It was true that the water in the lagoon had dried up centuries earlier. Dirt and dust had accumulated on top of it to form the present surface, and people had forgotten all about the water. However, subterranean sources continued to trickle in, saturating the ground beneath it and displacing a massive amount of dirt and sand to form an underground swamp. And having been born in the area, Gyohki had no doubt discovered this somehow.
Egbert had lifted his gravity attack from the little island, and now Gyohki stripped off his shirt. Naked to the waist, he then dove straight into the depths. As soon as his body broke through the water’s surface, it underwent a transformation. The water seemed to take hold of his hair and stretch it as it streamed down his back. His skin became gorgeous and white, and his powerful chest swelled into full breasts. Still clad in a pair of trousers, his lower body was covered with countless scales, and the end of his tail split in two to splash violently from the water. The figure that was now closing on D with over-arm strokes was clearly a woman—a mermaid!—that once had been Gyohki.
D waited silently in the black water for the product of Meinster’s accursed experiments. However, the Hunter’s body was most definitely sinking in this bottomless abyss. Bubbles rose from the corner of his mouth.
Gyohki zipped closer. His burst of speed was incredible. The second he passed D’s right side, his right hand shot out. Having gone right by, he turned around. A cloud blacker than the water trailed from the woman’s hand, and as if in response, a thick stream of blood rose like smoke from D’s right hip.
“My, but you’re good,” the woman said, but being who he was, D heard it differently—he heard it as Gyohki’s voice.
The woman pressed her left hand to the opposite hip. It was an instant later that little explosions of blood rose in gouts from the same spot. Gyohki stared at the blade in D’s right hand with terror and malice.
“I underestimated you because we’re underwater. But this time I won’t let you get away,” the mermaid muttered with a deadly determination.
Slowly, she/he began to circle D, and a mighty cloud of bubbles spilled from D’s mouth. Following them as they rose, D kicked his way through the water. Beyond the black depths, there lay a muted light. The surface was fifteen feet away.
Looking up at his foe from the depths, Gyohki donned a thin smile as he thrashed through the water. He was closing with the speed of a fish.
When D’s head started to cause ripples on the surface, a woman’s hands seized the Hunter’s ankles and gave them a pull. D was dragged back underwater with incredible force. His foe moved with a speed and strength that was absolutely unbelievable for such a lithe female form.
D’s face was twisted with pain. The store of oxygen in his lungs had reached its limits.
“I’ll let you go soon,” Gyohki laughed as he towed the Hunter toward the bottom. “But you can’t have any air. Drink in the water. Fill your lungs with it. I’ll pull you back down before you can get your face out.”
There was no need to do that. Before Gyohki had even let go of him, D opened his mouth. His throat moved. He was taking in the water. A few seconds passed—and then he clutched at his jugular. Spasms ran through his body. Then they stopped sharply—Gyohki released the Hunter, and D’s body began to slowly sink to the bottom.
“Three and a half minutes,” Gyohki said to himself. “That’s how long the average dhampir can last underwater.”
Keeping his distance, Gyohki drifted down along with D. Then he brought his hand up to his mouth. Along with some bubbles, his mouth disgorged a wooden stake that was nearly a foot and a half long.
“Those of Noble blood don’t drown,” he said. “I’ll have to put this through you to finish you off.”
Just to be on the safe side, Gyohki watched for another minute as D drifted toward the bottom, then wriggled the fish tail sensuously. Going over to D, the mermaid turned him so his back was to the bottom. Staring at the gorgeous countenance that seemed to sparkle in the black water, he said, “How beautiful you are—and now, as a woman, I only feel it all the more. But if I were to do nothing, you’d destroy us all. So here you must die.”
Raising her right hand, the mermaid prepared to drive the stake home. But surely she couldn’t believe what happened then. The hand the drowned man used to hold his sword tried to grab her wrist in mid-motion.
“Why, you—?!” she cried in amazement, but a second later her body began to be dragged upward with incredible force. “Just toying with me, were you?!” she screamed, and although she willed every muscle in her body to bring her back down, the rate of her ascent didn’t diminish in the least. In fact, Gyohki rose with such speed there was no time to try anything else before he/she broke the surface, shooting up into the air along with D.
Then the mermaid saw the stern beauty staring down at him/her, and the black sphere above the Hunter’s head that even now continued to ascend. The balloon was connected to D by a pair of leather straps. Designed to hoist people thrown into the icy sea safely into the air before they froze to death, the balloon was filled with a gas that was lighter than air. D had put on this piece of indispensable lifesaving equipment back in Su-In’s barn. Ever since they’d met under Meinster’s castle, he must’ve known Gyohki would try fighting him in the water. The Hunter may have even known that Gyohki was actually the mermaid.
More than the blade he raised, more than the distant blue sky behind him, it was D himself that mesmerized Gyohki as the Hunter brought his weapon down on the mermaid. What was it that Gyohki saw in that instant?
“Such skill—and that face—” he/she cried out absentmindedly. “Could it be that you are his—” A heartbeat later, as he watched the blade with all the colors of the spectrum streaming behind it slash his/her torso two, Gyohki reached a violent peak, the female upper body and fish-like lower body separating as he/she fell back toward the black surface of the water. Spray shot up.
