“Let’s go,” the baron said, his arm still wrapped around Miska’s waist.
A particularly strong gust of wind-driven rain blurred the two outlines as it passed. And once it died down, the pair of Nobles was no longer there.
__
II
__
“Water!” Taki turned and shouted after standing in the doorway looking outside. “The river’s overflowed. Head upstairs!”
But by the time Taki had finished speaking, the girl was already speeding toward the staircase, accompanied by a dazzling light. With only the atomic lantern and what baggage she could carry, May was truly a person of the Frontier.
When Taki reached the stairs, the tarlike water swelled under the door, spreading across the floor like a cloud of black smoke. Less than a foot deep, it split open as a pair of figures leapt from it to land right in front of May, who was only one step from the top of the staircase.
There was a shriek, and Taki whirled around in its direction with the plasma rifle. Though her finger was on the trigger, she stopped just a heartbeat short of firing it.
One of the two figures with froglike heads and bodies had reached out with a hand full of strangely sharp claws and scooped up May.
A second later, a searing pain shot down Taki’s spine and she tumbled backward. A shadowy figure who’d leapt up from the water without making a sound had brought his claws down on her. As she lost her balance, she fell into a pair of clammy arms.
Thick lips opened like a crevice, and the dark figure said, “The kid we’ll take hostage.”
His voice was exactly what one would expect if a frog were capable of human speech.
“This other one—you can dispose of.”
From the feel of Taki’s body as it went limp, it looked like she had no strength to fight them, and the creature raised his clawlike weapon to strike the fatal blow. And he did so slowly.
“Sorry, but it’s better to give than to receive,” Taki said just as the claws suddenly stopped and her bloodied form spun around.
Her right elbow shot up at an angle, slamming into the batrachian’s face with peerless precision. As he lurched away with a groan of pain, she used her own weight to slam him face first into the wall, and when she leapt clear of him, she already had the plasma rifle braced against her shoulder.
The compatriots that’d been holding May sprang at Taki from up on the staircase. As they plummeted toward her, they were greeted by flashes of crimson light. Hit directly in the base of the neck, both the top and bottom halves of their bodies were reduced to vapor.
As Taki dashed up a few stairs, a froggy voice called down to her, “I’ll kill the brat!”
From below, another called out, “Drop it!”
The latter was bellowed angrily by the one she’d nailed in the face, but since his face had been broad and flat from the start and he wasn’t bleeding, the only way to judge how badly he’d been hurt was by the sound of his voice.
No matter what she did, it was clear that Taki, with foes to either side of her, was caught in a deadly bind. If she let go of her plasma rifle, they would most likely carve out her heart with their cruel clawed weapons.
“Taki!” May cried, her voice stabbing the young woman’s eardrums like a knife. Perhaps they were hurting her, because it sounded like something was clogging her throat.
“Don’t you lay a hand on that girl or I’ll shoot!”
“Drop it,” the other voice countered.
But the coup de grace was when May stammered, “T-Taki . . .”
The pain became an unfathomable weight that hung on the end of Taki’s plasma rifle.
Seeing the barrel of the weapon sink, the frog man below croaked out a laugh.
And just as he did, there was what sounded like an explosion as a window facing the second-floor hallway shattered. As the froglike man turned in amazement, it came as little surprise he used May as a shield. A heartbeat later, one of his eyes was pierced by a rough wooden needle.
What happened in the next instant even D probably couldn’t have imagined as he kicked off the floor. May’s body slipped easily from the grasp of the reeling foe and she executed a beautiful somersault, then went on to bring a kick up under her opponent’s jaw that laid him out on his back.
The instant he saw a blast from the plasma rifle down on the staircase cut the villain’s body in half, D reversed his sword in midair and turned it into a bolt of lightning.
The frog man who was about to pounce on Taki from behind had the Hunter’s blade protruding from his belly. Slain instantly by the powerful thrust, the amphibious humanoid made no effort to remove himself from the blade, but flipped over the handrail and fell into the black water below.
“Have a look at her,” D told Taki, who was still frozen partway up the staircase, as he leapt over the handrail to reclaim his sword. Pulling his blade out of the potbellied villain who’d sunk into the water, he then returned to the second floor, where Taki had the trembling girl hugged to her bosom.
“She’s not hurt,” Taki informed him as she rubbed the girl’s head. “She’s so strong. She didn’t cry or anything.”
Without replying, D looked at the young woman and told her, “You did well.”
Letting out a sigh, Taki said, “You choose the damnedest times to show up, you know.” She sounded angry. This was a result of a psychological swing brought about by her sudden feelings of relief.
By the time D had raced back to them by leaping from tree to tree, the black water had already inundated the meetinghouse. After landing on the roof, D had seen the situation through a skylight and narrowly managed to intervene.
Turning his gaze to the blackish figure that lay a short distance away, he asked Taki, “Ever seen them before?”
“Of course I haven’t.”
