Читать книгу Farther than the Farthest Stars - Mikhail Akhmanov - Страница 1

This agricultural planet was named Opensho. It was small, a little bit bigger than Mars but nice: three green continents, its islands reminded flowerbeds, there were picturesque mountains and the warm turquoise-coloured ocean. Neither deserts nor ice, the climate was that of the paradise, the gravity amounted to three fourth of the standard… Actually Kaleb dropped in hoping to have a rest and have a spree spending the money he had made on Cervantes. No matter what you say, the Free Hunter also needed some rest, especially after his rendezvous with saber-toothed rats. He found a comfortable hotel in a seashore town, he rested for ten days, drinking sweet rose wine, he met compliant girls and then he ran across Wesley King. The latter was not on vacation, he intended to work, but it seemed that the work was beyond his capacity. Wesley would have never said that, but there was some anxiety and uneasiness to be read in his eyes – it seemed that it was even apprehension or fear. He did not want to risk without a partner, and that was no surprise if you think about their usual activities… Kaleb had nearly forgotten the rats on Cervantes and decided to help him. No money is ever extra, and the Monasteries paid well.

He stood on the platform by the foot of the hill looking at the stone bridge vaulting above the river and the ruins of the old city on the opposite bank. The wide cylinder tower of the Monastery sat on the top of the hill, streets with tile-roofed houses stretched down the gentle slope reminding fingers spread wide. The chapel’s sharp-pointed spire stuck out below among stone slabs – probably, they had a cemetery there. There were other buildings in the valley overgrown with vineyards and fruit groves – farms with wine-pressing buildings and cattle-sheds, the crystal cube of the power station and the squat tin factory. It was warm, the sky was clear, the sun reminded of a silver eye, fresh breeze was blowing from the river… A peaceful sight! It was time to drop in a tavern under a striped tent, drink some wine and get acquainted with a local beauty… But all pubs and taverns in the village were closed, all residents were here – standing in a crowd. Close to one another, whispering quietly. The sounds they made reminded of a swarm of bees. The taller people were descendents of colonists, the locals looked like elves – lithe, fragile, beardless, with thin bones. Probably, it seemed to them that if they stuck all together, they would not be so frightened.

“What are you waiting for, sion Hunter?” Brother Paul asked, shifting from one foot to the other. “Here is the bridge, here are the ruins, and the obsessed murderer is there! It would be nice to get rid of him till sunset. If he comes again at night…”

The monk fell silent without finishing the sentence – he was also frightened. Deadly frightened!

Kaleb looked him over quickly. Tall, thin pale face, greenish spots on his cheeks, very little hair in his beard… A half-breed like many people in this world. It was not surprising as the colonists had lived here for nearly a thousand years. Or even more?… In any case there was enough time for mixing…

“For the sake of Life and Light! Why are you silent, sion?” The monk squeezed the platform’s edge with his gnarled fingers. “Go to the city! You have already been paid!”

“Don’t hurry me, Brother Paul. I’m thinking,” Kaleb murmured.

“And how long will you think?”

“Until your piss turns blue. I was paid, you’re right… But surely you don’t want the money to be wasted and me to stay over there, under the grass?” Kaleb waved his hand to the cemetery.

There were enough new graves there. Evidently, the monk also thought about that – he knitted his brows, stepped aside, pulled his red praying crystal out of his long loose sleeve, and his lips started moving though no words were heard. Hardly his prayers saved from the obsessed – Brother Paul was definitely not an adept.

It seemed that there were no adepts in the other Monasteries on Opensho if they hired the Hunter…

No adepts – then pay, sexless drones, Kaleb thought grinning and listening to the murmurs in the crowd. Acuity of senses was no less important in his profession than a ray gun or protective armour, but in contrast to weapons, this innate talent could not be sold or bought, and no implants could substitute it. Looking at the city on the other river bank, he followed the shadows playing among the ruins lying in shapeless heaps, and inhaled warm air filled with numerous smells. Smoke from fireplaces, fresh water, stones heated by the sun, stench from the corrals with cattle, sweat, skin smells, cheap incense over the crowd… The smell of fear which the Hunter knew and which was the same in every place where death was waiting for people.

“Worm… that’s the worm…” they were murmuring in the crowd.

“The worm crawls into ears at night, and he went to the city… he went there in the daytime…”

“We have no worms… No one saw them for many years… But we do have mites…”

“Mites do not make anyone obsessed…”

“It depends on the mite, sion Gerard… Those from Misty Island, they…”

“Last night he sucked Kenrick, the tailor dry… Kenrick and his whole family… his wife, daughter and his baby son…”

“We live opposite Kenrick, and we heard nothing…”

“The one with a worm in his head is like a worm himself… crawling quietly, you won’t hear anything…”

“I tell you, siona, that’s not a worm, it’s this mite from Misty Island!..”

“Mite! We’re here and where is that island?! How could this mite get here?…”

“I heard that they were flying mites…”

“It may be neither a worm nor a mite but a slug-brain-turner… they like blood as well…”

A heavy sigh, then whispers again.

