Taking his saddlebags off the horse’s back and slinging them over his shoulder, he let out a single sigh before he began to walk away. No one tried to stop him, and Bligh had no qualms about leaving them.
Man, I sure am beat. That was his only thought.
It was at that moment the hill shook. A scream rang out. The quaking didn’t subside. The earth spun. The rain eddied, the dark clouds danced. The sky went around and around.
Bligh remembered letting out a cry of “Whoa!”
His footing was gone without warning, and after feeling like he’d fallen forever, Bligh finally passed out.
The man realized he’d just been slapped on the cheek.
Charlotte had her hand back to deliver another but relented, saying, “Well, good morning to you.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Bligh was cautious, but he quickly sat up and surveyed his surroundings.
He was still at the base of that tree. It continued to rain. What about the others? They were there. Every last one of them.
“Lucky bastards.”
The fortunate individuals in question were all gazing straight ahead. Bligh followed their lead. Or rather, that had been the first thing to catch his eye when he woke up. You might say he was confirming it now.
Little by little, something astonishing had begun to take shape. The ambiguous mist became a solid fog, forming up like clouds, solidifying.
“Hey . . . What the hell is that?”
The others must’ve heard him. However, no one responded.
It wasn’t a vast expanse of ground that spread before them. Filling their rain-hazed field of vision was a panoramic view of a soggy little village. Old-fashioned homes of sticks and mud, a type that could no longer be found even in the most far-flung corners of the Frontier, surrounded a central square, while the eastern edge of that square was bordered by a broad river running from north to south. On the flat land on the other side of the water were about twenty farmhouses and some other buildings that were probably storehouses for grain. About fifty yards north of there stood a sixty-foot-high tower that apparently served both as a lookout point and a sanctuary. Thick forests surrounded the village on all sides, and at its western edge was a rather high hill topped with solid-looking fortifications that challenged the heavens.
At first, Bligh thought it was an illusion. However, the damp walls of the houses glistening with the rain, the surface of the river pounded to a froth, and trees swaying from the rain’s beating soon convinced him that he was mistaken.
“Where the hell are we?”
That got an answer.
“I don’t know. Looks like a really old village,” said Charlotte.
“How’d we all end up here?” Bligh asked.
At his reasonable question, the alluring middle-aged woman shot a quick glance to the heavens and said, “As soon as you started to leave, the ground shook and spun around. While we were all knocked off our feet, we fell here. Given that, this would have to be somewhere underground, though it doesn’t really look that way at all, does it?”
Bligh nodded. His eyes flying from one place in the village to another, he said, “There’s no one around, is there?”
“Yeah, now you mention it,” Charlotte conceded with a nod.
There wasn’t a soul to be seen in the village square or on the streets. It was like a ghost town, yet it didn’t seem the least bit dilapidated. Put some people in it, and the village would soon look like it was ready to begin its day.
“Emily,” someone said in a clingy tone, causing the two of them to turn.
About ten feet away, the young man named Jan was shaking his slumping sweetheart—Emily—by the shoulders. Her labored breathing could be heard all the way over where they were.
Arbuckle was nearby, and he inched closer on his knees and put his hand to Emily’s forehead. “She’s got an awful fever,” the plump man said. “Must’ve caught a cold. Exhaustion might also have a hand in it. If it gets any worse, she’ll come down with pneumonia in no time!”
“Let’s go to the village,” Jan said, looking around at the group.
“I’m against it,” Brennan asserted coldly. “An ancient village just pops up right in front of us all of a sudden. I don’t think there’s anything right about the place. And take a look at those fortifications. What are we supposed to do if there are Nobles lurking up there?”
“Do what you like. I’m going!”
Arbuckle’s decision surprised the group, but they quickly understood it. In his former location, Beth was slumped back against the tree trunk. Her face was flushed and her breathing ragged.
“She’s already got pneumonia. I’ve got to get her warmed up posthaste. What are the rest of you going to do?”
“I don’t want any part of it, either,” Bligh said, shaking his head. “No matter how you look at it, there’s something wrong with the place, and I’ve got no interest in heading over there. Best of luck to you all, okay? Soon as I’ve had a little rest, I’m getting out of here!”
“We’re leaving, too,” Brennan declared, looking at Bligh, who turned away in a snit. It seemed he didn’t like people copying him.
“Well, then off with the lot of you. Off you go. Happy trails,” Bligh told them, waving one hand as he leaned back against the tree trunk. Suddenly he noticed that Charlotte was beside him, and he said to her, “What’ll you do?”
“For starters, the same thing as you.”
“Huh?”
“After I’ve had some rest, then I’ll decide,” she said, sitting right down by his side.
Bligh sensed danger. Is she plotting to make me her own personal bodyguard?
“Well, I guess we’ll each go our own ways, then,” Brennan said, surveying the group once he was high in the saddle. Giving a nod to Josette beside him, he delivered a kick to his steed’s flanks.
The two horses began to canter away. Rebounding spray from the rain outlined both riders and mounts in white.
The entrance to the village was to the east. There was no palisade, probably on account of the Nobles’ castle. The creatures humans feared most, ironically, were the greatest safeguard against monsters and bandits.