“You sure they’re not some of Lord Johann’s tricks?”
“I’ve never laid eyes on them. But they could be something he was saving for a special occasion.”
D circled around behind Taki without another word. Just below her right shoulder, a pair of gashes ran all the way down to her waist. If they’d been a half inch closer to her backbone, her spinal column would’ve been irreparably damaged. Needless to say, she was covered with blood.
“Don’t move,” D said as he put the palm of his left hand to the gash on the right.
“Don’t touch it!”
“This is just first aid.”
As his hand slid lower, lazy wisps of white smoke rose from where he came into contact with her wound. The rent flesh closed miraculously.
Treating the other gash, D then straightened up again and said, “You’ll be fully healed in two days’ time.”
Tossing her head lightly, Taki asked, “What are you?”
“Never mind me. You should be asking who they are,” D replied.
“You should ask me,” someone else said.
Baron Balazs and Miska stood in the doorway to the hall.
Taking his eyes off the opponent D had slain, the baron said, “They are assassins sent by my father.”
__
Leaving the two girls in an empty room that’d been prepared for them, D went into a room across the hallway. The baron and Miska were waiting there.
Apparently once a committee room of some sort, the chamber, some five or six hundred square feet, was littered with an assortment of rustic desks and chairs.
“Have they gone to sleep?” asked the baron.
“Yeah.”
“It doesn’t look like the rain will let up. After we’ve had about an hour’s rest, I’d like to set out again.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Why don’t we leave immediately?” Miska asked after turning from the window that’d allowed her to gaze outside.
“The humans need to rest during normal human hours. You’ll just have to bear with us for a while.”
“In that case, let them sleep all they like. However, we can’t do that here if you wish
to depart before those assassins’ compatriots arrive. No matter how you look at it, leaving immediately is the best course of action. My dear baron, you’re putting your head into the noose. And all because of that baggage. Leave them here!”
The Noblewoman’s eyes looked like fire would erupt from them, but they were met by a deep gaze.
“I can’t do that. What’s more, that’s not to say we can’t wait. I will take full responsibility for seeing you safely to your destination.”
“They were synthetic life forms,” D said, changing the subject. He was referring to the froglike assassins. “Do you know everything your father has up his sleeve? It will be problematic if there are more things lying in wait for us up ahead.”
“Some of them I know. Some of them I don’t,” the baron replied stoically.
He was out to take his own father’s life, and his father had designs on taking the young Nobleman’s as well. His expression made clear that he knew perfectly well the gravity of the situation.
He then said, “Foes before us and foes to the rear—things are getting a bit tricky, aren’t they, D?”
“Is your father aware of your abilities?”
“Yes, he’s known for quite some time,” the baron replied, a fitting response for an immortal Noble.
“Can we get rid of the carriages?” D asked him.
“I have no objection.”
“According to the map, there’s an airfield nearby. It’s been out of use for a long time, but I heard ages ago that there were still aircraft left there.”
“Oh really?” said the baron, his eyes glittering. “In that case, it’d be but a short flight. But just how long ago was this?”
“Quite some time.”
“Perhaps nothing remains now of these flying machines but the stories,” the baron remarked with a wry grin. “However, it still may be worth going for a look. So long as we’re not chasing a phantom.”
There was no reply. D seemed to have his ears focused on the sound of the rain.
The baron followed his example.
A strange rhythm—that was the only way to describe the beautiful melody that drifted through the room.
“Why, that’s the sound of a harp,” Miska said, her eyes still shut. She, too, had been listening intently.
“A water harp, to be precise,” the baron said as he gazed out the window. “Let’s get going, D.”
“What’s a water harp?” asked D.
“Strings stretched either through the water at the base of a waterfall or out in the rain. They make a beautiful sound when they come into contact with water, and if any living creature touches them, they wrap around it and choke the life from it. Those who approach it—” the baron said, and he’d already started walking.
Slipping through the doorway, the Nobleman stepped out into the hall. Confirming that there was no one out there, he then opened the door across from them.
A pale figure had one leg resting on the sill of the open window and her upper body leaning out. Flying effortlessly through the air, the baron caught Taki around the waist and pulled her back in. Held tightly by his arms of steel, the young woman waved her arms about, trying to move forward again. The utter lack of expression on her face was disturbing.
D then went over to the window and peered out through the opening that had allowed May to escape.
“They weren’t intended as hostages,” said the Hunter.
“Precisely. You and I can withstand this because of who we are. But even among the Nobility there are few who can resist the sound of the water harp. We must find the girl.”
Before the baron had finished speaking, D stepped out of the room. Going back to the first room, he quickly returned again. The Nobleman might’ve done something special, because Taki was now snoring away on the bed.
“What of Miska?” the baron inquired.
“Apparently she was called away.”
D stepped closer to the window. The tune of the water harp played on.
“Two blocks south of here there’s a house of worship. Let’s move over there.”
By that, the Hunter must’ve meant that the enemy was already wise to their location.
