Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane (10 page)

“Help, D!” Granny shrieked from down by his feet. “Forget about me, but save the girl—save
Tae!”

A gag spilled from her throat, and the old woman’s head sank into the sand. Clay disappeared
right after her. A funnel-shaped depression remained for a moment, but sand soon tumbled
in from all sides to fill it again.

Not even reaching out for them with his hand, D simply stared at the sandy surface,
but then quickly started to walk back to the rocky mound. After a few steps, he halted.
Slowly turning, he headed back the way he’d just come.

You are a fool
, the voice scoffed, the hostility naked in its tone.
Reconsider what you’re doing. A battle between us is in neither of our best interests.

Naturally, there was no reply.

Standing in the spot where Granny had disappeared, D raised his left hand.

An intense turbulence spread from somewhere unseen.

Stop it
, the voice said.

At the very same time, both heaven and earth howled. The snarling winds turned hard
as steel and slammed against D, carrying him away. Caught in a massive gust, he flew
far across the desert. The wind was blowing at speeds of well over a hundred miles
an hour.

D’s left hand hadn’t come down. Fingers spread wide, his palm was suddenly filled
by someone’s face: a face with sarcastic eyes, an aquiline nose, and a tiny mouth.
As soon as that mouth opened, it instantly swallowed the howling winds.

His foe had lost the strength to speak, while D stood there without making a sound.

“Good stuff,” a hoarse voice said. “This wind is pretty damn tasty!”

Sailing back down to earth as swiftly as the gale had carried him off, D turned his
left hand to the ground, toward the spot that had swallowed the old woman. If Granny
Viper had been there to see the tiny lips pucker, even she would’ve been shocked—even
more so when a powerful new gale rushed from those same lips.

The sand shot away. In no time at all, a hole six feet in diameter had been dug in
the ground.

Stop it!
the voice exclaimed, the words exploding in D’s head.
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

A heartbeat later, the figure in black was swallowed by the earth.

.

II

.

For several seconds, he was aware of traveling down through the sand. Just as the
sand’s resistance ended, D’s speed increased, and the Hunter landed on his feet on
a firm base. It was a stone floor. Incredible mass surrounded him on all sides. He
was in a large subterranean cavern—a natural one.

So, you’ve come, have you? Fool.

Oblivious to the condescending remark, D surveyed his sur-roundings dispassionately,
and then soon angled off into the darkness to his right. Was it that absurdly easy
for the young man to tell where his abducted compatriots were? He was surrounded by
true darkness, yet he walked impassively through it. The blackness was so thick that
it seemed not even light itself could ever penetrate it. It took about fifty seconds
for his eyes to find human forms there: four figures lay on the stone floor. As he
walked toward them, the air before him stirred.

Something buzzed through the air. Giving a scream, it fell at D’s feet in its death
throes. At first glance, the winged creature was built like an evil sprite. Though
it no doubt made flight easier, its body was disturbingly thin. The fangs jutting
from its mouth—and the claws stretching from its fingertips—hadn’t escaped D’s notice,
either.

One thing after another ripped through the air. If there’d been the slightest bit
of light, the deadly little oddities zipping at D from all directions would’ve been
apparent, as would D’s consummate fighting skill. There was no telling when he’d drawn
his longsword, but the elegant blade danced in his hand, sending each and every one
of his attackers crashing to the ground.

Not bothering to sheathe his sword, D walked forward. Suddenly, there was nothing
there for his foot to rest on. The ground had opened wide. In a fraction of a second,
D kicked off the ground with his other leg. As he was leaping, he lost his balance,
and the earth continued to crack open. D began to descend instead. Unable to correct
his form, he couldn’t get much distance from his leap. Into the abyss his body dropped.

The Hunter’s left hand reached out, only narrowly catching hold of the lip of the
ever-widening gap. D sprang up at once. Just as his two feet touched back down on
the floor, the crevice stopped growing. D turned around. His darkness-piercing eyes
found the ground still lay there, innocent in every regard. It’d all been a psychological
attack. If he’d fallen into that nonexistent pit, his own belief in it might’ve kept
him falling for all eternity.

D went over to the other four and knelt by Tae’s side. His left hand hovered over
her lips—her breathing was normal. The same hand moved to her brow. He must’ve employed
a trick of some sort, because Tae’s eyes then opened.

“You okay?” D asked succinctly.

Tae latched onto his arm with both hands. “D—is that you?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I can’t see anything at all. Where are we?”

“Underground,” the Hunter replied. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah.”

Still clinging to D’s arm, Tae got to her feet as fast as the Hunter rose again.

“Wait here,” D told her. “I’ll go wake the others.”

“No. I don’t want you to leave me alone in the pitch black,” Tae said, refusing to
relinquish her hold on him.

“Okay, grab onto my coat then,” the Hunter told her. Still, the girl wouldn’t move.
Reaching up with his right hand to where Tae clung to him near the shoulder, D caught
hold of her wrists. Speechless, the girl trembled slightly. Once both her hands had
been pushed down by D’s waist, Tae took a tight grip of his coat. Whether or not D
noticed how flushed her face was in the darkness was anyone’s guess.

The Hunter’s left hand pressed against the foreheads of the other three, waking each
of them in turn. Unlike Tae, all three of them immediately grasped their situation.

It was Granny who asked, “Is there a way out of here?”

“I don’t know,” D replied with his habitual bluntness. “We’re underground, but it
could be we’re not really.”

“What?!” Clay said, eyes bulging, although no one but D could actually tell that.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Oh, I see—this is some kind of mind game, eh? Very
fucking impressive.”

“Real or not, how are we supposed to get back to the surface?” Granny asked.

“That’s obvious,” said Clay. “We settle the hash of whoever’s running all this. Hey,
Lance . . . you there?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure you don’t have some idea where we can find him?”

“Not a clue.”

“Sheesh, you’re worthless,” Clay spat. “Well, never mind. He’s gotta be hiding around
here somewhere, and I’ll ferret him out soon enough. Hey, Hunter—move everyone back
behind me. I’m gonna pluck me a tune.”

Harp in hand, Clay stood up.

“I’ll be using my focused sonic waves of destruction. Might make you a little nauseous,
gang, but just suck it up.”

His coarse fingers touched the fearsome musical instrument.

It was at that moment that light sprang up in the darkness. All around the other four,
countless globes of light had winked on. At long last the four of them could see each
other’s faces.

“Not those . . .” Lance groaned.

“Recognize these things, do you?” Granny asked.

“Yeah. Those are the same things that showed up the night they first brought me back.
They’re guards. One touch and you’re paralyzed.”