The Rose Princess (6 page)

Flashes of white light sank between the eyes of the befuddled
monsters, and all three of them fell forward together to lie motionless.

Watching intently as D took the remaining wooden needles in his left hand and put
them back in his coat, the glowing woman paused a second before saying, “Well, it
looks like there’s nothing more I can do. Say, you wouldn’t mind teaching me how to
do that needle-throwing trick later, would you?”

Making no reply to her stupefying remark, D returned to spot where she was supposed
to be buried.

When he touched his left hand to the ground, a voice exclaimed, “What’s this, now?”

The dubious tone issued from the point where the hand made contact with the soil.

“This is a curious development,” the hoarse tone continued. “Her grave’s vanished.
I wonder, has it gone up into the sky or deep into the earth?”

As D turned, his eyes were greeted by the fading figure of light.

“Under the circumstances, I had no choice but to run away, grave and all. See you.
Wait until night,” she said, her hues melting into the sunlight.

“Interesting gal,” the hoarse voice remarked to D as the Hunter sheathed his sword.
“Still, I’ve gotta wonder if she’s worth all those knights risking their lives. Well,
I suppose that’s the tragedy. At any rate, let’s wait until nightfall.”

In lieu of an answer, D turned his gaze to a wall on the west side of the ruins. A
familiar figure was pushing her bike as she cautiously approached. It was Elena.

“What, another tomboy already? Looks like we’ve got feisty females by the handful
this time, eh?”

Naturally, there was no reply.

—

II

—

Even when the sun went down, Elena showed no sign of going home, and D didn’t force
the issue. Perhaps he figured he could put her to sleep if it became necessary.

When Elena had joined him again in the ruined garden, she’d groused, “You certainly
had nerve leaving me back there like that.” But she didn’t sound particularly angry.
Apparently, she wasn’t stupid. When D didn’t give her any response, she’d continued,
“You know, I saw your fight with those spiders just now. I’m gonna stay here with
you until night.”

After that, she’d gone on to tell him exactly how much trouble it’d been to repair
her bike, and then she fell silent.

Three hours later, the blue of the sky was deepening. Sitting on a flat piece of stone
wreckage a short distance from D, Elena began to tremble slightly.

“Scared?” said D, although why he’d even bother to ask her that was anyone’s guess.

“It’s just excitement—getting ready to fight,” Elena replied, hugging her own shoulders.

“Are you scared?” D asked her once more.

Elena continued to quake. Then she said, “Of course!” Her tone was incensed. “I’m
not a Hunter. I’m just a normal person. There’s not a chance in hell I wouldn’t be
scared of the Nobility.”

“Then why did you come?”

“None of your business!” the girl snapped back, turning her head away roughly and
flicking the hair out of her eyes. “As long as those bastards are here, our village
will never know peace. The mayor and his advisors all have their tails between their
legs. I’d like to beat the hell out of folks like that even worse than I wanna lay
into the Nobility!”

“The village looks peaceful enough,” said D. “And everyone seems satisfied.”

Elena turned and looked back at him in astonishment. “You’ve already figured out what’s
going on here, have you?” she said in a low, twisting sort of voice. “The villagers—and
I mean
everyone
—have gotten so damned used to being ruled. As long as there’s Nobility in this castle,
the fields stay green no matter how dry it gets, and we can harvest as much grain
as we need. No matter where else you go, you’ll never find a village as well off as
ours. But it’s all a sham. When the water dries up in summer, the regular thing to
do is dig a new well with the sweat of your own brow. And in winter, it’s only natural
to stay up nights tending bonfires so your fields and ponds don’t freeze. Raising
as much food as you like whenever you want and having storehouses packed with the
stuff—now
that
is crazy!” Elena said, her confession tinged with self-loathing.

“Did you notice how many folks there were with scarves wrapped around their necks?”
the biker continued. “They’re all victims of the Nobility. But the Noble in this castle
is good at drinking blood, and she can feed on them without killing them or turning
them into Nobility. And we’ve got Mama Kipsch going for us, too. She’s a genius at
witch doctoring, and she saves everyone from the wounds they’re left with. Now, if
it was me and a Noble had sucked my blood, I’d be ashamed to live. But no one around
here’s got any pride at all. Have you heard of any other village in this day and age
where people just sit back and let the Nobility suck their blood?”

