Free White Devil Mountain by Hideyuki Kikuchi Page A

that much was plain to Vera as well. To him, Vera was someone to be protected and nothing more. Toward that end, it would be best to bring the boy home. He’d decided that, and nothing more. “But if I don’t make it . . .”
    “Don’t worry. I’m capable of defending myself. Besides, if it comes to that, I don’t think the other three will leave me to my own defenses.”
    Dust fell silent, proof he doubted Vera’s claims. Two Hunters and an outlaw—when push came to shove, they seemed to him to be the last people in the world who’d give a thought to anyone else’s safety. However, about ten minutes later the village guardian left the Noble’s refuge with the soundly sleeping Lourié on his back.
    Before even five minutes had passed, Lilia got up, came into the room, and said, “Hey, where’s the kid?” But before she’d even finished saying the words, the Huntress got a gleam in her eyes. “Don’t tell me you sent them back to the village.”
    “It’s still close enough to go back. Besides, the boy’s just going to be in the way later.”
    “Looks like you’ll be even more trouble, Doctor!” Lilia spat venomously. “Do you think this is a secure area? All night long I sensed things moving around out there. You’ve as good as sent them to their deaths!”
    “It can’t be . . .” Vera heard a series of regulated explosions within her—the sound of her heart.
    “When exactly did they leave?”
    “About five minutes ago!”
    “Then we might still be in time. I’m heading right out after them. You stay here. D?” she called out. “D!”
    Still shouting toward the door, the Huntress moved into the living room with the gait of a predator about to pounce on its prey. Before ten seconds had passed, she returned, saying, “He’s not here.” She groaned the words, as if biting off a chunk of her own fate. “What the hell is he doing?”
    At this point she put on her poker face. “Well, that’s one or two fewer children around. Good riddance, I say!” And with that, she added, “This is a hell of a way to roll out of bed. I’m going to go see if I can catch up to them. It sure would help if the big fella was carrying some sort of radio, though.”
    “Unfortunately, no.”
    Lilia clucked her tongue and slapped the hilt of the longsword she carried.
    At that point Crey poked his sleepy-eyed head in and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”
    “The right man at the right time!” Lilia said, looking fit to lick her chops with anticipation.
    “Come again?”
    –

    Before they’d gone five hundred yards Crey was grumbling complaints to himself. Something about how he hated wandering around out in the cold. “I’m tired. And I like it back at the refuge.”
    “That’s my refuge, thank you. If you fancy pitching a tent outside tonight, by all means, go on back.”
    “You lousy bitch. That’s extortion.”
    Ignoring the way the outlaw bared his teeth, she looked off into the distance for footprints in the snow. “The tracks are here, no problem. At least we’ve got something to go on. If you call yourself a man, stop your bellyaching and follow me.”
    “Shit!” Crey said, and as he did so he made a strange face. “Hey, what about that son of a bitch D? Come to think of it, he wasn’t in the refuge, but there’s no tracks from him either. Wonder if the jerk ran off in the dead of night.”
    “No.”
    “You sound pretty damn sure of yourself.”
    “Over there!”
    Crey focused his eyes in the direction Lilia had indicated with a toss of her chin. Just where an incline began, two figures were headed toward them.
    “Why’s there two of ’em?” Crey said, and then he swiftly tensed, and at the same time understood.
    The two figures at the bottom of the incline slowly took the form of D and Dust. Lourié was over Dust’s shoulder. When Dust’s rough features became discernible, the outlaw said, “Was the big fella’s face always that red?”
    “This is bad!”
    Lilia broke into