“No matter how skillfully constructed the flute may be, there are certain limitations in the instrument itself,” said Ban’gyoh. “That one’s a bit too tough for a child’s throat and lungs. Come now, give it a try.”
The child was very forthcoming. Pressing D’s flute back against the Hunter’s chest, he promptly took the new handiwork from Ban’gyoh and brought it to his mouth. The sound that filled the air was deeper and more composed than that from D’s.
Ban’gyoh laughed proudly—behavior that hardly seemed fitting for a holy man.
Saying nothing, D stared at the flute in his hand, and then gazed at the one the boy had taken and the face of the holy man.
“Hmm. This simply won’t do, sir,” Ban’gyoh said, backing away with one hand raised. “It’s not good to work so hard to cover for one’s shortcomings with mere forcefulness. A good-looking man is not the be-all and end-all, you see. Here’s a proposition for you—if you want children to favor you over some foolish old priest, you should hang up your sword and live here in their village for the next five years. I bet you’d make the finest mayor they’ve ever seen!”
Chuckling to himself, Ban’gyoh then walked back to the house. The children had retreated to the verandah.
Only D and the flute were left out in the stark light.
“For some reason or other, that priest’s got it in for you,” a hoarse voice grumbled from around his left hand as it hung by his side. “But for such an odd duck, he sure says some interesting things. So, how about it? Why don’t you settle down here and become head fisherman or something? I’m sure you could get some animal protein out of that huge whale,” the voice chortled. After a short pause, he added, “Hey, aren’t you gonna tell me to shut up?”
D looked down at his left hand. The oddest expression lingered around his lips. “Head fisherman, eh? That might not be too bad,” said the Hunter.
“Wait just a second,” shot back a voice tinged with distress. “You wouldn’t really . . .” The palm of the left hand was upturned, looking up at D. But soon, the voice let out a sigh—one of relief. “That’s a load off my mind. I wouldn’t care if you quit here. But wherever you go always ends up being the valley of the shadow of death. You’ll keep traveling.”
D said nothing.
As if to cut through the roar of the sea, the sound of a child’s flute rang out.
.
II
.
It was early in the afternoon that the neighbors began to head home. As Su-In stood by the door thanking them, D watched her from the garden. The conversations of a number of the returning guests reached his ears. Dhampirs were said to have hearing three times as good as humans at night and twice as good by day, but apparently this young man’s abilities far surpassed even those estimates.
Su-In’s gonna be in for a rough time of it.
I wonder what the story is with Wu-Lin?
I hear she went to town, but what awful timing! She’d best hurry back, or Su-In’s gonna have a hard time bearing up.
Yeah, they counted on their grandfather an awful lot. He might’ve had a bum leg, but he sure could do the hypnotism.
You can say that again. When my boy got attacked by a man-eating shark and the shock of it left him bedridden, you wouldn’t believe my surprise when he made that child forget all about it in just five minutes.
Su-In’s got some pretty mean tricks herself, although there’s nothing to use them on out on the open sea.
That’s okay. She does all right for herself. And it’s downright scary how she throws a harpoon.
You know, I kinda get the feeling Wu-Lin’s not coming back.
The other neighbor said nothing.
I wonder if Su-In hasn’t really been left alone after all. My sister was like that when her husband and son went down with their ship. It was exactly the same. Not the tone of her voice or the look in her eye, but the whole atmosphere around her.
“What are you looking so down in the mouth about?” asked a cheery voice that was drawing closer.
As her grandfather’s coffin was buried, Su-In hadn’t showed any sign of being ready to burst into tears. The last shovelful of earth had covered him an hour ago. She’d had more than enough time to think about how she was going to make ends meet from tomorrow on.
“Your work should be done here until evening. I’m heading out to sea,” Su-In said, gazing toward the surf with a faraway look in her eyes. The stern expression she wore was the same one she’d had that morning as she was washing her boat.
“You’re going out now?”
“Summer’s almost here,” she replied. “I’ve got to make some money while I can.”
