Not hesitating in the least, Dynus slipped into one particularly towering structure and found Raya lying in a room where only the central foundation remained. D had already dismounted and taken the girl’s pulse.
“How is she?” the giant asked.
“Fine,” was all that D said, but it put the giant at ease.
Oddly enough, the two of them seemed to be able to communicate without words. Neither mentioned how miraculous it was that even on foot, she’d managed to get there ahead of them.
Before D could lift her in his arms, the girl opened her eyes the tiniest bit.
“I—What happened to me?”
“You should get some rest.”
Looking all around with fearful eyes, she said, “These are the ruins of Castle Sinestro, aren’t they? What am I doing here?”
“So you don’t remember anything?” Dynus inquired.
In reply, Raya shrieked and clung tightly to D. But the reason she wasn’t really terribly afraid was because she hadn’t seen Dynus running amok. The wagon had been between them, with one in it and the other under it.
“Who’s he?” she asked.
Silence descended.
But just as Raya was about to get suspicious, the giant said, “Heck, I’m your new employee. I heard you needed help out at your place, so here I am!”
Raya looked up at D.
“So it would seem,” the Vampire Hunter told her.
__
The next day, work began at Raya’s house with a change of cast. Dynus was truly adaptable in his activities. And the amount of energy pent up in his body was far different from what a human could store. He set the tilting roof of the main house straight again, then filled the nearly empty woodshed and water tank with a store that would last a good three years.
“You take it easy and leave all the heavy work to me,” the giant told Raya as he peered down at her and grinned. It was the sort of smile one couldn’t help but return, and though the girl’s features were stiff at first, they quickly softened.
“That man—is he really a farmhand?”
“Yes,” was all D said in reply.
“But why would he come to my house? We can’t even afford to pay him.”
“Apparently all he wants is enough to eat in the coming year.”
“But that’s not very—”
“Let him do as he likes. These days, there are a lot of odd characters running around.”
“That’ll be great for our farm, but what should I do? It’s not like Mr. Brewer will let me stay here indefinitely.”
“Don’t worry about him,” D said softly. “We’ve come to an agreement.”
That evening, the three of them returned to her home and Dynus set the severed heads of the men who’d tried to make off with Raya out in front of the speechless flesh trader.
As Brewer tipped over in his chair, D said to him, “You tried to pull a fast one, didn’t you? Leave Raya on the farm until he’s finished his business.”
Like a man possessed, the flesh trader had accepted D’s declaration.
A week passed peacefully, and after finishing repairs on the farm, Dynus turned his energy toward expanding the fields. The western edge of their land was a wild stretch of heavy undergrowth. With a tiny hoe in his hands, the giant worked from early morning at reclaiming the ground, and by late that night he’d succeeded in turning it into rich farmland. Even the girl’s alcoholic father couldn’t help but watch him work.
“Let me show you something interesting,” the giant said after hearing Raya complain about how difficult it was to use the snowy roads.
Gathering the whole group on the porch, he then went out to stand about thirty feet away in the center of the front yard. There was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground.
A summer breeze stroked Raya’s cheek. It was as if the very sun had landed in the yard as steam rose from the ground and the icicles fell from the eaves. If D hadn’t intercepted the icy spears, Raya and Brewer—who was still around—probably would’ve been impaled by them. When Dynus presently appeared from the steaming mist in fine spirits, the whole yard was cleared of snow, leaving the black earth exposed. From this, it became clear that Dynus could control his body temperature and radiate heat at will.
D took that opportunity to escort Brewer back to town and sent off an express letter to the Capital. Naturally, it was to request data on any situations resembling Raya’s from the library. He’d known from the very start that the other story about Raya’s connection to the Nobility had been a fabrication . . .and he’d said as much when the severed heads were laid out.
“How did you know?” the flesh trader had asked, one eye bugging behind his monocle.
Of course, D hadn’t replied.
“So you knew from the get-go? Then why’d you come out here to the girl’s place? Vampire Hunter ‘D’ shouldn’t care at all unless the Nobility have shown their fangs. Yet you came out here anyway. Oh, I get it—you’re sweet on the girl, are you?”
“Was there really a library?” D had asked him.
“Yes, that part was true.”
“Afterward, it’ll be too late to tell me it was another lie.”
Though ice water coursed down his spine, Brewer replied, “It’s true. By the way, you sure I’m not in the way here?”
“We don’t have any real need for a flesh trader.”
“From time to time, you really sound like an old man,” Brewer commented. “I’ve already parted with the princely sum of six thousand dalas, you know. When the time comes, I have every right to take that girl to the Capital. But seeing the awkward incident we had earlier, I’m not saying she has to go right away.”
Of course, Brewer couldn’t very well stay at Raya’s house, but he showed up every day, grinning out in the garden or sitting inside enjoying the tea and cakes he brought just for that purpose. Oddly enough, neither Raya’s father nor the girl herself seemed to harbor any ill will toward this buyer and seller of humanity.
“You’re a strange fella, aren’t you?” Dynus said to him somewhat suspiciously.
“That’s my natural charm,” the flesh trader replied.
