DANCE OF THE ROSES

CHAPTER 5

—

I

—

Although the cry was one Elena had heard before, she’d never actually seen the thing itself. Known simply as “the forest dweller,” it was fabled to bite the heads off fire dragons and use massive trees as toothpicks. And although the biker didn’t put much stock in such tales, the colossal bones that were occasionally discovered near the forest made it clear the creature was a danger she’d never want to encounter.

The form that’d just pounced on the Black Knight was roughly ten feet tall, covered with hair and circular in shape. Though it had arms and legs twice as thick as a man could reach around, there was no indication of any fingers or toes. And while Elena figured the smell of the head-taker’s blood on her had drawn it here, it was literally a heaven-sent guardian.

Just as the girl was about to make a run for it, she heard a heavy impact and a horse whinnying behind her. She turned to look in spite of herself.

The Black Knight and his steed had both been knocked flat. The forest dweller raised one hand and smashed it down on the horse’s belly. Its barding dented, and the horse let out a pained whinny. Then Elena watched as a band of light sank halfway into the thing’s woolly shoulder. Black spray rained down on the branches and leaves, staining the twilight.

The forest dweller swung the opposite hand. There was a dull thud as the knight was knocked backward by a remarkable hook.

“He’s all yours!” Elena shouted, blowing a kiss at the creature before her feet tore into the ground. Hope had welled within her again, and the exit was right before her eyes. She felt like she could actually hear the sound of her field of view widening.

Elena trembled. Her bike was right where she’d left it and in exactly the same shape. Climbing onto it, she hit the starter. The engine growled.

“Elena!”

The girl thought she’d imagined someone calling her name. And then she heard it again—very close to her. Before she could get its precise location, a figure came running toward her.

“Nichou—”

“I managed to get away. Stahl told me to look after you.”

“Was he—?”

“Yeah, he bought it,” Nichou said, holding his neck.

Feeling her tears building, Elena turned her face away. “Mount up. Let’s go,” she said.

“No, not yet.”

“Huh?”

Nichou’s face was horribly warped. “Watch this, Elena,” he said.

Putting his hands to either side of his head, he lifted it right up. It came off so easily, Elena was even less surprised than she would’ve expected.

“Nichou—”

The ground rumbled roughly as the figure that sprang from the forest came down about fifteen feet from the two of them. With arms and legs covered with black bristles, it was obviously the head-taker. Elena wasn’t even surprised to see that it wore a shirt and pants.

As the girl watched the deep red blood spouting up from Nichou, her hand instinctively went for the chain around her waist.

The slight forward hunch of the creature was somewhat ape-like—that must’ve been what it’d been in the beginning. Treading its way across the grass, the head-taker stopped behind Nichou, extended both hands, and took the head the decapitated biker was holding up. It then casually tossed it.

The head-taker reached for its own head.

“You must be joking,” Elena muttered, her body stiffened by a fearful premonition.

Pulling its own head off, the head-taker set it down on Nichou’s neck—which was still spouting blood. The head was pointing the wrong way. But with a sick grinding sound it twisted around to face Elena. At the very same time, the head-taker’s body slumped to the ground. That great simian face with its sloping brow and strangely prognathous jaw then bared its fangs at the girl.

By swapping heads, it had effectively transplanted its brain. In this manner, the head-taker could replace its aging body and essentially live forever.

The creature’s mouth snapped open viciously. Every last tooth lining the top and bottom of its crimson maw was as sharp as a needle.

Nichou’s body leapt into the air. Just as it was about to land on her, Elena moved out of reflex. And her bike was already running.

It seemed that her vehicle hit the lower half of the creature. Flipping over Elena’s head, the head-taker fell into the bushes.

Executing a quick turn, Elena flashed her headlight onto Nichou’s body. The way his hands came up to shield his eyes was exactly what the head-taker would do.

“This is payback for Nichou!” she shouted.

The laser stabbed through the darkness, searing the palms of the head-taker’s hands. Screeching, it took to the air, but there were no branches or trunks to which it might cling.

If she allowed this thing to live, it would claim other victims. She sped toward where it landed.

Her foe was in a crouch. Elena slammed into it at ninety miles per hour.

