Samon’s expression changed. She’d just realized she was the one to whom the swordsman was referring.
“As the old me would’ve been,” Glen continued. “But not anymore. The killing lust I get from you feels almost the same—you’re on D’s side, aren’t you?”
“Well, I certainly spend enough time by his side,” the voice responded.
“In that case, give him a message. We’re taking the woman. If he wants her back, he’s to come to Cape Nobility tomorrow just as the sun sets. Until that time, we won’t do anything to her.”
There was a brief silence.
“Understood,” the voice said stoically.
Glen’s sword was tilted against his lips. His tongue was touching the blade, licking the blood that clung to it.
“Come,” he said.
With that one word alone, Su-In followed along after Glen like a marionette when he walked off. Samon was pulling up the rear, and once the three of them had vanished into the far reaches of the temple grounds, a protracted sigh could finally be heard from the grass.
“I’ll be damned if we don’t have one serious pain in the ass to deal with now,” said the hand. “I thought about trying to get the girl back, but that probably would’ve got me killed in the bargain. He could even tell where I was hiding. Before, he wasn’t much of a problem, but I have to wonder if you’ll really be able to take him now, D.”
.
It was twenty minutes later that the left hand finally met up with D—beneath the dilapidated main gate to the temple. After the Hunter brought Toto to the hospital, the thief had regained consciousness and told him where he could find Su-In.
“It really was too bad,” the left hand told D, going on to explain everything that had transpired. It was already neatly reattached to the Hunter’s wrist.
“Cape Nobility, eh?” said D. But that was all he had to say.
“It’s finally coming down to that time,” the left hand remarked. “It looks like you would’ve been better off leaving the village when you had the chance earlier. A lot more blood’s gonna be spilled. Are you sure you don’t know what that bead really is?”
D was silent.
“And the Noble—what’s he?” the hand continued. “Then there’s the story we heard at the museum. Are you sure there isn’t a link between him and the warrior we heard stayed at Su-In’s house? I’ve already found one. How are you doing on that?”
Giving no reply, D looked off to the left. The horse and rider were halfway up the side of a hill overlooking the sea. There were no trees. White waves shattered against the jet black world, and the undying roar of the surf sang a paean to the north. Summer had come from out beyond the glittering ice floes, as a Noble in blue raiment. And it held a final paintbrush that was now stained with a vermilion hue. But it would be neither D nor the seeker of knowledge who would wield said brush.
“Why did you come here?” the voice asked. “Was it because of the girl murdered in Gilligan’s basement? Because the last word she said was your name? Oh, you just keep getting softer and softer. Can’t break your promise to the dead? Even though it’s the living who get angry, while the dead never say a thing.”
D remained silent as he gazed out at the sea, as if the movements of his heart that the hand described were something about which he knew nothing at all. Perhaps he’d never have a heart of his own for all eternity.
Presently, the Hunter gave a single kick to his mount’s flanks and raced off on the steep, narrow path up the incline like an ominous black wind.
.
Su-In lay on the floor of the mud room. She was in Glen and Samon’s hideout in a shack by the sea. Although she hadn’t been tied up, she didn’t move. If she got the urge, she could’ve stood up or even run. But she wouldn’t get the urge. Desire, aspirations, competitive spirit—all the positive aspects of consciousness seemed to have been drained from her eyes when she met her foes’ gaze.
“Girl, there’s something I’d like to ask you,” the sorceress Samon said after a while. Glen sat to one side of the hut and was seeing to his blade. The warrior woman’s eyes gave off a vermilion glow every bit as evil as Glen’s, and as she gazed at Su-In, she made no attempt to conceal the hunger and greed in her gaze and on her lips.
“What would that be?” Su-In replied, seeming to make an effort to somehow rouse her own will.
“You were under my spell once, back in the sheriff’s office and at the temple gate. When you were, you showed me a certain man. A man you want to see more than anyone in the whole world, someone you simply can’t forget.”
