Just before the mob could crush the pair on the ground, a shower of sparks flashed in the transporter’s wildly spinning brain. Jumping out in front of the villagers, he spread his arms and said, “Just hold on! The young guy’s a Vampire Hunter who’s been working as our escort. He’s a dhampir, but he was keeping an eye on that girl. She’s a little Noble. No doubt they must’ve had it out here. Now I’ll finish the girl off for good. I’m hoping that’ll be enough for all of you.”
A glint of reason returned to the crazed and bloodshot eyes of the villagers. Based on the present situation, they could understand a little Noble girl being cut down by a Hunter. And though the great hole in the ground was a mystery, it was something beyond their comprehension.
“So, how about it?” Juke called out loudly.
What worried him was that in cases like this, the final decision rested with the mayor, and he would’ve done well to turn to that person, but he’d heard that this village’s mayor and an assistant had set off for a neighboring community three days earlier and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. There were a number of people he recognized, but Juke couldn’t decide if any of them were up to acting as a leader.
“If you like, I’ll also throw in a little something extra in addition to what you’ve ordered, as a gift to the village.”
That had come to him in a desperate flash, and it proved far more effective than anything he’d said up until now.
Nearly all the villagers wore an expression as if they’d just been exorcised of some demon as they exchanged glances with one another.
“What should we do?” voices whispered here and there, and then they gave way to quiet remarks that quickly built into a chorus.
“I suppose that’ll work.”
“Good enough!”
“Kill the Noble girl. And once you’re done, unload your goods and get out of town. You got that?” one of them said, and he wasn’t alone. A number of others voiced their agreement.
“Understood,” Juke replied, turning then to face D—and Ann. He was ready to do what needed to be done. In order to save D, there was nothing he could do except dispose of an innocent little girl. Granted, the girl had originally come to kill them all.
“Lend me a spear,” he said.
A number of the lengthy weapons were instantly tossed down at his feet. Taking one of them in hand, Juke grabbed Lady Ann by the ankle and pulled her away from D. Straightening up again, he glanced down at the girl to take aim with his spear. He tried to avoid looking at her face.
With blood staining her left cheek, the girl had the face of a veritable angel.
Isn’t this murder?
Ignoring the thought that skimmed for a heartbeat through his brain, he prepared to drive the iron tip of the weapon through the chest that was just a little too well formed for its age.
“Wait just a minute!” a low, calm female voice called out, making the whole group turn and look.
“It’s the mayor!” someone shouted.
“You’re back early.”
Due to the stir she created, it was only too clear that the speaker had the trust of the villagers. The mob split down the middle, and a short woman in her fifties came with a composed gait through the crowd to stand before Juke. Though her hair was gray, her blue eyes were filled to overflowing with purpose and intellect.
“I’m Yutta Camus, mayor of the village,” she said with a courteous bow to Juke. “What’s all this commotion?”
Each and every villager started talking at once. One voice blotted out the next, leaving nothing but pure noise.
“Quiet down!” the mayor roared in a voice like the edge of the wind, and silence returned.
“Mr. Wald, kindly explain.”
At this directive—in a tone that’d grown calm with staggering speed—a middle-aged man with a long, horselike face stepped forward from the crowd and explained the situation to Mayor Camus. As parts of it were fairly one sided, Juke tried to interrupt, at which point the mayor told him she’d hear his side later.
And after she’d actually listened to what he had to say, she turned to the group and said, “Maybe it was a premonition? It’s fortunate I came back a day early. If I hadn’t, an innocent young girl would’ve been lost without having a chance to explain herself.”
At her merciless censure, the villagers lowered their eyes.
When she then turned back to Juke, her face was so mild she seemed like a completely different person.
“And you,” she continued. “I don’t care if you’re trying to save your friend; I don’t care if she’s a Noble—I don’t want you to ever think about raising a hand against a child like this. From the look of it, that young man needs medical attention. Why don’t you stay in the assembly hall until he’s better.”
__
III
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In a sense, Juke found Mayor Camus’s consideration an unwanted favor. He had no complaint about her treatment of D or the fact that she’d given them permission to stay there, but her generosity was also coupled with a strict admonition not to lay a hand on Lady Ann. To be perfectly honest, he’d wanted to do away with the girl. Knowing there was no use arguing about it, he’d thanked her and got the help of some of the villagers in bringing the pair back to the wagon—carrying Ann on his own back. He’d ignored Sergei as the man asked what was going on, heading directly to the assembly hall, where he explained the situation to his compatriot in an empty room once their accommodations had been prepared. He even shared his thoughts on the matter of Ann.
Much to his surprise, Sergei replied, “Let’s bring her with us.”
Stupefied, he asked, “Why?”
“After hearing your tale, I suppose that big hole in the ground must’ve been made by the little girl’s father—the Duke of Xenon, or whatever he’s called. I don’t really know why a parent would run off and leave their daughter covered in blood, but my hunch is that the girl didn’t get taken down by D—I think she might’ve been trying to save him. I’ve been keeping an eye on her the whole time, and I can tell you she loves D down to the marrow of her bones. If D told her to die, she’d gladly drive a stake into her own heart. In which case, it looks like you’ve got yourself a replacement for D. She might not be interested in anything but D, but for him she’d fight to the bitter end, and by extension she’d be fighting for us, too. Right?”
