The Tiger in Winter

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  “It doesn’t matter what you find, just be careful of those guys.”

  “Isn’t that the truth. They’re all after the stuff we excavated. Before long, they’ll be killing each other.”

  “Yeah, they’re a bunch of greedy bastards to be sure, but did you find anything worth them throwing away all honor as scientists?”

  “We got these!” Valerie said, pulling the items from her backpack and setting them out on his blanket.

  “Three pieces?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Valerie replied with a somewhat dubious expression.

  Noticing that, Izumo inquired, “What’s wrong?”

  “Well, I thought there were just two.”

  “There are three pieces here. But what’s this one?”

  It was the piece that up until that very moment Valerie had forgotten. Taking it in hand, Izumo scrutinized it closely. Though he searched his memories, there was nothing there to match the item.

  “I really don’t know,” the professor continued. “All we could do is ask a Noble. Be gentle with it.”

  “How’s it look?”

  She was asking about their value.

  “You’d know as well as I do. The two of them would fetch a half million dalas each, minimum. The idol’s definitely the Sacred Ancestor. That should bring it up to nine hundred thousand dalas by itself.”

  “Wow. That’d feed an entire village for life!”

  “It might be best to send them off to the Capital. Tell them we only found the bracelet, and split what we get for the idol.”

  “It’s going to be hard to head back to camp now,” said the woman. “Mind if I leave this stuff here?”

  “No, best you put it somewhere else.”

  “Why?”

  “Because when I looked at it, something suddenly popped into my head. I thought to myself, I could kill her and take off and keep it all for myself.”

  Looking her lover right in the eye, Valerie said, “Okay, point taken.”

  After that, she talked about what they’d do next at the excavation for a little while, then left the hospital.

  When Valerie got back to her tent, five figures stepped out from behind it, blocking her way. Her colleagues.

  “Well, if it isn’t Dokky, Jimemem, Pike, Sanda, and Giche—what’s wrong?” Valerie asked, intentionally playing dumb. Their aim was actually painfully clear.

  “Hand it over. It’s not like we’re taking everything,” Giche said, sticking out his right hand.

  “Hit pay dirt on the first day, right? Let’s have a taste of that,” said Jimemem.

  “Sorry, but I can’t do that. Those are the Capital’s rules on excavations. Article five. ‘All excavated items shall be presented to the Bureau of Archeology, becoming property of the same.’”

  “Hell, even the ones who made that rule don’t remember it,” Dokky remarked with a greedy laugh. It hardly seemed like the same man who’d been burning with enthusiasm for his scholarly mission on the way out to the Frontier.

  “And what if I say no?” the woman asked, and the instant she did, her heart began beating harder. Oh, if only the new guy were around, she thought. Him and that power he used to turn the giant spiders to dust in the blink of an eye—or maybe it’d be better to call it a weapon?

  “Come on, try to be flexible here,” Pike pleaded with her, sticking out both hands. “Every last one of us has devoted his life to archeology. And we’re all impoverished as a result. Come on, this is our big chance to turn our lives around. What’s so bad about us keeping a little? If every last thing that was excavated got turned in, the Capital itself would be buried in ruins inside of a decade!”

  “That isn’t what we wanted, is it?”

  “They were the Nobility, after all. They ruled humans until three centuries ago, so what’s so bad about swiping a few things left behind by somebody everyone considers monsters anyway?”

  “No,” Valerie countered, “the Nobility still have control over us. But they’re living creatures, just like we are. The items I found show their feelings—their yearning for beauty, their pride and joy in creation. They should be used to better understand the Nobility’s true nature.”

  “Knock it off, you’re wasting your breath,” Dokky said, a nasty ring to his voice. “‘Valerie fell into the hole and was never seen again’—that’ll have to be the story.”

  “Hold on. Are you serious?” Valerie said, her right hand going for the pistol on her hip.

  “You’re not the only one carrying!”

  There was the sound of a hammer being cocked. And more than just one.

  “All of you . . .” Valerie began, her words being swallowed by the sky.

