Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  “Don’t tell me it didn’t bother you; say you don’t hold it against me. As a special favor to an old woman.”

  “I don’t hold it against you.”

  “Thank you kindly,” the old woman exclaimed, breaking into a grin as she raised one hand in thanks.

  Wearing a look that absolutely defied description, Lance gazed at D.

  “I guess dhampirs got it pretty hard, too,” said Clay, who sounded unusually introspective.

  Ahead of them, a few low mountains of sand appeared. They were perhaps twenty feet high or more, but the inclines were gentle. Tae began climbing them with a regular gait. Granny switched her wagon into low gear.

  Tae and D were the first to reach the summit; next came Granny’s wagon. Then Clay galloped up last. All halted there. There was no wind to welcome them.

  “I see,” Granny said, sounding deeply impressed. “I suppose that’d make anyone want to give up farming.”

  About two hundred yards off, the desert underwent a remarkable transformation. No trace remained of the boundless sea of sand. Lush green filled everyone’s field of view, and it stretched off without end to either side. The scent of cool ozone tickled the nostrils of all. The towering trees seemed to reach heights of easily four hundred feet. The desert had chosen to greet the party with a massive forest.

  .

  II

  .

  Though they all recalled what this had to be, it was Granny that said its name. “So, this is the moving forest—it has to be a trap, right?”

  “More than likely,” the Hunter replied. “But at least we should be able to find water here.”

  “It’s a damn good trick. Never seen an oasis like this before,” Clay said, his eyes sparkling with admiration. But this was no mere oasis. It was a vast forest the likes of which couldn’t be found even in the heavily wooded regions of the north. The vista was more than just magical . . . it was close to miraculous.

  “What do we do, eh?” the crone asked.

  “Unless we want to roast here, we have no choice but to go on. We have a guide,” D said, turning his gaze to Tae, who’d stopped a few yards ahead of him.

  “You have to do something for her,” Granny said. “If you don’t wake her up fast, she’ll wind up serving the desert for the rest of her life.”

  “There’s nothing we can do for her at the moment. We’ll have to take the desert itself out of action. For the time being, our hands are tied.”

  “Hmph!” the old woman snorted. “Here you are, a dhampir, and you’re completely useless.”

  “At any rate, let’s go,” Clay said, raking the fingers of one hand through his hair. Grains of sand rained noisily to the ground. “This trip’s just about bored the hell out of me. I need me a bit of stimulation, I think.”

  No one had any objections, and there was little else they could do. Tae began walking again. With nothing to stop them, the party followed along after her into the vast forest. As they entered the shade, cool air swept over every inch of them. They suddenly stopped sweating. Granny shivered.

  Tae continued between the boles and their endless verdant riot, her steps free from trepidation. It was obvious she was under someone else’s control. The only sound the party heard was that of grass and dirt under hooves—absent were the songs of the birds and the chirping of the insects. Apparently, nothing lived in this forest save the trees.

  “Hey, sodbuster,” Clay called out. “This is a hell of a place we find ourselves. You happen to know what kind of trees these are?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Well, I feel so much better then,” the warrior said, his explosion of laughter coursing out between the trees and then disappearing. But Clay soon clammed up.

  “This is a psi attack, right?” Granny asked.

  “No,” D replied, never taking his eyes off Tae. “This is the real thing. But it’s definitely under the desert’s control.”

  “What in the blue blazes does it want with us anyway?” Granny said irritably, and then she quickly looked up.

  Lance, who’d been straining his ears, had clapped his hands together. “That sounds like . . . water!” he exclaimed.

  “Seems this confounded desert might be good for something after all,” said the old woman.

  “Only because it has to keep us alive,” D remarked.

  “With that kind of thinking, you’re not cut out for anything but Hunting.”

  D looked up. The colossal branches overlapped above them, forming a dense canopy. The reason it remained bright despite the fact that sunlight couldn’t get through was because bioluminescent fungi clung to the bark of the trees.

