Destroyer - Master's Challenge Part 19

Chiun looked to his old teacher, afraid for him. "No one you need to know," he said.

But the blind man shuffled forward. "I am H'si T'ang," he said.

"H'si T'ang, the healer?"

"So they once called me."

"You are blind."

The old Master nodded. "In one way."

"It is said you can see the future. Why did you not set a trap for rne?"

H'si T'ang looked at him sadly. "My son, there is none living who is more trapped than you."

"Go away!" the Dutchman shouted hoa.r.s.ely, his thin face ravaged. "I have no need of your useless ministrations.

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Or the feeble philosophies of a blind old relic. I have come to kill you, and when I am able, I will kill you. I promise that!" He shivered, his teeth chattering.

H'si T'ang turned his back and walked away. Silently Chiun covered the Dutchman with a thin blanket.

"Leave me, 1 said!" His eyes were squeezed shut in a grimace. A tear trickled over the skin of his temple into his hair.

Chiun left his side, and the Dutchman slept.

He awoke after nightfall. His eyes adjusted automatically to the darkness of the cave. He tested his fingers. They worked. The rice had given him enough strength to move. He pushed aside the damp rags on his forehead. There was no fever now.

The blind one was gone. Chiun sat a few feet away in lotus position, his eyes closed. Watching him, the Dutchman carefully removed the blanket that covered him and rose. The Oriental didn't awaken.

He stole toward the sleeping figure with movements so controlled that even the air around him was not disturbed. Then, bending low, he prepared his attack.

Chiun's eyes opened wide. There was not a trace of grogginess or confusion in them. Expectant, alert, knowing, they seemed to take in the Dutchman's very thoughts at a glance.

The Dutchman stopped, his jaw dropping.

"Why do you hesitate?" Chiun said sharply.

The Dutchman felt his breathing come faster. "I-1-"

"Can you kill only sleeping victims? Have you been reduced to that?"

The Dutchman backed away, trembling. "It would have been easier," he said. "Master, I do not wish to kill you." !t was a cry of desperation. "But I must. It was my vow to Nuihc. While you live, 1 will never find rest. It was his curse upon me."

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"Nuihc lied to you. You will not find the peace you seek by killing me."

"You are wrong," he said pa.s.sionately. "He will free me then. I will be permitted to die."

Chiun looked at the miserable, thin man with his hunched shoulders. He remembered that he had once been a beautiful youth with a quick, fine mind and hands as fast as the wind.

"Even then, you wanted to die," Chiun said absently. "Did you never try to end your life?"

The Dutchman laughed, the sound thin and bitter. "1 cannot count the times. But it won't let me, this-" He pounded his chest with his fist as if it were a distasteful alien thing.

"The power," Chiun said.

"It is a greater curse than the fires of h.e.l.l. It will only leave me after your death."

Chiun shook his head sadly. "Nuihc knew that you were born with abilities beyond the scope of others. By not teaching you to control your power, he guessed that it would drive you to fulfill his purpose. He tricked you, Jeremiah. There will be no rest for you. The power is too strong by now."

"Liar!" His arm struck out at Chiun. The attack was swift, with the perfect form Chiun remembered. At the moment before the side of his hand made contact with the old Oriental's face, he screamed and lurched backward, off balance. Aghast, he looked up. Behind Chiun, in a low doorway leading to an adjoining chamber of the cave, stood the blind H'si T'ang. The old man stood stock still, his face expressionless.

"The power." the Dutchman whispered. "You have it, too.''

H'si T'ang turned and walked back into the shadows, his hands clasped together.

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The Dutchman's eyes remained fixed on the spot where the old man had stood. "But it has not ..."

"Destroyed him?" Chiun finished. "No. He has not used it as you have."

The young man's eyes widened in pain. "You mean it was not necessary ... I could have ..."

"It is too late to think of those things how," Chiun said gently.

The Dutchman swallowed. All the suffering, for nothing! It could have been prevented. The power could have been controlled, the beast silenced.

"Nuihc knew?" he asked numbly.

"Yes," Chiun said. "He knew. I am sorry."

The young man staggered backward toward the cave entrance, brushing the back of his hand across his eyes. "You were stupid to let me live," he said brokenly. "I am not strong enough to kill you now, but I will be soon. And then I will come back for you. I'll kill you then, old man, do you understand? I'll kill you."

He rushed out into the night.

H'si T'ang emerged. "You have done a good job of nursing our visitor," he said, smiling. "My poor powers were strained nearly to breaking just to halt his attack on you. I am too old to attempt these exertions. The boy is stronger than he believes."

"He knows how strong he is," Chiun said. "He could have attacked me again after you left. Or he could have used his powers against me. He spared my life because I spared his." He looked toward the cave entrance. "The pity is that he was born to be a decent man. Even Nuihc's evil could not erase all his decency."

"Will he not return?"

"Oh, he will return." Outside, he heard the Dutchman's careless, stumbling footfalls. "You see, he believes that 176.

killing me is his only chance to find peace. He cannot accept that he has no chance at all."

H'si T'ang lit a candle for Chiun's benefit, and the two Masters drank tea. For a long time, past many miles, Chiun could still hear the Dutchman, weeping.

Chapter Twenty.

Nuihc, you could have helped me.

The Dutchman stumbled across the sandy, gra.s.s-tufted earth, oblivious to the deep snake holes. He just wanted to run, to crawl into the night like a small blind animal.

I thought of you as my father. I spent my life trying to please you~ He had learned the exercises Nuihc had given him. He had practiced until his fingers were b.l.o.o.d.y and his body ached for months on end. He had been both son and servant to the dark-eyed man who had said he came to save him. And the whole time, he now realized, Nuihc had seen Jeremiah's torment as the boy struggled with the extraordinary mental gift he had been born with, and had ignored it.