“Poor Ines… He has already sucked sixteen people dry… They will say that she is at fault… Why did she let Gaub into the city?…”

“There is no fault of hers. Gaub is very obstinate! Everyone knows that!..”

“She should be purified…”

“The monks will hear her confession and purify her. That they can do, but when it comes to dealing with the obsessed, they shy away. We have to be grateful that they at least hired the Hunters…”

“They’re afraid themselves, and that’s why they hired the Hunters…”

The crowd parted, and Wesley King dived out of it, dragging a young woman by her hand. People jumped aside from him – he was a broad-shouldered big man and in his plastic spiked cuirass he looked like a fairytale giant. His blades on the magnet suspension flashed on his hips, the black eye of his Harrison looked out from under his elbow, freezers stuck out of his pockets which were also filled with gas containers and ray knives, and the fire-thrower’s barrel trembled above his helmet. The woman near him reminded of a blade of grass by an oak-tree.

She looks twenty-five, Kaleb thought. And she probably was twenty-five; people were not rich here, they could not pay for reversion.

“Here she is!” Wesley pushed the woman to the platform. “Siona Ines ar’Gaub. Our client’s wife.”

The monk stopped praying, put his crystal away and turned to the woman.

“What do you need from her, Hunters? She is in sorrow and grief, and it’s not a place for her! Let her return to the Monastery!”

“She will return if she wishes it, but now I want to ask her some questions,” Kaleb said. “Shut your mouth, monk!”

He sat on the edge of the platform, with his legs hanging and looked the woman over once again. He face was pale and tear-stained, her dark hair was disheveled, but she was neatly dressed and looked to be of sound mind… Though she was in sorrow, she did not go insane.

“Tell me, siona Ines, when did your husband fail to return home?”

Kaleb spoke quietly, trying not to frighten the woman.

“Eight days ago, sion Hunter,” Ines whispered.

Eight days, sixteen dead… That’s a lot! Probably, the monster is multiplying or spawning, or will soon start it, Kaleb thought. A worm, mite, slug, it was not so important what it was, there was time enough for any parasite.

“He went to the city. What for?”

“He was looking for various things… figurines, pieces of broken pottery with inscriptions, stone seals… They pay well for that,” the woman explained, smearing tears over her cheeks. “He looked for old things.”

“And he did find something…” Wesley King murmured.

Kaleb looked at him angrily and moved his eyebrow trying to tell his partner that he should know his place and not interfere. Wesley was not one of the elite, that is Hereditary Hunters and was listed somewhere among the third hundred in the Brotherhood’s Register. Had they been dealing with rats, giant spiders from Bikwara or some other similar scum, one could trust his experience and agility. What were rats and spiders?… Brainless creatures, you just fired and fired at them… Parasites capable to seize the brain were considered much more dangerous.

“Did your husband say anything about this garbage heap?” Kaleb nodded to the ruins. “Where did he dig, what buildings examined, what he saw? Stop crying and try to remember.”

Ines blew her nose.

“Will you kill him? Will you kill my Gaub?”

“Surely,” Wesley King promised, and the woman burst into tears.

“Wesley, shut up,” Kaleb said. “And you, siona, stop crying and answer me. Gaub died eight days ago. It’s not him in the city but a bloodthirsty monster. Do you want this creature to murder someone else? Your relatives, neighbours, their children?”

That worked. Ines dried her tears and whispered, “The pond…”

“What do you mean?”

“In the square… Gaub said that there was a pond… He sat down by the water to have a rest…”

“Did he drink that water?”

“No. It was muddy… Not clear… I gave him food and uloh… He loved uloh…”

That’s beverage from local berries, Kaled remembered and asked again, “Did he wash in that pond? It’s hot now and digging is not an easy work.”

“May be he did. I don’t know, sion Hunter.”

Kaleb decided that it was not possible to pull anything else out of her, signed and got up.

“Climb to the platform, Wesley. We’re leaving.”

The gravitation platform swayed and sunk a little – even here, where gravitation was lower, King weighed a lot. The people in the crowd started waving their hands; someone threw a handful of raisins and grains in the air – for luck. Brother Paul took his transparent ball out again and started praying. Ines ar’Gaub lowered her head and closed her face with her hands – probably, she did not want people to see her tears.

“The pond,” Kaleb said thoughtfully. “The pond with muddy water…”

That could well be the place where Gaub had been caught…

“Hydra? What do you think?” Wesley paled and involuntarily put his hand on his Harrison.

Kaleb did not answer and just looked at the ruins across the river sullenly.

The old city looked dark, gloomy, threatening – heaps of broken stone mixed with garbage, fallen roofs, pieces of columns, walls covered with climbing plants, boulders on which fortifications and towers had stood in the past, by now all of them had fallen into pieces. The city had been built not by colonists from the stars but by some Opensho people that had lived here in ancient times. Evidently, the planet had had a period of prime, which like in the other worlds inhabited by people sooner or later had given way to decay and regress. The swings of history either flew to the skies promising power, flourishing and eternal life, or sent the humankind into the precipice of savagery and oblivion. That had been the case until the Burroughs engine appeared and artificial intelligence systems, gravitation drive, biological reversion, common language and other gifts of the progress with it.

