“What about Gyohki?” Twin said in a snickering voice that seemed to hang in the air like a balloon.
“He always wants everything for himself. Don’t think there’d be much point in asking him,” said Egbert.
“Then what do you say we leave him out of our alliance?”
“That’ll be great,” Twin could be heard to say as he clapped his hands with childlike glee.
“How about you, Samon?” asked Shin.
“Do whatever you like,” she said, assenting with surprising ease.
“Then it’s decided. Okay, I’ll take charge.”
For an instant, a rebellious feeling churned through the murky chamber, but the reason it settled again so quickly might’ve been respect for the speaker’s age, or that all of them understood this arrangement was only for the time being.
“So, what’ll we do?” Egbert asked.
“Before we get down to that, I’ve got a few questions. For you in particular, Samon.”
“And what would they be?”
“You told us someone put a spell on you, but how did you get free of it?”
The answer wasn’t soon in coming.
After a span of five or six breaths, she replied, “I was free of it before I knew it.”
“Hmm. And you, Twin—you’ve been acting kind of odd,” said Shin. “You’re strangely cheerful. What are you hiding from us?”
There was a burst of laughter flavored with the aforementioned cheer. Though his silhouette was barely visible, his left shoulder looked bigger, no doubt being heavily wrapped in bandages. Yet for all that he was remarkably upbeat. “Stop jumping into this boss thing and being so suspicious of everyone. Don’t bring stuff up until you’ve got something to go on. Okay? Not till you’ve got something.”
“Everyone’s a critic,” Shin said in return, though his tone was not one of anger or disgust, but rather one of sheer delight. “Fine. We’ve all got our own little secret schemes. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be working together on this in the first place. Okay, listen up. This is my plan.”
There in the darkness, the murk then seemed to take on a new and heavier layer.
—
III
—
The next morning, D left the barn and walked down to the beach. It was early morning, and while there was a melted sort of light out, some of the darkness of night yet remained. Ash-gray clouds hung in the sky. Down on the beach, where the surf beat against the sand, there was a row of powerboats some fifteen to twenty feet from the edge of where Egbert’s “kingdom” had hosted a deadly battle the previous night. Each of them rested on wooden rails—an arrangement that made it possible to push them down to the sea without too much exertion. The boats themselves were roughly fifteen feet long and seven feet across at the widest point. When packed with two or three tons of cargo, that barely left room for a lone helmsman.
He saw Su-In up mopping the deck of a boat. She wore rubber gloves. A rubber apron covered the front of her, and while the Hunter couldn’t see her feet, she probably had rubber boots on as well. Sweat beaded on her sunburnt skin. The morning was so still, the sound of her mop on the boards and her breathing seemed louder than the waves. The breath that spilled from Su-In’s lips was a mass of white that scattered like a fog. Behind her loomed the rugged cliffs, dark and twisted.
Stretching her back, Su-In put a hand on her hip before she turned in D’s direction and gave a small cry of surprise. “You’re up early. You should still be sleeping. Oh, I forgot daytime is when you—” she started to say, and then hurriedly covered her mouth with one hand. Her eyes were filled with uncertainty as she watched for D’s reaction, but she soon grinned again. The dhampir didn’t seem to mind a bit.
“The funeral is in four hours,” D said from the beach below.
Grampa Han’s remains were going to be interred in the backyard. The Hunter seemed to be implying she might want to take it easy.
“I won’t accomplish much moping around and thinking about the deceased, you know. I’ve got to concentrate on what I’m gonna do from here on out instead. Once we’ve buried my grandfather, I’m heading out to go fishing.”
As the woman wiped the sweat from her brow, D watched her silently. “If you’ve finished cleaning that up, I’d like to ask you about something,” he finally said.
“Sure thing. Don’t be shy—ask away.”
“Is Meinster’s castle very far from here?”
“Yeah. If you’re going overland, it’s about an hour on horseback from that fork in the road.”
“And by boat?”
Somewhat aghast, Su-In replied, “It’s less than thirty minutes if you go along the shore. Why do you ask?”
“There’s something I’d like to see.”
Su-In’s lip stuck out as she reflected on that remark, but then she suddenly took her plump hands and smacked her even plumper cheeks before replying, “Okay. I’ll take you. On the water or even in it, I’ll be just as safe so long as you’re with me.”
—
After they’d gone ten minutes, the beach vanished and sheer cliffs that had to be two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet high could be seen off the boat’s starboard side as they left waves in their wake. The black cliffs were like a solid wall, with almost no crags or crevasses of any kind. There wasn’t a hint of green on them, either.
“It’s like this all the way to where the Nobility had their cottages. I’m sure they must’ve made it that way. One theory is they did it so the creatures they made out at sea couldn’t come back to them,” Su-In explained from the tiny pilothouse, which was shielded by fiberglass on three sides.
There was almost no swell on the sea. Though it felt like there was a breeze blowing out of the west, it apparently wasn’t strong enough to whip up any crests.
“Take a look down below,” she said to the gorgeous figure standing at the prow.
