The Rose Princess (13 page)

She wondered if he was crying. Even Stahl and Nichou looked at each other. But suddenly
Elena realized she was mistaken.

The twilight was beaten back by a great booming laugh.

“I never would’ve thought you’d say such a thing. In all my days, I’ve never heard
anything half so entertaining! So, the princess appointed the two of you to dispose
of us, did she?”

“It’s true!” Elena snapped back even as realized it was pointless to debate him. The
black harbinger of death would surely spread its lethal wings over her head.

Sure enough, the Black Knight began to advance. Not rushing, but slowly. Like a massive
mountain.

“From the fight you gave me last night, I felt you had promise despite being human.
But when you resort to such tricks, I’m sorely disappointed. What’s more, your little
ploy couldn’t possibly have been more impertinent. It’s unforgivable.”

“Who are you to talk?! You came sneaking along after us! Why didn’t you just show
yourself from the very beginning, eh?”

“I wanted to see what you’d do first,” the Black Knight replied. “To come out to this
forest knowing what time it would be takes a formidable store of determination and
strength. And I thought it would be nice to see those traits for myself. I was also
curious as to what you’d be searching for.”

“When did you start following us?” Elena asked, groping for a question. Now she actually
was trying to buy some time. Even if it only kept her alive a few minutes longer,
she couldn’t miss any chance to improve her odds of delivering the blue moss.

“When you and the others left the village.”

“You’re a creep. You’ve been spying on us all along, haven’t you?”

“All for the good of the princess,” the Black Knight said, his form growing larger
by the second.

Elena finally noticed that he was steadily approaching her.

“Run for it, Elena!” Stahl shouted as he suddenly jumped between the two of them.
Thunder and flames flew from his gun. A hard thud resounded far off, and the Black
Knight’s upper body swayed every so slightly. A shallow indentation had been left
in the brow of his helm. Around it, other dents formed in rapid succession as bullets
and sparks bounced off of him.

“Sorry,” Elena said, kicking off the ground with the second shot. The report from
Stahl’s weapon was like a knife in her heart.

Although she thought about diving between the trees to take the Black Knight’s horse
out of play, Elena knew that if he reached the bikes before she did, she’d be finished
anyway. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Then she heard hoofbeats. It
felt as if all the blood had drained from her body.

“Stahl,” she said, the name coming to her lips naturally.

The beating of the iron-shod hooves had come to within three feet of her, and the
hot breath of a horse brushed the nape of her neck.

So, this is the end?
she thought for a second, and then a roar to shake the very heavens came from off
to the right.

—

I

—

A
l
though the cry was one Elena had heard before, she’d never actually seen the thing
itself. Known simply as “the forest dweller,” it was fabled to bite the heads off
fire dragons and use massive trees as toothpicks. And although the biker didn’t put
much stock in such tales, the colossal bones that were occasionally discovered near
the forest made it clear the creature was a danger she’d never want to encounter.

The form that’d just pounced on the Black Knight was roughly ten feet tall, covered
with hair and circular in shape. Though it had arms and legs twice as thick as a man
could reach around, there was no indication of any fingers or toes. And while Elena
figured the smell of the head-taker’s blood on her had drawn it here, it was literally
a heaven-sent guardian.

Just as the girl was about to make a run for it, she heard a heavy impact and a horse
whinnying behind her. She turned to look in spite of herself.

The Black Knight and his steed had both been knocked flat. The forest dweller raised
one hand and smashed it down on the horse’s belly. Its barding dented, and the horse
let out a pained whinny. Then Elena watched as a band of light sank halfway into the
thing’s woolly shoulder. Black spray rained down on the branches and leaves, staining
the twilight.

The forest dweller swung the opposite hand. There was a dull thud as the knight was
knocked backward by a remarkable hook.

“He’s all yours!” Elena shouted, blowing a kiss at the creature before her feet tore
into the ground. Hope had welled within her again, and the exit was right before her
eyes. She felt like she could actually hear the sound of her field of view widening.

Elena trembled. Her bike was right where she’d left it and in exactly the same shape.
Climbing onto it, she hit the starter. The engine growled.

“Elena!”

The girl thought she’d imagined someone calling her name. And then she heard it again—very
close to her. Before she could get its precise location, a figure came running toward
her.

“Nichou—”

“I managed to get away. Stahl told me to look after you.”

“Was he—?”

“Yeah, he bought it,” Nichou said, holding his neck.

Feeling her tears building, Elena turned her face away. “Mount up. Let’s go,” she
said.

“No, not yet.”

“Huh?”

Nichou’s face was horribly warped. “Watch this, Elena,” he said.

Putting his hands to either side of his head, he lifted it right up. It came
off so easily, Elena was even less surprised than she would’ve expected.