The platform sailed above the bank overgrown with grass and descended to the river. It was automatically controlled, and that system did not turn to the bridge for some reason but decided to force a crossing by air. However, it was all the same for such flying machines what they had under their bottoms: dry land or flowing water. The platform did not need any supporting surface, it moved unhurriedly though it was very reliable.

Kaleb checked his equipment fixed on his belt and armour, took a tiny injector from the pocket above his knee, shook his head and put it back. After that he turned back, looked at the slope of the hill with houses built on it, at the squat Monastery tower and green valley stretching to the horizon. The platform was rolling slightly and sailing to the other bank. The bridge arches to the left looked graceful, the river waters below and to the right were flowing to the sea, and the sky, the roof of this quiet and comfortable world, was of gentle azure colour and shining. A beautiful little planet! Though the name did not sound nice. Why Opensho?… May be that was the name of its discoverer. Why not?… There were hundreds of thousands inhabited worlds in the Universe, and every one was to have a name! Once Kaleb shot saber-toothed monsters on the planet Six-and-a-Half, as it turned round its axis in six and a half standard hours, and on Drunken Swamp he hardly got out of the swamp full of poisonous leeches. Though if he thought about hydra…

They stopped on the shore by the ruins of the fortress wall, jumped to the ground and lowered their face shields in similar movements, then they had their weapons ready.

“Let’s go, Wesley,” Kaleb said. “Four-step distance. Forward!”

There were gates in the wall. The towers that had been connected with an arch in the past, had fallen down and long time ago, the leftovers reminded a couple of rotten teeth in the broken jaw of some giant. A stone idol looked out of a heap of broken stones and sand not far from the gates. The mouth was open, one paw with talons was threateningly raised. The Hunters got over the heaps of rubbish, overgrown with thorny bushes and entered the city.

A street opened in front of them – it was narrow as a knife blade. They could not see it all as it zigzagged abruptly in about seventy meters from the towers by the entrance. There were ruined buildings on both sides: the walls from darkened stones were higher than an average man, the road was covered with broken tiles and pieces of stones, tilting pipes protruded in some places above the walls. Judging by the lack of bones and other signs of violence, the city was neither taken by enemies, nor destroyed, nor burned down – the residents had left it themselves, leaving as a sacrifice to the time, and only the sun, wind and rains worked on it.

Kaleb gave a signal, and the platform fired a probe. The small disc flew to the skies, froze slightly rolling above the ruins, and a small screen immediately illuminated by the Hunter’s left glove. He looked attentively into the ghostly image. The streets with abrupt turns went to the central square, surrounded by bigger and more massive buildings, probably they were temples or palaces. Their walls, supported by counter-forces, were higher that in the outlying districts of the city, the fallen roofs allowed to see the chaos in the inner rooms. There was a dark irregular spot in the center of the oval square. Probably, there had been a well there in the past, but in time heavy rains and underground waters eroded the soil, destroying any traces of the artificial construction. Now it was a small lake reminding of an ink-spot, and a red dot pulsed by it.

“He is in the square, by the pond,” Wesley said. “It seems that the guy is thirsty.”

“I don’t think so,” Kaleb shook his head. “A vampire drinking blood doesn’t need any other liquid. He is guarding this pond.”

“What for?”

“His descendants are there, in the water. Abundant food, water, warmth and several days in safety. All that’s needed for procreation…” Kaleb fell silent looking at the screen, then murmured, “God damn me, Wesley! That’s hydra, now I’m sure of it! We’ll have to sweat.”

His companion’s face darkened. But Wesley King was still a Hunter though not from the first hundred. He squeezed his ray gun harder, grinned and growled, ‘Such a careful parent! But we won’t have to look for him in this garbage heap. He will run to us himself when we freeze the water!”

“He will run, don’t you doubt it.”

After saying that Kaleb went along the street. He was on the alert. He inhaled the air deeply with his nostrils, he listened for the crackling stones heated by the sun. Small pieces of broken stones and sand rustled when they fell down.

The street turned left abruptly, then to the right. He saw rooms, halls, corridors through the holes in the walls that had been windows in the past, everything was covered by heaps of garbage mixed with stones and soil. Sometimes he caught evidences of digging in those ancient layers, pits and trenches with earth piled on their sides, filled with dirty water, or they were half-filled again, or nearly blurring with the soil. There had been many hundreds of treasure hunters rummaging about the city over the last one thousand years, and Gaub surely was not the first one. Those before him had risked to have a wall falling on their heads, or they could have been buried in some hole with debris falling and falling. The land could crack and open, and an unlucky digger found himself in a cave and stayed there forever. But in comparison with them, siona Ines’ husband was very unlucky – he ran across the creature one could hardly imagine in a nightmare! It must have been brought by underground waters, but how it had got into the waters and on the planet was another matter and of no interest to Gaub. There was only one way open to Gaub now – under an emitter or a blade.