D turned his gaze from the cliffs. In the dark waters below them, foot-long black shapes swam past elegantly.
“There’s a treasure trove of fish in this area. Especially in our one week of summer, when the currents change and push in more kinds of fish than I can count. Although there are some nasty varieties in there, too. What’s wrong?” Su-In suddenly asked, having sensed something from D’s profile. Her heartbeat was racing.
D kept gazing down at the water without replying, but shortly thereafter he looked up and told her it was nothing.
“Well, that’s a relief. See, from time to time some strange critters come up from the depths of the sea. If we were to run into something like that, it’d trash a boat this size in nothing flat. That reminds me—can dhampirs swim?”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. From what I’ve heard, the thicker the Noble blood in you, the more likely you are to sink like a stone. But somehow I get the feeling you’re an exception to the rule.”
Fighting the wind, Su-In smoothed her hair back down.
Another twenty minutes passed. Beyond the ever-present cliffs, the outline of the strange land shrouded in a thin fog was becoming clearer and clearer. The first thing to come into view looked to be an endless expanse of smooth green slope beneath the white veil. Closing the distance further, it became clear when the sea breeze stayed out of their eyes that the green was in fact a thick growth of trees, while the white shapes dotted between them appeared to be buildings of some sort.
Columns carved with an incredible level of detail, stylish bay windows with frosted glass that made everything inside look like it was veiled in white silk—around houses whose designs combined the classical with the ultra-modern, a white stairway zipped as if tracing the path of a shooting star. In part of what was barely recognizable as a garden, the orderly rows of high bushes and the tasteful little arbors and lights still remained, though all had long since ceased to have any purpose and it would be clear to any eye that they drowsed now in the light of destruction.
Even knowing that these were ruins left by
creatures that’d dwelt in blood-stained darkness, the things to be seen here brought a desolate wind blowing through the viewer’s heart. And realizing that she was listening to the song the wind had to sing of the glory of ancient days and of destruction with a boundless sympathy, the woman was shocked.
“The resort area is about four hundred acres, all told. Some scientist that came out from the Capital said roughly ten thousand Nobles used to live there,” Su-In said as she guided her boat toward the vast pier. The foggy vista increased. “That’s why you see all of these boats here.”
D’s field of view was filled by a desolate scene. Like the fingers of a corpse reaching from a foggy swamp, prows, masts, and solar panels jutted from the sea, while countless other boats lay on their sides alongside the rusty red hulls of ships. Out in the fleet of orderly moored boats, schooners, and submarines, the only thing that moved were the sea birds that nested on them, and the sole sound that rang out was the pounding of the waves. Skillfully working the engine, Su-In angled her power boat between a white sailing vessel and another boat.
When they were within twenty feet of shore, D turned around. Despite herself, Su-In looked back, too. There was nothing there. The only thing that disturbed the foggy surface of the sea was the white trail flowing along behind their boat. Suddenly remembering what she was doing, Su-In faced forward again.
There was a noise from the water behind them—the sound of bubbles popping.
She didn’t turn around. D was staring at her. Fear paralyzed Su-In. She was scared. Terribly scared. Su-In realized she had a beautiful Grim Reaper on board.
But the ominous mood suddenly dissipated. At that very same moment, Su-In stopped the boat. The harbor lay directly ahead of them. The next thing the woman knew, she was soaked with sweat. And she was cold. The chill wasn’t in the air, but was a cooling of the very fount of life in her by a primeval frost. Was this the sort of thing those of Noble blood could do?
“What is it?” Su-In asked, trying to keep the fright from showing in her voice. “Is there something in the water?”
“It’d be best to take the overland route back,” the Hunter replied.
“I can’t do that. I need this boat. My livelihood depends on her.”
“I’ll bring it back for you.”
“You think I’d trust her to an amateur? Don’t talk nonsense. You saw something after all, didn’t you?”
D said nothing.
Realizing that he was the sort of man who never said anything unless he was absolutely certain about it, Su-In let the matter drop. The soles of her feet were itching.
First D climbed up on the pier, and then he took the mooring line from Su-In and tied it to a pole. “Are we close to Meinster’s castle?” he asked.
“We’re about a thirty-minute walk away. Even though his is the only castle facing the sea, you can’t tie a boat up there.”
“Where is it?”
“Over there,” Su-In said, pointing toward the slope lined with vacation homes. As she did so, she also slung the belt with the seven-shot spear gun she’d brought from the boat over one shoulder.
Wide stone steps climbed the slope.
“Have you ever been there before?” D asked. The pendant on his chest was giving off a blue glow.
“Yeah, a couple of times when I was a kid.”
“Got a lot of gumption,” said a ridiculously hoarse voice that was nothing like D’s, causing Su-In to stare in disbelief in the direction the words had come from.
“Shall we go?” D said, stepping forward with his left hand balled tightly. On closer inspection, a faint shadow of a smile might’ve been glimpsed on the Hunter’s lips, although he wasn’t even aware of it himself.