Nailed it! she thought, but just as all the tension was leaving her body, her bike tilted forward. The vehicle bounded wildly before it fell over with only the whine of its engine still echoing, and it was then that the head-taker stood up straight again. It hurled the wheel it held in its right hand at the bike. Elena lay by the vehicle. The wheel landed near her feet, and then toppled over.

It was her motorcycle’s front wheel. Though it’d been secured by steel bolts, the head-taker had managed to tear it off with a swipe of one hand.

Whether the gagging sound that escaped the creature now was simply its breathing or the sound of its laughter was impossible to say. As it lumbered over to Elena, the expression it wore bore hints of malice, hunger and an unmistakable lust. Elena had landed on her back, and due to her struggles, the front of her top had been ripped wide, leaving her pale breasts half exposed, while a diagonal slash down the right thigh of her pants yawned to reveal more of her sweet, nubile flesh. After leering down at her exposed portions and noting the full lines of her bosom, the head-taker licked its lips. Both its hands grabbed her breasts through her shirt.

Elena didn’t move a muscle.

Surely the beast with a human body had something in mind as it clambered on top of Elena. The stage now set for its depraved acts there in the moonlight, the creature’s monstrous mouth was about to close on Elena’s half-open lips when there was an unearthly howl and the head-taker’s upper body bent backward. The creature braced its legs in an attempt to flee, but the arm wrapped around its waist wouldn’t allow that.

“Too bad. I’ve been falling off bikes all my life, so I’m used to it,” Elena sneered, her left arm locked on her foe’s waist while her right hand gouged his flank with a weapon. “This little throwing knife belonged to Nichou, who you killed. A long time ago, he gave it to me as a memento. So just consider this a stab from him!”

After she’d plunged the weapon into the hard, wriggling torso three times, it ceased to struggle. Elena no longer held the body as it now slowly toppled backward, allowing the girl to quickly get to her feet. Every inch of her ached. No matter how accustomed to spills she might be, being thrown from her bike at ninety miles per hour still left her body screaming in a dozen places. And as she turned to head back to where Stahl and the others had left their bikes, Elena found there was one important point she’d overlooked.

Not ten feet from her stood the Black Knight.

“How long have you been watching?” she asked as she checked on the moss she’d shoved into her shirt pocket. Her legs felt like they were about to melt.

“You did splendidly,” the Black Knight said in a calm voice.

But Elena wasn’t in any shape to take that as a compliment.

“There’s nothing lower than a man who’d just stand around watching a woman bust her ass. Drop dead!”

Elena gauged the distance to the other bikes. Twelve feet. Not far at all.

The Black Knight simply remained there in the dark, and then spoke. Elena couldn’t understand it.

What did he just say? Come with me?

“Hyah!” Elena cried as the end of her chain flew from her right hand. The blow had all her might behind it, but the Black Knight easily batted it down with his left hand. Her arms numbed by the shock of that impact, Elena dropped the chain.

I suppose this is the end, she thought.

The darkness spread before her eyes. The last sight she saw was the Black Knight as he closed on her.

I’m sorry, Stahl, Tan, Nichou . . . Looks like I’ve had it, too.

 

The girl regained consciousness. From the way she came to her senses so quickly, not long had passed since she’d collapsed. She was lying in some brush.

As Elena started to get up, her every hair stood on end. An ineffable lust for killing whirled through the darkened space.

There was a moon out. Beneath it, a pair of figures appeared to be facing each other. To the right was the Black Knight. The night winds that made the grass on the plains sway caused the coat of the figure on the left to flutter gracefully.

“D,” Elena said, sounding more dazed than thrilled.

The Black Knight backed away unexpectedly, saying, “I believe I shall call it a night here.”

“I won’t,” D replied.

Pointing to Elena, the Black knight said, “’It’ll take time to defeat me, even for you. And that girl will likely die in the meantime. Of course, if she has no connection to you, that won’t matter much, but a woman of her caliber deserves better than to die pitifully out in the wilderness.”

Without waiting for D’s reply, the knight walked off toward the woods. His black charger awaited him. Apparently it’d weathered the attack by the forest dweller.

D came over to the woman.

Turning her face away, Elena said, “I’m sorry. I’ve gone and got in your way. If this hadn’t happened to me, you’d have killed him just now.”