Using his right hand to pull on a leather strap and slowly release the gas, D gradually sank back to earth. He landed on the road, about thirty feet away from Egbert.
“Not too shabby,” Egbert said in a low voice, his iron staff in one hand.
Using his sword to cut himself free of the balloon from Su-In’s barn, D took a quick glance at the rejuvenated lagoon. Although the woman’s beautiful torso had at some point turned back into that of a man, the lower body remained that of a fish, and even now it writhed and splashed in the water. A hue darker than the black water began to spread through the lagoon like a blossoming flower . . .
Egbert said, “One thing you might want to know—the girl on the island ain’t the real thing. Of course, I’m more curious as to whether or not you already knew that.”
The girl’s transformation probably wasn’t good enough to fool D. But had the Hunter walked right into Gyohki’s hands because he saw his foe was about to kill some girl he’d never even met before? Or because he knew what Gyohki’s secret was?
“Just as I thought—you’re no ordinary dhampir. What are you?”
Not replying to Egbert’s question, D focused a look that was both vacant and sad on the scarf around the man’s neck as he quietly said, “You’ve been bitten, haven’t you?”
Tiny ripples of agitation spread through Egbert’s face. They then became a look of agony as he reeled backward. He didn’t actually fall over, and as he barely managed to turn around, there was a sharp dagger buried to the hilt in the middle of his back.
“You traitor!” a ferocious voice laden with indignation could be heard to say from a distant stand of bushes. Twin’s voice. “You were acting strangely all morning, so Gyohki pretended to have me look for the professor while he actually had me keep an eye on you. On the slim chance D did make it to the surface, the plan was that you’d pump up the gravity to send him right under again, but you betrayed us. So now you’ll get what you’ve got coming. I don’t know where Samon disappeared to, but we’ll take care of her and the other guy later.” And to the Hunter he ca
lled out, “D, we’ll meet again!”
Though a wooden stake flew from D’s right hand in pursuit of the voice, only a few verdant stalks rustled before nothing more could be heard.
“He’s not your real concern,” Egbert said as he twisted his left hand around to his back. “Someone else is. A man you already know. I’m heading back to see him.”
“Is he your new master?”
“Call it what you will.”
“Where is he?” asked D.
“Well, let me see. If I told you I didn’t know, would you cut me down?”
“Why didn’t you attack me?”
“Because a certain lady asked me not to. Go ahead and laugh if you like. If you don’t cut me down now, the Nobility will just gain another member,” said Egbert, his words tinged with a hint of distress.
Of course, this young man wasn’t the kind who could let something like that pass. The fact that Egbert was wounded and that he’d held back from attacking the Hunter were both irrelevant.
D strode forward.
Egbert held his iron staff at the ready.
A flash of light in all the colors of the spectrum sketched an arc between the two of them. With a shower of sparks, D’s blade was stopped by the iron staff Egbert held braced over his head.
But look at what was happening! The blade had bitten halfway through the staff. D was using one hand, while Egbert was using both. And yet, the warrior who’d stopped the Hunter’s blow was slowly being overpowered, and he’d already been forced to his knees. Was it because Egbert, in his present condition, was at a disadvantage in the abundant sunlight? No, there was simply too great a difference in the power of the two figures from the very start.
As the blade sliced steadily into his iron staff, Egbert actually gazed at it and the gorgeous young man behind it with a deathlike rapture. Perhaps that was the very last bit of humanity remaining in him. Without a doubt, Egbert’s head was going to be split in two in a matter of seconds.
There was a splash in the water on the opposite side of the lagoon.
D’s concentration was disturbed ever so slightly.
A massive burst of strength shot up from below, and the two forms sprang away to different locations.
But both of them saw the splash. A blackish figure had just leapt out of the lagoon and was running off into the woods. Without a moment’s hesitation, it vanished among the trees.
“It seems the ruler of Hell has decided to give me a little longer to live,” Egbert called out, but as his voice faded in the distance, D didn’t even glance in his direction.
The Hunter’s interest had been caught by something the diminutive figure had held in its hands a split second before it vanished. The dazzling outline that’d glittered in the sunlight had been that of the bead.
.
III
.
As he raced down the forest trail at full speed, Toto coolly considered his next move. He’d gotten the bead. At that very moment, it sat in his right pocket as surely as he drew breath. Naturally, he’d have to take it to a trustworthy expert and have it appraised. Though a number of names popped into his head, and any of them would’ve been fine if he were just out for some pocket money, none of them would be suitable for a major score like this. It looked like he’d have to head into the Capital after all and be introduced to someone he could trust. Fortunately, he had plenty of acquaintances who could arrange that.
But first, what would he do about Su-In?
His greed-tinged expression suddenly clouded.
If he just let things run their course, the drug he’d given her would probably wear off around 6:00 Night. He couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t be attacked by one of the supernatural creatures infesting the area around the ruined temple, though—that would be determined more or less by the woman’s own luck.