The northern sky clouded heavily, as if spring’s eventual arrival were no more than a legend, and the snow continued to fall, stark and white, to freeze the hearts of humanity.
One day, as the white snow piled up on the colossal figure digging a new well, Raya walked up and held her umbrella over him.
“Did you actually come here to help out at my house?” she asked.
“I sure did,” the giant replied without hesitation.
“I find that hard to believe,” Raya said, training her probing gaze on the giant. “There must be tons of better jobs for you in the village. Any place would be glad to have someone like you through the winter. So, what are you doing out here at our spread?”
“Well, it was love at first sight!”
“What?!”
“No, I don’t mean with you. I mean with the young fella.”
“Mister D?” Raya said, putting her hand up to her mouth and making a gagging sound.
“Hey, what’s that all about? Whoever said there was something wrong with one man being smitten with another? I mean, look how gorgeous he is! The most beautiful woman in the Capital probably couldn’t hold a candle to him.”
Raya got a new glint of light in her eye.
“Have you been to the Capital?”
“Nope. Can’t say that I have,” the giant replied.
“But you just said—”
“I said ‘probably,’ didn’t I?”
“I wonder what kind of place it is,” Raya mused as she swung the umbrella to dislodge the snow that’d collected on it.
“It was the headquarters of the Nobility. That’s no place for humans to be living.”
“Is it really that awful?”
“Yeah. You know, the Nobles weren’t good for squat. They completely ignored what anyone else thought or felt and made all kinds of monsters. I wonder
how those bastards would’ve liked being one of those freaks.” Then scratching his head bashfully, the giant added with a wry smile, “You get what I mean?”
“You . . . you were made by the Nobility . . .” Raya said, her voice carrying an unavoidable tremble. “So . . . why are you here?”
“The Nobility might’ve made me, but I’ve still gotta eat to survive.”
Dynus brought the hoe down. His timing must’ve been perfect, because he scooped a three-foot-square section clean out of the ground. He’d already gone down ten feet—the top of his head was at the same level as the ground. The hole was more than fifteen feet in diameter, and was more like a pond than a well.
Raya simply left everything to the silence of the falling snow. Though she wished the gorgeous young man were there, the figure in black had gone off to check the farm’s perimeter. This was a problem she’d have to solve on her own. The hand she used to clutch the umbrella trembled a bit.
Raya bravely began, “That day . . . I had the strangest dream . . . On the day I met you, that is . . . I went underground somewhere and got hooked to these mysterious machines . . . and then I understood everything. That I . . . I’m not the real me. The other me is a scary, scary woman . . . one who lives to do battle with someone.”
Taking another bite out of the ground with his hoe, Dynus asked, “You said ‘someone’—like who?”
“You want to know?”
“Yeah.”
Perhaps the giant sensed that at some point the volume of snow falling on him had changed. Raya’s umbrella was still open, but she held it with the tip aimed downward. The end of it was honed to a sharp point for use against monstrous beasts. The back of the giant’s head lay right before her.
Suddenly throwing down her umbrella, Raya ran back toward the house. A number of shadows drifted across her innocent countenance.
Flying in through the front door, she found her father in the living room. It wasn’t until she hugged up against his burly chest that she noticed he didn’t have a certain odor about him.
“Hey, now! What’s the matter?”
“I’m scared, Papa! Really scared. I’m your daughter, aren’t I? I was born here, right? And I had a mother and everything, didn’t I?”
“Sure you did. What are you getting at anyhow?”
“It doesn’t matter. Not so long as I know that. Just keep holding onto me.”
Not knowing exactly what was going on, the father gently supported his daughter’s form. He got the feeling that things were just like they’d been a long time ago.
A little while later, D and Dynus came in together.
“Is she okay?” Dynus asked worriedly.
“There doesn’t seem to be any reason for concern,” D said as his gaze fell on Raya breathing easily as she slumbered on the sofa. Beside her sat her father, protecting the defenseless silhouette with his own hard gaze.
“What’s this?” Dynus said as he took a sniff. “You given up the booze?”
“Yep,” the father replied. “After seeing how you were busting your hump out there, I realized how pathetic I’d become. So I decided to give it another go. And the first part of that was to swear off drinking and smoking.”
“That’s a nice resolution. I was hoping I’d be able to take it a little easier. Give it your best tomorrow.”
“No, I’m getting started today. I’m gonna show you how to dig a well!”
Clutching his belly and laughing for a while, Dynus then said, “Oh, you’re too much! By all means, show me how, sir.”
“You better believe I will. Okay, ready to go?”
Turning toward the door, the father said to D, “Sorry, but could I have you stay with her? I’m sure she’ll be a lot safer with you than with me.”
Saying nothing, D stepped over by the entryway.
One day, when the sun put in a rare appearance, D was notified that the book he’d ordered had arrived. Visiting the post office to claim it, he met someone there.
“Serna Nichol is my name. I’m the author of the book you requested,” the young linguist said with a smile, a volume containing his latest research in one hand.
But when the two of them arrived at the farm, Dynus and Raya were nowhere to be found, having vanished completely.
