White Devil Mountain (45 page)

The leader’s face went white as a sheet. He realized what had happened to the three men he’d sent to town.

“See, just before their heads flew, they said you were the only one who knew where to find Viscount Kraken. Well, I suppose it was better than having an arm and a leg hacked off.”

“I don’t know . . . I don’t know nothing . . .” the leader said, shaking his head. It wobbled from side to side as if he were drunk. Perhaps the scent of death had left his spirit besotted.

There was no sound as the Hunter’s blade glinted. It only appeared to be a single flash of steel, yet both the leader’s ears went flying. Squealing, he pressed the palms of his hands to the sides of his head, and from beneath them thick redness spilled.

“I’ll lop off your left arm next.”

The hoarse voice’s dispassionate announcement turned the leader’s body to cold stone. Nevertheless, he continued to say he didn’t know anything.

“I guess it’s no use, then. He’d rather die than talk. Time to chalk up another pointless death and pull out of here?”

Once again, the hoarse voice turned the leader into a corpse.

“Please, wait!” a voice called from behind the Hunter. Now dressed, Iriya ran over to stand beside D. “It was me Viscount Kraken was gunning for, right?” she said. “Good—that means Churos must be there after all!”

D’s eyes slowly bored into Iriya’s face.

“You said ‘there,’ didn’t you? You know where he is?”

“Kraken’s castle and grave both moved two thousand years ago. Now he has a wandering fortress that prowls the water’s edge out on the Frontier.”

The fact that both these voices apparently belonged to D left Iriya’s head spinning.

“I heard something in the town of Semdonen from a traveling merchant. He said that when he’d passed through Daskankirul Gorge, in an area that’d only been hydrogen sulfide swamps before, he’d seen a gigantic, towering structure that looked like some kind of Noble’s castle. He saw that six months ago, and I heard it from him a month back.”

“Sad to say, but if you’re talking about Daskankirul, I passed through there on the way here. There was nothing there,” the hoarse voice said with regret, and then it said to the leader, “Hey, are you gonna come clean with us or what?”

The leader turned away in a snit.

D’s eyes gleamed. In them, the leader’s body grew thin, as if he’d been wrung dry. That’s what happened to humans who felt the approach of death.

“Please, wait,” Iriya said to stop him.

“You feeling pity, missy?” the hoarse voice asked teasingly.

“No.”

Circling around behind the leader, Iriya grabbed both his shoulders. Planting her knee in the center of his back, she pushed with it at the same time she pulled against his shoulders. The leader let out a deep breath.

“Now you’ll be able to fight, okay?”

The leader’s expression instantly became one of relief—and of surprise. Looking back over his shoulder at Iriya, he said, “You’re strange for a Hunter, you know that? I don’t mean to talk out of turn, but you should get outta that line and do something upstanding. You’ll make someone a real good bride. And for the record, Kraken’s castle has moved to Wendoba Ravine now.”

Iriya’s mouth dropped open. Putting her fist over it, she said, “Thank you.”

The leader stood up. He was no longer trembling. When he raised his broadsword high and dashed straight for D, Iriya shut her eyes.