“A man?” Su-In said, knitting her brow. She remembered the incident. But what did this woman mean, it was a man? It was Wu-Lin. Wasn’t it?
Knowing nothing of Su-In’s own doubts, Samon continued, asking, “How does he fit into this? What’s his connection to the Noble who comes from the sea?”
Despite her semiconscious state, Su-In’s whole body tightened with a terrible shock, and it wasn’t simply because of the completely unexpected suggestion that there was some connection between the Noble and herself. But for an instant, she’d caught a glimpse of the answer through countless overlapping layers of gossamer. She’d seen it with a geometrical, geological precision.
“What are you talking about?” asked Su-In.
“Don’t play stupid with me,” Samon snarled, baring her fangs. “He’s the man whose loss you mourn more than anyone or anything else. But why was it him? That’s what I want to know. Answer me.”
Su-In shook her head. “It was Wu-Lin! Wu-Lin!” she insisted.
“Don’t give me any more of that!”
“It’s no lie,” Su-In retorted. “You should stop lying to me.”
Samon’s features twisted into an atrocious expression, but it quickly vanished and the sorceress stared intently into the woman’s eyes. Points of light like rubies drilled through Su-In’s eyes and tried to drain the dregs of her soul through them.
Before two seconds had passed, Samon muttered, “Oh . . . So, you’re under hypnosis, I see. And a very powerful kind at that . . . erasing memories and clearing up feelings of guilt . . . But not perfectly, I’d say. Wait just a moment. I’ll see what I can find now.”
The rubies became flaming crystals. Su-In’s eyes grew more dazed, while Samon’s face glittered with jewel-like beads of sweat.
Several seconds passed—
Closing her eyes, Samon swayed on her feet. Clinging to a pillar strung with nets to steady herself, she rubbed her eyelids with one hand. When her eyes opened again, they were ablaze with the most malicious delight the world had ever seen.
But what did Su-In have locked away in her heart that would please Samon of all people?
“I saw everything,” said the sorceress. “So that’s what happened, is it? Dear me. I can see why you’d want to hide that. And now, I’ll show it to you, too.”
“Don’t!” Su-In cried, frightened without even knowing why. A ghastly fear beyond comprehension was rearing its head from the darkest depths.
“Look into my eyes,” said Samon, holding Su-In by the chin as she brought the woman’s face closer.
“Stop it!” Su-In cried, but her voice faded feebly. Samon’s hands had a grip on her chin, and a blurry white mass immediately began to take shape between them. “Samon of Remembrances”—the name may have had a romantic ring to it, but Su-In was learning now just how terrible the woman’s spell could be.
An outline formed. The eyes took shape. A nose was added. And it wasn’t Wu-Lin. While the face was still far from defined, it clearly was that of a man.
Su-In shut her eyes tightly. But Samon pried the woman’s lids open again.
“Take a good look,” the sorceress told her. “Peer into your own soul. And see exactly what you did.”
There was a powerful tug on Samon’s shoulder. Her surprised gasp brought a disruption to her spell, and the image that’d been formed by Su-In’s heart vanished.
“Just what do you t
hink you’re doing?!” the sorceress cried, her shout of shock and anger being absorbed by Glen’s powerful chest.
“Knock it off,” the swordsman told Samon.
“What’s the matter? I was simply showing the girl her own true nature. Is there some problem with that?”
Glen swung his left arm in a rough arc.
Easily knocked head over heels, Samon hit the wall boards back-first. A wooden box fell from above and landed at her feet.
“Of all the nerve,” Samon snarled. “Have you forgotten who it was that kept you here in this world?”
“Yes, I have,” Glen said, his face completely emotionless. A ghastly aura gusted from every inch of his frame, knocking the wind out of Samon.
“Why, you . . . ,” the sorceress groaned fearfully. She’d just realized the young man she’d risked her life and soul to save had, at some point, become something completely beyond her reach. Fear changing to rage, Samon wore a demonic visage as she crept along the wall and made her way back toward Su-In. “You would defend this woman and treat me this way? That’s unpardonable,” she said. “See how you like it when I do this!”
