Needless to say, there was no one up there to hear his name fall from her lips.
—
III
—
When D came back, he was met by hostility-filled glares from the people who’d gathered at the entrance to the village, and by a despondent-looking Mama Kipsch.
“You didn’t make it in time, D,” the aged witch doctor said sadly before going on to explain the situation. She’d only returned to her home a short while earlier.
“Neither you nor Elena is to set foot in the village again,” snarled the representative who’d replaced the mayor after his death at the hands of the Blue Knight. “That’s what the village assembly decided. The next time you show your face around here, we’ll kill you.”
“Where’s Elena?” D asked.
“At the manor, most likely.”
To Mama Kipsch he said, “Are you coming with me?”
“No, it’s my job to protect the village. Tonight I’ll lock myself away in my house and pray for you and Elena,” said the crone. Even with the malevolent gaze of the entire village focused on her, she was unshaken. “You be careful out there, D. May the Lord above watch over the both of you.”
D gave a kick to his mount’s flanks.
—
“D’s coming!” the princess declared.
She wasn’t inside. A gorgeous array of colors surrounded the princess and her companions—they were out in the rose-adorned garden.
“I just know it. Now, what should I do? Should I send tidal waves or mud slides, lightning or perhaps a dimensional tear to greet him?”
“If you think it for the best,” replied a voice that seemed to seep into the very ground. It came from one of the two figures who knelt before her—the Black Knight.
“What are you saying, Sir Black Knight?” came the astonished cry of the other—the Red Knight. “Are you not the one who stated that if the Hunter was to be struck down, we should do so fairly and not besmirch the honor of the Four Knights of the Diane Rose? He’s no slavering wolf out for blood money. When I could offer no resistance, he didn’t slay me or even injure me. What’s more, he didn’t try to open the door I guarded, but rather left through the skylight. He’s an extraordinary man. Under the circumstances, to do anything other than go and fight him to the bitter end would hardly manifest our respect for the princess and the Sacred Ancestor of her kind, would it? Or more than anything, our respect for the man himself.”
“Dear me, but you do have a way with words. Do you mean to tell me you’ve suddenly gone from feelings of hostility to amity?” the princess laughed in a voice like the tinkling of a golden bell. “And what do you have to say in regard to the opinion he’s expressed?”
His face still turned to the floor, the Black Knight replied, “At present, the defense of this castle and our princess is a more urgent matter than our pride. The Red Knight and White Knight together could probably best him. Nay, they must triumph. I’ll clench my sword between my teeth and join them, if need be. However, having lost my other arm battling him, I have to say that my instincts tell me you must stop. Even if there’s only one chance in a thousand, or even one in a million, we can’t allow him to reach you, Princess. Kindly take my opinion under consideration.”
“Very well. Red Knight—have at him.”
“Yes, milady,” the red figure jubilantly replied as he rose, while the massive black form behind him didn’t move a muscle—as if some colossal, invisible hand kept him pressed against the earth.
“Next it’s your turn, my Black Knight. If you’re so prepared to sacrifice life and limb for my sake, go after D with your sword in your teeth as you just pledged. Oh, I jest with you,” the princess said with a thin laugh.
If the Black Knight had looked up at her then, the resulting surprise might’ve very well left him deranged. For the smile that colored her rose-like lips was horribly kind.
“Your formidable skill not withstanding, it would be like throwing you naked to the wolves in your present state. Come,” the princess told him. “I’ll give you something to replace what you’ve lost.”
—
D halted his horse before the suspension bridge.
In the darkness lit only by moonlight, the flame-like hue of the other rider was striking. He was on the far side of the bridge.
“I am second,” the Red Knight called out as he drew a longsword. No doubt he meant that the Blue Knight had gone first. “Now I shall make you pay for both the Blue Knight and the arm you cost the Black Knight. Draw!”
He really didn’t need to ask. An ice-like blade glimmered in D’s right hand.
Though the Red Knight had been rendered unconscious by an agonizing blow from D in their first encounter, it was only because his orders from the princess had left him unable to defend himself. With a sword in his hands, he could be every bit as good as the Hunter. After all, hadn’t the Black Knight conceded their close duel when faced with the Red Knight’s draw?
And a voice that wasn’t quite a voice whispered to the Hunter, “Are you gonna be okay?”
D’s body hadn’t yet fully recovered from the wound he’d sustained in his battle with the Black Knight.
“Hyah!” the crimson rider grunted with determination as his mount tore up the earth. At the same time, the young man in black raced forward, scattering the moonlight. Each proceeded an equal distance to the center of the bridge—and then there was an angry shower of sparks.
As if propelled by the crash of that impact, the two figures flew into the air, once more clashing their blades together before they landed in the center of the bridge. Sparks rained down on the shoulders of both men, but didn’t linger long before fading. Their horses were still galloping away.
The Red Knight reached for a second sword with his right hand. Though it seemed like he might use two blades at once, he then took the new sword and drove it point-first into a floor board in front of him. Then, the knight’s upper body dipped. Perhaps the same deadly drawing technique the Black Knight had feared was about to be unleashed on D. But the Hunter was beyond the reach of a sword blade.
