Record of the Blood Battle Read Online Free PDF

surprise.
    Like a film running in reverse, Delilah’s movements retraced their former progression—her spasms subsided, her body straightened out, and the color flowed back into her skin.
    After a prolonged treatment during which the woman’s life hung in the balance, D pulled his hand away as if nothing had transpired—and only two seconds had actually passed. At that point, the men saw something. As D pulled his left hand back, there was a vivid pair of vermilion lips on his palm.
    At the same time, Delilah opened her eyes. She felt a hazy sort of vertigo, but it quickly cleared. Delilah sat up. Ignoring the hand Galil extended to her, she looked up at D. He didn’t offer to help her up. She got up again on her own.
    “I’m afraid I caused quite a scene, didn’t I?” she said, but behind her wry grin churned an undisguised delight. “I guess I’ll be in your debt as long as I live, D.”
    She extended her right hand to him, but naturally D ignored it.
    “Oh, this is a surprise. I’ve never had a man refuse to shake my hand before,” Delilah said, somewhat perturbed.
    “We’re surprised at you ,” said Mikado, a look of disbelief on his face. “A warrior being so quick to offer someone their sword hand, of all things. And this is the first time I’ve ever seen you looking to shake hands.”
    “You don’t say?” Delilah turned away peevishly, and the flush in her countenance wasn’t entirely due to alcohol.
    Mikado turned to D. “Thanks to you, we got to see a new side of one of our comrades.”
    “Hey, don’t mention it,” a hoarse voice replied.
    “Oh, you practice ventriloquism?”
    “You might say that.”
    “Well, that sure is a creepy voice. Sounds like an old crone playing madam at a whorehouse.” Tong laughed uproariously.
    “Indeed,” D said in his own voice.
    By his hip, another voice could be faintly heard to say, “What’s that supposed to mean?!”
    Mikado turned his head. Galil, Delilah, and Tong turned the same way at almost the same time. Surprisingly, even Enba, down on the floor, lifted his besotted head. Their eyes focused on D. However, they weren’t looking at him.
    “Fifteen riders,” Enba said from the floor. It was unclear if he was even fully conscious. Actually, his expression and his posture showed him to be thoroughly relaxed.
    “They came in through the northern entrance,” said Delilah.
    “And they sure know how to ride,” Tong said, still cackling.
    There was a wall behind D. Beyond the wall was a corridor, and on the other side of that was another room. There was a window in it, and that window faced the street. But as the walls were constructed to keep the din in that boisterous bar from being heard outside, how had they managed to hear people riding by, knowing their numbers and even how well they handled their horses?
    “At any rate, they’ve got nothing to do with us. How about another drink, brother?” Mikado said, raising a glass.
    —
    II
    —
    As Mikado had said, those riders were no concern of his group. Turning up in the sheriff’s office without so much as a knock at the door, one of the riders showed credentials that impressed the mayor and other village officials who happened to be there.
    “A patrol from the Capital?”
    “That’s right,” said a man in a gray uniform caked with white dust, giving a grim nod. “I’m Donnelly, the patrol leader.”
    “But we’d heard you were passing through the village of Dunnich just the day before yesterday. That’s more than a hundred and twenty miles east of here,” the mayor said, eyeing the other man suspiciously.
    Calmly, the man said, “That was the main force. You know about the bandits who’ve been active in the Kezus Mountains, don’t you? Well, we’re a separate force sent out to crush them. Three days ago, we were searching the mountains when we got orders from the Capital to get here as fast as we could.” The mayor didn’t even have time to get a word in edgewise before