“Very well,” the baron said with a nod, but the beautiful figure in black didn’t even wait for this reply before melding with the darkness.
As he turned a melancholy profile to the notes splashed out on the harp by raindrops, the Nobleman said, “I’m counting on you, D.”
And with those words, the baron gently lifted the sleeping girl.
__
III
__
A muddy black stream appeared to have melted the road, and D could see it as clearly as if it were midday. Though it wasn’t as strong as it’d been immediately after overflowing the banks, the water that clung to him almost to the knee still had a current powerful enough to keep anyone from moving with perfect freedom. Undoubtedly both May and Miska had walked down the elevated planks of the roofed sidewalks as they’d left . . . or as they were spirited away. The strings of the harps seemed to have been strung everywhere, as their haunting echoes grew neither closer nor farther away.
Going from roof to roof, D continued north. The rain pouring down from the heavens, the water rushing across the ground, and the sounds of the harp that tied them both together—each of the three made a different noise, but the Hunter could sense the slightest added disturbance in each.
His foes were moving underwater. They could normally move undetected even by D, perhaps maneuvering around the wires strung everywhere. The added disturbance to the sounds of the water was no doubt due to the fact they had Miska and May with them. In a sense, these hostages were their greatest weakness.
Coming to the end of a row of houses, D leapt into the air without ever breaking his stride. A gorgeous darkness crossed through the dim night, landing again on a massive branch of a tree nearly thirty feet away. Astonishingly enough, not so much as a single leaf stirred. Needless to say, D had elected to move through the air to avoid fighting his foes in the water—their home territory.
Even the ageless and immortal Nobility had a number of weaknesses, and water was one of them. When Nobles came into direct contact with the rain, their metabolic functions dropped to half their normal levels, and if submerged, they became like statues, barely able to move their arms or legs at all. The sight of this gorgeous dhampir effortlessly traveling from tree to tree under such unfavorable conditions was nothing short of miraculous.
Poised to leap down to the ground from the last of the trees, D suddenly halted.
He was at the edge of the village. Part of the outer palisade was completely missing, as if something had taken a bite out of it. Miska and May had probably been taken out this way.
D’s attention remained focused on the darkness. A white line ran from the branch on which he stood to a grove of trees—the water harp had been strung here as well. Ordinarily, D would’ve had no trouble at all finding it. But the effects of the rain might mean the difference between life and death.
D became a black wind as he slipped around the right end of the line.
A rough slap echoed from his body. With exquisite timing the wind had lashed him with rain.
Still, D didn’t break form as he sailed toward his intended grove, but when he came down on a branch slick with water, it was truly unforeseen that one of his feet should slip out from under him. As he tried to regain his balance, his swaying form was once again blasted by wind and rain, and his left hand went for one of the harp strings.
The jolt to the taut line traveled through the grove, and then raced across the ground. Dozens of lines that’d been set up God-only-knows-where let go, flying at D up on the branch a heartbeat later.
And what became of those who’d plucked at the harp’s strings? The strings that struck the tree trunk sank halfway into it, and the massive branch was lopped off like a piece of straw.
If all of the attacks had originated from the same point of the ground, D mig
ht’ve been able to fend them off. But the strings assailed him from all directions.
The rain stopped. Or rather, it was cut short—cut down by a stark blade slashing through the darkness. On the ground, on the branch, and above both—the scattered raindrops carried pieces of the wires with them.
Having sliced through each and every one of the slender instruments of death flying at him, D then launched himself at the next stand of trees.
__
Miska was conscious. Those mesmerized by the strains of the water harp usually hastened to the source of the sounds, as numbed as a sleepwalker. But surely the reason Miska was aware of her surroundings was because of the extraordinary senses she possessed as a Noble.
After slipping out of her room, the first thing she’d done was to go down into the street where the water flowed. And when she did, something caught hold of both of her ankles and began to pull her against the flow. She knifed through the water at a speed that rivaled a motorboat, propelled by a force she couldn’t comprehend—a force that defied normal physics.
In less than five minutes’ time Miska had left the village and even crossed the river with consummate ease before being sucked into the enormous whirlpool that opened at the roots of the colossal tree towering over the northern forest. And all the while, her speed never dropped for an instant.
The reason the colossal bole had been put to various uses over several centuries was its absolutely preposterous size. At the base it was thick enough that a hundred people would need to join hands just to encompass it, and it rose haughtily to the heavens, dwarfing the surrounding trees with its height of over three thousand feet. When people learned there were natural cavities in it—and the ownership of the land had changed several times—they made use of the spaces and carved new passages wherever it suited them, making rooms large and small, then stocked the tree with vast amounts of goods which were then protected by the people and weapons they posted there. At times the colossal tree could be a watchtower beyond compare, a control tower for an airfield, or an evacuation center during disasters, and it was also the ideal storehouse.
Vampire Hunter D: Pale Fallen Angel Parts One and Two Page 18
