White Devil Mountain (39 page)

“Sorry,” Lilia whispered, and then she dashed toward the opposite side of the roof. When she got there, she took Vera off her shoulder and sucked in a deep breath. Snowflakes blew at her.

“That feels good,” she said, letting the truth slip out.

From down at her feet, she heard Vera whimper, “What happened? Where are we?”

“Up on the roof. It’s okay, I think we’ve been saved.”

“But the snow—we’ll freeze!”

“You’re a doctor, right? Why’s dying the only thing you ever think about? We’ve got to keep moving toward life!”

Lilia spread her right hand. Squeezing the snow that accumulated on it, she made a small lump that she popped into her mouth. A chill spread through her, numbing her all the way up to her head.

“Proof that I’m alive.”

Her muttered remark was inspired by a hazy gray shape she made out fifteen to twenty feet away. An exit hatch from the roof. After a bit of rest, all the women had to do was go down through it. Of course, if they rested too long, they’d turn into snowmen.

Lilia thought about eating another piece of snow. Squeezing it together, she brought it up to her mouth. Her hand halted. She didn’t even feel the chill from the ball of snow against her lips.

The shape of the exit hatch had changed. Something stood in front of it. Something that spread its massive wings. Suddenly its wings flew off to the right. And with them went its long beak and body.

“Give me a break,” Lilia murmured, because the thing that’d just thrown the bird out of the way was a creature that’d been brought here in its talons—reason told her that must be the case.

It had already freed itself from the long spear. Undoubtedly it would need little time to heal its wounds. Upright and proud, like a temple guardian, it walked toward Lilia with a gait that made it clear the creature brimmed with confidence and a desire for slaughter.

It was the alien loyal to Gilzen.

II

“What am I going to do?” Lilia murmured, and then she laughed. Perhaps at the rock bottom of despair, there was nothing left but laughter.

“It came . . . Came right after us, didn’t it . . .”

Vera’s words didn’t even bother her.

“It’s no use . . . We’ve had it . . . We’ll be killed . . .”

“Yeah, probably. Just give up, okay?”

Lilia wasn’t being snide. That seemed to be the natural answer.

This brought about a change in the situation. Vera suddenly stood up and started climbing across the castle wall. She was aided by old-fashioned loopholes for bows and guns. Putting her hands and feet into them, the doctor already had one leg over the edge by the time Lilia turned around.

“Is she
crazy
?” the Huntress muttered, putting her own feet into the loopholes and grabbing hold of the doctor’s ankle with her outstretched hand. Just as her fingers stretched for another hold on Vera, she found herself leaning away from the wall, bent at the waist. Behind her, the alien had its longsword raised to strike. A cry rang out. There was the sound of something slashing through the wind, then sinking into the castle wall. Should Lilia have been happy to have dodged that fearsome blade, or scared because she’d now lost her balance?

The doctor and the Huntress plunged headlong down into a world where the blizzard danced wildly. The impact was surprisingly light, but deep. The pair had landed in the snow. Working their arms and legs like mad, they crawled back toward the surface. They were soon out.

Looking up at the castle, Lilia could see the roof about sixty feet above them. If all this snow hadn’t slid off the back side of the roof and accumulated there, they probably would’ve been killed on impact.

“I can’t believe it. I wonder which one’s blood I have to thank for this?” the Huntress muttered to herself, and just then, Vera screamed right behind her.

“Coming from the castle—”

“
What?
”

Lilia turned her gaze back toward the castle, where she witnessed a puff of snow shooting up a few yards from them. She was at a loss for words. The swirling snow burst apart. It went without saying what emerged from the newest hole in the snow.

“That bastard just doesn’t give up!”

Lilia got to her feet, longsword in one hand.

It came at her from the right. She blocked its blow. The impact left her shaky. The blade the creature drew made a horizontal swipe at her torso. That, too, she parried, but she hadn’t managed to plant her feet. She was sent flying a good fifteen feet, where she sank into the snow.

“Vera!”

The enemy was closing on the doctor. Lilia pulled a knife from a sheath she wore on her right hip and tossed it. It landed right beside the doctor. Whether Vera noticed it or not was the question.

The enemy raised its longsword to strike. Unable to make a sound, the woman quaked, and her body blurred. It wasn’t due to the snow. Once again, the high-speed vibrations had come over Vera.

Before her foe, who grunted in confusion and hesitated for a moment, the woman returned to her normal form. Her eyes gleamed. These weren’t the eyes of a woman who could do nothing but cower. Her left hand reached into the snow beside her. Slipping under the enemy’s blade with perfect timing when it was thrust at her with deadly intent, Vera stabbed Lilia’s knife into her foe’s abdomen.

The enemy hunched forward. A blow with average human strength probably would’ve bounced off the alien’s armor. However, the high-speed vibrations had caused a change in the doctor, imbuing her slim arms with superhuman strength.

As Vera stepped away from her toppled foe, Lilia raced over to her. The deep snow caught at her feet. When she finally reached the doctor and took a position in front of her like a shield, her own knife sank into the snow before her. The enemy had recovered. Kicking up snow, it charged at them.