“Die!” the knight bellowed, his cry of resolve like the sound of tearing silk or shredding steel.
The glint that surged from his scabbard was crimson. It slashed through the wind, howling as it was slammed at D.
D’s response was nearly miraculous. While still unsure of the true nature of his foe’s technique, he had his blade held out in front of himself. It was true warrior instinct. Something struck his blade, flying off to either side of it, and a heartbeat later, the suspension bridge tilted wildly in D’s direction. The support wires to either side of him had been severed neatly, as if they were so much cheese.
Regaining his balance by merely shifting one leg, D said, “So it’s sound, is it?”
He’d seen through his opponent’s attack.
The secret of the Red Knight’s unseen sword was that it was actually the sound of his sword slicing through the wind. His technique involved changing that sound into a supersonic wave far beyond the audible range—a wave that could even slice through steel.
His blade went back. Before it could send a second supersonic blast out, D charged the knight. Though not quite generating supersonic waves, the Hunter’s sword did whistle through the air with an equally impressive sound.
As the Red Knight barely managed to meet the blow, he felt numbness shoot from his wrist all the way to his shoulder, leaving him no choice but to back away.
D besieged him with a merciless chain of attacks—angry blows against his high guard, thrusts at midlevel that came like machine-gun fire, sweeps that shot up from below like veritable springs. And every one of them was a work of beauty executed with perfect form, while on the receiving end, the Red Knight’s own stances were all being foiled.
“Damnation!” the Red Knight snarled, making a giant leap to the rear.
As he was resheathing his sword in midair, he saw D right in front of him. And the Red Knight
realized that D’s blade was coming down at him far faster than he could ever draw.
“Remarkable!” the knight shouted as black steel split the top of his head in two.
Still with one hand reaching for his weapon’s hilt, the Red Knight sent up a gory mist as he fell on the bridge. But once more there was a flash of light in his hand. The sound of a slash through the wind was heard at the center of the bridge, and bright blood spouted from the Hunter’s left wrist.
D immediately scooped up the hand he’d lost.
The Red Knight lay motionless, having breathed his last.
A human face surfaced in the palm of the hand and said, “The lousy bastard banked the sound off that other sword.”
The blade the Red Knight had driven into the bridge solely for that purpose quivered forlornly in the moonlight.
“And it’s a hell of a cut he gave you. It’s not like a sword—reattaching your hand won’t be easy. Watch yourself!” A pained expression crossed the little face, and then it sank once more back into the hand.
Putting the severed limb into one of his pockets, D unfastened the scarf around his neck and used it to bind his wounded wrist. Then, wearing an expression like nothing had happened, he headed over to where his cyborg horse was waiting on the far side of the bridge. The combatants’ respective mounts had crossed paths on the bridge, each continuing on to the other side.
Once D was in the saddle again, he turned and looked back before riding off.
The Red Knight’s horse stood by its fallen master, nuzzling his now-still form. He must’ve loved that steed.
Turning forward again quickly, D galloped off toward his next battle.
—
“It would seem that the Red Knight has also been slain,” the lovely princess remarked, her smile seeming to become all the more radiant. “Only you and the White Knight remain. I wonder if I should make use of some of my traps?”
“If it pleases you, milady,” the knight replied gloomily, his face still turned toward the floor. All around him, the rose garden was in glorious bloom.
“No, I guess I won’t after all,” the princess said mischievously as she gazed at her loyal retainer. “After all, I did go to the trouble of replacing your arms, and there’s nothing you’d like better than to do battle with the Hunter. So don’t worry about me—go have at him to your heart’s contentment. ’I’ll be fine on my own.”
“Princess,” the Black Knight said, looking up. From his shoulders stretched new arms much thicker than the old ones. Rising to his feet, he bowed.
“Black Knight—didn’t you hear? What I asked D to do, I mean.”
“I should like to thank you, Princess,” said the Black Knight.
“Oh, really?”
“For being so kind as to give us a chance to die as true warriors. I shall fight the Vampire Hunter till the very end.”
“’As you should.”
“Princess, it would seem we have lived too long here in these lands, in this castle. The day has come at last. However, I hope you shall remain well forever.”
“Thank you. Well, off with you,” the princess said, bringing her hand up by her face and cupping her fingers in a busy little wave good-bye.
The Black Knight seemed to smile at the childlike action.
And as the warrior walked off toward the gate, the princess watched his departure until he finally disappeared.
“It really has been a long time, hasn’t it?” the princess murmured, as if she were whispering the words to someone.
THE ROSE GARDEN
CHAPTER 8
—
I
—
As D approached the steep slope, an intense air of hostility bored down on him from above. Looking up from the back of his horse, he found the Black Knight floating in above ground, seeming to carry the very moon on his back. The Hunter’s eyes could also make out the wing-like flight pack the Black Knight wore on his back as clear as daylight.
“This is the end, D,” the Black Knight said, the black roses that jutted from either shoulder opening their petals.
Blue darkness was born. The five-million-volt blast of electricity released by the twin discharge devices ionized the air as it assailed D and his mount. It took less than a second for the cyborg horse’s electronic circuitry to go haywire–the steed fell on its side, black smoke pouring from its ears, while around it the trees began to burn just as they would’ve from a lightning strike.
