The black-gloved hand overlapped with the small, pale one. When it came away again, the copper coin was gone.
“And for that—take care of everybody,” the boy mumbled. He was a little tongue tied. He hadn’t opened his mouth enough.
“You have a deal,” D replied.
None of them understood the miracle that had just occurred.
“Kid . . .” Maria muttered in a low voice. A silvery-haired figure left her side and gave Toto a hug. It was Mrs. Stow.
“This child . . . asked him to look out for us . . .”
Tears streamed from the old woman’s eyes, dampening the boy’s hair. Quickly touching his hand to the spot, their little savior looked up into this strange rain with an expression that suggested he was about to break down and cry. The old woman hugged him again.
D said, “This path doesn’t lead to the road to the Capital.”
It was a surprising remark.
“Th—then why the hell are we headed this way?” Jan sputtered, but there was really no point in complaining, since they’d taken it upon themselves to follow D.
“I thought I made it clear I had business out here. If you have a problem with that, we can call this off.”
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your point.”
“Can I ask you something?” Bierce inquired, raising one hand. “What’s out there?”
“An old fortress.”
“A fortress?”
Apparently this was news to Bierce, who cocked his head to one side. The rest of the group exchanged glances, but of course they didn’t know anything either.
“So tell us about it,” Officer Weizmann said, leaning forward. Essentially, he was the Hunter’s employer, and that accounted for his arrogant tone.
“Once, this whole region was a ‘playground’ for the Nobility,” D began to explain. The name had survived into the present day, but all who knew how it’d actually been in antiquity had since turned to dust. All that remained of the original Playground was part of a research facility that was also a shrine. Ten thousand years earlier, the Sacred Ancestor’s troops had come down on the Nobles who controlled the region. They smashed through the net of defenses, until about three hundred surviving Nobles were left holed up in some ruins. Though they were outnumbered and outgunned, they had something else on their side: faith.
“Don’t imagine that the Sacred Ancestor was the only god the Nobles worshiped,” D told his rapt audience. “They believed in their own personal deities. But the ones who sought shelter out here worshiped a god that was unlike anything else. Against these three hundred or so Nobles was a force of thirty thousand—yet it took them thirteen months to take the fortress, thanks to that god. The Sacred Ancestor’s army destroyed all who’d found refuge there and, it is said, laid utter waste to these lands and the fortress, but for some reason it seems the fortress remains.”
“And that god—was it destroyed along with the Nobles?” Mr. Stow inquired with great trepidation. His face, covered with wrinkles and age spots, wore an earnest expression. When a person was this close to the end of his days, he became interested in any kind of god.
“I don’t know,” D replied. “But part of the Playground that was supposedly annihilated remains operational.”
“Would that be that thing—the thing that made itself look like you?” Jan asked, snarling like a beast.
In a hopeful tone, the complete opposite of Jan’s growl, the old man said, “Then, the Nobles’ god is still . . .” His body quivered.
Jan didn’t seem to like this one bit. “What are you sounding so happy about, old-timer? You saw that last monster, didn’t you? The god is that thing’s boss. Something like that might still be around. It’d gobble us up in a second.”
“Even with that god on their side, the besieged Nobles couldn’t win?” Bierce asked while rewinding his crimson scarf.
“Not in the end,” D said.
“So, what are you going to do there?”
Not responding to Maria’s question, the Hunter said, “The sun will be going down soon. I know you’re tired, but we have to set up camp.”
-
Setting up camp consisted of lighting the portable atomic lamp they’d taken from the aircraft and staying huddled around it; that was all they could manage. The fog lifted, and they could see each other clearly. Fortunately, the atomic lamp generated sufficient heat in a fifty-yard radius.
Noticing Bierce sitting against a rock with his eyes closed as she came back from washing her face at the riverbank, Maria walked over, stealing a glance at D standing in the distance.
“Say, you know something about that Hunter, don’t you?”
Without looking up at her, Bierce replied, “There’s nobody in my line of work who doesn’t know about him.”
“He’s that famous?”
“He’s a dhampir, with human and Noble blood—so he’s both human and Noble, yet neither human nor Noble.”
Maria looked surprised. She said, “That sounds pretty deep.”
Her tone was rather pensive, and she quickly donned an unsettled look and asked, “When he came out of the fog earlier, did you notice something? The fog parted right down the middle.”
“He’s that sort of man. Even the fog would want to do what she could for him.”
Maria gave the warrior a look that seemed to ask, What are you talking about, you idiot? as she said, “I never thought of the fog as being a woman.”
“I saw something weird, too.”
“Oh?”
“Weizmann must’ve seen it as well. When he gave him his advance, D took it with his left hand.”
“You’re right—does that mean he’s a southpaw?”
“He keeps his right hand free so if anything comes up, he can go for his weapon fast,” the warrior said, giving Maria a cold glance before he crinkled his brow. “But it looked like the palm of D’s hand smiled.”
“What?”
“A human face formed in it and grinned—I’m certain of it.”
-
III
-
The elderly couple, Toto, and Maria nodded off, in that order. Jan and Transport Officer Weizmann were fast asleep. The suckling’s head drooped—D alone stood some distance from the glow of the atomic lamp, but down by his feet someone called out to him.