  What happened next was clearly beyond anything any of them had imagined. A shadowy horse and rider sailed down from above. Heaven and earth rumbled with the thuddddd!

  “Who the hell are you?!”

  “What the hell, that horse—it’s a unicorn?!”

  Thunder boomed.

  The five men were blown backward, their heads gone. After they hit the ground and the shaking from the impact stopped, they didn’t move another inch.

  Valerie couldn’t immediately accept the sudden reversal of the life-or-death situation. She was the one about to lose her life, yet the five who’d threatened her had been snuffed. But who had done this, and how?

  The answer to that wheeled his steed around. It wasn’t a horse. A single horn grew from its brow—it was, in fact, a unicorn.

  “You—you’re with the Pitch Black Gang?”

  “I’m Vulcan,” the rider said. His eyes gleamed within the hood of his cape.

  Valerie tightened her grip on the straps of her backpack. He was undoubtedly after the items she’d excavated.

  “Get on behind me.”

  That unexpected request left Valerie bewildered.

  “The others in the tents will be coming,” he told her. “You need some time and a place where you can calm down and think. I’ll take you there.”

  “Huh? Take me where?”

  “Get on,” he said, his low, trenchant voice leaving Valerie’s brain numb.

  Thinking how his tone reminded her of someone else’s, Valerie got on behind the bandit leader and put her arms around his waist.

  When the mount started to run, she was surprised. There were no vibrations at all from the ground. She could’ve ridden around like that for ninety days straight and barely even been tired. Unicorns were just that sort of creature.

  “Lady—what’s your name?” Vulcan inquired.

  “It’s Valerie.”

  “You surprised, Valerie? This is a unicorn you’re on.”

  “The Frontier’s just full of surprises, isn’t it?”

  “It’s the land of the Nobility. You gonna tell them that back in the Capital?”

  “It’s my job.”

  “How will you tell them?”

  “Just as it is!”

  It suddenly occurred to her that this man might’ve overheard her earlier discussion with her colleagues.

  After that, Vulcan said no more, but because the tension was now broken, Valerie rested her head against his broad back and fell asleep. The fact that Vulcan’s demeanor was terribly calm was a contributing factor.

  “We’re there!”

  When Valerie opened her eyes, she was on the ground. She couldn’t recall when she’d gotten down, or if she’d been taken down instead. To her right were Vulcan and his unicorn, and straight ahead loomed stony ramparts.

  They were at the duke’s castle.

  “Why come here?” she asked, looking up at Vulcan.

  Wasn’t this the place he and his bandits were going to hit? Yet he brought Valerie there and said it would be safe. What exactly did he think of the castle and its master?

  “Clear out of it before we hit the place.” And saying that, Vulcan wheeled his unicorn around, adding, “You’ve got two days.”

  They dwindled in the distance with a sound that differed from that of a h
orse.

  Presently, a steward came from the castle and courteously welcomed Valerie. Neither the duke nor D had returned. On receiving some communication, the steward said, “I’ve been instructed to ask that you kindly remain with us until the master returns.” He then led her to a room.

  Perhaps it was out of the ordinary for someplace as simple and sturdy as this stone castle to have guest rooms, but after taking a shower, Valerie was left considering her next move in a room as luxurious as any in the Capital’s finest hotels.

  All she had to do was tell everyone the deaths of the other five were the work of a bandit. But what would the others do when they learned the true intent of those who’d died? Reflecting on it, she realized they’d all been colleagues for several years. Yet now she couldn’t trust a single soul among them.

  Actually, Valerie had heard of similar situations occurring at other digs a number of times, and the pilfering of excavated items had been an almost daily occurrence even at excavations she’d been involved with. Valerie had believed it to be the fault of the manual workers they’d hired, and her colleagues had thought the same. Now, however—

  Too tired to think any more, Valerie suddenly felt like looking at the glittering items she’d excavated to get her mind off her troubles. Taking the idol and the bracelet from her bag, she set them side by side. That was all of them. It didn’t even bother her that the third item wasn’t there. In fact, she’d completely forgotten that there’d been one in the first place.