D’s left hand came to rest on her forehead. Elena turned and looked at D in spite of herself. Her pain had suddenly faded. Their eyes met. Feeling as if the sheer depth of the Hunter’s eyes would swallow her, Elena was actually scared and tried her best to shut her eyelids.

D backed away from her. He didn’t tell her to get up, or ask if she could stand. He didn’t even offer to help her.

Elena got up on her own.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, wondering if he’d say he was worried and came to check up on her.

“I was teleported from the castle all the way to the border. I was just on my way back.”

That’s about as short and sweet as can be, she thought. That was just like him, too.

The two of them started over to his horse and her bike.

“So, aren’t you even gonna ask me what I’m doing out here?” Elena said, voicing all the discontent that filled her heart.

Naturally, there was no reply.

Although she tried to restrain it, the girl let a sigh escape.

“You really don’t give a rat’s ass about me, do you? I suppose I did take it upon myself to go up to the castle, after all. But for what it’s worth, we’ve fought on the same side, you know. It’d be nice if you’d at least ask me if I was okay or tell me I did a good job or something,” she said, not aloud, but in her heart of hearts.

D straddled his steed. The cyborg horse was one he’d acquired from a farmer on the way back, as was the sword he now wore. Elena got on Stahl’s bike. When she started its engine, D turned to her and said, “Were your friends killed?”

“Yeah. And I’m the one who invited them out here,” Elena replied, shutting her eyes. How was she going to tell their families?

For a heartbeat she was sure he’d say something to console her now, but D galloped off in a gust of wind, as if to leave the girl alone with her bitter sentiments.

—

II

—

The gates to the village were shut, and shouts arose from inside. The cries came from both men and women. And it sounded like the angry bellows were exceeded by the wails of pain.

“Open up!” the girl cried, but there was no response.

Something was going on. It was easy enough to imagine what that could be, but Elena tried her best to keep such thoughts from flooding her consciousness. Her heart was horribly cold.

The gates were over ten feet tall. As the girl stood there powerless, an arm like steel wrapped around her waist. But her cry of astonishment wasn’t prompted by its grasp, but because she then went sailing high over the gate. Even their landing was quiet.

“The square’s over that way, isn’t it?” asked D.

For those who didn’t know the power that lurked in the blood of a dhampir, his leap would’ve been unbelievable.

“That’s right!” Elena cried.

Her head was killing her—it pounded with the excitement that always spilled from hope. On the way back to the village, she’d told the Hunter about what had transpired the night before. Although she had no problem with his lack of reaction, she had to wonder if her tale had done the trick.

There was no sign of anyone on the streets. But as the pair approached the square, the shouting grew louder.

Turning the corner, Elena had the wind knocked out of her.

The tent was ablaze. The flames burnt their image into her eyes. Around the fire, mobs of villagers lingered with the four hues of roses blooming from their bodies. The form of a knight raced by them, and a long, straight shaft pierced the chests of the villagers at an angle. Killed instantly, they were easily lifted on the lance with one hand before the knight then cast their bodies into the flames.

“The Blue Knight,” Elena growled, feeling every drop of blood in her body come to a boil. She even forgot all about D.

Near the tent, the people still milling around were outnumbered by those now heaped motionless on the ground by several to one. Occasionally there was the crack of a gunshot, and the Blue Knight would reel as sparks danced on his chest or abdomen. His charger would then race to the shooter with incredible speed, and the perpetrator would loose their dying screams from the end of the knight’s lance.

Someone shouted at him to stop.

A child could be heard crying out for his father.

“That lousy murderer . . . ,” Elena muttered, and she was just about to dash forward when a black shape passed her.

As the man in the long coat headed toward the flames, he looked like some gorgeous idol of a god of war trimmed in crimson lotus blossoms.

Engaged in butchery some forty feet ahead of the young man, the blue figure whirled around on his steed as if he’d been struck by a bolt of unseen lightning.

“Where have you been?” he asked with pleasure when he saw D. “I came down here because the Black Knight told me to dispose of these scum, but my heart was actually set on doing battle with you. I’ve already killed forty or fifty of them. Are you going to try and stop me, D?”