The dazzling light had the Hunter in a merciless embrace. And in the midst of it, D grew bluer and bluer—gleaming like a radiant sculpture.
Stopping the electrical discharge, the Black Knight gasped in surprise. The brilliance that comprised this light sculpture quickly broke away from the main figure, and as the darkness grew deeper and more lustrous, the young man in black stood there serenely. On his chest, a blue pendant quietly reflected the darkness. The Black Knight realized he’d accomplished nothing, save creating a moment of surpassing beauty.
“D, can you reach me up here?” the Black Knight shouted, his wings taking a new angle—one that sent him diving straight down at D.
Greeted with a shower of sparks as their steel met, the Black Knight easily soared back into the sky, using a sweep of his arm to stop the needles that flew at him. As he gently descended in a spot halfway up the hill, he had no weapon in his hand.
D dashed. The slope was so steep that walking itself became impossible, yet he charged up it at the same speed he’d run on perfectly level ground. Though the Hunter struck out with his longsword right as he made his bound, the Black Knight had risen just out of reach, and D’s weapon instead ended up parrying two wide bands of light that flew at him from above.
“You’re good,” the Black Knight said, his voice coming from a massive branch on one of the many trees that edged the slope. A quick look up confirmed that the tree itself was over three hundred feet tall. “But my next blow shall be on the mark, D,” he declared.
One combatant above, the other below—in terms of dynamics, the former was clearly at an advantage. D had to bring the Black Knight down to earth, yet he didn’t have energy to waste on anything short of an attack that would slay his opponent.
The Black Knight left the branch. Wherever the Hunter tried to run, he could cut him down. But no, the Black Knight was convinced D would meet him head-on.
Sure enough, D kicked off the ground. One man dropping, the other rising—and the Black Knight had the edge in both strength and speed.
When D reached the peak of his leap, the Black Knight unleashed an attack. Deflecting it, the Hunter backed away quickly.
Fall!
The Black Knight was just about to issue a cry of victory when his eyes bulged in their sockets.
D remained in the air. To be precise, he was flying. His black coat had become wings that helped him hang like a gorgeous mystic bird; or a massive black bat.
Barely dodging D’s sword as it came right at his face, the Black Knight was unable to do the same when the blade swung around swiftly for another blow that sank into his chest and came out through his back, draining the strength from his body.
“So, this is how it ends . . . as I expected,” the Black Knight said in a bracing tone. “I’ll no longer bother to ask that you spare the princess. I’m sure she wouldn’t want me to do so. But it’s so strange—there were a million things I wanted to ask you, and now I can’t say anything.”
D was slowly descending. It simply wasn’t possible for him to remain airborne very long.
“It’s been so long, D. What I’ve waited for . . . is finally . . . here . . . And I’m sure the same is no doubt true . . . for her . . . as well . . .”
Touching back to earth once more, D gazed up at the sky. As the Black Knight hung in the air, his head drooped lifelessly. Climbing the slope, D let a single needle fly from his right hand to strike the flight pack. There was the sound of a switch being thrown, and then the Black Knight began to rise. The antigravity device woul
d probably carry the warrior right off the planet.
“Two to go,” D muttered as he turned toward the manor that sprawled in the moonlight. But as the gorgeous young man sent his formidable opponent off into the heavens, his voice and his expression had maintained the same sternness that braced him for his next deadly battle.
—
The castle gates were open. Inside, D was surrounded by startling hues and a succulent aroma. The wind set the flowers swaying. And the roses seemed to sing,
—
Go back, I say, back,
Harm not the princess,
For you could never kill her . . .
—
There was no need to search for the Noblewoman. At the entrance to the crumbling hall, D faced off against the lovely princess.
“How wonderful that you made it all this way,” the princess said, shrugging her shoulders as if to throw off her amazement. The rose clenched between her vermilion lips was white. Placing the flat of one hand to her throat, the princess asked, “So, now three of them are—?” She then made a horizontal swipe across her neck.
“They met a glorious end,” the Hunter replied.
“I’m glad.”
“They were all worried about you,” said D.
“Oh, how sweet! Although that is only natural, given they were my retainers.”
“Where is Elena?”
“Dear me! This is a surprise!” the princess exclaimed. “Here I believed you to be utterly made of ice, and now you mean to tell me you’re actually capable of feeling concern for someone else?”
D stepped forward.
Shrieking, the princess glided back a good thirty feet. Her scream, however, had been a tad pretentious.
“You could kill a person with will alone. Oh, this will never do,” said the princess. To someone else, she called out, “Would you come out here for a moment?”
D turned in the same direction as the princess—toward the hall.
The one person he’d been looking for came out with an alluring sway. Her very image seemed to ripple like a heat shimmer thanks to the winking lights that played across her body. On Elena’s chest, hands and waist jewels pulsated. The moonlight trained on her, the speed of her steps, and her delicate sway gave the gems a precious glimmer that shifted into every conceivable shape. And the garment they adorned was undoubtedly pure white silk.
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