“I’ll go, too.”
Turning a look of surprise toward his gorgeous face, Su-In said, “But you can’t even . . .”
It was common knowledge that those descending from Noble blood would avoid running water. There were villages on the Frontier where the hundreds of houses were all surrounded by individual ditches. While it was understood at present that in order for such ditches to be effective they had to be wide and deep enough to drown an ordinary person, there was still no shortage of people who wasted their energy digging them around their house and waiting for rainy days. Out on the sea, the width and depth conditions would be more than met. However, for a dhampir like D—
“I won’t have you taking any chances. I don’t care how tough my enemies are, they’d never go after me out on the sea.”
“One of them rode off into the sky on a cloud,” D reminded her.
“Yeah, but . . .”
“I won’t get in your way.”
Locking her lips together tightly, Su-In glared at D and snorted out her nose. “Okay. But only if you stay to one side and don’t do anything.”
.
The wind at sea sliced at their cheeks. As they weathered gales that made it seem inconceivable that summer would arrive in two short days, Su-In’s powerboat skipped nimbly across the waves. The sea ahead of them was divided into three distinct sections. Off to the left, a distant fleet of large motorboats gingerly moved in formation. They were catching migratory fish in the black nets that dangled in the water from the stern of the lead vessel. Directly ahead of them and a few miles away, a gigantic form was surrounded by a pack of small powerboats manned by skilled harpooners—and the focus of their massed assault must’ve been a tidal whale. The surface of the water was tinged with a light pink.
The prow turned to starboard.
“We’re cutting in, so it could get a little rough. Be careful you don’t fall overboard,” Su-In said, her voice full of excitement.
Far ahead of the boat’s prow floated a belt of white—a row of ice chunks. As the small boat moved ahead of them, it maneuvered more nimbly than any of the other vessels.
“Giant killer whales are drawn by the whale’s blood. Besides the meat on them, their teeth, bones, and innards are all valuable—of course, they might come at the price of your life. Hey, don’t tell me you wanna leave already,” she joked. Su-In had a lot of pluck—a harsh environment like this wouldn’t necessarily suit everyone. There were some women in Florence who would live their whole lives without ever going out to sea, but you could say Su-In was a fierce exception to the rule. This twenty-year-old woman had chosen the most rigorous of battlefields.
The boat rocked, and vermilion stained the water. The battle that’d already been joined was reaching its peak. The water was rough in this part of the sea, where almost a dozen power boats were moving around. The heads and tails of plump game fish came in and out of view as they streaked through the water and slammed against the ships’ weak hulls.
“Watch yourself. These bastards can jump over fifteen feet.”
Cutting the boat’s engine as the vessel rocked from the waves striking it broadside, Su-In released a latch on the deck, scooped up five harpoons, and brought them to the starboard gunwale. Tipped with steel, each of the missiles was seven feet long and weighed over ten pounds
. It must’ve been difficult just to hold onto them on the rocking boat. The rough trousers that covered Su-In from the waist down were so taut there wasn’t a single wrinkle in them.
After setting four of the harpoons down, Su-In stood ready with the fifth. Hauling back with all her might with her right arm, she used her left hand to support the tip and take aim.
Someone somewhere shouted out her name, the cry echoing on for ages.
A black shape was approaching on the water’s surface—a number of harpoons jutted from its top half. When the short, thick head closed to within six or seven feet of Su-In, her upper body leaned back. The shirt she was stuffed into bulged clearly with the shape of her biceps and the muscles on her back. Bracing herself absolutely perfectly, Su-In let the harpoon fly.
The steely missile lanced into the sea with such force you’d swear you could hear it sink into flesh, and an instant later the black shape that was approaching twisted wildly. Submerging its impaled head in the sea, it thrashed the water violently with its tail and dorsal fin. Ignoring the massive creature entering its death throes, Su-In got ready with a second harpoon.
“Not too bad, eh?” she called back over her shoulder to D as she shook her head.
The waves kissed her with spray.