“That’s my job,” D replied as his blade whined from the sheath on his back.

The Blue Knight adjusted his grip on his lance.

Both the hues and the crackling of the raging flames seemed to freeze solid from the lethal intent that billowed between the two men.

D sprinted; his sword streamed along behind him. As the blade painted a silvery arc aimed at the legs of the horse, the blue mount and rider leapt toward the moon. The knight’s lance was aimed by turns at D’s chest and his back. While he held but a single weapon, it looked for all the world like he had two.

Blocking both thrusts, D made a leap and blocked the second blow in midair. Surely, even the Blue Knight had never considered the possibility of anyone human coming at him from above while he was galloping along on his horse.

As the end of D’s blade was coming down, it suddenly changed direction. The sword swung to the right in a parrying blow, and was assailed by a horizontal arc of black. The Blue Knight had brought a second lance holstered on his horse’s flank into play.

D’s blade shattered, and the Hunter was thrown through the air. Amid the flames, his coat danced like nightmare-shrouded wings.

A split second lay between life and death. As Elena watched the flying Hunter, her brain burned with a feeling that was almost rapture.

This was precisely the moment the Blue Knight had been waiting for. In midair, no target whatsoever would be able to avoid his lance. At least, so long as it was human.

With ample time to take aim, the Blue Knight hurled his weapon. And his aim was true—run through from the belly to the back, D tumbled head over heels to the ground.

Reining his steed to a halt, the Blue Knight adjusted his grip on his remaining lance. Thirty feet from him, D was down on one knee.

“Now it ends. Wait for me in the hereafter, D!”

With the thunder of iron-shod hooves, the steely knight charged. But before the rider could ever bring his lance to bear, D would surely be trampled beneath the hooves of his steed. As the Blue Knight swung his weapon around, he never took his eyes off his target for an instant. But he couldn’t believe what he saw. Still impaled on the other lance, the young man in black rose steadily to his feet. The knight’s exclamation was louder than even the roar of hooves pounding the earth, but was it a cry of surprise or a grunt of deadly determination?

Just as the rider passed the man, there was a sharp sound and a lance went sailing into the air. Wheeling his horse around in front of one of the locals’ houses with the skill of an expert horseman, the Blue Knight was about to embark on another attack when he was dumbstruck. There was no lance in his hands. The instant he noticed this, D appeared before him like some guardian demon with the very same lance that’d previously impaled him in his right hand. The weapon in question scorched through the air to punch through both the knight’s armor and his chest.

“You did it, D! You really did it!” Elena shouted.

But her jubilant cries were cut short by the sound of hoofbeats. Incredibly, the horse had started to gallop off still bearing the Blue Knight, who’d clearly been pierced right through the heart.

“Stop that thing!” someone shouted.

“Don’t let it get back to the castle!” cried another villager who’d apparently seen what’d happened and feared the princess’s retribution.

With poles and spade-like implements they struck at the beast, but the horse shrugged off the blows and dashed toward the rear gate to the village.

“D!” Elena exclaimed as she made a single-minded dash for him. But the Vampire Hunter simply adjusted the brim of his traveler’s hat as if nothing at all had transpired. “You got run through . . . Are you hurt bad?”

Seeing his bloodstained abdomen, Elena shuddered for the first time at the thought of what this gorgeous young man was.

“Seems we’ve got a hell of a man in town now,” said a hoarse female voice. Mama Kipsch. “The first time I laid eyes on you, I thought you were far too pretty,” she continued. “And now that I see how fast you heal—I’d say you’re a dhampir, aren’t you?”

“That’s right,” the Hunter replied.

Elena was speechless.

“No second-rate warrior would ever think of getting their opponent’s lance to replace their own broken sword. And seeing where you let yourself be impaled to do so, I don’t suppose you’re an average dhampir, either. You did say your name was D, didn’t you?” the old woman asked, staring at him with glittering eyes.

“That’s right,” D again replied softly.

Shifting her gaze from him, Mama Kipsch turned to the tent where the flames were almost under control and saw the corpses littering the area. “From the very start, those fiends never intended to let all of us get through this, I’d say. But using that moss you’ve got poking out of your pocket, we’ll have everyone back to normal in two or three days. Elena, you’d best come back to my place tonight.”

