Taking a long look at D, the count grinned wryly. The Hunter’s left hand was missing—that explained how Sue had managed to leave the car.
“Please, stop this fighting. These people are here to protect me.” First, a wind of bewilderment seemed to blow through the ranks of the men, but it soon became one of surprise.
“Protect you? A Noble protecting a human being?”
“Where are you from, girl?”
“Forget that—are you even human? Show us some proof.”
“Yeah, good point!”
Shock and doubt and anger became a rumble that crashed down on every inch of Sue. The storm of voices was almost like a physical blow, but Sue stood still and took it without moving a muscle. From the moment she’d left the car, she was prepared for whatever might come.
Their grumbling died down. Otto had stepped to the fore. Looking first up at the count, then down at Sue, he asked in a hard tone, “Girl—are you human?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s your village? And what’s your name?”
After Sue had answered him, he continued, “It’s hard to believe you’re traveling with a Noble and remain unharmed. He hasn’t done anything to you, you say?”
“That’s right.” Sue puffed up her chest. This was where she had to do her best. “The count hasn’t done anything. He’s merely come here to keep me safe, and to rescue my brother.”
“You got any way of proving nothing’s happened to you?” one of the men shouted out in a quavering voice.
Otto’s expression changed. There was only one way to prove that nothing had happened while she was traveling with the Noble—and that she hadn’t been bitten. They needed to be shown there were no marks on her from the kiss of the Nobility. And to do that. . .
“Yes, I do,” Sue immediately replied.
The men were shaken once more.
“Uh, miss,” Otto started to say to her, but before he could finish, Sue was already reaching for the buttons on her blouse. Without hesitation, the girl shed every stitch of clothing there in the twilight.
Turning toward the men, she said, “You can check all you want.”
The boldness of this girl, willing to completely sacrifice herself, left the men speechless. However, as Sue faced straight ahead, her expression stiffened, and tears rose in her eyes. Her lips were pursed tightly, and she bit down on them so hard she nearly drew blood. And her body trembled with surpassing embarrassment. She was a fourteen-year-old girl. There was no reason why this wouldn’t bother her.
A strange silence enveloped the group.
“Okay, I’m gonna look her over!”
“Me, too!”
“Me, three!”
The three men who’d volunteered stepped forward.
“Sure you want to do that?”
As biting cold as a winter’s frost, the words made the trio halt. At that instant, they were paralyzed. D said no more. However, the men knew with complete certainty the fate that would await them should they move one more step from where they were. He wouldn’t let them lay a finger on the girl. Their eyes wouldn’t seek the pale and naked flesh—a single remark from the young man in black had forbidden it.
“Knock it off already!” Otto shouted, his words dissolving this new moment of impending death. “All three of you, get back over there. I’m sorry, missy. You did us a good turn and almost got nothing but trouble in return. I truly apologize.”
On seeing the man bow deeply to her, Sue crouched down where she was. She felt relieved.
Something like a black shadow fell across Sue, enveloping her naked form and then moving away. Blue fabric covered Sue’s body, as if to protect her. Having draped an enormous handkerchief over her, the count’s hand had already risen back toward the sky.
D started walking. As he went over to Sue without looking at either Otto or his survey party, the weird aura that gushed from him and the way he looked like some heavenly sculpture kept everyone paralyzed.
“Let’s go,” D said.
Sue stood, wiped away her tears, and then leaned against D’s chest. Matthew wasn’t there anymore. But she quickly pulled away again. The girl knew he wasn’t the kind of person who’d let her stay there for long.
Not making a sound, the count led the way, as if to protect Sue. D brought up the rear.
“That went pretty well,” the hoarse voice said. At some point, D’s left hand had returned to its original position. “No one’s blood got spilled. You cut me off so I could operate independently, but if she hadn’t done what she did, you probably would’ve ended up killing the lot of them to protect the count. A pity what the girl had to go through—gaaah!”
As D’s fist clenched tight, it trembled faintly. The tremendous force left his knuckles white.
“Gaaah . . . you . . . you’re still. . . too soft. . . Were you touched . . . by her admirable spirit... or something? Geeeeh!”
The voice died out. Something red began to trickle from between D’s fingers.
When the door opened, the trio was greeted by a face they hadn’t seen for a while.
“You did quite well for a human girl,” said a figure of alluring beauty in a lovely white dress—none other than Duchess Miranda.
“Real nice job this car’s doing,” the left hand said loudly enough for the count to hear. It was mocking him for the way the duchess had been able to enter it as she wished.
Making an expression of undisguised bitterness, the count inquired bluntly, “Where have you been and what’ve you been doing?”
They hadn’t seen her since they’d been sucked into the extradimensional space created by Sigma back in Galleon Valley.
“Here and there, doing this and that,” the Noblewoman replied, placing her hand over her mouth and laughing in a gesture that was positively enchanting. Her delicate hand was pale, while her lips were red as blood.
Batting her lengthy eyelashes, she looked at Sue and murmured, “You’re such a credit; it’s a pity the same can’t be said for your brother.”