The street that the Hunters took was becoming narrower – it seemed that if Kaleb stretched his both arms, he could touch walls on opposite sides. Undoubtedly, builders had some purpose in mind – it could be defense: it was no problem to close the passage, and ten skillful fighters could hold a hundred here. It was not bad for ancient warriors, but this narrow street seemed a trap for the Hunters – scattered tiles and stones under their feet, shabby walls threatening to fall down, a limited view and no place for maneuvers. But the probe hanging over the city sent a clear picture, and the red spot was still pulsating by the pond.

“Let’s have a look. What is he doing?” Wesley King said enlarging the image on the screen. “I have never met a guy with this creature in his head. Could it be that he has tentacles now? Can they grow out of him?”

“Hydra is not a metamorph, it cannot change its looks,” Kaleb answered. “And it’s not sitting in the head, but on the back by the neck where big blood vessels are sending blood to the brain. It reminds of a hump.” He paused, then added, “I saw that on the Planet of Towers… Only once…”

The reminiscences were far from pleasant like all other cases of obsession when some foul creature took over human body and mind. People lived on myriads of planets in the Great Galaxies – as a rule under the light of stable stars where the required by humanoids balance of warmth, gravitation, moisture and atmosphere contents was maintained. Sapient species were a part of the ecosystem everywhere, the system that included plants and animals, insects, fish and microorganisms. This boisterous life often generated special endemics that were not dangerous for autochthons but unknown in other worlds. In the spaceflight age there species were accidentally or intentionally taken from planet to planet, mutated in the new environment and sometimes turned into terrible semi-sapient monsters with no respect due to a man. Usually these parasites, bugs, worms, hydras, mites entered human flesh, connected to nerve ends leading to the brain and subjugated the carrier. The result of the symbiosis depended on the creature’s features: comparatively safe bugs feeding on gastric juice made a man eat a lot. Worms and mites affected the mind, and the symptoms were similar of schizophrenia and delusions of persecution. Hydra turned its carrier into a vampire. It was not always possible to get rid of parasites with medical means and the most reliable way was elimination of the creature together with its carrier. And that was not an easy task.

“Look, he is naked!” Wesley said from behind Kaleb. “Lying by that pool with his cock up! Is he sleeping? Or dead?”

Kaleb looked at the screen by his left wrist out of the corner of his eye. The naked man was lying on his back, with one hand in the pond and though he looked like any homo sapiens, there was nothing human in his face. His features were frozen in a grotesque mask: his eyes were closed and sunken, his pale hairless skin stretched on his jaws and deeply lined forehead. Probably, siona Ines would not have recognized her husband now – he aged about forty years.

“A skeleton,” Wesley King murmured. “He looks like a skeleton. His ribs are sticking out… and joints… He looks dead!”

“He only looks that,” Kaleb specified.

They came to a non-wide heap in the end of the street and froze on both sides of that barricade. Several broken columns and stones that had been a palace or possibly some temple, reliably hid the Hunters, allowing them to watch the square without any obstacles closing the view. There were also a lot of garbage heaps and hills on it, so the obsessed was not seen from their position. Bad luck! Kaleb thought. It would be great to shoot him through an arm or a leg, then the creature would not be so agile…

He changed hands holding his Harrison and ordered, “Fire at a stone on the top of that heap, Wesley. We have to make him rise.”

A bright ray hit the stone, pieces of it flew to all sides, a cloud of dust rose up. At the same moment a whitish shadow flashed above the debris and heaps. It was moving very quickly like a lightning flashing in the sky. The obsessed moved at such a speed that human eyes did not manage to fix where he was at the moment. Kaleb fired – once, two, three times; the fiery arrows from his ray gun pierced the air, coloured tiles fell from some palace in the farthest end of the square, then its whole façade fell down making a lot of noise and rising a lot of dust.

“The Seventh Hell! I didn’t get him!” he said disappointed.

The target was too quick even for a Hereditary Hunter.

“That’s a lively guy!” Wesley King answered him. “Well, and where is he now?”

The red spot on the screen moved to the ruins on the right side of the square and froze there. Just standing and waiting. Surely, he was not a man any more, but the creature did have some brains. It understood that someone had come after it.

“Let’s go to the pond.” Kaleb nodded in the direction of the square. “We keep the same distance. If you hear a rustle or notice something – fire. Fire from your ray gun, its kill zone is bigger.”

“Shall we make him run over the ruins?”

“No. He will come himself to kill us. His descendants are in the pond.”

The Hunters carefully went forward, running and jumping from behind one pile of stones to the other and getting over them. The buildings surrounding the square were preserved better than those by the city gates and looked magnificent: rows of columns separated by arches, carved stones and mosaic on what was left from the frontons, broken statues in niches and paintings over the inner walls – they were not bright, the colours had dimmed, but everything here was surely not badly preserved. True archeologists had never worked here, otherwise the frescoes and mosaics cut out or together with the walls, pieces of statues, stone spires and decorations would have found their way to some museum or private collections long ago. But there were so many planets with old deserted cities and towns in the Great Galaxies that it seemed impossible and unnecessary to examine and research all of them. Archeologists went to the places where ancient cultures could enrich the galactic civilization by especially valuable works of art. They dug on Ophira and the Planet of Towers, on Shambhala, Earth and Polar planet, on Seventh Aira in the Magellanic Clouds and certainly Avalon.

