Iriya the Berserker Read Online Free PDF Page B

thought of how she’d probably be next, a flash of lightning put a dome-shaped form ahead of D into stark relief.
    “That’s it!”
    Hope vaulted over her fears, and Iriya mercilessly goaded her horse on. As she drew closer, she saw the same dome the light had picked out was over sixty feet in diameter. D had already dismounted, and leaving his steed where it was, he headed toward what looked to be the entrance.



When she halted her own horse, Iriya heard a scream. It was the cry of a man—or rather, a boy. Swiftly dismounting, she gave her horse a slap on the ass to drive it off, then followed D. Following the line of the dome for about thirty feet, she turned right and found him standing there. As Iriya blinked her eyes, another streak of lightning stitched together sky and ground, and the boy in front of D screamed again.
    “Let’s get inside—quick!” Iriya urged D.
    D crossed to the boy’s right and pressed his left hand to a red depression on the dome’s surface.
    “Ah!” the boy exclaimed as he started to fall backward, but D wrapped his arms around him and immediately entered the dome through the door that’d suddenly appeared. Once Iriya had followed suit, D pressed the same hand to an identical depression on the inside, and the entrance closed. At the same time, all of them became tinged with blue from head to toe. The boy clung to D’s arm. He was scared to death.
    He wore a jacket, shorts, and thick-soled walking shoes—the typical gear of someone from a family of moderate means on a journey. Likewise, the shoulder bag slung across his left shoulder was standard traveling equipment. While it didn’t seem conceivable he was on his own, he also didn’t seem to be lost. Neither D nor Iriya had seen any travelers who seemed to have misplaced a child. Had his parents gone too far before noticing his absence, or was it as yet unnoticed?
    “Relax, kid,” the hoarse voice said. “It’s just a sterilizing light. The Nobility might be immortal, but when their human servants were with ’em, they couldn’t have ’em tracking in dangerous germs from outside. See, the Nobles did show some consideration for humans.”
    After three seconds, the light faded and a door opened before them. The trio was greeted by a room so gorgeously appointed it would’ve made even the most jaded traveler cry out with delight. The shelters of the Nobility lacked none of their accustomed luxury.
    As the boy stood dumbfounded in the white light, the girl coaxed him into taking a seat on the blue sofa, telling him, “I’ll have some tea ready in no time. In the meantime, I’m Iriya. What’s your name?”
    “Meeker.”
    It was probably thanks to Iriya that his voice sounded a little more composed, though his expression was still stiff and his cheeks trembled. Given that he looked to be only seven or eight years old, it was no surprise that an abode of the Nobility on a lightning-covered plain would inspire more terror than curiosity.
    “You did great on your own. What a good boy you are! Did you get separated from your parents?”
    He swung his head from side to side.
    “What happened, then?”
    “I was with Nadja,” he said suddenly, in a hazy tone. Tears welled in his eyes. “We came this far—then she ran off and left me.”
    “Ran off?”
    “She was supposed to take me to my uncle’s place in a town called McCrory, but she told me she was just taking the money and left me here. What am I supposed to do on my own?”
    With this disclosure, his slight shoulders started to quake as if from a fit, and he hiccupped a few times. He only stopped talking when Iriya gently put her arms around his small form.
    “It’s okay. You’re not all alone. No one in this world is. Everybody has somebody. It so happens McCrory is on our way, and I’ll see that you get there . . . D, could I take a shower?”
    “Sure, but there’s no running water,” the hoarse voice replied. “Running water’s taboo for Nobles. As a