“I’m sorry. Goodbye,” Josette said in parting.
Seemingly ignoring that, Arbuckle went over to Bligh and asked, “Are you sure you won’t go to the village with us?”
“Damn sure.”
“Don’t be that way. Granted, there’s something strange about the village. Beyond a doubt. But knowing that, we’re going there anyway because otherwise, the lives of those two innocent girls are certain to be lost. We’d like you to act as our bodyguard.”
“That’s rich talk from a flesh peddler. What are you talking about, innocent? Aren’t you the same son of a bitch who’s gonna sell one of those innocent young girls to the underworld to line your stinking pocket?”
“I’m speaking now as Arbuckle the physician.”
“Don’t try to spin this, you two-faced bastard,” Bligh snapped back. “Are you reading me? As soon as I finish resting up—”
The world was bleached white. By lightning. But that wasn’t the entire extent of it. With a roar to shake both heaven and earth, the colossal tree was split in two.
“Holy shit!” Bligh exclaimed, jumping up.
The others also got to their feet, or else tried to crawl away from the tree. A hundred-and-fifty-foot-tall tree being split lengthwise was a sight more than sufficient to leave them dumbstruck.
There was but the single sound of a tree falling. Both halves of the trunk had hit the ground at precisely the same time.
Once the wind and quaking had subsided, Bligh called out, “Everybody all right?”
Fortunately, they were all okay. However, their guardian angel against the wind and rain was no more.
“Let’s go to the village,” Arbuckle said, laying a hand on Bligh’s shoulder.
The man shook it off, grabbed his things, and started to walk away.
Since half of the tree trunk was blocking the road, he’d have to detour around it.
Once he’d gone as far as the still smoking base of the tree, he turned and looked back. Everyone was looking in his direction. Charlotte was there, too.
If you’re waiting for an invitation, sorry to disappoint you.
Bligh turned around and started walking again. Something about this made him anxious. There was something important here that he was missing. The sudden appearance of a cyborg horse from behind the toppled tree proved it.
It was Brennan. Josette was on behind him, her arms wrapped limply around his waist. Brennan also had the reins to Josette’s cyborg horse in his grip.
“We’re going to the village,” Brennan said with distaste. “My wife got hit by a falling branch, and you can see the shape she’s in. You should turn back, too. The village doesn’t seem to want to let us leave.”
“Now you’re talking nonsense, too?” Bligh said, giving the warrior a scornful look. “I’m leaving. And I don’t think there’ll be any more branches falling.”
He started walking around the horse. Suddenly, his legs sank—or so it appeared, but then his body was neck-deep in the ground, which had been transformed into a morass. Though Bligh clawed at it wildly with hands and feet, he only succeeded in stirring the mud, and he was rapidly sinking. Soon, he couldn’t breathe.
Is this the end? despair whispered to him. No, I’ve still got things to do. I’ll be damned if I’ll die in a place like this . . .
His consciousness drifted away. He sought oxygen—and mud rushed into his lungs.
III
Something heavy was expelled from his mouth and nose, and oxygen came in. As Bligh coughed violently, flecks of mud flew from his stomach and chest.
“Are you okay? You sure are a lucky one, mister.”
It was Charlotte again.
Less than tactfully, Bligh groaned, “You again?”
“Well, excuse me for living. But you should be happy, you know. It wasn’t me that saved you.”
“Huh?”
Before his stunned eyes, Charlotte’s expression shifted strangely, and she replied, “By the time I ran over, you’d already been hauled out, you see.”
“But who—”
“The one who did it was still right there. It was—”
Charlotte squinted her eyes. Her body was trembling. As if she’d just downed the dregs of fear. And it wasn’t just because she was soaked to the skin like a drowned rat.
“It was a Noblewoman, no doubt about it.”
“You can’t be serious?!” Bligh exclaimed, eyes bulging, but half of that was an act. There really could be no doubt about it. Charlotte had seen the woman, too.
“She was wearing this pure white dress, with a necklace of gold and jewels hanging around her neck and down to her chest. And they were all the real thing, too. I didn’t see any fangs, but those trinkets really seemed to suit her. That’s the real proof of being Nobility!”
“Where is she?”
“While I watched, she laid you down right here, and then—poof! she vanished like smoke.”
Bligh didn’t know what to say.
“No, just kidding. A huge bat came down from the sky, and she rode off on its back.”
“That’s a lie.”
If it came to a question of which was less believable, it would definitely be the latter.
Charlotte threw her head back without another word and laughed. “Yeah, it’s a lie. Lies, lies, lies. The whole world is made up of one hundred percent bullshit.”
All Bligh could think was, This is one strange woman.
What was the true nature of the beauty who’d saved him—some manifestation of the will that didn’t want them to leave the village? His interest was focused on that alone.
“Can you walk?” Charlotte asked.
“I think I can manage.”
“Then go on and get walking in whatever direction suits you. I’m going to the village. Everyone else has already gone.”
As the woman stood up again, Bligh finally remembered something he should do.
“Thank you,” he said.
An odd expression flitted across the woman’s face, and she asked, “What’s that?”