  “There’s something out there,” Clay muttered.

  “You’re right,” Granny said. “I can feel it. There are a lot of them, too. I just can’t tell where they’re coming from.”

  “I’m sure we’ll know soon enough,” Clay said, putting his right hand on his harp.

  After they’d gone on for five minutes, the sound of water was even more obvious to their ears. Another ten minutes passed, and suddenly a waterfall and pool appeared before them. The silvery ribbon of water dropped straight down from a height of thirty or forty feet.

  “This is nice! I’m gonna have me a swim.”

  But just as Clay made that carefree remark, Tae thudded to her knees ahead of them. Strength draining from her body, she collapsed on her side.

  Leaping down from her vehicle, Granny raced over to the girl.

  “Is she okay?” Lance asked as he jumped to the ground, too.

  D and Clay alone gazed at the dark blue waters that reflected the greenery.

  “Doesn’t seem to be anything here,” Clay said after a while.

  Without a word, D rode his horse over to the edge of the lagoon. He didn’t so much as glance at Tae or the other two with her. His left index finger went to his mouth. When it quickly came away again, a bright red bead welled from the tip of it. Turning his finger toward the ground, he pressed his thumb against it right next to the bloody bead. A drop of scarlet fell between the waves lapping at the shore, and then vanished in the blink of an eye. Watching the placid surface for a while, D then said, “Looks like you can swim here.”

  Choosing a flat spot near the water, the group set up camp. By the time Lance finished taking care of the water tank, it was evening. But that only applied to the world outside the forest—D and his companions were still surrounded by the glow of the luminescent fungi.

  “That looks like the end of our water woes,” Granny said with a satisfied nod when she returned to the driver’s seat from an inspection of the tank.

  Sitting by the campfire gobbling down the contents of a can of food, Clay remarked, “Sure, but the long and short of it is, we ain’t getting out of here till we put this desert down once and for all. We gotta do something fast. Where’s the thing’s heart, anyway?”

  “If we knew that, we wouldn’t be busting our humps,” Granny replied in a bitter tone as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at D, who reclined against a rock some ten or so feet away.

  “What’d you do with Tae?” Clay asked as he looked all around.

  “She’s in the wagon with Lance.”

  “Again? You’re playing with fire there.”

  “You needn’t trouble yourself about it. I’m sure he won’t let his guard down this time.”

  “I’ll take the next shift from him,” said the warrior.

  “Let the wolf watch the sheep? Don’t make me laugh.”

  “A wolf, am I? That guy’s a hundred times more dangerous than me,” Clay shot back, his eyes creeping over to D in the shade of a rock.

  “That one’s had a different upbringing from you. Got a better character, too.”

  “He’s a dhampir. He’s bound to get thirsty for blood sooner or later.”

  “If he does, I suppose I’ll just have to chalk it up to bad luck,” Granny replied.

  “Have it your way then,” the warrior said. Clay then hit t
he outer wall of the wagon with his ridiculously large fist. “Hey! Come out here a minute. I gotta have a word with you.”

  Both Lance and Tae stuck their heads out.

  “My business is with the man of the wagon,” Clay said. “I thought we could take a little stroll and chew the fat.”

  “What, with me?” Lance asked, his eyes wide.

  “You got a problem with that?”

  “No.”

  “Then leave the dhampir to watch the women and come with me.”

  “Don’t you hurt him,” Tae cried. “He was only looking after me.”

  “Relax, missy. I might not look it, but in warrior circles, I’m known as something of a gentleman,” Clay said with a smirk as he tossed his jaw in Lance’s direction.

  “D! Granny! Stop him!”

  “Let ’em be,” Granny said with a wink. “When men get to quarreling, this is the only way to put an end to it. Now you stop for a minute and think about what it means if a couple of boys are ready to throw down over you. And once you’re done doing that, get back to your sewing.”