“Nichou—”

The ground rumbled roughly as the figure that sprang from the forest came down about
fifteen feet from the two of them. With arms and legs covered with black bristles,
it was obviously the head-taker. Elena wasn’t even surprised to see that it wore a
shirt and pants.

As the girl watched the deep red blood spouting up from Nichou, her hand instinctively
went for the chain around her waist.

The slight forward hunch of the creature was somewhat ape-
like—that must’ve been what it’d been in the beginning. Treading its way across the
grass, the head-taker stopped behind Nichou, extended both hands, and took the head
the decapitated biker was holding up. It then casually tossed it.

The head-taker reached for its own head.

“You must be joking,” Elena muttered, her body stiffened by a fearful premonition.

Pulling its own head off, the head-taker set it down on Nichou’s neck—which was still
spouting blood. The head was pointing the wrong way. But with a sick grinding sound
it twisted around to face Elena. At the very same time, the head-taker’s body slumped
to the ground. That great simian face with its sloping brow and strangely prognathous
jaw then bared its fangs at the girl.

By swapping heads, it had effectively transplanted its brain. In this manner, the
head-taker could replace its aging body and essentially live forever.

The creature’s mouth snapped open viciously. Every last tooth lining
the top and bottom of its crimson maw was as sharp as a needle.

Nichou’s body leapt into the air. Just as it was about to land on her, Elena moved
out of reflex. And her bike was already running.

It seemed that her vehicle hit the lower half of the creature. Flipping over Elena’s
head, the head-taker fell into the bushes.

Executing a quick turn, Elena flashed her headlight onto Nichou’s body. The way his
hands came up to shield his eyes was exactly what the head-taker would do.

“This is payback for Nichou!” she shouted.

The laser stabbed through the darkness, searing the palms of the head-taker’s hands.
Screeching, it took to the air, but there were no branches or trunks to which it might
cling.

If she allowed this thing to live, it would claim other victims. She sped toward where
it landed.

Her foe was in a crouch. Elena slammed into it at ninety miles per hour.

Nailed it!
she thought, but just as all the tension was leaving her body, her bike tilted forward.
The vehicle bounded wildly before it fell over with only the whine of its engine still
echoing, and it was then that the head-taker stood up straight again. It hurled the
wheel it held in its right hand at the bike. Elena lay by the vehicle. The wheel landed
near her feet, and then toppled over.

It was her motorcycle’s front wheel. Though it’d been secured by steel bolts, the
head-taker had managed to tear it off with a swipe of one hand.

Whether the gagging sound that escaped the creature now was simply its breathing or
the sound of its laughter was impossible to say. As it lumbered over to Elena, the
expression it wore bore hints of malice, hunger and an unmistakable lust. Elena had
landed on her back, and due to her struggles, the front of her top had been ripped
wide, leaving her pale breasts half exposed, while a diagonal slash down the right
thigh of her pants yawned to reveal more of her sweet, nubile flesh. After leering
down at her exposed portions and noting the full lines of her bosom, the head-taker
licked its lips. Both its hands grabbed her breasts through her shirt.

Elena didn’t move a muscle.

Surely the beast with a human body had something in mind as it clambered on top of
Elena. The stage now set for its depraved acts there in the moonlight, the creature’s
monstrous mouth was about to close on Elena’s half-open lips when there was an unearthly
howl and the head-taker’s upper body bent backward. The creature braced its legs in
an attempt to flee, but the arm wrapped around its waist wouldn’t allow that.

“Too bad. I’ve been falling off bikes all my life, so I’m used to it,” Elena sneered,
her left arm locked on her foe’s waist while her right hand gouged his flank with
a weapon. “This little throwing knife belonged to Nichou, who you killed. A long time
ago, he gave it to me as a memento. So just consider this a stab from him!”

After she’d plunged the weapon into the hard, wriggling torso three times, it ceased
to struggle. Elena no longer held the body as it now slowly toppled backward, allowing
the girl to quickly get to her feet. Every inch of her ached. No matter how accustomed
to spills she might be, being thrown from her bike at ninety miles per hour still
left her body screaming in a dozen places. And as she turned to head back to where
Stahl and the others had left their bikes, Elena found there was one important point
she’d overlooked.

Not ten feet from her stood the Black Knight.

“How long have you been watching?” she asked as she checked on the moss she’d shoved
into her shirt pocket. Her legs felt like they were about to melt.

“You did splendidly,” the Black Knight said in a calm voice.

But Elena wasn’t in any shape to take that as a compliment.

“There’s nothing lower than a man who’d just stand around watching a woman bust her
ass. Drop dead!”

Elena gauged the distance to the other bikes. Twelve feet. Not far at all.

The Black Knight simply remained there in the dark, and then spoke. Elena couldn’t
understand it.

What did he just say? Come with me?