“What—just, thank you.”
“Ah, an expression of gratitude. It’s been so long since I heard it, I’d forgotten what it sounded like,” the woman said, starting to walk away. “Whatever you’re aiming to do, you’d better be quick about it,” she told him, “or you and me both are looking at pneumonia.”
And with rapid steps the woman vanished.
The rain continued to batter Bligh.
“Oh hell.”
With that single complaint he got to his feet, and then he, too, started toward the village at a jog.
They had all assembled in a large building that seemed to be some sort of local meeting house. The stone ceiling, walls, and floor were impervious to the rain. Surprisingly enough, there were rows of wooden chairs set up in the main hall, and an electric heater made of steel was glowing red. A pair of synthetic fiber mats had been laid out on the floor beside it, with Emily lying on one and Arbuckle’s charge, Beth, on the other. Both were in their underthings, but that was unavoidable. Their dripping-wet clothes were still where they’d been thrown on the floor. Josette or someone had probably put the girls in a dry change of underwear. There was no sign of Brennan or Jan—or Josette, for that matter. They’d no doubt gone off to search for necessary supplies.
“How’s the warrior’s wife doing?” Bligh asked Arbuckle.
Looking toward the windows, the procurer replied, “It was an incredibly superficial wound. After a little rest she was fine again, and went out with her husband to look for food and weapons.”
“I thought as much. How about those other two?”
“For the time being, an antifebrile is keeping the fever in check. Just getting them out of the rain was a great help.”
“And you had that fever medicine on you?”
“I am a doctor, after all.”
“Spare me, flesh peddler,” Bligh spat back.
As he was saying that, Charlotte walked past him and over to the plump man. “I’ll give you a hand once I get changed,” she told him.
“Most kind of you. This girl is one matter, but if I let the other one die, it may cost me my life.”
“You’re a doctor, so how’d you wind up running girls, eh?”
“The workings of the world.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Traveling bag in hand, Charlotte opened the door to the adjoining room and, after checking that it was safe, stepped inside and closed the door again.
“By the look of it, this was built three thousand years ago,” Bligh said, surveying the room. “They just stacked stone on stone, and threw in an electric heater. That’s it. But I’m surprised anything this old is still around.”
“Indeed. And without a speck of rust. Plus, the village has working electricity.”
Arbuckle’s words sent a chill through Bligh. This village—it’s alive, he thought. Only, there aren’t any villagers around. No—
“I’d say there’s someone here,” Arbuckle stated with a grin. It was one that could’ve been taken as either ironic or nihilistic. “New villagers, that is.”
Us, Bligh realized, and then he recalled what Arbuckle had said earlier. “Hey, is this the Noble lab you were talking about?”
“Yes, most likely.”
Emily turned a shocked look their way.
“An entire village from three millennia ago has turned up in pristine condition. Can you think of any other reason for that?”
“Why’d it come back?”
Arbuckle remained silent.
“Don’t worry on my account,” Emily said in an emotionless tone.
“We’re their new lab rats, aren’t we?” Bligh continued.
“Now, I wouldn’t exactly—”
“Can you think of anything else?”
> Arbuckle put his hand against Emily’s forehead.
“No, that’s just too . . .” the pretty young lady groaned, turning her face away.
“Her fever’s come down a lot, but we can’t let our guard down just yet. I wrote them a note with the drugs we’ll need, but do you suppose there’s a doctor’s house around?”
“Not to worry,” Bligh replied. “The Nobility will fix her right up. Hell, they’ll even throw a little immortality into the bargain. Might not be so bad after all!”
“Stop it!” Emily cried, and though the doctor held her shoulders down, she shook her head forcefully. “You said something about being lab rats—what kind of experiments would they use us for?”
“That I don’t know. Only that they were top secret. But this was a facility built on direct orders from the legendary Sacred Ancestor. It wouldn’t be an ordinary blood-manufacturing plant.”
With Arbuckle’s words, a certain figure crept back into Bligh’s mind. Is that Noblewoman in charge of the place or something? It was strange that he didn’t actually speak these thoughts out loud. And he didn’t know why.
Bligh went over to the westward-facing windows and peered out through spotless glass. Beyond the rain and the swaying forest, he could see the fortifications. The only way out of here is to go up there and talk to ’em, is that it? the man thought. It felt as though all the blood were draining from his body.
After he’d been looking out the window for a while, Charlotte returned, saying, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
When Bligh turned around, he was expecting her to be covered with mud, but suddenly she was wearing a clean change of clothes. She’d been sexy even after the rain had washed off all her makeup, but now that she’d reapplied her cosmetics, she was alluring to a numbing degree. She gave off a deep aroma, like a lily whiter and more conspicuous than the moon.
“Why, whatever are you looking at?” she inquired in a tone that had confidence to spare.
“Nothing,” Bligh replied, playing dumb. No good could come of encouraging a woman like that.
Before long, the other three returned. At any rate, they had assembled all the essentials—dry clothes, blankets, flashlights and electric lamps, canned goods, jerky, a plastic tank of drinking water, cups and paper plates, forks and spoons.
Vampire Hunter D Volume 27 Page 2