Nuihc knew how to control the beast. And he never told me.

He draped himself over a boulder and cried.

But the old man had the power, too.

He raised his head. He wasn't the only one. H'si T'ang's old body housed a beast, too, only he could control it.

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Maybe the old man's power wasn't as strong as his own, but the fact was, it belonged to him. The beast didn't own H'si T'ang.

Was it possible? The Dutchman sat up slowly, his senses tingling. Could he, too, learn how to use his gift only when he decided? It would take effort, and time . . .

His mind raced. He was sane now. Otherwise, he could never have walked out of the cave without lashing out at Chiun with the power. It was the first time he'd felt sane since before the incident with the girl in the Russian forest. It must have been the long rest, or Chiun's care, or the atmosphere of the cave itself. Whatever it was, though, it would pa.s.s quickly. He knew his beast. It would not leave him alone for long.

Think. Think quickly, while you have time.

Maybe Chiun was right. Nuihc had deceived him about his power. Maybe his promise that the Dutchman would find rest after killing Chiun was just another lie. In the past, killing had only led the Dutchman to more killing. The destructive power fed on itself. With each murder, the need for others grew in him. Why should it be any different with Chiun, who had saved his life and above all others that deserved to live?

If he could just go away somewhere, think, study. He had lived a lifetime of spartan discipline. Surely, with time, he could confront the beast and tame it. Surely . . .

He heard the commands of a North Korean patrol as they tramped over a hill. Maneuvers, he guessed. There were only six of them, carrying weapons and dressed in combat fatigues. He crouched on the ground, waiting for them to pa.s.s, but they spotted him.

"You there!" the leader called.

No. Not now, the Dutchman thought. I must be left alone now. The time was too short. He had to escape with the beast still in its flimsy cage.

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"Your papers, please," the leader of the patrol snapped, approaching him.

"1 don't-"

"No papers? What is your purpose here?"

The Dutchman stepped backward slowly. He closed his eyes. The colors . . . "Leave me," he said, choking.

The leader laughed harshly. "Arrogant white dung. What makes you think you can walk around with no identification? Filthy spy." He shoved the Dutchman. "You're coming with us."

He shook. The colors were brighter. Wild, frightening music sang in his ears. His vision clouded, then sprang into sharp, brilliant focus.

"Look at him trembling. This is how decadent western spies fall to pieces when confronted with the people's might." He thrust his rifle b.u.t.t between the Dutchman's shoulderblades.

Get away. Now. Before it's too late.

He ran. Behind him, the leader shouted orders to his men. They fired. The Dutchman set up a pattern of anti-rhythm, moving so erratically that the bullets could not reach him. He ran, with the patrol following behind shouting, their weapons echoing through the hills. When he was far enough ahead of them, he changed the pattern. Anti-rhythm was difficult. It strained his sense of balance. He loped along, following the scent of the sea. Even if he had to swim, he would leave this place immediately. There was hope, somewhere, if he could just get away.

He tripped over a deep hole and went sprawling on the gra.s.s. The fall knocked the wind out of him, but his head didn't strike ground. His hands gripped the edge of a dirt precipice. Below him, just beneath his head, slithered a swarm of snakes.

The sight startled him, but he made no move to leave the edge of the pit. There must have been more than a 180.

hundred of the creatures, some as wide as his arm. Seeing him, the snakes coiled and darted in a frenzy, their mouths opening to accommodate their long, hinged vipers' teeth.

He remained, fascinated, watching, as the Korean soldiers approached from behind.

Creatures of my own kind. Like me, you inflict death as a matter of course. Like mine, your power is beyond your own understanding. But I know you, because I am like you, despised, unwelcome among the gentler beings of the earth. You and I, my friends, we are the children of fear.

He gave up. There was no point in escaping now. Quietly, deep inside him, the beast's cage clicked open and flooded him with relief.

The soldiers were close behind him now, crouching, their weapons raised. The Dutchman almost laughed out loud at their clumsy efforts to move silently. He could hear their quickened breathing, the sound of their fingers on the metal and wood of their rifles.

Leaping upward in a spiral, he knocked the weapon out of the leader's hands and kicked him in the throat. Bright blood spurted out of the Korean's mouth. He fell in a heap, his arms and legs akimbo. Rushing the other startled soldiers, the Dutchman struck a finger into a man's eye, gouging deep into the brain tissue. He caught the third by both legs and, shouting to the music ringing in his ears, tore him in two.

The others tried to run. "Oh, no," he said, smiling. He swept his arm past his field of vision. The soldiers, now aglow in pulsating light, stopped in their tracks.

"Come here," he said. The men obeyed.

He nodded, and the music focused into a pinpoint of shattering sound. The men covered their ears, shrieking. Blood oozed from between their fingers.

"Go to the snakes."

The men cried out, but their legs kept moving. One fell 181.

on his knees, crawling behind the others. One by one, they drew themselves to the edge of the pit and stumbled in.

The snakes were ready.

They attacked in a ma.s.s, jerking and writhing convulsively, their yellow fangs sinking deep into the flesh of the screaming men. The Dutchman stood at the edge of the pit, his arms crossed in front of his chest. A thin stream of saliva fell from the corners of his mouth. When the last faint cries of pain had died away, he lay down slowly beside the gaping hole in the ground. The snakes seemed to throb with the rhythm of their own destructiveness.

"My brothers," he whispered, extending his hand over the pit. The vipers slowed and grew still. He raised his arm. Slowly, its eyes opening and closing sluggishly, the largest of the snakes left the ground and floated upward, weightless, out of the pit. He coiled the snake around his own body, where the creature crawled in a lethargic dance over his neck and face, around his upraised arms, between his iegs.