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Nobles will be able to walk in daylight forever?” D said, his voice like icy rain falling softly from the night sky.
    The baron’s laughter was cut short. “Yes. And I told the Sacred Ancestor as much, while I was locked in a stasis field. He’s something else, I tell you. In the thirty minutes memory persisted after opening the field, he told me he’d managed to make one perfect specimen—meaning the DNA.”
    “Hey,” the hoarse voice said, the word echoing hollowly in the dome of its astonishment.
    In the past, an enormous presence of unknown nature had told D, You are my only success.
    Twisting around, D asked, “Are you talking about me?”
    “If you want to find out, you’ll have to take me with you. Well? How about it? What will it be?”
    On seeing the rider and his steed starting to walk away again, the baron leapt up.
    “You truly disappoint me. Hey, wait! Would you hold on a minute? Naturally, the Sacred Ancestor will want the new equation. He’s certain to come see me.”
    Out in the darkness, the hoofbeats halted.
    “Don’t you understand? Stick with me, and you’ll see the Sacred Ancestor. Isn’t that what you want?”
    “Why do you think that?” said a voice that spread through the baron’s ears.
    “Because that’s the way it has to be. His hopes rocked the very foundations of the Nobility. How many lives, human and Noble, do you think have been sacrificed on that altar? Ah, even now the cries of those women and children, their babies, come back to me. You, D, and your mother—”
    Suddenly, the baron slapped both hands over his mouth. He realized his error.
    However, his fear-filled eyes reflected a young man in black who remained as tranquil as the darkness. “Get on,” he said softly.
    “Okay!” the baron said, dashing toward the horse. On his way there, he tripped and fell flat on his face once. Apparently his amazing leaping power only came into play when he was escaping from danger. As his foot wouldn’t even reach the stirrup, D had to give him a hand up.
    “It’s amazing how short the bugger’s legs are,” the hoarse voice commented with dismay. “They can’t be more than a foot and a half long.”
    “Oh, shut up!” the baron shouted, wrapping his arms around D’s waist. “Do legs make the man? To the contrary. Do you think women find men over six and a half feet tall attractive?”
    “Okay, what makes a man, then?” the hoarse voice inquired.
    “Hmmm . . .”
    “The head? You’re nuts if you think that! There’s only one thing that determines the worth of anything with human form—the face!”
    “The face?” the baron said, growing introspective.
    Perhaps tired of the whole matter, D said nothing as he delivered a kick to his horse’s flanks.
    They’d gone only about thirty feet before they heard the distinct sound of an approaching engine behind them. And mixed with it was a low and distant cry of “Help!” It was a woman’s voice. A young one’s.
    “Oh my,” the baron said, licking his chops as he turned for a gander, but then he donned a look of suspicion. “Why aren’t you stopping?” he asked the silent D. “She’s pleading for help. Shouldn’t you do something?”
    Those hardly seemed the actions or the words of a Noble.
    “Because it’s not our job,” the hoarse voice said, and it too seemed a bit lamenting as the sound of the engine came nearer.
    Looking back again, the baron let out a puzzled, “Huh?”
    Utterly naked, a girl floated in midair. She had to have been about sixteen or seventeen. The moonlight couldn’t have been faulted if it admired her tempting skin and full, shapely breasts. But perhaps it was incorrect to say she was utterly naked. From the waist down, the girl was concealed by the darkness. Lips that would’ve seemed unnaturally thin and red by the light of day trembled, spilling cries of “Help!”
    “Oh, she’s a real beauty, isn’t she?” the baron said. The instant he broke into a lewd grin, he cried