“Well, that’s a dhampir for you. The night’s your element,” said Bierce the warrior, his upper body propped up against a smallish boulder. “I haven’t thanked you yet for saving us today, have I?”
D was silent. Perhaps that was his way of saying such pleasantries were unnecessary.
“Well, I’m saying it now. Thank you.”
Staring at the man as he bowed his head a bit, the Hunter remarked, “You’re ready to call it quits, aren’t you?”
After his stunned look, a wry grin surfaced on Bierce’s face. “You mean because it’s not like a warrior to go thanking people left, right, and center? Yeah, you’re right.”
Bierce chopped at the back of his neck with the edge of his hand.
“I’ll be forty this year. A cyborg horse is more my style, but I got on that skybus because I’d taken a job as a guard in the Capital. It’s nice having your freedom, but that’s a young man’s game. When you get older, it’s best to settle down to some quiet pasture. Hmm . . . I don’t suppose a dhampir like you could understand that, though.”
“There are old people and a child,” D said. “They’re asleep now, exhausted. But they’ve all been depending on you, haven’t they?”
Bierce said nothing.
“Because they thought you were a warrior. And that you’d be a lifeline, there to save them if they needed you.”
The old woman had leaned on Maria’s shoulder, and the boy had ridden on Jan’s back. Even though Bierce had to be tougher than any of them, he hadn’t been asked to help.
“Sorry. Their lifeline is a piece of junk,” Bierce said in a self-deprecating manner. “When they wake up, I’ll carry the kid.”
“If you call yourself a warrior, you’ve got better things to do.”
When D said this, Bierce leapt to his feet.
“Finally time for the real deal?”
Slinging the quiver of arrows that rested by his right arm across his back, he put his longsword on his hip. His movements were quick, without the slightest pause.
In the meantime, D woke those who were sleeping. It wasn’t clear just how he did it; he merely had to lay one hand on the shoulder of each and they were wide awake.
“What is it?” the transport officer asked.
“The enemy. Take cover behind that rock.”
As soon as D spoke, the officer raced over to the suckling and coiled the rope that had been tied to a rock around his hand instead.
On seeing Bierce with iron arrows between the fingers of his right hand, Jan shuddered. It was fighter’s nerves.
“So, the fuckers are coming? I want a piece of ’em, too,” the mobster said, tucking his broadsword through his belt.
“The enemy numbers five,” Bierce said. His eyes were closed. He must’ve listened for their footsteps.
“I’ll take them.”
Everyone’s eyes focused on a spot where nothing but those words remained. D was already headed for the water’s edge. Without hesitating, he stepped into the depths. Knowing that running water was the nemesis of those with Noble blood, Bierce got a gleam in his eyes.
Though fairly swift, the current didn’t budge the Hunter an inch as he went out into the middle and turned upstream. The water rose to his waist.
Out of the fog and darkness, five figures came gliding across the water’s surface. They halted five yards from D. Apparently they, too, were unaffected by the current. This was thanks to the gold disks their boots rested on. About a foot in diameter, they allowed their rider to move like a whirligig beetle, and as they now demonstrated, they also gave a person total control even in the fiercest current. The five halted only for an instant, and then glided across the water’s surface to form a ring around D. All of them wore golden armor and helmets. Four were armed with long spears, while the fifth held a laser gun.
“So, someone to play with after all this time?” the armored figure facing D said with relish. His golden cape swayed in the night breeze. “I’m sure you must know what this place is—so you’re either very unlucky or very stupid.” Staring at the people by the shore, he said, “There are a few more over there, I see. We’ll have to round them up and get them to join us in some mermaid hunting. Like so!”
From a pouch at the waist of his armor he pulled out something like a minnow and threw the thrashing little thing into the water. Suddenly it became a giant, six-foot-long fish that tried to swim away. A stark flash of light from his armored right hand tied him and the water together. Perhaps D alone saw the thrust he’d made with ungodly speed. Kicking up a tremendous spray, the gigantic fish and the long spear that pierced it were raised high.
“It hurts! It hurts so much!” said a human voice.
Maria and Mrs. Stow screamed. But they hadn’t seen the worst. As the armored figure turned the fish toward them with a little chuckle, they saw the face of a human girl writhing in the throes of death.
Raising the twitching body high, the armored figure laughed, “This is what we mean by ‘mermaid hunting.’ There’s ‘were-tiger hunting,’ as well. Tigers or fish—which will it be?” His laughter swelled into something louder and more malevolent.
But then another voice rang out, soft yet strong and cold, saying, “I know something else, too.”
The figure’s laughter stopped dead.
“What?”
“This.”
At that moment, the gorgeous figure in black pounced. Perhaps it was his beauty that mesmerized the armored man.
When a blade whizzed down and sliced through their compatriot’s helm, cleaving him down to the ribs, the others became masses of murderous intent and leveled their spears. The laser marksman who’d dropped back a pace raised his weapon to his shoulder. A crimson arrow penetrated his throat, going in through the left side and jabbing out from the right.
