D said, tightening his grip on the reins. The coastline had disappeared, and the horse-drawn truck was about to enter the center of town.

“Last summer, he came again. Four people were killed in three days. One really foggy night—and we get a lot of those around here when there’s suddenly a huge difference in temperature between the air and the sea—the Vigilance Committee had twice their normal numbers out, but it was no use. The last one was a woman who lived right next door to me. In the middle of the night, around 2:00 Night, her father thought he heard some commotion in her room, but when he knocked on his daughter’s door, she didn’t answer. As he burst in, a figure in black was just escaping through the window. There was a big racket then, and I raced over as fast as I could. The girl was limp on the bed, and her mother and father were crying and screaming. All of them were as pale as a sheet.

“I could see right away that he’d taken off out the window, so I went after him alone. He’d crossed the street and gone toward the beach, so I knew for sure he must’ve come out of the sea. As I was on my way down to the shore, he suddenly vanished, and that was the end of it. Still, I searched all over the place, and I was just about to leave because the reinforcements had arrived, and that was when the waves brought something to my feet. It was that bead. I thought about showing it to everyone, but then I felt a bit greedy and decided they didn’t really deserve it.”

Su-In’s eyelashes were trembling. Surely her thoughts had drifted to her younger sister.

“Didn’t you try to find out what it really was?”

“No. I just showed it to my grandfather.”

“And what did he say?”

“Not a thing. He just got really pale and told me to get rid of it as quickly as I could, and to never touch it again. It started to give me the creeps and I considered tossing it like he said, but then I thought about how lucky I was that it’d washed up right in front of me—I guess I really shouldn’t have done that. But I think my grandfather knew something about it. Apparently Wu-Lin asked him some stuff about it too, but he didn’t tell her anything. He didn’t even seem to like having it lying around.”

“Why was it brought to Cronenberg?”

“That’s a sore subject,” Su-In said, embarrassment showing in her eyes. “You saw the inside of my house, right? We’re not so well-off that we could afford to have something lying around that might be worth some good money. My grandfather couldn’t get around very well, and Wu-Lin still wasn’t able to really pull her own weight yet. There was only so much I could make on my own. You know, a girl wants to be able to at least wear a nice dress in the summer.”

“You mean you wanted your sister to have one, don’t you?”

“I wanted one, too.”

Both of them fell silent. Their vehicle was on a wide thoroughfare. This must’ve been the shopping center, because the rows of buildings were hung with signs for bars and illustrated placards for what seemed to be gaming centers. There were also a few souvenir shops designed with tourists in mind, and they had roe and dried fish displayed out in front. All had their glass doors shut tight, and their stony walls were laced with a mesh of tiny cracks.

Out in front of the sheriff’s office, Su-In got down from the truck. “I think this’ll probably take a while,” she said. “There’s not much to see, but hang around.”

Watching as Su-In went through the door, D then leaned back against the wall of the office. He pulled the brim of his traveler’s hat down low to fend off the sunlight. Although dhampirs could sleep by either day or night, the blood that flowed through their veins craved rest in the daylight hours. As long as they had to deal with Nobles, that particular characteristic was an extremely useful one.

Several shadows fell at the Hunter’s feet. All of them belonged to young men in bulky wool sweaters. Judging from the way they were built, any one of them looked capable of easily wringing the neck of an eight- to ten-foot-long fish.

One of them took a step forward and said, “Working up a sweat, I see, pretty boy.” The malice-laden tone belonged to Dwight. “Lucky for us Su-In ain’t here. See, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

D didn’t reply. He didn’t even bother to look up at them.

Dwight’s lips twisted with displeasure.

The men around him stepped forward.

“Hold it. There’s only the one of him,” Dwight said as he raised one hand to stop the others, then scanned the surrounding street.

Some passersby stopped and began to watch from a distance.

“This ain’t really the place for making a racket, either. What say you head over there with me?”

“My employer is in here,” D said, still looking down.

“Then my question will keep till later,” Dwight said, interlacing his fingers before his chest. With due pretense, he cracked his knuckles loudly. “This village ain’t like the Capital or other warm places—it can get a little rough around here. Your average guy wouldn’t last half a day. So I’m gonna check you out and see for myself if you’ve got what it takes. Don’t worry—I won’t let my buddies lay a hand on you. See, I told them I didn’t need them, but they came along anyway. C’mon over here,” Dwight said, sticking one hand out with immense confidence. As he winked at the Hunter, he gestured at him to follow. “I’m gonna be bare-handed. Don’t go using that sword of yours now.”

“Maybe I will use it,” the Hunter replied.

“Spare me the jokes.”

“You trust me, then?”

“If I didn’t, you think I’d take you on one-on-one?” Dwight said, holding both his right and left fist out in front of himself. His arms were bent at the elbow, and he swept one fist in an arc as if beckoning his opponent forward. If he ever went to the museum in the Capital, he’d have seen that it was actually an ancient boxing stance. If he’d come up with this technique all by himself, he could be considered quite talented.

D pulled away from the wall. Both arms hanging easily by his sides, he headed over to Dwight. The distance between them closed in no time.

Dwight was a little shaken. He’d been sure the other man was going to keep his distance. Hesitating for a heartbeat to decide whether to back up or respond in kind, he ultimately made the decision unconsciously. The straight he threw at D’s face was picture-perfect. His fist was still in midair when he felt something lock around his wrist with incredible strength. The ground and sky switched places, and a heartbeat later his massive form flipped around and his back hit the ground.

“Shit,” he groaned, but the way he got right back up again showed he was plenty tough. He hadn’t been hurt much at all.

Too close, Dwight berated himself. Keep some distance and whittle him down. Build up some damage with some light hits, and then when the bastard stops moving, lay him out with the big gun. But first, a little intimidation.