Samon’s mouth snapped open. Her face twisting with the supple speed of a whip, she drove her pair of fangs toward Su-In’s throat as the woman lay on the floor in a stupor.
A flash of white zipped between the two women.
In a spectacular move, Samon flew through the air, but as she landed again, a blade pressed right against her chest.
“You traitor!” she cried. “You want the woman’s blood . . . You’d have it all for yourself, wouldn’t you?”
Glen responded in a low voice that sounded like he was spitting up his own blood. “I promised I wouldn’t lay a hand on the woman until sunset tomorrow. And having given my word, I intend to keep it.”
“How stupid of you to make such a promise . . .”
“To you it may be stupid, but to me, it’s more important than life itself! You’re not to lay so much as a finger on this woman until tomorrow,” Glen said, and his blade slid forward.
A rich vermilion flower blossomed on the breast of Samon’s blue dress.
“If it’s blood you crave,” the man continued, “you can drink your own. But wait—I have something even better to show you.”
His blade danced through the air, and Samon’s clothes fluttered down to the floor like the wings of a butterfly.
This was how the seeker of knowledge rewarded the woman who’d risked her life and soul for his own sake, a woman whose full bosom was now stained with blood?
As the woman stood stock still, the swordsman pressed his lips fiercely to her throat. A stream of crimson instantly began to spill from the space between her skin and his lips. Samon’s face was pointed skyward, and as her expression changed from one of excruciating pain to extreme pleasure, the woman cradled Glen’s head in her arms.
“I am yours,” she fairly sobbed. “But you are mine, too.”
The face that’d been turned toward the heavens fell against the nape of Glen’s neck. So cruel, yet so erotic.
Su-In lay on the floor, unable to do anything but watch as a man and woman who’d both received the kiss of the Nobility began to feed on each other’s blood.
.
II
.
Night was over. The sea breeze bore the scent of summer to the northern village and made the white flowers and the green grass glisten. Performers pulled three-eyed monsters and robots out of thin air while the villagers danced an unfamiliar waltz to music that played in a clearing edged by a pond and fields of flora. Although the bodies of the three missing young people had been discovered in the ruined temple on a hill some distance from the village, everyone involved had been gagged by the mayor’s orders. The patrols along the shore had also been increased. Above all else, the one week of summer had to be gently and secretly protected. Children’s pleas to go to Su-In’s school were met with reproach from stern-faced members of the town council, who informed them that Su-In wasn’t a good woman. A better teacher would come to the school, and they no longer needed such a disreputable person.
Just four more days, they all thought. Summer couldn’t be tarnished. For it was a hopeful season brimming with light. However, even this season had its inescapable consequences. The coming of night was still a certainty.
.
D opened his eyes.
He was out in Su-In’s barn. Getting up, he went outside and got on Toto’s cyborg horse. There was nothing stilted about his movements. They were as precise as a machine, as beautiful as nature, and as orderly as the universe.
Leaving the road, D turned right. Today, the watch fires flickered on the beach once more. The Noble was almost sure to come. What did he seek? Three years. And this summer, he’d come in search of Su-In. Why in the summer? Perhaps listening to the song of the northern sea had made even the Noble long for the blue season once more.
“Hey there! Hey!” the Hunter heard someone shout in the distance. D stopped his steed.
Dwight was racing toward him on a single-seater hydro-bike. A compact two-wheeled vehicle powered by amplified hydroelectric energy, it was a popular form of transportation in areas near rivers or the sea. Although its top speed was less than thirty miles per hour, it was more than sufficient for traveling short distances.
“Wait up. Where are you going?” the fisherman asked, spinning the handlebars around for no particular reason. “At this hour, would you be going out for Su-In? You’re gonna go rescue her, aren’t you?”
Not addressing Dwight’s question, D asked, “What brings you out here?”