That look of complete faith she’d had in her eye when she’d taken him for a traveling holy man and asked him to perform a funeral knifed into his heart. Once more he heard the same voice as the night before, when she’d tried to persuade him to get out of thievery and settle down in the village. Both were just dreams. Giving his head a shake, Toto tried to dislodge the face of a woman that shone like the sun.
His horse was tethered by the exit from the woods. Once on it, he could be out of this foul-smelling little coastal village in less than an hour.
Even D and Egbert hadn’t noticed him as he went into the water, swam out to the island, got the bead out of the girl’s clothes where they’d been left behind a tree, and swam back again. In fact, things had gone so well, he’d gotten sloppy and made some noise getting back out of the water. But if he was good enough to swipe something without even a Vampire Hunter noticing, he figured he’d be able to stay in the game another thirty years at least.
Untying the reins from a tree, Toto straddled his horse.
Just be one of us—
“Dammit,” Toto muttered as he wheeled his mount around, toward the ruined temple where he’d imprisoned Su-In.
Just then, a wrinkled old voice echoed through Toto’s head.
“Get off the horse, and get the bead out.”
Before he could even begin to wonder what the hell was going on, his thoughts faded like sparks. Toto’s brain now heard nothing but directions given by a bizarre voice.
Oh no!, reason cried from the dark corner of his mind where it’d been shoved.
Toto took out the bead.
“Throw it straight ahead.”
The bead limned an arc and vanished into the bushes in front of him. A scrawny figure quickly stood up. Professor Krolock. But although the thief knew who it was, his consciousness couldn’t make his body do anything at all.
Bringing his face up to the papery object in his hands, the professor whispered something: “Die. Stab yourself through the heart.” This time, his voice was low and husky—and overwhelming.
Toto felt his own right hand going for the belt around his waist. His burglary tools were stuck in the belt. His hand chose an awl.
Don’t! a distant voice inside him shouted.
Toto brought the tool to the right side of his chest with a fluid movement.
“No. The left side.”
The tip of the tool hovering over his chest finally came to rest against his left nipple.
You can’t! The voice inside him was practically a scream.
As the cold steel ripped through his flesh, Toto screamed and collapsed against a nearby tree. The strength left the thief’s ankles, knees, and waist in turn, causing him to slide down the trunk.
As Toto lay there, the professor looked down at him with surpassing cruelty, and then quickly turned to peer into the depths of the forest.
“Watching D since last night certainly paid off. Now I’ll be able to make Nobles of whomever I please. Let the fools who don’t know the true use of the bead keep killing each other if they wish. I still have the final preparations to make!”
His tattered cloak fluttering abnormally, the professor ran off toward where he’d tethered his own horse.
After a short while, the thick scent of blood began to hang over the area. And as if it were an invitation, unsettling cries and chirps and rustling started to come from the bushes and the trees.
The summer woods were brimming with life. Dangerous life.
In the darkness formed by the leaves of the bushes, countless lights winked on, then became eyes set in hideous faces as the creatures slid out through the green grass. “Pan-eyes”—bugs with giant compound eyes on their ash-gray heads. Flesh-eating worms with black spots on their ocher skin. Bristling caterpillars with dozens of glittering fangs. Hopping, crawling, and slithering vilely, they closed on the prone Toto. If the ravenous forest denizens sank their teeth into him, not even a fragment of bone would be left within an hour—he’d utterly vanish from the face of the earth.
The first thing the flesh-eating worms did was make a beeline for Toto’s ear. There was nothing they liked better than to ent
er through the ear canal and munch their way through someone’s brain.
But they never would’ve thought the corpse would move. Toto’s right hand flashed out, bisecting several of the worms in midair. No sooner had those pieces hit the ground than the remaining worms pounced on them without a sound.
A “pan-eye” wasted no time in launching itself at Toto’s throat, but a slash from the thief’s sharp tool ripped open the bug’s lizard-like torso.
But that was all the resistance the dying man gave them. Matting the verdant grass as it flopped to the ground, his arm would move no more.
“Dammit . . . So I end up . . . food for the worms . . . ,” he cursed, his hatred and mortification made into words so they might roll across the ground.
Having finished devouring their bloodied compatriots, it took these insects with no concerns aside from their own instinctive hunger less than ten seconds to recall the other, larger meal.
Was this the end of the corpse’s unexpected resistance?
As the supernatural beasts prepared to descend en masse, something seemed to billow over them. The blood-crazed creatures then retreated without a sound.
A figure in black appeared from the grove across from the thief. The ghastly aura that’d frightened the monsters emanated from D. Quite a way off, there was a young girl. She no longer wore Su-In’s face. And the spot where she remained must’ve been where the stench of blood ended.
D went right over to Toto and took his left hand. The awl in the thief’s right hand didn’t even warrant a glance. To the Hunter, it was something he could take care of with his little finger.
“Hate to tell you . . . but . . . I’m still alive,” the thief said, his bloodless lips twisting into a smile. “Stupid bastard . . . had his chance . . . and had to go and miss the spot . . . My heart . . . ,” he chuckled, “is on the right side . . .”
Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2 Page 17