The area around the little lake heated by the sun was cleaned, a small barrier was made from stones in some distance from the water. It looked dark, cloudy, and thin shining threads trembled and rolled on its surface – pseudopodia from hydra embryos. When Kaleb saw them, he had a feeling as it some cold paw caressed his back. It was the paw of terror. Grown-up hydras threw out threats at unbelievable speed, they pierced skull bones in several places at once and linked to the brain turning a human into an obsessed, obedient carrier. Hydra was the most dangerous and elusive of all parasites; sometimes every form of life had to be destroyed with freezer bombs in the poisoned by hydras areas. Hydras could not stand cold.

“Throw a grenade,” Kaleb ordered. The barrel of his ray gun was directed at the half-fallen building with a row of six-facet columns.

The probe said that the creature was hiding there.

The cylinder of the freezer fell into the water with a plopping sound, and the middle of the pond was immediately covered with an icy crust.

“Another grenade,” Kaleb said without taking his eyes from the ruins.

Wesley raised his arm, but he didn’t manage to throw the freezer – there was a quick movement behind the Hunter’s back, nearly impossible to catch by an eye, he cried and fell to the ground. Kaleb had time to fire only once and immediately sent a spurt from the fire-thrower into the back of the obsessed. The fire spread over the ground, burnt some stones, but the monster eluded them again. He was like an invisible ghost saddling the hurricane.

“I’ll catch you, monster!” Kaleb said through clenched teeth and went to Wesley. The armour on his partner’s shoulder cracked from the horrible blow, but it saved his arm and probably his life. Damning all bastard creatures in all Galaxies, both Old and New, Wesley got up, moved the protective shield, loosened the fixtures of the armour and examined his shoulder. His skin under the protective shield was blue, the giant bruise stretched from his neck to his biceps, but it seemed that bones were intact.

“Rat’s ass! He nearly tore my arm away!”

“That’s hydra,” Kaleb reminded gloomily. “When there is enough food, metabolism boosts, its reaction is fantastic and it’s very strong… Can you move your arm?”

“Yes, bless Bosons the Creators!” Wesley bent down and picked up the freezer that had rolled aside. “Did you get him?”

“No. He is too quick.” Kaleb looked at the pond. “But he won’t go away. He’ll attack us again and again.”

Wesley also looked at the water with threads rolling on its surface and grinned making a face.

“A good bait, isn’t it? I’ll throw a couple of freezers if you don’t mind. You may be lucky next time.”

“We’ll throw together.” Kaleb also pulled out a grenade. “But it’d better to stand by the stones to the right of the pond. It’s a poor shelter but still…”

Looking around and at the screens the Hunters moved to the high stone wall. The local sun passed its zenith, but it was still hot like in hell. It was especially hot in the armour, sweat streaked down their backs from the temples, the Harrison ’s barrel was burning the palm even through the glove. Dust devils danced in the hot air above the stones and heaps of broken stones and rubbish, the ice in the middle of the pond was thawing quickly, the water though it was dark and cloudy, beckoned promising coolness.

“I think four freezers will be enough,” Kaleb said.

Two grenades flew into the water, followed by two more. The pond froze immediately till the very bottom, the icy monolith was pushed out of the surrounding banks with a lot of noise, the ice began cracking, screeching, but these sounds were drowned by a thin piercing shout. It seemed that it was coming from some animal but not a human throat – to be more exact, a creature which had been human not so long ago. This moan expressing despair or anger was still hanging in the air when stones started falling under somebody’s quick steps and screeching.

“Careful!” Kaleb shouted raising his ray gun. The next moment some power that could not be resisted turned the barrel to the sky, and the ray hit a stone tooth above the nearest building. A horrible face with bared teeth appeared in front of the Hunter, fingers-hooks grabbed his shoulders trying to pierce and crumple the armour, and Kaleb fell down letting the ray gun out of his hands. He rolled over the broken stones together with his opponent, feeling the armour shields bending and being pushed into his body. The sun and the sky as if jumped above him, he was either on top or below his rival, his hands squeezed the monster’s ribs and for a split second he even heard the bones of the obsessed cracking and fracturing. The force Kaleb applied when he squeezed his opponent, was transmitted to the armour, and thorns jumped out of the places where the shield were joined. The bracelet on his wrist let out the blade from nitride steel, and Kaleb found the handle, which he was used to, in his palm. He wanted to stretch to the hump behind the obsessed shoulders, but he did not manage it. Then he struck him in his right side under the ribs trying to get to the liver. The monster must have felt pain – the creature shrieked, started back, rushed to the ruins, and the Hunter rose on one knee and sent a spurt of fire from the fire-thrower after the running monster. He saw the skin on the back of the obsessed blackening and handing in shreds, after that the monster disappeared behind the half-broken wall. It seemed that wounds and burns did not affect the speed of his movements.