“Are you up for this?” Lilia asked.

“Of course!” Vera replied.

“Good!”

The two of them dove in opposite directions. The longsword that swung down between them cut ten feet into the snow. The weapon whipped around to the right. Lilia was the target. The alien had decided it would be best to get rid of her first, and it wasn’t mistaken on that count.

A black arrow flew out of nowhere. Unerringly true, it penetrated the alien’s chest from behind. The enemy was normally on guard against sneak attacks, but these two women were overly formidable opponents. It couldn’t afford to ignore them—and that had allowed an enemy behind it to make a move.

Lilia and Vera were equally surprised. They could’ve understood if that had happened inside the castle, but now they were outside. Who could’ve . . . ? Then they realized something. Before they’d reached the castle, someone had slain the mountain folk with arrows. Hadn’t that been Lourié’s father?

There were strident sounds. A second and third arrow had been batted down. At a distance that was impossible to judge due to the blizzard, Lilia was able to detect a hazy form.

Letting out a single groan, the enormous figure charged toward it. The sight of it struggling to pull one leg after another from the thigh-deep snow as it closed on its opponent was comical in spite of the alien’s rage and murderous intent. When it had advanced thirty-five or forty feet, a figure popped up at the alien’s feet and drove the long spear in his right hand up through the enormous creature’s crotch. It was difficult to say whether the weapon penetrated the alien so deeply due to the strength of the spear or the force of its wielder. It had struck the enemy in a vital spot. The enormous figure trembled. Green blood poured down like a waterfall on the spear wielder.

On seeing that, the doctor shouted, “
Dust?
”

It was unclear to the women where he’d been or what he’d been doing. The bald bodyguard let go of what was apparently a homemade spear and tried to extricate himself from the snow. The snow collapsed. When the man stopped moving, this time the enemy thrust its blade deep into his chest. Dust arched backward. The sword blade rose for another thrust.

A gunshot rang out. The right half of the alien’s face had been blown away.

Vera threw herself at the creature’s legs. Reeling unsteadily, the enemy swung its blade around. Vera bent backward. The snow that fell on her back was stained red.

The gigantic figure advanced, moving right toward the doctor’s cries.

Above the alien’s head, a crimson flower sailed through the air. The instant her leap went into its descent, Lilia delivered the coup de grâce she was aiming for. Her blade came down with every ounce of her strength behind it—and her foe’s head split all the way down to its chest. She put her weight behind the sword. In a single motion she split the creature all the way to the crotch. When she pulled her green-gore-spattered form up from the snow, the body of the foe she’d split vertically slowly spread down the middle, then flopped down in the white snow. It didn’t move a muscle. The alien fiend had finally been destroyed.

By the time Lilia had dashed over to them, both Dust and Vera were barely breathing. Lilia desperately fought back a sigh. To be killed so easily now—what had they been fighting for all this time, then?

“Sorry you had to see me . . . not quite at my most civilized,” Vera suddenly whispered in a surprisingly steady tone.

“Don’t say that—you only did what was right,” Lilia said kindly. She couldn’t even believe she was saying these words. Was it the influence of the young man’s blood? Or was it just—

“How about . . . Dust?”

In a pained voice the village guard replied, “I’m still kicking, Vera—and thanks. For covering for me like that, I mean.”

“The least I could do . . . by way of apology. I . . . Three years ago . . . I let your daughter . . . die.”

“Don’t talk!” Lilia told the woman as her eyes were drawn to the shadowy figure approaching from up ahead.

“It’s okay . . . Let me say this . . . Three years ago . . . grade-school children from the village climbed the mountain . . . And I went along as the doctor . . .”

And then, a mountain tiger had attacked them. Although the teacher and bodyguards had fought the beast, a seven-year-old girl had lost her life.

“The girl . . . was killed right beside me . . . And I couldn’t budge an inch . . . I was so scared . . . She was Dust’s daughter!”

Lilia looked down.

“It’s okay now . . . You protected me . . .” Dust said gently. As if those words were all he had to offer the dead.

Vera shook her head from side to side. Tears fell from her eyes.

“Lilia . . . the coward you saw . . . that was the real me . . . But I . . . I really didn’t want to die . . . I still don’t . . .”

“You were the brave little doctor, right up to the end,” Lilia said, taking Vera’s hand and giving it a shake. She could feel no throb of life in the cold hand.

“I want to live . . .” Vera said flatly. “To live . . . longer . . . And I want to treat . . . children in the village when they’re sick . . . I’m the doctor . . .”

Her voice swiftly grew thin. The strength drained from her body.

“Vera . . .” Dust murmured. He gazed at Lilia. “I wanted to tell you this . . . but Vera and I . . . We were husband and wife . . . But when that happened to our daughter . . . we broke up . . .”

Lilia didn’t say anything. The tragedy of three years earlier had dragged on, and here it would finally end. Dust shut his eyes. Taking his right hand, Lilia wrapped it around Vera’s hand that she’d been holding.