“Four years ago, a warrior came to stay at her house. You remember that, don’t you?”
The mayor grabbed the back of a chair and used it to support his own weight. “So, Su-In’s figured it out, has she?” he said in a voice choked with heartbreak as he stared at D.
Why he decided then it was okay to tell the Hunter the rest was anybody’s guess.
“Well, he did stay at their house,” the mayor explained, “but only for two days. The man in question was someone we’d called in to organize us so we could prevent attacks by bands of pirates. Since the inn was being remodeled at the time, he wound up staying at Su-In’s place. But we moved him to my house right away. That’s why I figure none of her neighbors would’ve told you about him.”
What had happened during those two days?
It was in the woods one night that the forms of Su-In and the young warrior had caught the eye of the museum curator. By the light of the moon, the young man’s naked muscularity and the woman’s supple form had moved together in a fevered frenzy. After being informed of this incident by the curator, Su-In’s grandfather and the mayor had decided to turn a blind eye to it. The young warrior was most likely capricious, the time the village had to receive his tutelage was short, and there was no substitute available. And if he’d become attached to Su-In, that was essentially the same as his forming a bond with the village. With the couple’s quietly blooming romance remaining a secret, the warrior provided the necessary instruction to the villagers and the day of his departure arrived without incident. The last day of summer.
That evening, the mayor received a visit from Su-In and her grandfather in the utmost secrecy. Su-In couldn’t stop crying.
“You see,” the mayor continued, “the warrior had suggested to her that they steal the money from the town offices and run off together. But with her grandfather and sister dependent on her, there was no way Su-In would ever agree to such a thing. Still, the warrior wasn’t about to give up. He threatened to let the whole village know what’d been going on between the two of them. Sadly, our village isn’t the sort of place that’d be very forgiving of that kind of behavior from a woman. Not only would Su-In no longer be able to live here, but her grandfather and sister probably would’ve been finished as well. If she wouldn’t leave her family behind, the man said he’d name her as his accomplice in the theft of the village funds. And so—”
Su-In had stabbed the man. Up on Cape Nobility.
As for what happened next, D already knew. Whether her grandfather’s ability had proved fortunate or not for Su-In was the real question. Perhaps when she’d invited D to stay at her house where she was now a woman living alone, it was her way of subconsciously resisting the spell her grandfather had used to make her forget that tragedy.
“Tell me something,” the mayor said, his gaze clinging desperately to D. “The Noble that comes from the sea—we’ve been calling him Baron Meinster all this time, but is that really who he is? Did someone who vanished a thousand years ago suddenly rise again from the sea three years ago? If I were to tell you Su-In’s grandfather and I didn’t have our suspicions, I’d be lying. He’s that guy, isn’t he?”
D turned to the mayor. There was a window behind the old man. The black sea was visible. And that was where it had all started.
During the legendary battle, Meinster had been sent to the bottom of the sea, coffin and all. Or rather, Meinster had escaped, but a final attack by the baron’s foe ruptured his coffin. Nevertheless, it seemed that he’d survived. It seemed wholly unrealistic to believe Meinster wouldn’t have taken advantage of the knowledge he’d gained from the numerous examples of human/monster fusion that remained beneath his castle. And for an interminable time, the baron remained in that place, oh so deep and dark and cold.
What happened later was a happy coincidence that bordered on the impossible. The corpse of a man who’d been stabbed drifted down to the bottom of the abyss, where it made contact with the psyche of the sleeping fiend. Unfeasible. But this flesh housed two minds—controlled by both the Noble and the human, it would subject itself to the command of each at different times. However, when that fateful season came, it was bound to follow the heart of the unnamed warrior alone. Impossible. Yet in light of the facts, there was no point in denying it.
In D’s ears, the roar of the sea may have sounded like the scream of the young man who’d vanished there. Softly he said, “Tomorrow it should all come to an end. And there’s no bead to worry about anymore. Don’t say anything; just accept Su-In back.”