“You’ve seen him?” Sue shouted, the words shooting from her like an explosion.
“Yes—I rescued him. And in the process I took care of one of the assassins—someone called Courbet.”
“My brother—where is he?”
“Well, the fact of the matter is—”
From the explanation the duchess gave, it became clear that her encounter with Matthew had come before Sue had stabbed her brother.
“Then we really have no choice but to go, I guess,” the hoarse voice remarked.
“We’ll set off right away,” the count said with a nod, and then he turned to Miranda. “You’ll be joining us, won’t you?” From his tone, that was hardly what he desired.
“No. I’ll be getting out here. I have some unfinished business.”
“But our job is—”
“I’ll catch up with you soon enough. After I lost my husband, I realized that being alone suited my disposition. Basking in the moonlight as I please, enjoying the scent of moonlight grass and dark narcissus as I flit through the world of night—that’s the life for me.”
“The life for met Don’t you mean the death for me7."
The Noblewoman stared in the direction of the hoarse little voice, and then turned toward Sue again, her eyes and expression strangely calm.
“I like individuals of mettle. I had thought humans had none, but seeing you has changed my mind. It would seem we’re defending someone worthy of my efforts.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Sue countered, but she smiled.
D and the count exchanged glances.
“I think she’s lost her mind,” Braujou muttered.
Up until that point, everything had been fine, but then Miranda suggested, “Will you not forget about your older brother and come join my clan?”
“Enough of that!” the count said, forced to intervene.
“That’s regrettable. She would make a superb Noble.” And saying that, Miranda backed away,
stopping before the door to add, “Until we meet again.”
Having said this, she became a mass of mist that slipped out a gap in the door so small even bacteria couldn’t get through.
“That woman’s as self-centered as always.” Heaving a sigh, the count issued an order toward the ceiling, saying, “Get underway!”
“Hey! They’re on the move!”
“Goddamned monsters. Where do they think they’re going?” “At any rate, that’s one less headache for us!”
Watched by the survey-party members, each voicing his feeling, the car advanced across the darkness-shrouded plain without a sound from its engine, and soon it could be seen no more.
“I think you should’ve asked them what’ll be waiting for us out there, captain.”
There was a clap on his shoulder, and turning, he found the doctor. The cries of the wounded that surrounded him made Otto look around reproachfully.
Taking the pipe from his mouth, the doctor replied, “It’s not all that bad. Three are seriously wounded—all the rest just have cuts and scrapes. With this new medicine that was discovered in some
of the Nobility’s ruins, everyone should be fit as a fiddle by tomorrow morning.”
“I’ve heard about that stuff,” Otto said as he ran his eyes over his surroundings and felt for the gun on his hip. “Sounds like it has the power to make the cells of any living creature regenerate. Is it basically the source of immortality?”
“Something like it, I suppose. Except when humans use it, it’ll only work the first two times. So we can’t make like the Nobility.” Rubbing his balding pate, the doctor blew out purplish pipe smoke.
“But if the Nobility are ageless and indestructible, why’d they ever make something like that, Doc? They’re so fit; it’s not like they’d ever need it.”
At this perfectly natural question from Otto, the doctor furrowed his brow and scratched at his head. “Now, this is just a rumor, but it’s one I think you might recall having heard before. They say the legendary king of the Nobility, the one they call their Sacred Ancestor, was obsessed with certain accursed experiments.”
It felt as if the air around them had suddenly grown colder, and Otto trembled.
Just then, an odd thing occurred in their camp. Forty to fifty feet from where Otto and the doctor were talking, the other party members were busy repairing the barricades and cleaning their guns. At the very back a group of five men were assembling a spotlight tower when a pale woman suddenly appeared behind them. And when she pressed her ruby-red lips against the nape of the nearest man’s neck, he collapsed on the spot without uttering a word. Yet the others, including a man who was less than a foot from him, didn’t notice. The woman slipped up to a second man working in silence and did the same thing to him. The fifth man fell without any of them ever noticing the Noblewoman, and none of the other party members even looked in their direction.
Not seeming hurried at all, the woman proceeded with an elegant gait to where one party member was welding supports to the end of a barricade, and then moved on to the man beside him. From
time to time, a member of the group looked in her direction, but she probably had the ability to perceive when that would happen, because she always concealed herself behind her victims, and the darkness also aided her so that no one actually caught sight of her.
In this manner, the party members fell one after another, and the woman made her way over to Otto and the doctor. The topic of the Sacred Ancestor and his suspicious experiments was more than enough to keep the men occupied.
“That would mean the Sacred Ancestor really had that intent after all, but that’s pretty hard to believe.”
“I thought the same thing, but after information brought to the Board of Antiquities was analyzed, it seemed almost certain the rumors were true.” Finally taking his hands away from his head, the doctor continued, “According to journals and other materials left by the Nobility, the Sacred Ancestor is a vampire so great the average Noble can’t even begin to understand him. Perhaps his behavior was—unexpected.”