“I’ll help out any way I can, Mama Kipsch.”

“That’s not quite what I was talking about,” the crone said, her wise old eyes narrowing sorrowfully. “The real thing we have to worry about is what the people who’ve been put through all this will do, you see.” Turning to D, she said, “I’m sure you’d know all about that.”

The leisurely nod of the Hunter seemed to satisfy the old woman.

“In that case, you’d best stick close to this girl,” she told him. “The real trouble will start once the sun begins to shower its blessings on us again.”

—

Mama Kipsch’s prediction was right on the mark. The next day, every villager who’d been spared the Noble transformation came storming out to the witch doctor’s house to find Elena. As Elena snorted that she’d go out and give them a piece of her mind, Mama Kipsch physically stopped her and tried to talk to them in her place. However, she made no progress, and the crowd remained emphatic that she send Elena out, until the biker finally appeared in the doorway.

“This is your fault! All of it!” shouted the leader of the pack—Gary, the guard from the tent. “Yeah, all because of you and that young feller! Send him on out, too!”

“He’s not here,” Elena shot back, and a pain spread through her heart—D had ignored her and gone back to village outskirts. “But, don’t you get it yet? He’s the only one who can destroy those bastards. His strength will free us from the oppression of the Nobility!”

“Who in the world asked him to do that?” one of the women shouted.

That was the very question Elena had dreaded.

“We’ve had it pretty good so far, haven’t we? We’ve always managed to coexist somehow with the princess up in the castle and her knights, right? Sure, there’s been some ugliness. But if we just grit our teeth through it, there’s always peace again later, isn’t there? There’s a hell of a lot more ugliness in this world we live in. We’re lucky we don’t have to see most of it.”

“Sure, just as long as we obey all their rules,” Elena snapped back. “We can’t leave the village now. They carry off husbands and wives, children and lovers, and we can’t say a thing about it. What the hell is so lucky about a life where all our loved ones can be taken away on one of their whims?!”

“Well, people die from famine or fires all the time,” someone else cried out. “They’re just like that—a natural calamity us mortals can’t do a thing about. Come what may, we’ve got no choice but to just keep our heads bowed and our voices low, right? When you think of it—”

“You talk like a fucking slave!” Elena groaned in the bottom of her throat as the weighted end of her chain whistled out.

Although she shouldn’t have been able to see him very well from her location, the man who flipped backward with a cry of pain was the very same person who’d just been talking. His nose was now broken.

The crowd backed away, leaving a semicircular clearing just in front of the door.

As Elena hauled back on her chain for another blow, Mama Kipsch caught hold of her arm. “Stop it,” the old woman told her. “Don’t do anything more to distance them.”

“I knew that crazy bitch would show her true colors!” Gary the tent guard howled. “As far as we’re concerned, we’re in a lot more danger from you down here in the village than we are from the Noble in the castle. Hey, take a good look at this!”

The crowd split down the middle, leaving a single figure between Elena and the others.

Seeing the feeble individual crawling across the ground, Elena exclaimed, “McCay!”

It was one of her compatriots.

“Take a good look at him. He was one of last night’s survivors,” Gary said with revulsion. “But his right shoulder is broken, his left ear’s been torn off, and his left eye popped. And I think you know who did all that.”

Elena stood stunned, as if she’d just been struck by lightning.

Her rose-cursed compatriot had one hand raised to ward off the sunlight as he writhed on the ground. But his fingers were all bent in impossible directions.

“You did this. Back in the tent, you beat the shit out of one of your own. Yeah, you talk a good game, but when someone winds up one of the Nobility, you don’t know a friend from a piece of garbage. There are others that made it through the night, but they’re all beat to hell thanks to you. So before you go acting like you’re something special, take a good, hard look at what you’ve done. And he’s not the only one who’s been through hell. Just how do you and that young feller plan on taking responsibility for the forty people who died?”

It was a heartbeat later that the coup de grace was delivered to the dazed and speechless Elena.

“Give me back my Yohan!” a matronly voice cried. It was that of Mrs. Kaiser, a woman who’d often given Elena milk when she was young. “They killed him yesterday. You used to bounce my son on your knee. Oh, he was only eight years old!”