“Hyah!” Elena cried as the end of her chain flew from her right hand. The blow had
all her might behind it, but the Black Knight easily batted it down with his left
hand. Her arms numbed by the shock of that impact, Elena dropped the chain.

I suppose this is the end
, she thought.

The darkness spread before her eyes. The last sight she saw was the Black Knight as
he closed on her.

I’m sorry, Stahl, Tan, Nichou . . . Looks like I’ve had it, too.

The girl regained consciousness. From the way she came to her senses so quickly, not
long had passed since she’d collapsed. She was lying in some brush.

As Elena started to get up, her every hair stood on end. An ineffable lust for killing
whirled through the darkened space.

There was a moon out. Beneath it, a pair of figures appeared to be facing each other.
To the right was the Black Knight. The night winds that made the grass on the plains
sway caused the coat of the figure on the left to flutter gracefully.

“D,” Elena said, sounding more dazed than thrilled.

The Black Knight backed away unexpectedly, saying, “I believe I shall call it a night
here.”

“I won’t,” D replied.

Pointing to Elena, the Black
k
night said, “’It’ll take time to defeat me, even for you. And that girl will likely
die in the meantime. Of course, if she has no connection to you, that won’t matter
much, but a woman of her caliber deserves better than to die pitifully out in the
wilderness.”

Without waiting for D’s reply, the knight walked off toward the woods. His black charger
awaited him. Apparently it’d weathered the attack by the forest dweller.

D came over to the woman.

Turning her face away, Elena said, “I’m sorry. I’ve gone and got in your way. If this
hadn’t happened to me, you’d have killed him just now.”

D’s left hand came to rest on her forehead. Elena turned and looked at D in spite
of herself. Her pain had suddenly faded. Their eyes met. Feeling as if the sheer depth
of the Hunter’s eyes would swallow her, Elena was actually scared and tried her best
to shut her eyelids.

D backed away from her. He didn’t tell her to get up, or ask if she could stand. He
didn’t even offer to help her.

Elena got up on her own.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, wondering if he’d say he was worried and
came to check up on her.

“I was teleported from the castle all the way to the border. I was just on my way
back.”

That’s about as short and sweet as can be
, she thought. That was just like him, too.

The two of them started over to his horse and her bike.

“So, aren’t you even gonna ask me what I’m doing out here?” Elena said, voicing all
the discontent that filled her heart.

Naturally, there was no reply.

Although she tried to restrain it, the girl let a sigh escape.

“You really don’t give a rat’s ass about me, do you? I suppose I did take it upon
myself to go up to the castle, after all. But for what it’s worth, we’ve fought on
the same side, you know. It’d be nice if you’d at least ask me if I was okay or tell
me I did a good job or something,” she said, not aloud, but in her heart of hearts.

D straddled his steed. The cyborg horse was one he’d acquired from a farmer on the
way back, as was the sword he now wore. Elena got on Stahl’s bike. When she started
its engine, D turned to her and said, “Were your friends killed?”

“Yeah. And I’m the one who invited them out here,” Elena replied, shutting her eyes.
How was she going to tell their families?

For a heartbeat she was sure he’d say something to console her now, but D galloped
off in a gust of wind, as if to leave the girl alone with her bitter sentiments.

—

II

—

The gates to the village were shut, and shouts arose from inside. The cries came from
both men and women. And it sounded like the angry bellows were exceeded by the wails
of pain.

“Open up!” the girl cried, but there was no response.

Something was going on. It was easy enough to imagine what that could be, but Elena
tried her best to keep such thoughts from flooding her consciousness. Her heart was
horribly cold.

The gates were over ten feet tall. As the girl stood there powerless, an arm like
steel wrapped around her waist. But her cry of astonishment wasn’t prompted by its
grasp, but because she then went sailing high over the gate. Even their landing was
quiet.

“The square’s over that way, isn’t it?” asked D.

For those who didn’t know the power that lurked in the blood of a dhampir, his leap
would’ve been unbelievable.

“That’s right!” Elena cried.

Her head was killing her—it pounded with the excitement that always spilled from hope.
On the way back to the village, she’d told the Hunter about what had transpired the
night before. Although she had no problem with his lack of reaction, she had to wonder
if her tale had done the trick.

There was no sign of anyone on the streets. But as the pair approached the square,
the shouting grew louder.

Turning the corner, Elena had the wind knocked out of her.

The tent was ablaze. The flames burnt their image into her eyes. Around the fire,
mobs of villagers lingered with the four hues of roses blooming from their bodies.
The form of a knight raced by them, and a long, straight shaft pierced the chests
of the villagers at an angle. Killed instantly, they were easily lifted on the lance
with one hand before the knight then cast their bodies into the flames.

“The Blue Knight,” Elena growled, feeling every drop of blood in her body come to
a boil. She even forgot all about D.