  “D,” Tae called out, her last hope bound to his name. But then she realized that her expectation wouldn’t be met. There was no sign of the gorgeous youth in black anywhere.

  “He’s probably off checking out the area,” remarked the old woman.

  Now down on the ground, Tae could be heard to say, “I . . . I’ll go look for him!”

  “Now, just hold on!” Granny cried at the slender back of the girl dashing off toward the rocks. The crone reached for the jar on her hip, but stopped in mid-motion. “Ah, to blazes with it!” she said to herself. “She’s at that age, after all.” And then she turned to the two men with great dissatisfaction and said, “Unless the two of you are trying to see who can be the world’s biggest idiot, you’ll knock this off right now.”

  .

  Going to the side of the rock, Tae looked toward the forest. Between the green leaves, a figure in black could be seen in the distance.

  “Wait!” she cried out, and just as she did, the black shape melted into the forest. Before she could even think about turning back, her body was moving forward. As she ran, she called out, “D!”

  Stopping where D had disappeared, she looked all around. Twenty or thirty feet off to her left there was a section of open ground, and D stood in the center of the nearly circular clearing.

  “D!” the girl cried out. She was about to dash over to him when a low command sharp as a blade stopped her.

  “Hide.”

  Frantically, the girl ducked behind a tree. D had become a statue. Though she strained her eyes, Tae could see nothing around them; perhaps only D knew what it was. At just that moment, something black bobbed up over D’s head. Looking at it from a logical standpoint, the object dropping from above with incredible speed had probably slowed its descent at the end to lessen the shock of impact, but to Tae it seemed to just pop up instead. The slight glint the girl saw was like a blow to her heart.

  “D!”

  The flash of silver that flew up from the ground forced the girl’s cry back down her throat. Cut in half around its middle, the dark figure thudded to the ground at D’s feet. It was a stark-naked human. However, the hands that grasped something metallic and the legs were abnormally long, reminiscent of a spider. As similar forms dropped from above one after another, Tae gasped.

  D’s longsword flashed out, and those it touched fell to the ground dead. A trio of figures that’d landed out of reach of the blade took to the air. They had incredible leaping power, but that was all they had a chance to show. Without time to use the weapons they had in their hands, they were split in half by the arc of the longsword. D moved lightly. A bloody mist billowed toward him, skimming by his body before it hit the ground.

  At some point, enough spider people had descended that their milling shapes blotted out the darkness. If they came at D en masse, even he wouldn’t be able to stop all of them at the same time. Perhaps realizing as much, the figures creeping across the ground crouched as one. Before they could advance, they stopped suddenly. A horrifying aura had paralyzed them all—an aura which emanated from D.

  “Heading back?” Tae heard the Hunter ask in the same steely tone as always.

  The spiders scurried into action. They seemed relieved. For some reason, Tae felt relieved, too.

  The bodies of the spider people floated up into the air. Although Tae’s eyes couldn’t detect what supported them, they rubbed their hands and feet together as they vanished into the treetops. No doubt the reason they seemed to be moving in slow motion compared to their earlier descent was because D’s aura had seeped into their marrow.

  Suddenly, Tae realized that the two of them were alone.

  Turning to her, D asked, “Why did you come here?”

  At a loss for words, Tae then remembered what her original moti-vation had been. “Er . . . Mr. Clay and Mr. Lance are about to . . . ” Her voice petered out. She’d just realized D didn’t have a whit of interest in that. What became of his fellow travelers was no concern of his. “How can you be so cold . . .?” she said, the words creeping from her mouth unbidden. She had to wonder what her face looked like as she stared at D. She’d tried to regain some composure, but one after another the emotions seeping from her heart became words. “You don’t care at all what happens to anyone else, do you? You’re nothing but darkness and ice to the very core. No matter what anyone else thinks of you, you can just ignore them like some little puff of wind. I’ve heard that dhampirs have human blood mixed in with the Noble, but that’s a lie. You’ve got nothing but the cold, dark blood of the Nobility flowing in your veins!” she shouted.