“I lost my Frida, too,” said old Mr. Bangs, who kept a herd of cows on the outskirts of the village. Frida was the same age as Elena, and she’d been an excellent seamstress.

“I just want my Chauve!”

“Give back Pelt!”

Elena covered her ears. She didn’t even have Stahl or Nichou or Tan there anymore. McCay writhed at her feet. She wished she were a million miles away, and a keen longing for the forest or the plains of the previous night came over her.

“Give ’er what she’s got coming!” someone shouted, but to the girl, the cry seemed to reverberate in another world.

“Throw her in the stocks on the edge of town. Better yet, leave her chained out by the castle for three days and nights!”

As one, the villagers grunted their approval. In that instant, the group became a bloodthirsty mob.

Elena didn’t have the strength left to stop the people with bloodshot eyes bearing down on her in a crushing wave. But a single bolt of lightning did it in her place. It’d skimmed by the end of the lead vengeance seeker’s nose and imbedded itself in the black soil. The man gasped in terror and the mob halted its advance.

The bolt of lightning had become a blue lance. But the reason the people remained paralyzed like lambs before a two-headed wolf wasn’t because they recognized it as the weapon the Blue Knight had left in town. Rather, they’d been frozen by the whistle of it dropping from the sky and the thunder of it sinking into the earth. Not a single one of them dared to turn in the direction from which it’d flown. The crowd froze there in the swelling sunlight as they listened to the approaching hoofbeats.

“I just knew he’d come,” said Mama Kipsch.

At last, the people turned and saw the gorgeous young man on the horse. Before him on the saddle sat a boy of about five, while a burly man with gray hairs scattered among the black stood beside the mount.

“Blasko!”

“And that’s his boy Cusca up on the horse. What are they doing with . . .”

“They’re here because I had need of a blacksmith,” said D.

This was the first time the villagers had ever heard D’s voice. The cheeks of every last woman flushed, while the men grew dazed and even enthralled.

Glancing up at D out of the corner of his eye, Blasko the smith said, “When I heard you’d all headed off to string up Elena, I was gonna come out here and stop you. But then this fella came by—” Swallowing hard, the smith continued, “My boy had one of those roses blooming out of him, too. But drinking the medicine Mama Kipsch whipped up last night cured him. Just look at him—sure, he’s still got a little trouble with the sun, but at least we don’t have to keep him shut away in darkness. I’m sure some of your kin have been saved, too. This feller told me what happened. It seems it was Elena who went out and got the blue moss to make that medicine. So don’t go doing anything crazy.”

“He’s making you say all that,” someone in the mob sneered, shaking his fist.

“Nothing doing. All he said was that Elena got the moss. I came here of my own free will. There’s no way you can seriously believe deep down in your hearts that the Noble’s way is the best. Elena only says what all of us think.”

“And I say that’s more trouble than we need. We’d be better off without Elena or that guy. When the night comes, the Nobility will retaliate. What the hell are we supposed to do then?!”

“Me and him will protect you,” Elena declared as she pointed at D.

“What good will the two of you do?”

“It’s not just the two of us,” said the girl. “All of you are gonna have to fight, too.”

“Don’t make me laugh!” the man snarled back at her in the most passionate burst of anger so far. “I’m sure you know just how powerful those four knights are, and they ain’t even Nobility! The real sorceress is up in the castle. If things get ugly, she’ll come down for us. And when that happens, a lousy stake of wood ain’t gonna do us a whole lot of good!”

“He’ll take care of the bitch in the castle for us. He’s a professional Vampire Hunter. If the knights come into town, the rest of us will have to kill them.”

Anxious chatter rolled through the crowd like a wind.

Before the murmur died out, the young man on the horse said in a voice heavy with rust, “All three of the girl’s friends were killed. Her right shoulder is dislocated, and she’s got a crack in her left femur. She’s also got countless minor injuries. Yet she still went and got the moss and fought her way back. Isn’t that enough?”

The crowd fell silent.

D continued, “I’ll be heading up to the castle soon. And if things don’t work out today, I’ll go up there again tomorrow. That’s my job.”

And saying that, the Hunter slowly rode away without anyone shouting at him to stop. The blacksmith and his son went with him.