  II

  “Hey! Heeeeeeey!”

  The cries came from overhead, yet D didn’t halt his cyborg horse. That in itself wasn’t an unexpected turn of events.

  He was on the road five hours out of the village of Melmecky and two hours shy of the duke’s castle.

  Suddenly, it appeared. From overhead, a humanoid moth with huge wings flitted down right in front of the cyborg horse, forcing it to stop. The face and form were those of Gilshark—head of the rebel army. The enormous wings must’ve been some sort of artificial flying device.

  “Hey, don’t carve me up!” he said to the Hunter, holding out both hands. “I followed you from that bar. Please, just hear me out.” His tone was deadly serious.

  Nevertheless, D rode forward.

  The leader of the rebel army adjusted his wings to keep pace.

  After hearing of the Pitch Black Gang’s attack on Melmecky he’d immediately raced there, but D and the duke had been a step ahead of him. Although he’d hoped to at least get rid of the duke, the Nobleman had left quickly, and Gilshark had ultimately decided to follow after D and kill him if luck was on his side. Up to that point, he was doing the very same thing as the Pitch Black Gang had planned.

  However, adjusting his wings took time, and though Gilshark hastened to catch up, he lost track of his target. He didn’t reach the bar until thirty minutes after D had left.

  “After I heard what happened, I changed my mind about you. The duke may be our sworn enemy, but the Pitch Black Gang and other bandits are a much more immediate threat, and one we’ve got to put down first. I’d like your help in eradicating them.”

  “I thought you had people of your own,” D replied softly.

  “Well, to be honest, we’d be up against too damn many of them, and apparently they use some sort of power. I say “apparently” because everyone who’s been hit by them has ended up dead, and we can’t even figure out how they actually strike. Using regular bows and guns, they still wipe out their opponents without suffering any real losses, even though the ones they’re attacking are firing right back at them.”

  “With your enhanced strength and the force field generator, you should be on an equal footing with them.”

  “I wouldn’t mind that, but if I can’t say for sure that’ll be the case, I don’t wanna go pick a fight with them. What we really need here is a man with superhuman abilities.”

  “It’s not a given that dhampirs will side with humans. Besides, you and I have nothing to do with each other.”

  “I know that. But I’m asking you to make an exception. If somebody doesn’t do something, nobody in this whole area’s gonna be able to sleep nights.”

  “Rounding up bandits is the job of the lord of the domain—the administrator.”

  “The duke’s not even trying anymore. You know what I’m saying. But I can’t just sit idly by.”

  “Oh, you won’t sit idly by?” D said, a certain memory putting a spark of light in his dark eyes.

  “I’m not asking you to do it for free. You’ll be rewarded.” Gilshark tossed D a sack he’d had on his belt. When D caught it, he added, “Me and my people collected this from folks all over the country. There’s a little over a thousand dalas. I’m begging you, please help us out here.”

  “My job is getting rid of Nobles.”

  “I know. But the truth is, I’ve heard rumors some of the bandits are dhampirs, just like you. And if that’s the case, it’s an even higher hurdle for us.”

  “We don’t act on just rumors, you know,” said the hoarse voice.

  Just as that face of unearthly beauty shook lightly from side to side, Gilshark gasped and knit his brow.

  Even D turned and looked.

  A black colossus was straddling the distant mountain chain, running away. Once it was over, another shadowy figure straddled it, vanishing with a great quaking of the earth.

  It was a famous northern Frontier attraction known as “Little Boy Over the Mountains.” That was what they called a phenomenon that happened at this time of year, where a man standing more than three miles tall appears, straddles the mountain chain, then runs off to who knows where. Said to be the work of a miasma over the region, the sun, and the moon, the true cause of it was still unclear. But to the northern Frontier, it was an important source of tourist dalas.

  When the colossus’ foot touched the earth, the ground shook violently, and footsteps could be heard like a rumbling from deep in the earth. Yet the tremors didn’t register on any seismograph, and not a single footprint was left behind.