Dwight glared at D. It was said the mere look he could give people was enough to make him the leader of the Youth Corps. A second later, his whole body was enveloped in a chill that left him paralyzed. There was an unearthly and terrifying aura that emanated from the other man’s eyes, freezing his heart, his lungs, and his very bones.

It’s those damn eyes, isn’t it?!

The instant he realized that, he shut his own eyes and bounded forward in a way that showed his instinct and ability as a veteran brawler. When a sharp pain shot once more through the arms he was swinging blindly, Dwight knew he was beaten. This time the top of his skull took the impact as he was stood on his head and lost consciousness in that same pose.

As D casually made his way back to his spot against the wall, he was surrounded by four more figures.

“That was some freaky shit you just pulled. What the hell are you?!” bellowed a giant every bit as big as Dwight. The single T-shaped claw that curved from the end of his right hand was a gaff hook for landing fish. “Serves that dope Dwight right for showing off. I’m gonna gouge out one of this freak’s eyes. We’ll have this outsider packing in no time. Heh,” he snorted, “looks like we’re due for a change in leadership.”

At that point he spat at Dwight—who’d finally lost his balance and fallen over onto his stomach—and closed in on D.

In a matter of seconds, keen glints danced to the Hunter’s right and his left, before him and behind him. No matter which way he focused his attention, he’d be attacked from the other three directions. It was a skillful ploy.

Each of them saw a flash of white light skim across his right wrist. There was the sound of a blade moving in its sheath on the young man’s back. Each screaming curses at him in their heart of hearts, the men swung their arms. But they were oddly light. Something felt wrong about the shape of them, too. Stopping in their tracks, they took a look. Their right hands were gone at the wrist. Blood sprayed wildly from the wounds and rebounded from the ground.

Four screams raced down the street as the afternoon began to take a bluish tinge.

After the cries of pain had streamed past like the tails of a kite, the sheriff came running out of his office. He had a potbelly that made it seem like he must’ve been raised on nothing but rye whiskey since the day he was born. The oversized revolver he had in his right hand looked as useless as a child’s toy. Growing pale at the sight of the blood-soaked quartet writhing in the street, he turned to the people around them and asked, “Who in the hell did this?!”

“He did!” a young man shouted as he pointed to D, who was leaning back against the wall. “I saw it happen, I tell you. He did it!”

“Is that true, fella?” the sheriff asked, sounding somewhat unnerved.

The traveler’s hat slowly bobbed up and down.

“Then I’ve got to take you in. Throw that sword over to me real easy.”

“They made the first move on me,” the Hunter said.

“That’s a lie!” a different man shouted. “I saw the whole thing. The five of them were just walking by, and this guy goes and cuts loose on them out of the blue. Hell, you think one man could take out five if he didn’t have the drop on them?”

“You’ve got a point there. Okay, you over there—go fetch the doctor,” the sheriff ordered someone else, and then pointed the barrel of his gun right between D’s eyes. “Come with me,” he told the Hunter. “If things go badly, we’ll have a lynching on our hands.”

But then another voice turned the situation around completely.

“You’ve got the whole thing backwards, Sheriff.”

The plump lawman bugged his eyes and said, “But Dwight—you’re supposed to be one of the victims here!”

“I’m not a victim or a perpetrator,” Dwight replied, staring at D with a strange look in his eye as he rubbed his bull neck. “It was a straight-up fight, plain and simple. Me and the boys picked a fight with him, and he took us up on it. Fair and square, too. He was barehanded against me, but used his sword when the others had their gaffs—and that just plain makes sense. The only thing funny about it was it being four against one.”

“Yeah, but still—he went too far. He cut folks’ hands off!”

“And what would you have to say if one of those hooks had torn his throat open?” Dwight said as he stood up and knocked the mud from his pants. “You should be thanking him for not taking their heads off. Anyhow, I saw the whole thing from start to finish, even though I was on my head at the time. If the person who started the fight says so, you can’t get any more accurate than that. Isn’t that what happened, everyone?”

Even though he’d just been laid out, the young man still had the power to cow the onlookers. The men who’d spoken out against D moments earlier had already taken off.

“Looks like no one’s got any objections,” the lawman remarked. “Oh—here comes the doc. Hurry up and get these boys to the hospital, would you?”

A number of bystanders raced over to the fallen youths and loaned them their shoulders as they helped the wounded up.

“I’ll rule this as self-defense. This is your lucky day,” said the sheriff. Holstering his gun, he returned to his office.

As Dwight began walking away still shaking his head, a steely voice called out from behind his broad back, saying, “Looks like I owe you one.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Dwight said as he turned and glared at D. “I just like to do everything fair and square, whether it’s fishing or fighting. If you don’t play it that way, you go from being a regular guy to being a run-of-the-mill thug. But that don’t mean you’re done with me yet. Fishermen settle things out on the sea. So you just sit tight till we get around to that, okay?”

“I’ll do that.”

Taking a couple of steps, Dwight then turned as if he’d just recalled something. “It’s just a hunch I have, but I think Su-In’s all alone in the world now. I want you to look out for her. See to it she don’t get hurt any worse than she’s been already.”

There was no reply.

As the great bear of a man shuffled off down a road that was slowly taking the blue hue from the sky, the sheriff poked his head out again. To no one in particular he remarked, “That’s odd. Su-In’s not here.”

“What?!” Dwight shouted with a start. “Hey—where’s pretty boy?”

Two pairs of eyes peered over to where the Hunter had been, but they met only a vacant stretch of rock wall. Suddenly, all trace of D had vanished from the blue light.

THE FIGURE BEHIND THE WAVES