  As Tae shouted at him, she shook. It felt like the blood was coursing through her body in reverse, and that it was going to freeze—from fear. No matter who or what they might be, anyone who crossed this youth would be cut down. Tae realized for the first time what this Vampire Hunter really was. However, another emotion had welled up with her fright, and it was on this that Tae’s consciousness became fixed. The feeling became a sob, and Tae spun around. If nothing else, she wanted to at least keep him from seeing her cry. Leaning back against a nearby bole, Tae sobbed.

  “What happened in Castle Gradinia?” the Hunter asked.

  The girl heard his voice, but didn’t sense him drawing any closer. “Don’t come near me,” she said. “Just go back. Leave me alone.”

  “This is dangerous territory. Those things I just fought haven’t given up yet. Cry as much as you need to, then I’ll take you back with me.”

  “Stupid Hunter,” Tae cried as she turned around. A powerful wall of black blocked her way. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Repeating the word over and over all the while, Tae pounded him with her fists. It felt like she was hitting solid rock. “I thought you might be okay. I was so happy, because a man like you could be a dhampir.”

  “Which of the Nobles fathered the child you carry?”

  Tae stopped what she was doing. She thought her blood would freeze, and that even her heart might stop. The girl tried to shut her eyes, but her eyelids wouldn’t budge at all. Words alone came to her with usual ease as she said, “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re pregnant. Which of the Nobles is the father?”

  Tae couldn’t feel anything anymore. “I don’t know,” she replied.

  “Is it his?”

  That was all he had to say for Tae to understand. Out of the darkness, eyes that were fiery red points of light drew closer.

  “Is it his?” D asked once more.

  “I couldn’t help it, you know,” Tae said. The girl thought she sounded like an old lady. “What could I do? Either of them could’ve killed me with just one finger. I had no choice but to do as they told me.”

  “When did you realize it?”

  “Back when I was still in the castle. Do you know what month it’ll be born? Ordinarily, it’s supposed to take ten months and ten days for a baby.”

  “Yes,
ordinarily. In the case of this child, it’ll be about six months after you noticed the first indications.”

  As if to distance herself from something unseen, Tae took a step backwards. “What do you mean, ‘in the case of this child’?”

  “If it’s his child, your baby will be no ordinary dhampir.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “Let’s go back.”

  “No. Tell me. What’ll my baby be like? It couldn’t be,” Tae mumbled. “It couldn’t be . . .” The second time she said it, she tried to invest the words with nothing but horror. But something had welled up inside her. Although she wasn’t even aware of it, Tae was now hopelessly in its power, under the sway of a sad yet mysterious delight. “Just like you . . .” she continued.

  Something cold touched her cheek. Before Tae realized it was D’s left hand, her consciousness had become one with the darkness.

  “An awful tale it is, but interesting still,” D’s left hand muttered as it caught the collapsing girl. “I wonder what road the girl will take? Anyway, those characters you faced just now have been keeping tabs on you ever since you were down by the water. That’s why you drew them out here, isn’t it?”

  “That was a test, I imagine. For me.”

  “Testing your abilities? What for?” asked the voice.

  “Don’t you know?”

  “Nope,” the voice said, its reply vested with laughter. Malicious laughter. “Come now. You know just as well as I do. This desert has a real nostalgic feel to it.”

  D put Tae over his left shoulder.

  “Just when and how did things get so crazy?” the voice continued. “I remember something a woman we met once said. She wanted to know why something so good had to end so badly.”

  “Do you think this is something good?” the Hunter asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  D started to walk back. And the voice wasn’t heard again.

  .

  III

  .

  By the time D came back with Tae over his shoulder, the fight between Clay and Lance had ended. Lance lay stretched out by the edge of the lagoon, spread-eagle. His face was swollen to nearly twice its normal size, and his nose was a bit crooked.