“It’s that goddamn Toto. Sorry, but he ran off on us.”
When the thief was brought to the hospital for the wound to the left side of his chest, Dwight had been there having his own injuries treated, and D had asked the fisherman to keep an eye on Toto’s condition. After the Hunter told Dwight that this man knew about the bead, he’d agreed to do it without any argument.
“I had one of my men keeping an eye on him, but when I heard the way he was tossing around in bed, I went to have a look for myself. Seems he slammed my guy up against the wall at some point and knocked him out cold. Hurt as bad as he is, he couldn’t have got very far, but we checked everywhere and came up empty. He must be tough as hell. Anyhow, I came out to tell you that.”
“Go home,” D told him. “I’ll bring Su-In back.”
Riding alongside the Hunter for a short time on his bike, Dwight then gave a determined nod. “Those sound like words I can put my faith in,” the fisherman said. Then he added, “You better come back alive, too, you hear me? I don’t care if you’ve got Noble blood in you or any of that. So long as you’re still living, something good’s bound to come your way.”
Up until that point, D had been facing straight ahead, but then he turned and gazed quietly at Dwight. “That’s right,” he said. “As long as I’m still living. And Su-In will make it out of this alive, too.”
“I’m counting on you,” Dwight said, extending one hand. But he quickly pulled it back. Even he knew a Hunter didn’t like to use his sword arm for anything else.
Dwight’s vehicle stopped. D alone would go, illuminated by the moonlight.
Turning off the narrow road, the Hunter advanced down a side path leading into the hills until a wide road appeared. Light could be seen leaking out from beneath its dirt covering. It was the Nobles’ road. The soil that covered it must’ve dried out and been worn away over the years, allowing the surface below to peek out.
Continuing down the road for thirty minutes, D came to the resort area. The shadows of the horse and rider fell on the ground. Only the rider’s shadow was faint. Such was the destiny of those of Noble blood.
A black carriage raced by D’s side. By the blue glow of an electric light, men and woman dressed in formal wear laughed and chatted. The lights were on in every house. Fireworks blazed on their front lawns, and pure spring water spread like the wings of birds in marble founta
ins. Surely there must be a ball tonight. A nocturnal bird with bones of silver and wings of crystal passed over D’s head. Perhaps the letter it carried was a message of love from some gentleman to a lady.
The wind gusted across the street. A shower of white petals blew from the gardens of all the houses, striking D in the face. He caught one in his hand. It was a grimy scrap of wallpaper.
There was no sign of anyone moving on the road. All of the houses lay in utter darkness, and as the wind blew through their weedy, eroded gardens, they joined it in singing a song of abandonment and decay. It was all just a dream.
Silently D advanced down the white path, and before long the sounds of the sea grew closer—he’d arrived at the cape. Off in the darkness, he could see three figures about a hundred feet away.
Massive stone sculptures of people’s faces lined either side of the road. Since these effigies had been coated to resist the elements, they still retained the same color and form that they’d been given thousands of years earlier.
Once D closed to within forty feet of them, he got off his horse. His hair and the hem of his coat fluttered with the sea breeze.
The central figure was Su-In, while Glen was to her right and Samon to her left. The paleness of their skin couldn’t be attributed to the moonlight alone, and from this D could see for himself the true nature of her captors.
Glen opened his mouth and said, “Not at all surprised, are you? Oh, that’s right—your left hand probably told you all about us. But this is the road I’ve chosen in order to beat you.”
Although Samon then shot a quick glance at the swordsman, she said nothing.
Seemingly under a spell, Su-In wore an expression that showed no signs of any will of her own.
“I don’t have the bead,” said D.
“That is of little consequence. I simply want to settle things with you. And this woman no longer has need of it, either,” Glen said, his voice quivering with jubilation.
“Let the girl go.”
“Just as soon as you and I have settled this. Relax. We haven’t laid a finger on her, and we won’t after this is done, either.”
Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2 Page 19