“The crease where the head meets the torso is where you make the kill shot. Even most men can’t hit it. Here comes another!”
Su-In’s scream and the way she collapsed made it clear that her last remark hadn’t been directed at the same beast that rammed them a second later. The woman barely managed to pull back her left arm—which dangled out over the gunwale—and use it to prop herself up as a massive black form made a vertical leap just in front of her.
It was certainly huge. And it just kept stretching longer and longer. The glistening wet belly that faced her was the only white thing on it. The tail was forked, and the body must’ve measured ten feet long and weighed at least sixteen hundred pounds. There was a malicious glint in the tiny eyes to either side of its compact head, and then a long, straight gash opened. Its mouth. It was the color of flames. In midair, the massive creature twisted into an inverted V shape. The turn had been intentional—it was coming back down headfirst.
Su-In was right under it—there wasn’t enough time for her to change her position. And yet she managed to look up. Colored by fear and hopelessness, her eyes then reflected a streak of silver that slashed through the mouth ready to close down on her body. A powerful tug on her collar hauled her out of the way as the massive form crashed down right in front of her, rocking the hull of the boat.
Realizing as she clung to the Hunter’s powerful chest that the giant killer whale’s head had been severed from its torso precisely along the line she’d described, Su-In got goose bumps. At the core of her being, she ached with a spark that was both feverishly hot and icy cold. On the deck a short distance from her, a sound like steel on steel rose from the head of a beast so thick she’d be lucky to get her arms around it. It was the sound of jagged teeth gnashing. She thought that must be the reason she felt the way she did.
“I suppose I acted out of place,” D said, although he didn’t sound all that apologetic.
“No,” Su-In said, shaking her head from side to side. It surprised her that she could even say that much.
“Will one be enough?” D asked. His tone was so calm that she had to wonder where he stored all of his composure.
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll keep taking them till they’re all gone.” A certain will that even she herself didn’t understand had been ignited, and Su-In pulled away from D.
“Hey there!” shouted a familiar voice that cut through the heavy seas.
While it was understandable that Su-In turned, the fact that D followed her example was highly unusual.
On the prow of the powerboat that ran in parallel to them about forty feet off their port bow, Dwight stood ready with a harpoon in one hand. “Imagine meeting you out here, stud,” he called out. “I couldn’t have asked for a better setting. I say we finish our duel from yesterday.”
Turning to D, Su-In said, “What’s he talking about?” She hadn’t been informed of the altercation between him and Dwight.
“I owe him,” D replied.
Puzzled, Su-In shifted her gaze back and forth between the two men.
“Like I told you before, I’m a fisherman. And out here on the sea, we’ll do things my way. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?” Dwight said, his right hand around a gleaming harpoon that was longer than Su-In’s, and almost twice as thick.
From the bridge of the other boat, a young man who probably worked for Dwight was comparing him to D.
D nodded ever so slightly.
“Good enough. We’ll each get one throw now. Whoever lands the bigger prize wins. So, give it your best shot,” Dwight said, breaking into a grin. “Now, if you lose—well, then you hightail it out of Su-In’s house. How does that strike you?”
In lieu of a reply, D took the harpoon from Su-In’s hand.
“Hey, wait just a minute! Don’t do anything stupid,” Su-In angrily shouted at Dwight as she tried to wrest the harpoon from the Hunter. “I don’t know what happened between you two, but this guy’s working for me and I can’t have you doing anything to him.”
“This doesn’t concern you. It’s between him and me—man to man. Stay out of it.”
“You big idiot!” the woman shouted indignantly, ready to give him a piece of her mind. But just then there was a terrible impact on the side of the boat. Without time to leave them with a scream, Su-In toppled over into the water like a log.
“Uh-oh, that’s not good!” Dwight shouted, his comment relating to the black shape closing on the woman from behind. Distress rising in his face, his great tree root of a right arm hauled back his harpoon, and then whirled in an arc as he grunted.