  When the third shadowy colossus finished going over the mountain, something happened. He should’ve run off, but suddenly he turned in the direction of the two men.

  “Whah?!” Gilshark cried out, but he couldn’t do anything.

  Black hands latched onto the top of the mountain chain, tore it off, and hurled it at them. By the light of the moon, the mountain sailed through the air. It slammed into the earth about a hundred yards ahead of the pair. With a tremendous rumble and shock, it bounced toward them. The enormous chunk of rock rolled over their heads, and the mountaintop utterly filled their field of view.

  A cry of pain rang out.

  Suddenly, stillness returned.

  The two men were on the road, where the moonlight seemed to have intensified. The distant mountains remained as they had been.

  Taking a deep breath, Gilshark beat his wings. Like an enormous moth his body sailed over the grasslands to their left, and then about fifty yards away he called out, “Right here. Must be one of the bandits. Got a wooden needle driven through his forehead. That’d be your doing, I take it.”

  Flying back without a sound, he continued, “I could feel the wind from that chunk of rock. I thought we were gonna be crushed.” The rebel leader sounded completely exhausted.

  When hypnotism was performed at the highest levels, it could work on the depths of a mind. Accordingly, if it were suggested to a person that a simple piece of wood was a branding iron and it then touched them, the person under the hypnotic spell would get a burn.

  This hypnotist’s plan was to use his willpower to hypnotize the two of them from afar, then crush the life from them with a hallucination. If D’s needle hadn’t shot out at the bandit, the two of them would’ve been crushed by the illusion of a mountain peak and left flat as a pancake on the road, lying there in the moonlight.

  Still looking off toward the mountain chain, D said, “Seems I’m not the only one who picked up a tail.” H
is gaze fell where waves of grass swayed in the breeze.

  “I never really noticed before, but the rebel army’s pretty half-assed.”

  In his amazement, Gilshark focused his gaze on D’s left hand for a moment, then said, “You’re right, that screw-up is on me. Guess I’d better make it up to you, eh?”

  Once more the man/moth sailed into the air, with streaks of fire from the ground flying after him. They had more enemies out there than just the hypnotist.

  A whine rang through the air. Or rather, the sound split space.

  D saw the grassy plain below Gilshark shimmer like a mirage. And D alone could’ve seen the sixty-foot-diameter black dome that formed there. All the streaks of fire turned, twisted, and immediately vanished.

  When Gilshark came back, D asked him, “Why didn’t you erase them completely?”

  The fearless man’s mouth fell agape and he said, “Oh, you could tell?”

  D didn’t answer.

  “Well, it’s like this: I decided just to grind off their arms and legs. They’re not gonna be able to rob anyone again like that. And it wasn’t really worth killing them over. Anyway, do me a favor and give some thought to what we talked about. See you later!”

  Gilshark flew effortlessly into the air, rising straight for the moon. The form of the moth grew smaller, and it was quickly swallowed up by the moonlight.

  When he’d taken to the air, D was already moving forward.

  It was nearly dawn when the Hunter reached the castle. He immediately noticed something was wrong.

  A soldier, apparently an officer, came over and said, “You have a message from his grace,” projecting a three-dimensional image of the duke in midair.

  “D, I am in Chapes. It’s a village about six hundred miles east of there. The bandits sent what must’ve been a separate detachment to attack this place. Though it would be easy enough to return, I won’t be coming back soon. You see, some here are reassured by the sight of my face. I received word from the castle, and it seems Dr. Valerie came there. She said her colleagues attacked her. However, she has apparently gone missing while awaiting my return. From the bracelet that clearly belonged to Nobles and the idol of the Sacred Ancestor that were left in her room, we can be certain she plumbed the depths of the earth. Her disappearance came less than an hour after she arrived at the castle. My home is not a human habitation. Such a thing simply isn’t possible. Lookouts, three-dimensional sensors, and the like will detect an intrusion by so much as a mote of dust, capturing or attacking any invader if necessary.”