Not even glancing at their companion as he fell, the remaining three squared off against D, blasting rays of blistering heat into the sky all the while. They knew there was no way they could defeat their opponent if they flew off the handle. The way they adjusted their stance and lowered their center of gravity as they readied their spears was so skillful and precise, it left Bierce paralyzed as he prepared to loose a second arrow.
D sank down. His blade was horizontal, at eye level, the tip pointed ever so slightly down as the flowing water hid him up to the elbow. The stark blade then vanished from the trio’s view. As did the Hunter.
The four attackers halted in the river like four stones in human form.
Jan coughed, and Maria held Toto tight. Even the suckling was frozen.
The figure that came flying at the Hunter with fog trailing behind him was the opponent who’d been behind D and to his left. As it flew through the air, his spear was every bit as swift as the first man’s had been. The water parted by D’s hand. A sword blade appeared and batted away the long spear, then limned an arc overhead, following which the body of D’s foe hit the water some ten feet away, split open from the crotch all the way to the right lung as it sank. But before it did, the weapons with which the remaining two struck—one from behind the Hunter and to the right, the other head on—were easily knocked away, and as the attackers were left off balance, flashes of light ruthlessly carved through their chests.
Changing the spot where he stood ever so slightly, the young man was still poised for action, while behind him, five black streaks flowed away.
Sheathing his daunting blade without wiping it or flicking it clean, D climbed out of the water, where he was greeted not by cheers, but by a deathly silence. His battle, which was beyond human ken, had left the others chilled—but that wasn’t what their eyes or their faces said. They had seen D as he really was.
He told the people who were dazedly staring at him, “There’s no way to be certain more won’t be coming. We’re leaving.”
“That’s crazy!” Jan shouted in protest, pointing to the aged couple. “Look at them! Those two can’t make it another step. I’m beat, and so is everyone else. Before those clowns’ friends could get us, we’d die of fatigue.”
“He’s right,” Bierce said in the mobster’s support. “And it’s ten times harder walking at night than it is by day. Even if we carry the old folks and the kid, it’ll really slow us down.”
“I want the men to come with me.”
With this odd remark, D walked toward the cliff. Following him without a clue what was going on, Jan gasped. There was a small patch of cylindrical plants about six feet tall growing beneath the cliff.
“What, you thinking about making a raft?” Jan said, his eyes going wide. “These trees will float all right, but they’re so hard you couldn’t cut into ’em with an ax. Not that we even have an ax in the first place.”
Arms extended, he was shrugging his shoulders when a stark white flash blazed before him.
“Huh?”
There was just a single flash—and without a backward glance at the cylindrical stalks hitting the ground, D headed off toward the next source of building materials.
FORTRESS OF DEATH
CHAPTER 3
-
I
-
The raft was assembled in about two hours—basically, it was all D’s show. For plants that were supposedly buoyant they were strangely heavy, and while Jan and Weizmann together could barely move one, D lifted them easily with one hand and bound them together with the extremely fine wire he carried. Bierce tried to squeeze a finger into the space between the cylindrical logs, but they wouldn’t budge an inch, and when he tried the same with an arrowhead, he couldn’t get it in even a millimeter.
“Talk about strength,” the experienced warrior said, clucking his tongue with amaz
ement.
Everyone carried the raft over to the river and climbed aboard. D then cut the wire tied to a rock on shore, and the raft glided away.
A heavy anxiety clung to all of them. Perhaps realizing as much, Jan asked, “Say, Mr. D, what were those things in the armor earlier?”
“Illusions of the Nobility.”
Everyone turned in his direction.
“Illusions? You hacked them up, and they bled and everything!”
“Illusions can bleed, too. If they’re Nobles.”
“But no one’s heard any talk of them still being in this area for thousands of years.”
“That’s why he said they’re illusions,” Bierce interjected. “From what I hear, this whole area used to be a playground for the Nobility. They altered human beings in all sorts of ways and had fun hunting them. Did their god tell ’em to do it? Or was it just some new form of human sacrifice?”
The warrior’s last two questions were directed at D.
There was no reply. Like a gorgeous darkness, the young man stood still in the center of the raft, becoming one with the night.
An hour passed without incident. All of them had begun to think that perhaps they could keep drifting like that all the way to a safe place. Toto and the aged couple dropped off to sleep.
D suddenly shifted his eyes from side to side.
“What is it?” Bierce inquired. He was the only other one awake.
“They’re coming from both sides. At least twenty riders on either bank.”
Though Bierce strained to hear, only the sound of the wind struck his eardrums. However, if that was what the dashing young man before him said, it had to be true.
“For all your skill with a blade, you can’t reach the shore from here,” the warrior said, a confident smile splitting his bearded face. “I still can’t see our enemy or hear their mounts, but I want you to leave ’em to me.”
-
It was about five minutes later that the echoes of iron-shod hooves rang out. Unlike their earlier opponents, these men wore black capes and galloped on dark steeds. Each and every figure was outlined in pale blue flames. The men’s hair was ablaze, as were the manes and fetlocks of their mounts.
Vampire Hunter D Volume 18- Fortress of the Elder God Page 4