The villagers looked at each other. Although some of them still muttered misgivings, they’d been robbed of the strength to veto the plan.

Nevertheless, someone said, “Okay, we’ll let this go for today. But if the village loses even one more person, Elena, there’s gonna be hell to pay. You remember that!”

“I know! I know!” Elena replied, although it sounded more like the words were directed at herself.

The members of crowd sluggishly turned around, then wasted little time in breaking into smaller groups as they dispersed, but Elena alone remained with her eyes aimed in the same direction as ever. That was the way the gorgeous young man had gone, seeming to glow in the sunlight yet, at the same time, like a chunk of ice that sucked the heat out of everything.

“D,” the biker tough mumbled as the first fat tear in many years welled in her eye and traced a glistening track down her cheek.

—

III

—

Breathtaking sunlight poured through a rainbow of stained glass in the vast chamber. Where the entrance to this room was located remained a mystery—all four walls were solid stone. Aside from the figure who stood in its very center, the room was bare of tables or chairs or anything else—an area so antiseptic, it seemed unlikely even a mote of dust lay there.

The figure stood looking straight ahead like a sculpted temple guardian, completely absorbed in his thoughts since the previous night, like a lifeless suit of armor.

“What is it, Sir Black Knight?” asked the crimson form who’d appeared from somewhere, though neither the walls nor the floor showed any sign of having opened. “You’ve been like this for a good five hours now. What holds your thoughts?”

The Red Knight’s query received no reply.

“If it’s the Blue Knight, what happened was unavoidable. While the princess may be angry, what we’ve done is absolutely correct. That’s what he died for. And I’m sure that’s exactly how he would’ve wanted it.”

“No, that’s not it,” the black sculpture replied. Low as his voice was, it echoed through the chamber nonetheless.

“What then?”

“It’s the princess that concerns me.”

“Oh.”

“I wonder just how our princess will take the death of the Blue Knight.”

“Really? That isn’t like you at all. Whether we live or die is of no concern to the princess, and you of all people shouldn’t need me to remind you of that. We only live to protect the princess and her castle, and to deliver her edicts to the worms below and see that they are carried out, do we not?”

“But do we really live?” the Black Knight said, seeming to heave a sigh.

His words took the Red Knight’s breath away.

“Did you happen to see the look the Blue Knight wore on his face in death?” asked the Red Knight.

Just before dawn, their comrade in blue had returned home impaled on his own lance. As the princess was already in repose and the appearance of the White Knight would only complicate matters, the Red Knight had summoned servants from the drifting fog of particles and had them see to everything, while the Black Knight had taken one look at the remains before quickly going back into the manor.

Over the centuries, he had never uttered a single compliment no matter what kind of action had been displayed, and such seemed fitting for a battle-hardened veteran. Therefore, the Red Knight didn’t pity the dead man, but rather admired what the Black Knight had done. As he spoke now, it was with all due respect toward his compatriot.

“I took off his helmet. He looked so proud. It was literally the face of a man who’d given his all and battled to the very last. Undoubtedly the battle itself was equally grand. His opponent—”

“It was D, wasn’t it?”

“Precisely,” the Red Knight said with a nod. The swords on his back clattered together.

“A satisfying death, was it?” the Black Knight muttered, and though the Red Knight tried to comprehend what sentiments might’ve prompted the remark, he had little luck. “How long has it been since you became one of the four?” the Black Knight asked, his face turned toward the ceiling as if seeking the light.

“Roughly a hundred and fifty years, sir.”

“I’ve lived three times that. And having lived that long, one grows a bit weary.”

“I see.”

“But now,” the Black Knight continued, “I truly feel full of life. I’m actually glad.”

“You mean, because we’ve lost the Blue Knight?”

“Dolt. For the very same reason as yourself, for one thing.”

Beneath his helm, the Red Knight grinned. “That could only be D, then.”

“At long last, I’ve met a man who makes me feel in the bottom of my soul that he may well be more than I can handle. It’s been so long, Red Knight. For ages and ages I’ve searched for just such a man.”

“Truly—this is an opponent worth gambling our lives against,” the Red Knight said, showering their foe with heartfelt praise before holding his tongue for a moment. When he spoke again, it was to say, “But Sir Black Knight—it almost sounds as if you were choosing a time and place to die.”