“We’ll hold up our end, I’m sure,” said the mayor. “She’s a good girl. Everybody likes her. But I suppose we should keep what I told you a secret from Dwight, eh?”
“Do whatever you like,” the Hunter replied.
As D headed for the door aloofly, the mayor called out to him in an exhausted tone, “This summer’s almost over. At least, that’s what it feels like. Don’t you think so?”
D went outside without ever answering him.
.
III
.
That day, those who walked along the beach found their eyes riveted to the figure in black who stood by the shore. His longcoat called to mind the darkness of night as its hem billowed in the salty breeze. People’s hearts raced at the beauty of him standing there with his back to them, framed by the white sand and the blue of the sea. And yet, they couldn’t bring themselves to stop, but rather walked away as quickly as they could. But oddly enough, when they would turn again after having gone a little further, the figure dressed in the hue of darkness would be nowhere to be seen. Adults would rub their eyes as if they’d just wakened from a dream, while children would instantly decide that someday they’d grow up to look just as tough, sad, and beautiful so they could stare out at the sea.
The festival continued. The villagers remained as boisterous as ever, yet a strange resignation seemed to hang in the air. Four more days to go, the people said. Summer wouldn’t end before then. But they had to wonder why the boats loaded with fireworks had headed out toward the ice floes. The fireworks had always been the crowning glory on the last night of summer.
Darkness fell. Another world was about to begin.
.
The faint buzz of an engine could be heard offshore. D’s face turned. Just how long had he been staring out at that one spot in the sea?
The moon shone high in the sky again this evening. By its light, D could distinctly see Samon and Su-In in the small boat that was approaching. Forty or fifty feet from shore, the boat pulled parallel to the land and the growl of the engine died out.
Leaning out of the steering room back by the stern, Samon cupped one hand by her mouth and shouted, “Glad you could make it, Hunter. Su-In’s right here. As promised, she’s come to no harm.”
Mixing with the sound of the waves, her voice rolled high and low by turns. Back on the rocking vessel, Samon quickly moved over to Su-In’s location at the stern and brought her right hand to the woman’s neck.
“However,” the sorceress continued, “that promise was made to you by a man called Glen. And it was to last until the woman had been returned to you. I’m giving her back, here and now. Therefore, said promise is now null and void.”
There was a metallic glint in Samon’s right hand, and as soon as it became visible, fresh blood spouted from Su-In’s neck. Even then, the woman still didn’t notice. Her stuporous expression was as blank as that of a doll.
“Here, I’m giving her back to you. Come and get her, my two foes!” said Samon. “If you die, Hunter, Glen can rest in peace. And if the Noble is destroyed, this woman will never be herself again. I want you all to feel pain,” she laughed. “If my man’s no longer in this world, I’d just as soon destroy it all!”
And then, giving off a booming laugh that drowned out even the roar of the ocean, Samon pulled Su-In upright and hurled her headlong into the sea.
It was a heartbeat later that flashes of white light became needles that pierced
the sorceress through the chest and the base of the neck. Knocked across the boat by the impact, Samon’s body slammed against the opposite gunwale, bent backward, and followed right after Su-In in a spray of bloody droplets.
D had already thrown himself into the sea. Knifing through the water in a way that was unbelievable for a dhampir, he then pressed his hand against the neck of the bobbing Su-In. The sea around her looked flooded with black paint. When the Hunter pressed his left hand to the wound, the blood ceased to pour from her.
D was just about to swim back to shore with her, but at that instant he twisted his torso and looked directly off to his right. A head had bobbed to the surface about ten feet away. And it wore the Noble’s face. Or rather, it wore a fearsome face where the young warrior Su-In had killed was intermingled with the psyche of Baron Meinster.
Slowly, D began moving toward shore. The Noble was following along right behind him at exactly the same speed.