Otto folded his arms, mulling this over, while ten feet behind him a party member who’d been coiling up a rope received the woman’s kiss. Right beside him another man was engaged in the same task, but he didn’t even look at her.
“Now this is another rumor,” the doctor said, wagging his index finger. “It’s said the Sacred Ancestor’s accursed experiments took the lives of nearly a hundred million people, and it seems he only had one success.”
“Oh, so that would be—” the captain began with a nod, but when he looked over to where the doctor should’ve been by his right side, the man wasn’t there. There was no sign at all of his companion, as if the darkness had swallowed him whole.
“Hey, doc—where’d you go?” Otto called out, but even as he spoke, he noticed that something strange was going on. Looking around for someone to shout over to, he felt a chill run down his spine. There was no one there.
“Now this is odd ...”
Clucking his tongue, Otto ran back to the sleeping quarters. Though born and raised in the Capital, he’d been doing surveys out on the Frontier for more than twenty years. He could recall several such cases—people vanishing one by one under the darkness of night. Many times it was the work of highly intelligent beasts or evil spirits, but in the majority of such cases it was said their compatriots took notice while it was going on. There was only one exception to that—when the night itself was targeting the humans. In other words, a Noble.
A stake gun rested beside his bed. It was the only weapon humans had to fight the Nobility. Otto picked it up. And something grabbed his wrist-a pale hand that reached out from under the blanket. Pulling free with a cry of surprise, he pointed the stake gun at it. With a bang the high-density gas fuse in the bottom of the stake propelled it a thousand feet per second, driving it ruthlessly through the center of the blanket. The female hand disappeared, as if it’d never been there.
Otto looked at his right hand. He saw purple bruises where the fingers had gripped him. The limb was also horribly numb.
Shifting the weapon to his left hand, Otto ran out of the sleeping quarters. He got two steps before he froze in his tracks.
The scene was perfectly ordinary. Kenny was working on the auto cannon; Breck’s eyes were gleaming as he inspected the ammo; Corey and Djavan, Law and Agrifass all hummed as they concentrated on repairing the barricades. And the doctor? He was right where he’d been earlier, rubbing his balding pate and smoking his pipe.
Otto thought he must have dreamed it. Then he looked at his right hand. The bruises remained distinct. His left hand lowered the stake gun. To his rear, the night wind coldly informed him, “Your kind was our food. And to think that now you turn a gun on a Noble.”
When he whipped around for a look, a stark beauty stood before him. Even more than her white dress, it was her pale skin that glowed in the moonlight, and the moon that night was reflected in her vermilion lips. Instinctively, Otto leveled the gun—and the woman made a swipe with her right hand. A terrific force exploded against his fingertips and the gun, which weighed about seven pounds, was sent flying like a dry twig.
“It’s a Noble!” he shouted, still staring at the woman as he backed away a few steps. “Blast her! Burn the shit out of her!”
“What kind of thing is that to say, Otto?” he heard the doctor remark. His voice resembled a woman’s.
Otto didn’t turn around. He knew all too well what had happened.
I’m the only one left.
“Well, say hello to our new master,” Kenny said. But what had been Kenny now had the voice of a monster.
As a hand brushed his shoulder and elbow from behind, Otto shook free of it with a scream and moved forward. The woman was right in front of him.
“I am Duchess Miranda,” she said. And then, as if granting him an audience, the pale Noblewoman slowly extended her right hand. Toward Otto’s throat.
He covered his face with
his hands.
CHAPTER 7
I
The black ground spread as far as the eye could see. Occasionally lightning flashed in the distance, but that was the only life to be felt amidst this death. Sue felt relieved.
“It’s just like the sea,” the left hand said.
“What’s the sea?” the girl inquired.
“Something really vast.”
“Vast?”
“Yeah, and blue.”
“Blue?”
“Ah, this is going nowhere. Just think of it as a massive lake,” the count snorted pedantically from where he reclined on an enormous sofa.
“A big lake, you say?” Though Sue tried to form an image of what they were describing, all she came up with was a picture of a pond.
“That’s right,” the count said with a rare grin, adding, “Only it’s salty.”
“Why’s that? I can’t believe there’s such a thing as salty-tasting water.”
“Salted salmon live in it,” the Noble stated.
“That’s some kind of fish, is it?”
“Yes, and they grow to be about sixty miles long. That’s why when they float at the surface for too long, people settle on them. They mistake them for islands. In less than a month a town’s been built, and people start developing the area and running businesses.” “Would you knock that off?” the hoarse voice said. “He’s just pulling your leg, missy.”
“Really? You’re terrible, count!” the girl exclaimed, pursing her lips.
The count looked down at her with no expression on his face, saying, “I see—it’s just as he said.”
More than the words, it was the tone that drew Sue’s attention. “He? Are you talking about my brother?”
Replying that he wasn’t, the count got off the sofa. “Get some rest now. You’re a human being. You must remember you were meant to live in the sunlight.”
Once his gargantuan form had departed the living room, Sue remarked disappointedly, “I think I’ve offended the count.”
Tyrant's Stars: Parts Three and Four Page 12
