pride and prejudice and zombies:: dreadfull ever after

Part 33

CHAPTER 33

"Minoru!" Darcy called out as he backed away from his cousin. "Kyabeji wo otose!"

Drop the cabbages!

There was a loud thunking sound as a shoot opened in the holding pen on the other side of the dojo and a load of blood-smeared cabbages dropped into the zombie trough.

Anne's "friends"—Romeo and Juliet and Mercury and the rest—spun around howling and began staggering across the sparring floor toward their darkened paddock, which wasn't so darkened anymore, Darcy noticed. Something within glowed with the soft white light of a living thing. Darcy took a step toward it, drawn half by worry that one of his aunt's ninjas had fallen down the cabbage shoot, half by a hunger that suddenly stabbed his gut.

Anne reached out and clamped a hand to his arm.

"It's the cabbages," she said. "Everyone assumes the stricken are drawn to them because they look like brains, but that's not entirely true. You see the luminescence, don't you? It's the same for turnips, potatoes, and carrots, too, I've found. They're not really satisfying to eat, though, and mushrooms and fruits don't have the spark you'd see in a handful of sand. It's puzzling."

When the last unmentionable was back in the pen, furiously stuffing cabbage into its rotting maw, a section of nearby wall rumbled and began sliding to the side. A moment later, the zombies were again sealed in their vault to await the next round of target practice or the next visit from Anne.

Darcy could hear the ninjas outside unbolting the dojo doors. He jerked his arm free and began moving toward the nearest one.

"I understand," Anne said serenely. "It is a difficult thing, letting go of the past. Yet I know you will eventually come to accept the way of things. Accept yourself. And me. It is but a matter of time ... and we will have all of that we need."

Darcy stalked out and grabbed the first ninja he saw.

"Where is Lady Catherine?" he demanded in Japanese.

"I do not know."

Darcy had a hold of the man by the tunic, and he twisted his fists into the rough black fabric and lifted with all his might. To his surprise and satisfaction, he had more of it than he thought.

The bottoms of the ninja's tabi boots lifted off the floor. Just an inch or so, but enough to make the right impression.

"You fear incurring your mistress's wrath?"

Darcy brought his face so close that the two men were practically rubbing noses. The ninja's life-light wasn't just something Darcy could see now. He could almost taste it.

He tried to ignore the fact that his mouth had begun watering.

"Fool," he spat, giving the ninja a shake. "Tell me what I want to know or Her Ladyship will never have the chance to punish you, for I will have already snapped your spine in two." Darcy cocked his head to the side and leaned down toward the ninja's neck. "Or perhaps I should simply bite you."

"The Highest One is hunting in the wood near Badgers Mount!" the man cried. "Please, tell her it was Yoshio who told you! He calls you 'He-Demon' and says we should kill the both of you."

His wide eyes darted toward the training hall. Toward Anne.

With a grunt of disgust, Darcy threw the ninja aside and stomped off toward the road.

His strength may have been returning, but the walk was still long and wearying. Badgers Mount was three miles beyond the borders of Rosings—taking his aunt far enough away, Darcy realized, to give him lots of time alone with his cousin. So it had been all week. Even with an ailing nephew to look after, Lady Catherine had been out hunting every day. Because the real game had been afoot at home.