A wave swept over the Hunter’s shoulder, and then tugged at his waist. The two of them stopped right where they were. Su-In’s weight was being supported by her buoyancy in the water, and if D went any further, there was a danger of her being choked by the hand he had pressed against her throat. On the other hand, if he took his hand away, Su-In would surely bleed to death. He couldn’t possibly have been in a worse position. Particularly against a Noble who’d lived on the sea floor, and who’d be faster and stronger than D here.
“I’ll take the girl,” said the Noble in a voice that seemed to bubble up from the very bottom of the sea. It wasn’t the voice of Meinster, nor was it that of the warrior.
“Do you remember her? Do you know this girl?” D asked softly. His words came in time with the sound of the waves.
“I don’t know,” said the Noble, shaking his head. “I just don’t know. Who is she? Why do I come back here every summer looking for her?”
“You don’t need to know,” D said in a tone every bit as callous as the moonlight. “Simply accept your fate.”
A split second later, three silvery flashes knifed through the top of the approaching waves. In an impossible spray of sparks, the wooden needles were struck down right before the Noble. It almost seemed as if that made a beautiful sound, too.
D saw that the Noble gripped a steel short spear in his right hand. When used properly, it could stretch yards longer and totally dominate the space between two combatants. But the weapon suddenly vanished, and the surface of the water churned. The sea eddied like a whirlpool because the spear had been spun at a ferocious speed beneath the surface.
Still holding onto Su-In, D leapt into the air and brought his blade down in the center of the vortex. The next spray that went up was from D and Su-In landing again. Only the sound of the waves circled around D. Focusing every nerve, he looked out at the expanse of waves where black and silver danced together.
The waves said, “Is that the fastest and the furthest you can leap? You’ll never reach me here.”
As D twisted to face that direction, a pair of pale serpents whined toward his torso. Silvery light flashed out to slice one of them apart, while the other pierced the left side of the Hunter’s chest clean through to his back, where it became a bloody jet of water that dropped back into the sea.
“Water spears,” said a voice that came from the same direction as the serpents. The water rose with those words, and was then instantly replaced by the Noble. “While you are a man to be feared, I have the edge on you in the water,” he said. “And though I don’t know why, I’ll take the girl.”
Once more, the sea churned in front of the Noble. The water then surged forward. Twisting like pale serpents, three blasts of water the Noble had rendered hard as steel ripped through the waves. D cut down one of the three, but the others were true to their aim and pierced his abdomen. Tough as D was, he couldn’t take much more of that punishment.
Never letting go of Su-In, the figure in black sank into the water up to his chest. Something inky drifted out around him like a cloud. Yet D gazed straight ahead—his foe was fifteen feet away. If he were to make a leap carrying Su-In, certain death would await him.
“Farewell, Hunter. There will not be another summer,” the Noble said, throwing back his right shoulder.
As the moonlight poured down on D and the sea roared around him, the black hands of Death prepared to close in on the Hunter.
But it was at that very instant that another voice was heard.
“Don’t, my darling!”
The question was, did D realize that the cry came from Su-In, who only regained consciousness for a brief instant?
Like a gorgeous mystic bird, D sailed through the air. Su-In wasn’t with him.
The fifteen feet separating the men ceased to have any meaning, and as the tip of the Noble’s spear stretched up into the air, it was knocked aside all too quickly. With the force of D’s full weight added to his unholy skill, the silvery blade came straight down on the Noble’s head and split it in half. But it didn’t end with his head—he was effortlessly sliced in two right down to the crotch. The naked blade glittered again, taking off the Noble’s head and penetrating his heart before the figure in the blue cape slowly fell over like some colossal tree split by lightning, then sank into the sea.
Watching as the deep blue shape was carried out to sea by the waves, D then went back over to Su-In. Her eyes were closed. As for the wound on her neck—it was covered by a lump of semitransparent slime, and it didn’t appear to be losing blood. At the last second, D’s left hand had spit up some of Twin’s mucus.
“Carry her back while she’s still asleep,” the voice from his left hand said in a consoling tone. “You think he heard what she said?”