The pair began to climb the stone steps. Just fifty yards in from the edge of the harbor, the slope had already begun. The staircase wasn’t the only thing that traversed the crazy tangle of trees—there were a number of roads running to and fro through them, and a cable car could be seen stopped halfway up the slope. The latter had run not only up and down, but had also gone from side to side as it carried the residents of these lodges down to the wharf or whisked them to dance parties. Somewhat resembling an airship, the elegant body of the cable car was now tangled with green ivy and covered with fallen leaves, buried in the flow of the dawn.
But how many dozens of steps were there?
Tilting her head to one side, Su-In remarked, “You know, this staircase is kind of funny. No matter how many steps you climb, you never get tired.”
“That’s because the gravity control unit’s still functioning.”
“Since over a thousand years ago?” she said, only realizing after voicing the question that if this young man said so, it must be true. “The Nobility sure did some incredible things,” Su-In exclaimed with wonder. “From time to time, I just don’t know what to think. Every time I come around here, the same thought occurs to me. The people who had this awesome civilization beyond our imagining couldn’t have drunk the blood of other people and made them their slaves. Now, I know it’s not right, but sometimes I think it all must’ve been a mistake—that maybe one day we’re meant to surpass everything that they achieved. And that humans and Nobles are basically the same creature with just small differences, and though one of them advanced a little earlier than the other, someday the other will probably rise to the very same heights, to stand as their equal. D, we’re gonna get there too someday, won’t we? I know it probably won’t be in my lifetime, but maybe in that of my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren . . .”
Su-In looked at D’s profile. She got the impression that something which defied the imagination—at least where this young man was concerned—had just skimmed across his beautiful lips. “Hey,” she called out to him despite herself.
D turned in her direction. Wearing the same expression he always did.
Su-In found herself with nothing more to say.
D quickly started walking again.
But in her heart, Su-In murmured the words she hadn’t been able to speak. D, did you smile just now?
“Su-In,” D called out to her.
Her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t that she was afraid he’d heard the secret question in her heart. Rather, it was because she realized this was the very first time he’d addressed her by her first name. And she had the feeling that without even being aware of it, she had long since given up all hope of ever hearing him say it.
“Yes?” she shouted back, although what made her do that was a mystery.
“Get behind that tree over on the right. Hurry.”
Driven by his soft voice, Su-In ran off and concealed herself behind the massive bole as directed. Twice as big around as a man could reach, the trunk looked like it could withstand even the claws of a giant dragon.
What was happening? For all her fear, Su-In also felt curiosity and a lust for battle stirring within her. She wasn’t the sort of woman who’d sit around at home expecting her husband to keep her fat and happy. Raising the spear gun, she flicked off the spring-powered safety with an experienced hand.
Though the fog had already begun to clear, in the lower portion of the stone steps alone it seemed to have become thicker than ever, and though the shapes of the wrecked vessels were dimly visible, the sea itself was lost. A mechanical clanking echoed out of the depths of the whiteness. Something was climbing the stone stairs.
In an instant, the woman realized what it was. It’s that thing from the sea. But what are those footsteps? Slowly Su-In drew a breath.
A hazy black tinged the fog, and when it took a certain shape, D drew his longsword.
As if it realized that, the thing’s footsteps ceased.
Several seconds passed.
“Come on,” D said in the direction of the fog.
As if in response to him, the silhouette moved, and the fog gave birth to a bizarre creature.
THE SEA IN THE RUINS
CHAPTER 6
—
I
&n
bsp; —
It was reminiscent of a crab made of metal—a crab with ten legs and a carapace ten feet wide. Instead of pincers at the end of those legs, it had scythe-like blades and hooked claws. An opaque glass dome bulged from the center of its exterior, and it seemed to be where the operator would sit. Water dripped from its black metallic body, leaving the stairs behind it wet and glistening. Its gill-like openings seemed to be drainage holes, and every time the pair on either side opened and closed, the collected water splashed down against the marble.
When it halted about fifteen feet from him, D asked tersely, “Who are you?”
There was the sound of meshing gears and something rotating. A black leg rose swiftly. It was at least seven feet long, but because the creature kept them curled under itself like a true crab, the height to the top of its dome was a little less than seven feet. Including the end attachments, each leg had four segments.
A streak of black lightning raced through the air. The leg that’d hooked up at D from below ended in a scythe-like blade. D sprang backward, avoiding it. The black leg stretched. As the tip of the scythe appeared to catch D in the abdomen, Su-In gasped.
There was a beautiful ching! and then the scythe went sailing into the air. After D had landed, the savage implement fell on the stairs behind him, sticking into them point-first.
D ran.
There was a hook at the end of the second leg; it curved through the air for D’s right side. Dashing along, D pulled his head alone back to let the weapon pass. With a mechanical clicking of joints, the hook stabbed into D’s face from the opposite side. But it didn’t meet any resistance—D was ducked over. What it’d pierced had merely been an afterimage of him.
The figure in black sprang, gliding like a swallow in flight. As he passed over the giant crab’s head, white flashes of light seared through the air. Needles of rough wood ricocheted from the surface of the glass dome.
Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 1 Page 14