Saying nothing, D soaked in the moonlight.

Realizing that the sight of the young man made her mind wander, Elena hurriedly turned
her thoughts to something else. “Those bastards—,” she started to say, but her eyes
suddenly narrowed. Sniffing once or twice, she said, “What’s that smell?”

“Roses,” D replied.

The blue darkness was shifting toward pitch black. As if to praise the coming world,
the faint aroma of flowers had started to mix with air that still held the last lustrous
remnants of daylight.

“Ah!” she gasped with new surprise.

All around her—actually, around both of them—little glowing points of whiteness came
to life. And the glow wasn’t that of any light. It was from flowers. Where had they
been hiding?

In the murkiness, white rosebuds had begun to open their petals in splendor. What’s
more, the glow came from within the flowers themselves. These nocturnal roses gave
off a light of their own.

Elena closed her eyes—she thought this wasn’t possible. How could flowers this beautiful
bloom in such a fearful place? She simply couldn’t believe it. And she didn’t want
to see them. The demon’s lair was supposed to be more vile than this, and yet sharp
lights shone in the darkness. The roses had burned their image into her retinas. Elena
feared the way they tried to make her feel.

She opened her eyelids once more.

A dazzling display of life had begun to cover the garden.
Resplendently blossoming white roses appeared, and all around them,
elegant spirals of color continued to bloom in pale purple, crimson, blue, and even
black. This symphony of brilliant lights left Elena in a motionless daze. Before she
knew it the hour would grow later and later, and the people of the night would awaken
and quickly find her there—

However, a powerful hand caught hold of her shoulder and a hoarse voice rang in her
ear, saying, “Here it comes, missy.”

As something that felt like ice water raced from her shoulder to her brain, Elena
returned to her senses. She quickly turned her head.

Three figures suddenly stood in the hall of the main building.

“So good of you to come,” said the knight in blue armor. “Mere words cannot convey
your boldness, as you come here of your own accord after seeing us, and you even threaten
the very resting place of our princess. However, you’ll never leave here alive.”

“Or would you care to become one of us?” the Red Knight inquired in a low voice. His
tone wasn’t quite as forceful as that of the Blue Knight, but it was understandable
given the fact he’d been knocked out earlier by D. “With your skill, you deserve to
stand shoulder to shoulder with us. But if that doesn’t suit your fancy, we can destroy
both you and the girl.”

“You said there were four knights,” D replied quietly. His aura was so eerie that
it seemed for a second as if the sweet perfume had left the air. “Blue, Red, Black—you
still seem to be a color short.”

“And you may count yourself fortunate in that regard,” said the Blue Knight. His two
compatriots did nothing to indicate their agreement. Apparently, the fourth knight
was someone who was not to be mentioned lightly.

“On the Frontier, there is but a thin line between life and death,” said the Black
Knight, who until now had remained silent. His voice was a monotone. “As a Hunter,
I’m sure you appreciate that. And now that you’ve entered our castle, we have no choice
but to fight until you, or we, are dead. However, it would be a pity to have to take
a life like yours. I won’t ask that you ride with us. But at the very least, could
you swear fealty to our princess?”

“Okay, stop trying to make us laugh already!” Elena exclaimed. Until a few minutes
ago, her body had trembled, but now it shook in a new way—with rage. “This man is
a gift from God, a huntsman sent here to slay you all. Why the hell would he ever
want to serve that monster?! Just watch. We don’t need any help from those gutless
worms in my village. Him and me will put an end to all of you!”

The three knights fell silent, but it wasn’t that they were amazed by the girl’s fighting
words.

Having finished speaking, Elena suddenly found herself breathless. It was just such
a silence.

“You called our princess a monster, didn’t you?” said the Blue Knight.

“Those words shall cost you!” the Red Knight declared.

Seeming somewhat more personable than the other two, the Black Knight muttered, “Does
their idiocy know no bounds?”