D didn’t answer. But apparently his left hand had heard it, too. The second D’s blade caught him, the Noble had said, “Su-In.” And he’d worn a youthful and sad face they hadn’t seen before. Yet he’d left with the waves. The Noble was dead, and D had kept his promise.
“The vision we saw in the tunnel—I think maybe it was called up by a combination of memories of a girl he didn’t know anymore and a reaction to the Noble blood that flows in your veins,” said the left hand. “He didn’t forget her completely. In the end, it looks like he was human after all. So, which are you, then?”
The Hunter’s five fingers curled.
Just then, the night sky lit up. The heavens shone like melted black crystal, but gigantic blossoms then opened, with the roar of their explosions only coming later.
D glanced down at the ground by his feet. There was one heavy shadow, and a lighter shadow carrying it on its back.
The fireworks boomed again. Between those thunderclaps, there was a sad, cold sound. The racing wind.
“Has their weather controller finally given up the ghost?” the voice said listlessly. “Looks like that’s the end of summer for this year. And I don’t know whether they’ll be having another one or not.”
No one answered.
The night sky was still being lit up. In the distance, the music played on eternally. Summer hadn’t ended yet.
.
Her gaze focused on nothing in particular, Su-In watched the bits of white fly by on the other side of the glass. The snow that’d started falling that morning was growing heavier and heavier—it would probably only take a few hours more for the entire village to be blanketed in the same silvery white.
Three days had passed since their shorter than usual summer had ended. The performers had already gone. Power boats were zipping to and fro out on the sea. As the villagers busily set to their winter preparations, their shoes trampled the wilted and faded remains of the summer’s flowers.
No one had changed at all. The village and its inhabitants had long existed by the blustery North Sea, with its snow and ice.
Bracing both arms against the lectern, Su-In looked out at the classroom where not even a single child sat. With a bandage still wrapped around her neck, she was a pitiful sight. She seemed devoid of any deeper
emotion. Even when she looked at the face of Dwight, who stood over by the windows to the right, all her blanched consciousness could do was dig his name out of her memory.
Su-In’s future was now blocked by her past.
I killed a man who meant something to me, she thought. A man I loved for a summer.
The shock had been so great Su-In had even forgotten how to cry, and the woman felt like there was a big gray opening where her heart should’ve been.
What am I even doing here? No one’s gonna come. Everyone knows I’m a murderer. There’s nothing left for me now.
The haggard look on the face of the dazed woman only served to make shadows of anger and anxiety flicker by turns in Dwight’s heart. Who the hell was responsible for this? Who said I should bring Su-In here? he asked himself. She’s been thrown back into her miserable past all alone, and this is only hurting her more. What a lousy thing to do. I’m gonna find him and beat the hell out of him!
“Su-In,” he said despite himself. “Su-In, let’s go already. No matter how long we stay here—”
A crisp, clear sound made Dwight stop.
There it was again. A sound that a traveler lost on a winter’s night could hear six miles away; it could make him get back up with hope in his eyes and spring in his legs again. The school bell.
Glancing up at the ceiling, Su-In then looked at the fisherman as if seeking his aid. Dwight backed away. In all his life, he’d never been more sure of what he should do. Going back over to his previous spot at the window, he said in a soft but powerful tone, “Over there.”
Su-In stared straight ahead. Dwight looked, too. At the door.
At some point, the bell had stopped tolling.
Neither the man nor the woman moved.
Little footsteps. And they were drawing closer.
The door opened quietly. A tiny face peered in. Eyes that were big and round glittered with anxiety and expectation. But finding Su-In there, one of those emotions faded from them.
It was the same boy who’d asked D for the flute. Snow was piled on top of his hood, and in his hands he held a little package. Moving up between the rows of desks with a bashful smile, he took a seat at the very front of the class. After all, school was about to begin. And this was obviously a seat of honor.
Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2 Page 23