The Black Knight laughed aloud. The same grand laugh as always, it served to ease the apprehension that filled the bosom of the Red Knight. “We have the princess to protect. Though the manor may be a shambles, so long as she remains, our swords and lances must stand ready to pierce her foes. In other words, we shall see to it that D dies for certain. No matter what.”

The Red Knight nodded an acknowledgment, but he didn’t reply. Battle was a religion to his compatriot.

“Take out your sword,” the Black Knight commanded.

Although the order came out of the blue, every inch of the Red Knight surged with vitality. He backed away a few steps. But even as he did so, the heavy armor he wore didn’t make a sound.

Before drawing his sword, he asked, “What other reason do you have for being so happy, Sir Black Knight?”

Giving no reply, the Black Knight stepped forward.

When the Red Knight heard a great whoosh!, his body went into action. Drawn just in the nick of time, the Red Knight’s blade transmitted a terrific shock up his arms as he barely managed to strike out to one side, carving an arc to his right. His hands and feet came into the ideal position.

For an instant, a true killing lust hung in the space between the two of them.

The Black Knight was in the same relaxed pose as always.

The Red Knight was poised to draw another blade from his back with his left hand. The first sword he’d drawn lay on the floor.

The atmosphere suddenly cleared.

“As you’ve taken your favorite stance, there’s not a thing I can do to you now,” the Black Knight said, rolling his head from side to side.

“I might well say the same. I’m not certain whether I could’ve drawn in time to meet a second blow from you, sir,” said the Red Knight, and the words came from the very bottom of his heart.

At just that moment, a haughty laugh echoed from nowhere in particular to surround the pair.

“Princess!” the knights exclaimed in amazement, both taking a knee in perfect unison. The light from the dazzling human form before them etched their shadows on the far wall.

“As skillful as ever, I see,” the princess’s voice remarked. But was it actually the supposedly slumbering princess that spoke, or was this the work of some Noble machinery beyond the ken of even her knights?

“Please forgive our unseemly display,” the Black Knight said gravely.

“You’ve taken it upon yourself to do something rather interesting, my Black Knight.”

“Begging your pardon?”

“Don’t play coy with me. Last night, you and the Blue Knight ran amok down in the village, did you not? Why, it seems you were trying to destroy all the humans I’d gone to the trouble of blessing with my flowers. Wasn’t that a bit presumptuous on your part?”

The Black Knight had no reply.

“I would assume you’re prepared to accept your punishment?”

“I believe I am. But—”

“Oh, my! I don’t believe anyone has ever used that word with me before. Whatever could it mean?”

Once more at a loss for words, the Black Knight remained silent. Even as an illusion projected in the daylight, the lovely princess remained an absolute, godlike being as far as he was concerned. He was no Noble. He wasn’t even a human enslaved by their bite. If he had to be labeled as anything, then he was a bio-man—a human re-engineered by the Nobility’s science for extreme longevity. But, that wasn’t necessarily what made him their subordinate. The way the Nobility inspired a kind of voluntary subservience in humans was an ideal topic for psychologists to research. Why were there people who served the Nobility without ever being bitten by them? Though no conclusion had been reached, the most vivid example of that behavior was currently being played out between the princess and her Black Knight.

“The Blue Knight has been slain. Now you yourself must assume the same risk,” the shimmering princess said with a tilt of her glowing head. “Oh, I know! I’d like to see you do battle with the White Knight now,” she said.

At that, the Red Knight looked up at her, and then desperately lowered his gaze once more.

The Black Knight solemnly replied, “Understood.”

“As a matter of fact, I’ve already summoned him. Come out, please,” she said, turning matter-of-factly to where the white figure appeared like a ghost. “Here is your opponent,” the illusion of the princess said as she indicated the Black Knight. “Have at him until I call for you to stop. And you’re to hold nothing back. As for you, Black Knight—you aren’t to use your weapon. You shall battle him empty-handed.”

“But that’s—,” the Red Knight began to say, his head bobbing up in amazement.

“Silence!” the princess snapped, her rebuke shaking the very light that poured through the stained glass.