Grabbing his ray gun, Kaleb got up on his feet quickly. His crumbled shields scratched his shoulders, sweat streams ran down his back and cheeks stinging his eyes, but his heartbeats were steady. He was ready to fight, fire, cut with his blade, tear his opponent with bare hands if he suddenly lost his weapons. Here, on Opensho, he ran across the obsessed vampire, one of the most dangerous creatures in the Galaxies, he could lose and die, but that meant nothing. Danger was inalienable from the Hunters’ craft, and it was not rare that their road led to the valley of the deadly shade.

Drops of blood fell from the blade. Wesley King, who had no time to react to the sudden attack, inhaled some air wheezing and slapped his thigh.

“You did it! You wounded him!”

“I wounded him, but I didn’t kill him,” Kaleb murmured looking gloomy. “He’ll be OK in a couple of minutes. Regeneration is quick.”

They went to the pond. The giant ice block rose above the ground, and dark shapeless spots were seen in its depth. The ice had already started thawing, drop after drop were making the way over its surface covered with numerous cracks, but hydra embryos were dead.

“We may have been wrong,” Wesley King said. “There is no bait now, and nothing keeps the client here. I have no wish to follow him in these ruins.”

Kaleb shook his head.

“He won’t go away.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Vindictive creature! He’ll try to kill us.”

The red spot on the screen was moving quickly, the bloodsucking devil was circling the pond and the square waiting for his wounds to heal. That was not to take long.

“You have the potion. I saw it,” King said and looked at the pocket above Kaleb’s knee – where the tiny injector was hidden. “Will you inject it?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“And what if I won’t have enough time to deal with him and pass out? Then he’ll kill both of us.”

“Well, inject me then.”

Kaleb thought for a minute, then said, “You, my friend, will not overcome him even with the potion, and I’ll have to guard your unconscious body. No offense meant, Wesley. Our job doesn’t forgive mistakes.”

“I agree,” his partner said. “What shall we do? Run after him over this old refuse dump?”

“There is no need to run after him, he’ll find us himself. Let’s get back to the river, lure him to the open bank.”

“You really think he’ll follow us to revenge?”

“Not only for that.” Kaleb looked at the sun. “It’s the middle of the afternoon, and he hasn’t eaten since night but ran a lot. He is already hungry, and we’re the nearest source of food.”

Wesley grinned.

“That’s very inspiring! But we’ll have to take that narrow crack again…” He checked the screen. “However, other cracks are even narrower. Damned city! No places for maneuvering!”

“It means you have to look back more often and keep your weapons ready,” Kaleb murmured and went to the blockage that separated the square from the street.

They got over pieces of columns with capitals in the forms of some predators’ paws with big claws, went past the broken in two parts architrave and a broken frieze with a horrible demon looking out of it and surrounded by snakes. If the ruins were a sanctuary, they prayed to not very nice gods here, Kaleb thought. Claws, talons, fangs, open jaws, tails with spikes… A suitable environment for a blood-sucking monster.

They went along the narrowest part of the street, between ruins of houses, in some places crowned with scallops and towers. Wesley kept the distance and walked in four steps behind his partner, pieces of stone and sand squealed and cracked under his boots, but Kaleb discerned other sounds as well – a hardly noticeable rustle on his right and a kind of slaps like the sounds of bare feet touching stones. The Hunters walked to the gates overlooking the bridge, and the red spot on the screen obstinately followed them. The obsessed was here, hiding behind walls in several meters from them, and now he was driven not only by revenge but also by hunger. May be his hunger blurred what was left of his mind, and the Hunters did not seem dangerous to him any more. May be he already thought of them as a tasty prey, blood-filled wineskins. In this case…

The rustling behind the half-broken wall became louder, and Kaleb rushed forward, shouting, “Run, Wesley! Quicker!”

But his partner didn’t manage in time. Pieces of stone flew in all directions, then the wall fell down with a lot of noise and screeching, one stone struck Kaleb’s helmet, another fell on his shoulder exactly where the damaged shield was. A chalky-white ghost appeared in place of the broken wall – he looked horrible, covered with dried blood and dust. For a fraction of a second Kaleb looked into his eyes, they were impenetrable, dark and icy like the black matter separating Galaxies. Was that fraction of a second long?… He did not know, he could say one thing only: probably less than it was required for his finger to press the trigger. The ray gun spat sending a lighting, but the obsessed had already disappeared as if dissolving in the chaos of walls, leaning chimneys and heaps of garbage.

Wesley was pale, he was staggering and shaking his head, his right arm hanging loose.

“D-d-damn! Well, he is a s-s-strong devil… Who c-c-could have thought it? He b-b-broke the wall…” the partner mumbled, wheezing and stuttering, then he added in a normal voice, “It seems my collar bone is broken. Just a moment…”

He pressed a key on his belt, the first-aid kit peeped under his breast armour, and the usual complexion returned to Wesley’s cheeks.

“Can you walk?” Kaleb asked looking at the screen. The red spot pulsed rather far, in about one hundred and twenty meters judging by the figures the device demonstrated.

“Yes. And I can fire!” King raised his left arm with the ray gun.

“Then let’s go. Keep closer to me.”