Searing through the air, the missile’s aim was unerring. Stabbing into the behemoth through its vital point at a thirty-degree angle, the tip came out by the jaw. A geyser of fresh blood shot from the creature’s neck as it twisted its body and sank into the sea.
Quickly grabbing a second harpoon, Dwight managed to wring out the words, “How do you like that, hotshot? You might be able to knock me out, but up against one of these monsters you’re not good for—”
And then he stopped. He’d just noticed that Su-In’s harpoon had vanished from D’s right hand. Su-In was clinging to the muscular arm the Hunter had over the side. Behind her, a black mass bobbed to the surface. The harpoon stuck through its neck was clearly Dwight’s—a very satisfying hit.
“You blew it, stud,” he sneered with one hand to his mouth. “See, Su-In. There’s more to a seafaring man than just looks. You need skill on the waves. And I—”
The fisherman’s voice died out again. Beside the beast he’d taken, another shape bobbed to the surface. Dwight’s eyes went wide—it was a pair of giant killer whales! Seeing that the harpoon that joined them at the neck was one of Su-In’s, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Even when the strongest of brutes threw a harpoon with all his might, one of these beasts was the most he could ever hope to pierce. The rest would be a matter of accuracy. How skilled could this man be to have not only nailed two at once, but to have taken them both through the vital spot?
An attack by a new foe rocked Dwight’s boat wildly. As the fisherman’s hands hit the deck he looked at D, who’d replaced Su-In at the helm. Staring at the Hunter’s handsome profile as he made a run for shore, something dangerously close to a smile spread across Dwight’s face little by little.
Just then, the young man at the wheel of his boat screamed, “Wh-what the hell is this?!”
“What is it?” Dwight asked as he turned around.
A trembling hand pointed to the surface of the sea.
“Huh?!” the fearless roughneck exclaimed, but it came as no surprise that his body stiffened with shock when he looked in that direction. There was no problem with the three beasts he and the H
unter had slain, but now black lumps were bobbing to the surface in a bloody swirl with such force it pushed the trio of carcasses away. The other boats might’ve taken notice of this, as some of them had surrounded the swirl as well.
“What the hell is it?”
“Is that meat?!” someone cried out.
At the very same time, Dwight had also realized that’s what it was. “It’s meat,” he said. “Killer whale meat. Someone’s down there ripping one to pieces. Chopping up a damned giant killer whale!”
Oblivious to the cries of the fishermen, chunks of meat continued rising to the surface, but before long that came to an end. Even after the men saw that the bobbing pieces that filled their field of view had edges so clean they looked like they’d been sliced with a knife, not one of them was willing to point that fact out to the others. In the hearts of these men who lived and died on the seas, a certain legend from the past reverberated darkly. They knew perfectly well that legend was tied to their future.
.
III
.
Just as the western horizon bloomed with the color of fresh blood, a woman climbed out of bed in the town’s sole inn. The time she’d spent there and the way she’d spent it remained on her naked skin as a pale, rosy glow that took her seductive beauty to a new level of temptation. It was “Samon of Remembrances.”
“Going?” a thick, drowsy voice inquired from right beside her. The body lying back under the sheets contrasted starkly with Samon’s own in terms of color and burliness. Like Samon, he was mentally and physically relaxed, but if the need arose his right hand would shoot like lightning for the sword that rested by his pillow.
“You don’t have any further need for me, do you?” Samon replied, her answer coming as she put on her underthings. “I’ve already told you everything I know. And I let you have whatever you wanted in bed, too. Don’t embarrass me any further.”
“That’s funny,” he said, his hand shooting up suddenly to grab the woman’s hair and yank back on it mercilessly.
Leaving a cry of surprise hanging in the air as she fell on her back, the woman found her face covered by another that was graceful and good-looking. Groans and sighs were exchanged, and then a second later Glen pulled away like he’d been shot from a gun. A thin stream of blood dribbled from his somewhat thick lips, causing vermilion flowers to blossom on the white sheets. Not even bothering to wipe at the part that’d been bitten open, Glen licked the blood from his own lips.
Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2 Page 2