“You might have something there. Only we don’t have a freaking clue when D’s gonna wake up, and the girl’s hurt pretty bad, too.”
“Snap out of it, Juke. We’re talking about a Noble here. See, she may look ten years old, but inside she’s a monster, ageless and undying. She’ll heal a hundred times faster than D. Just leave her be, I say. Leave her be.”
With the logic laid out for him that clearly, Juke had no choice but to nod his head. According to Sergei, Gordo would recover soon, too.
Gotta be worth a shot, he thought.
Not even needing to hear Juke’s reply, Sergei read it in the man’s face, giving him a light clap on the shoulder and saying, “Okay! We’re good, right? I’m gonna look in on D. Leave tonight’s watch to me and get yourself a decent night’s sleep.”
The assembly hall was unexpectedly spacious, and it had a covered garage that could’ve easily accommodated five or six cargo wagons—that’s where their vehicle was parked. Leaving the empty room, Sergei found where D was sleeping. In the room to the right Gordo continued to receive a transfusion, while Rosaria was in the one to the left. Ann had stopped bleeding, so she alone had been left out in their wagon. Wolfsbane had been put on its doors and windows, so she’d have a hard time getting out of it. They couldn’t be sure that seeing her roaming around free as you please wouldn’t cause another panic among the villagers.
Sergei was worried about D. Earlier, when he’d seen the villagers carrying the Hunter into his room, his left hand had been shriveled like a mummy from the wrist down. Knowing as he did that it served as a sort of medical specialist living within D’s b
ody, the transporter was understandably concerned. And it was on account of this that he paid a call on D.
However, before the man had gone ten paces down the hall he heard the unmistakable sound of breaking glass coming from the direction of D’s room. Racing to the rescue, Sergei saw D lying in bed and a bloodstained Lady Ann glaring at the shattered window as the wind carried in darkness. When Sergei and the village physician had examined her, her heart had stopped—despite her Noble nature. But she must’ve been faking it.
“You little bitch! I knew you were up to no good!”
“I’ll thank you to refrain from such vulgarity.”
“How long have you been okay?”
“Ever since I was first cut. I was up against my own father, after all,” she laughed.
Realizing there’d be no reasoning with her, Sergei asked, “What happened?”
Before posing his question, he’d looked at D and decided that nothing was out of the ordinary.
“See for yourself,” Lady Ann said, pointing under D’s bed.
On the floor lay a heavy bastard sword that darkly reflected the light from the ceiling.
“Someone from the village?”
Ann shook her head in response to his tense query. Clear as glass beads, her blue eyes burned with rage.
“Well, who was it, then?” he asked, thinking how ridiculous this was and that the answer would be obvious.
Seeming to choose her words with care, Ann replied calmly, “It was Mr. Gordo.”
Not surprisingly, the transporter was stupefied, saying, “Of all the absurd—”
But the girl insisted it was true.
How would Gordo get in here when he was still getting a transfusion? And why would anyone need that nasty-looking sword?
As disturbing as the latter question was to ponder, Sergei had a pretty good idea what the answer was. As for the former—
“Why’d you come here?”
Ann’s reply to that question was straight enough: “I came to get rid of his left hand. Because I didn’t have a chance to deal the coup de grâce.”
“What about the wolfsbane?”
“It doesn’t work on me,” Ann responded, and this time her innocent smile made the hair stand up on his arms.
“At any rate, let’s go have a look at Gordo.”
Just as the pair was about to leave the room, Juke came running in, having heard the sounds of destruction. All of them went into Gordo’s room next door, where the man lay exactly as he had when he’d been brought there, still connected to the transfusion equipment.
“Hey! What’s the meaning of this?” Sergei exclaimed, but as he turned to look at the girl, his eyes found only the open door and the hallway, which, while well lit, was still a cold scene.
“I must leave. Short though it was, I enjoyed our journey,” Lady Ann said in an extremely morose tone, the words themselves falling from places unknown. “The villagers will be here soon. They’ll probably wish to destroy me. Before they arrive, I shall leave so I may protect my D from the shadows.”
As the words ceased in the light, there was the sound of stomping feet and angry voices from the front hall.
Fearing more trouble, Juke and Sergei decided to say that it was actually Ann who’d attacked D, and by the time the villagers had bought into it, Ann was racing gracefully through the darkness until she arrived at a building where there wasn’t a single light showing. Peering at a sign on the wall, she saw that the steel plate read Town Hall. The back door was unlocked.
Sailing down the corridor like the wind, the girl came to the room at the very back of the first floor. Amid a line of doors that were darkened as if by design, this one alone had a light burning. Nothing could be seen from outside because the shades were drawn to keep supernatural creatures from being drawn to the light spilling out through the frosted glass.
As she was reaching for the doorknob, a voice said, “Come in.”
Ann entered.
At the far end of the spacious room, a gray-haired woman was seated at a desk in front of a window with its wooden shutters closed. The door Ann let go of had a plate on it that read Mayor.