They managed to make just several steps when the wall in the place where the street turned, fell down, barricading the way with a new pile of debris. Kaleb reacted immediately – the stones were still falling when he started firing. Wesley’s ray gun added some fire, his weapon was set on the maximum, and a plasma fountain rose in front of the Hunters. It was unbearably hot, they felt that heat, stone slabs cracked and turned into dust, a column of dark red fire rose to the skies roaring. It seemed that nothing could survive in this imitation of hell, especially a living creature.

“This damned rascal is alive,” Wesley said with annoyance after looking at the screen. “We only burnt his heels a little.”

The fire died, but broken stones were still dimly red and the wind carried a cloud of heated dust above them. The Hunters went round that place going through half-broken walls and piles of rubbish, jumping over pits and trenches full of water, the leftovers of former digging. The narrow part of the street was left behind, it was not far to the gates. The monster followed them obstinately, however, he didn’t attack them – perhaps, it was not only his heels that were burnt, and the hydra had to restore the burnt flesh. If regeneration was too quick, it exhausted the carrier’s body and could not go on forever, but the creature that settled down inside the man, was not worried about that – there were other humans at its disposal, hundreds, thousands of bodies. It could suck blood from any resident of the village or get into him or her leaving Gaub a bloodless corpse.

Will we manage to make him come out to the bank?… It would be best to arrange an ambush as there is a bait… Kaleb thought looking at the enlarged image on the screen. The probe kept the obsessed in sight all the time hanging in about forty meters above the city. From the probe’s point of view poor Gaub looked like a thin gnarled monkey jumping from stone to stone at unbelievable speed. His hump stuck out like a sharp cone between his shoulder blades and it seemed that some strange cap with pale skin stretched over it was glued to the man’s back.

A cloud crawled from the river, covered the sun, it became dark and started drizzling. Rain drops struck helmets and armour, and distorted the vision when streaking down the face shields. Kaleb switched the shield wiper.

Wesley followed in his footsteps and murmured, “We haven’t managed to kill the bastard… I swear by the Great Galaxies! It’s even unclear who hunts whom!”

Kaleb didn’t answer him. They left the gates and stopped on the slightly sloping river bank listening to the rain. The gravitation platform was swinging by the water to the right of them, the old road to the bridge was on the left. There was at least four hours till the evening, but the clouds densely covered the sky, the light went out, the rain was heavier now. The Hunter squinted his eyes and could discern the hill on the other side of the river, the Monastery tower, houses and the crowd by the entrance to the village. People stood under the rain and it seemed that no one had left, no one hid under a roof. They were afraid of the night and solitude.

Wesley tore off the broken shield, his right shoulder was swollen and reddened. The effect of the drug injected by the first-aid kit had not stopped yet, and there was no pain, but the partner did not look well though he pretended to be brave and firmly held the ray gun in his left hand. Healing a fracture was not a problem for any surgeon, but Kaleb could not count on Wesley now as a fighter. Though he could be used in another capacity.

After examining his naked arm, Kaleb murmured, “You look suitable. Some bleeding to add could work wonders… He will go completely mad from blood…”

“What do you…” Wesley opened his mouth and shut it at once. It seemed he understood.

“Give me the ray gun, helmet, blades and ray knives,” Kaleb ordered. “You can leave the dagger but hide it better.” He took the weapons from Wesley. “Stay by the gates, let him see you at once. Choose the position yourself but be sure to present the idea: the beefsteak is ready and dressed with sauce.”

“Should I play a pheasant on a skewer?” Wesley mumbled but obediently went to the gates saying on the way, “I hope that you won’t miss this time.”

He lay on the damp ground, pulled his knees to his belly and froze as if he was half-dead and absolutely helpless. Rain fell on his head and naked shoulder, the dark entrance with ruined towers on both sides seemed a dragon’s jaw ready to eat the Hunter. Kaleb stood on his knees behind the platform and switched the adjustment of his ray gun. Minimum power and the striking cone not exceeding a fraction of a millimeter. Now the ray could cut flesh and bones but not stones.

He waited without taking his eyes from the gates, listening to the rain, rustling and quiet sounds that reached him from the city. Kaleb’s muscles were relaxed, he did not move and if one looked at him from afar, he in his grey armour could be very well taken for a stone idol that had fallen from either a wall or a tower. Waiting was not a problem for him. He had been waiting in ambush in the past many-many times, in just exactly the same way waiting for another target to appear, getting out of some impassable thicket, rushing down from the sky, swimming out of the sea or appearing from the depth of the earth, hole or cave. Ability to wait was no less important in his trade than good eyesight and keen hearing. Impatient people were rare among Hunters and they died quickly.

The chalky-white ghost flashed behind the gates and disappeared the next moment. A stone fell on another stone, the sound was muffled, something rustled, and the monster appeared among the tower ruins for a moment. Kaleb stayed motionless. Wesley King was diligently playing a man who lost his strength, he raised himself on his elbow, moaned and fell back on the damp ground with a shriek. He is no actor but moaning very naturally, Kaleb thought.