__
II
__
The father had gone into town with D and was still there trying to find a cultivator.
D went out back and got on his horse.
Mounting a borrowed horse, Serna said, “It may be they’re already going at it—where should we go?”
“I have a good idea. Wait here,” the Hunter told him.
“It may not look it, but I can handle a steed.”
D galloped off without even replying.
Before he’d pursued the Hunter for even a hundred yards, the linguist gave up. Though D’s cyborg horse was the kind you’d find by the dozen in any town, it raced off at twice the speed of his own mount.
“I’ll be damned. Things like this are why the Frontier scares me.”
Dejectedly returning to the farm, Serna decided to stay put.
__
At a point a little more than a mile from the ruins, D saw a gigantic figure approaching from up ahead. Dynus had both arms out in front of his chest, and in them he carried Raya and his great log of a club. He was clad in armor, and his appearance and that of the girl were a stark testament to what had transpired. Each of them had fresh blood dribbling from their forehead down to their chin.
“She ain’t dead,” Dynus volunteered. “She picked the perfect time to switch back to normal. And the shock of it made her faint dead away. Yeah, it looks like she hasn’t fully gone over yet.”
“I’ll take her on the horse with me,” D said as he extended his arms.
The giant shook his head, saying, “I’ll bring her back. She’s my nemesis, after all. That’s just courtesy. I already put some of my special salve on her wounds.”
“How about those other two characters?”
“Those clowns didn’t show themselves. But they’re definitely hanging around close by.”
That much D already knew—he’d been able to sense their presence in the vicinity of the farm constantly. Perhaps the reason they hadn’t attacked was because Raya hadn’t awakened to her potential, or because they actually feared Dynus’s power. And maybe they hadn’t come out to aid Raya when she lost consciousness because they knew that Dynus was only interested in doing battle with her in her warrior state.
The giant walked back over several miles of road.
“It’s a pity, I tell you. Why the hell does a good girl like her have to fight me?”
“When did she change?” asked the Hunter.
“While I was splitting wood.”
Dynus was out at the woodshed and Raya by the chicken coop a few hundred yards away, but she flew right to him.
We meet at last, Raya had said.
“I was so happy. I’d finally met the very opponent I was always meant to fight, D. And I could tell Raya was delighted, too. Hell, she even said so.”
I’m so glad, Raya had told him. This is the real me. Consider that gentle little farm girl no more than a dream. I’ve been waiting for you for so long. Come!
And then the two of them had gone out to the ruins to square off.
D didn’t ask the particulars of their brutal battle, and Dynus didn’t offer them.
It was soon after she’d been placed in her bed back at the farm that Raya regained consciousness. The frightened look in her eyes belonged to the ordinary girl they all knew. Her gaze clinging desperately to D, she said with bloodless lips, “What’s happened to me?”
But it was Dynus that responded, saying, “Nothing at all.”
“Really? You mean to tell me I was dreaming or something? I think in my dreams I was fighting someone. I’m scared. I can still remember how I felt at the time. I—I was so thrilled by the battle, by the thought of slaying my foe.”
D’s l
eft hand came to rest on her trembling brow.
“You should sleep.”
Nodding, the girl took a deep breath—and she quickly fell into the steady breathing of slumber.
“Wow, that was fast,” Dynus said with admiration.
D told him, “Let’s head outside.”
From her bedroom, the two went straight out to the porch.
“How’s her father doing?”
“He hasn’t come back from town yet.” Tossing his chin in the direction of the house, D added, “I’m going back in to have a talk with a certain scholar. Care to join me?”
“Is it about the two of us?” asked the giant.
“Yes.”
“Don’t bother then. At this point, finding out why we have to fight won’t accomplish squat . . . although I do still worry about her.”
“Here comes another man who wants to concern himself with her,” said the Hunter.
“What?!”
On seeing the motorized carriage coming in through the entrance to the farm flanked by riders, Dynus smiled wryly.
“Well, that’s a kick in the pants,” he remarked.
The carriage bore the mark of the “Frontier Garrison.” Troopers piled out of the vehicle like ants onto the white snow.
“That’s them! They’re the culprits who’ve interfered with my business,” screeched none other than Brewer.
A middle-aged man—the apparent leader—stepped forward from the pack of troopers. Though all the men carried gas-powered rifles, they still had the muzzles pointed at the ground.
“Pleased to meet you. Kevin’s the name. I’m captain of the Northern Eighth Division, Frontier Garrison. Fact of the matter is, two days back, we got a complaint from Mr. Brewer here. According to him, the two of you are infringing on his rights. Now, I don’t mean to—”
“So I take it the flesh trader told you we’re standing in the way of him buying a girl?”
“I resent that!” Brewer bellowed as his eyes bulged in their sockets. Holding up a sheet of paper with his right hand, he said, “Captain, this is the very same contract I showed you earlier. I have the right to bring that girl back to the Capital. Kindly drive these two off immediately!”
“—And that’s about the size of it,” the captain continued. “At any rate, the contract’s real enough. Would you be good enough to hand over the girl?”
Vampire Hunter D: Dark Nocturne Page 17