“Welcome, Lady Ann,” said the mayor who held the trust and respect of the entire village, smiling with the most heartfelt sincerity at this lovable yet accursed child of the Nobility.
“So it is you after all, Dr. Gretchen,” Ann said, not begrudging her host her usual blossom of a smile.
Grinning wryly, the mayor said, “I set upon the real one as she was returning from the neighboring village, and I’d believed I’d done a good job of impersonating her, but how clever of you to find me out. And how did you learn that it was the renowned mayor who was pulling Gordo’s strings?”
By the sound of it, she’d apparently been controlling Gordo from the room and watching everything.
“I simply thought about the timing for Mr. Gordo being turned into a puppet,” Ann replied with a bit of satisfaction. She certainly was a precocious little beauty. “I hadn’t observed anything out of the ordinary about him up till the time D and I left the wagon. And though Juke and Sergei brought the wagon to the assembly hall, there were villagers all around them at the time, so no one could’ve laid a hand on him. After we got there, I can attest that there were no intruders.”
“You were feigning unconsciousness, weren’t you? You certainly fooled everyone.”
“It’s most kind of you to say so.”
“But why?”
“The answer is obvious. To gain their sympathy.”
“You’re an impressive little lady,” the mayor she’d called Dr. Gretchen said, letting out a laugh that left her pale throat exposed. “So—I would love to hear the rest of your formidable reasoning.”
“Very well. It’s as I already mentioned. The only chance you might’ve had to do anything strange to Mr. Gordo would’ve been when everyone went running off to where D and I were. That was when you went to where the wagon had stopped. All alone. You let your assistant go on ahead.”
“But Mr. Sergei was standing watch.”
“That would simply mean you had to put a spell on him as well.”
The mayor nodded time and again with satisfaction.
“Exemplary reasoning, Lady Ann. Your father must be quite proud of you.”
“We are no longer father and daughter. Father cut me, and I have severed all ties to him. Now there is only one person who matters to me.”
“As it happens, you picked the wrong man to be smitten with, didn’t you?” the mayor said, the expression that surfaced on her face filled with undeniable affection.
Strangely enough, it must’ve moved Ann as well, as a glittering trail rolled down the girl’s cheek.
“Thank you. So, Doctor, what do you intend to do about D?”
“I shall dispose of him. I wonder—will you try to interfere?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must go as well,” the mayor said somewhat sadly, a distant glow in her eyes. “Ill-fated though your love may be, I know all too well how you feel. Such a gorgeous Hunter—I’ve lived six millennia and can’t recall ever seeing anyone like him.”
“Then kindly leave him alone.”
“But that’s precisely why I came,” the mayor said, her lips finally twisting into a horrifying shape. “You must be aware of the kind of people I worked on—all humans gifted with incredibly good looks, and a few Nobility as well. And there wasn’t one among them who didn’t weep and cling to me, begging me to kill them or destroy them. That is the level to which I’ve taken my skill.”
“I won’t allow you to lay a finger on my beloved!” Ann asserted frostily, the radiant smile now entirely wiped from her face.
THE LADY AND THE LEFT HAND
CHAPTER 6
I
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Still on edge but unable to get rough with the people to whom the mayor had given protection, the villagers set off in search of Ann, at which point Juke said to Sergei, “I’ll go with their group.
You stay and take care of things here.”
“To be honest, I don’t know if I can handle it. We’ve got Rosaria to worry about, too.”
“She’s Sleeping Beauty.”
“Yeah, the Sleeping Beauty Gaskell made. But I don’t have a clue when something other than a prince’s kiss might wake her from the general’s spell. After she slits my throat, it’ll be a little late for me to say I trusted her.”
“Then tie her up good. It doesn’t look like she’s strong like the little lady was.”
Sergei sighed. “Do what you like, then. Anyway, be careful out there,” he said, waving his hand. Outside, the torches and lanterns the villagers carried danced like fireflies.
After seeing Juke off, Sergei headed straight for D’s room—in all the commotion, he’d forgotten to check on the Hunter’s left hand, which he’d been so worried about. Closing the door, Sergei was a little unsteady on his legs, but he hastily pulled himself up straight and rubbed both temples firmly.
Must be tired, he thought.
Coming up on D’s left side, Sergei knelt down. He had a grim look in his eye. Putting a piece of glass to D’s lips, he confirmed that the Hunter was barely breathing, and that the sleep upon him was so deep it was nearly death before he stood up again.
In the misty depths of his brain, a gray-haired old woman with red eyes was ordering him to do something. It seemed Gordo was there, too. Sergei was certain of what she’d said.
Taking a machete with a blade a foot and a half long out of his jacket, Sergei adjusted his grip on it time and again until he finally settled on a satisfactory stance.
Look for an opportunity to cut D’s left hand off. That’s what the old woman had told him. Although Gordo had apparently made a move first, he’d been unsuccessful. Oddly enough, the girl had interrupted him when she’d come to get rid of D’s left hand.
“Wish you could see this, Lady Ann. I’m getting rid of it now!”
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