“What is it we’ve done that’s so terrible? Haven’t you been given a life of peace
and plenitude?” asked the Blue Knight

“And how many people have been killed in return?!”

“You can’t get something for nothing. It’s a fair price.”

“A life of peace in exchange for the lives of our friends? Spare me! The others may
be able to stomach that, but not me. I spit on your deal, and will till the day I
die.”

“In that case, your spitting days will shortly be at an end,” the Blue Knight jeered
as he jumped down to the ground.

At the same time, smoke and blue flames poured from the motorcycle’s exhaust pipes.
The ancient garden was shaken by an engine roar that hardly suited such a place. Elena
meant business.

“Insulting our princess is a grave crime. Your death won’t be an easy one.” To D,
he added, “Stay out of this, Hunter.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth!” Elena said, kicking firmly off the ground
and sliding to one side. The wheels of her bike could be turned a full three-hundred-sixty
degrees. “Even without his help, I can still take out the likes of you one-on-one.
I’ll show you what a human’s capable of, you monster flunky!”

“That does it!” the Blue Knight exclaimed, the brief phrase seething with anger. Lowering
the lance in his right hand, the Noble’s knight was a daunting sight as he took a
purposeful step forward.

Elena rolled back a pace on her bike. And stiff though it seemed, she definitely had
a smile on her lips—the girl certainly had nerve to spare.

D didn’t move. He wasn’t there to keep the other two knights from interfering. Rather,
he’d become another observer of Elena’s deadly conflict. Everyone understood the rules.

“I shall bring the battle to you,” said the Blue Knight.

“Come and get it!”

The instant Elena shouted that, she angled her exhaust pipes toward the ground and
shifted her bike out of its current acceleration mode to activate its boosters. Nozzles
wailing all the while, the bike carried Elena straight to the left.

The blue figure was still in the same spot, his lance unraised.

I’ve got him baffled
, Elena thought as she felt an explosion of delight. Her right thumb pressed the firing
button.

Go! An ember hit the tails of the rockets in the launch tubes mounted on either side
of the girl’s bike. Shooting sparks all the while, a trio of three-foot-long implements
of death streaked at the Blue Knight.

Not moving from his spot, he merely rotated his blue wrist a bit. The Blue Knight’s
whole body grew hazy, and at that instant, the three missiles were easily deflected
right in front of him. A mere twist of his wrist was enough to keep his lance spinning
like a windmill. And that was only the beginning—the knight’s superhuman skill made
the tapered projectiles shoot up for an instant, then sent them speeding back at Elena
retracing the very same path they’d followed to him.

The girl straddling the bike had no way to escape them.

But just then, it seemed as if the roar of her engine threw the missiles into disarray.
The trio of murderous projectiles hit the ground some forty feet from her at an acute
angle, and then fell over as if their own weight hadn’t driven them in deep enough.

“Fancy that,” the Blue Knight muttered.

About six feet from her original location, Elena sat on her bike grinning.

It was difficult to believe a machine and a mere slip of a girl were capable of a
feat of such ungodly speed. As she’d slipped to one side, the Blue Knight’s eyes hadn’t
even seen her change position.

“You’ve got some tricky moves, don’t you? But you’ve had it now!” Elena cried. Her
finger slid across the bike’s gauges, and its headlight disgorged a beam of crimson.
Roughly a year earlier, she’d acquired this laser emitter during a shopping expedition
in the northern Frontier. Although originally intended for communications, at distances
of fifteen hundred feet or less it was more than capable of maiming or killing.

A crimson flower bloomed on the left half of the Blue Knight’s chest. In a matter
of seconds, however, it lost its color and the armor returned to its original hue.

“Too bad,” said the Blue Knight, his lance whistling in his right hand. He wouldn’t
allow his prey to escape a second blow.

Elena smirked at him. “The game’s just getting started!”

“And whatever could you—,” the Blue Knight began to say, but the rest of the sentence
was lost. As he took a step forward, a beam of light struck his face.

Though the knight didn’t cry out, he shielded his eyes and
backed away. As he came to a halt, Elena and her bike flew at him and knocked his
blue-armored form to the ground.