It stopped raining, but the sky was still cloudy. The light was dim, the day was coming to the end and in that light the city looked especially gloomy. It seemed that demons from the ancient times that had lived there, came to life for some time and were watching the Hunters with thousands hungry eyes. Watching and waiting when a new drama would be played between the ruins, and blood would be spilt falling on stones from either the hero or the monster killed by him.

Kaleb did not catch the moment when the quickly moving shadow slipped to Wesley King. A moment ago the area in front of the gates was empty, there was no movement on the wall or towers, but hardly a fraction of a second later angry Wesley’s cry broke the silence. The thin naked creature saddled him, pressing the Hunter to the ground with one hand and pulling the shoulder of the cuirass, protecting the neck, with the other. The monster could not wait to get to the carotid artery, but he could not understand why his prey was so hard and instead of the bones breaking and death agony, the prey was still moving and shouting.

“Here you are, my friend,” Kaleb whispered very quietly and raised his ray gun. A thin violet needle pierced the temple of the obsessed, he shuddered and fell on Wesley. King swore and threw the light body to the wall – with such strength that his skull cracked when hitting a stone. Then Wesley rose to his feet, with a dagger in his hand.

“Well, and now I’ll really work on the bastard!”

“Come back!” Kaleb ordered. “You are without a helmet and shield, so do not come near him. Back, I said! Go to the platform, on the double!”

Wesley King grumbled but stepped back. His breast armour seemed gnawed, there were many dents as if someone struck it by a heavy hammer many times and very strongly. The armour made from modified plastic was light and flexible, but it was as firm as steel. It could be crumpled or pierced only by tyrannosaur fangs. Looking at those horrible traces, Kaleb smirked, freed a blade from its magnet holders and went to the corpse.

There were waves rolling over the outgrowth between his shoulder blades, the hump trembled and shivered – the hydra was in a hurry to get out and look for a new carrier. The Hunter struck exactly in the right place and split the skin on the dead man’s back as if he was lancing an old abscess. The dark shapeless clot, which had grown into the human flesh, moved more energetically, rose up a little and suddenly fired up and in all directions with dozens of threads, their ends were sharp and callous. They struck the armour and the face shield of the Hunter, fell down as if there was no strength left in them, were pulled into the hydra’s body and then struck again.

“For the sake of Life and Lights!” Kaleb said the old formula, the slogan of the Monasteries. The sharp end of his blade crisscrossed the dark clot, then he bent down, snatched the creature with his widely spread fingers and tore it out of Gaub’s dead flesh.

The dying hydra writhed at his feet. Kaleb dragged the corpse to the platform, then came back and burnt what was left of the hydra with his fire-thrower. The stench was awful to tell the truth, but he even did not make a face as he knew that smell and was used to it – hunting often ended in sterilization by fire. It was the smell of victory for any Hereditary Hunter.

He returned the blade to his hip, it clicked taking its usual place, Kaleb went to the platform hanging by the water edge. Wesley King had already put the corpse on it and was sitting by the edge playing with his knife.

“Shall we cut his head off?”

“What for?”

“Just in case. His brain is pierced with threads.”

Kaleb shook his head.

“The hydra is dead, and the threads will just rot.” He examined Gaub’s face which was now tranquil and peaceful, and added, “Let’s not make him look a monster, Wesley. He is a man again, though a dead man.”

The platform took them across the river, to the hill and the crowd still standing by the entrance to the village. Ines uttered a frenzied scream when she saw her husband’s body and closed her face with her hands, Brother Paul started praying. The rest spoke in whispers, wiped their damp faces, sighed with relief and made signs protecting from the evil. The wind sent clouds beyond the river, the sky was getting darker and darker every minute, and stars were as if switched on there. Their flashing lights made a giant arch that was a part of the outer spiral of this galaxy. A far, very far galaxy from Kaleb’s native world.

He turned to Ines ar’Gaub and said, “Don’t cry, siona, don’t! You’re a widow now and that gives you some advantages. Can I spend this night in your house?”

“Leave that woman alone! Her sorrow demands solitude, tears and prayers!” Brother Paul interfered trying to burn Kaleb through with his eyes. “It’ll be much more comfortable for you in the Monastery. I see that your partner is wounded… We have experienced doctors, a diagnostic robot and a tub with the reanimating solution.”

“That will suit my friend, but I don’t need doctors and tubs,” Kaleb said. “Good-buy, monk.”

He had nothing against the Monasteries’ money, but he felt contempt and dislike to those who lived there. All those brothers, confessors, adepts, hierarchs… Sexless like drones and no more useful… It was impossible to explain to them that the woman needed not prayers but consolation that could be provided by a man only. Not necessarily in bed – just sitting at the table, talking to her, spending a night in her house… Though going to bed together was not excluded.

“Wait, sion Hunter!” Brother Paul grabbed the armour on his shoulder. “Come up to the tower, wash your face a have something to eat! It’s a sin to refuse from our hospitality and our bread!”

“Such sins don’t bother me.” Kaleb threw the monk’s hand off with one sudden movement. “You wanted to see the corpse of the obsessed – here he is! As for the rest… I’ll take water from the well for washing, drink a glass of wine and eat some bread in this woman’s house.”

He took Ines by the hand and went to the village.