Deathstalker (70 page)

“Yes,” said Jack Random. “We got a lot of people killed who followed us expecting miracles. Aren’t you ever bothered by ghosts, Giles?”

“Of course. Some of them are waiting for me on the planet below. But I make my decisions based on the future, not the past. Ghosts have to know their place.”

“It must be wonderful to be so strong, so sure,” said Random. “To have all the answers. If you have a moment, pity us poor mortals with our doubts and failings.”

He got up and left, brushing past Owen in the doorway without speaking to him. Owen turned to watch him stalk away down the corridor and then looked at Giles.

“What’s got into him?”

“He’s just feeling his age. Preparing for battle will do that to you. It’s a time to open your heart to strangers and hope for absolution. Is that what you’ve come to me for, kinsman?”

“No. I was just passing and heard voices.”

“So how are you feeling? Ready for the fray?”

“I suppose so. It’s not like I have any choice in the matter, is it? Ever since this all began, I’ve been harried from planet to planet, with the bad guys never more than a few minutes behind me. No lime to think, let alone rest. And no matter which way I turn, all I hear is duty, duty. Fight for this cause, fight for that, fight just for the right to stay alive. What choices have I had recently?”

“There arc always choices, kinsman. You can choose to fight or to run, to be strong or weak. To take joy in fighting the good fight and never bowing to a villain. You come from a Family of warriors who never surrendered to greater odds, or struck for a peace they didn’t believe in. We have a tradition of facing and rising above whatever obstacles fate places in our path, and meeting our enemies with cold steel in our hands and a smile on our lips. We have always been heroes, warriors, men of destiny.”

“Save the pep speech for someone who believes in it,” said Owen. “I’ve been hearing that shit all my life. It didn’t save my father when the Empire sent a master swordsman after him, and it won’t save us when Lionstone’s forces arrive here. We are six people, facing the might of the Empire. Our chances suck. Our only hope for survival lies in waking
a race of semihuman beings who might or might not wipe us out on sight, and hope we can convince them to fight alongside us. That’s assuming they don’t decide to wipe out all of Humanity like they tried to the last time. We are outnumbered, outgunned, and out of luck. I’m a historian; I’ve seen what happens to rebellions without massive funding, big armies and a solid power base. We don’t stand a chance, Giles. The odds are we’re going to die, and die bloody.”

Giles smiled easily. “If we’re going to die anyway, we might as well die well. Die fighting and take as many of the bastards with you as you can. If that’s all that’s left to you, go down still swinging your sword. Make them pay for their victory.”

“Oh, very romantic. My father would have loved you. He believed in all that crap, too, but he still ended up dying alone on a main concourse, with his guts scattered over the street, while people walking by gave him plenty of room so they wouldn’t get blood on their shoes. It’s all right for you to talk like that. You were Warrior Prime. You led armies. I never wanted to be a warrior. All I ever wanted was to be left alone to read my books and work on my histories. Instead, I’ve been forced to fight and kill people I don’t even know, just so I can lead a rebellion I’m not even sure I believe in.

“Even if by some miracle we did win, what use would Jack Random’s Empire have for an ex-aristocrat like me? I represent everything he and his kind want to be rid of. They’d probably end up putting me on trial for exploitation of the masses. And all your romantic talk of taking your enemies down with you; what did that lead to last time? Using the Darkvoid Device. How many billions of innocents died because of that? You know how you’re remembered in my history books? As the greatest mass murderer of all time.”

“That’s right,” said Giles. “I am. I placed my trust in the Iron Throne, and it betrayed me. You have to understand how tempting the Device was then; a way to stop a systems-wide rebellion at one stroke. I wasn’t even sure it would work. It was only afterward, when the first reports began to come in, that I realized the true horror of what I’d done. In order to justify myself, I plunged into research, examining the reasons behind the rebellion. And found, to my astonishment, that they had been right all along. The Empire was
cruel and corrupt, both in choice and in nature. The system itself was evil.

“So I took the Device and ran. Gave up every honor I had or hoped to achieve to ensure that the horror of the Darkvoid would never be repeated. We do not fight here for pleasure or profit, historian, but because we must if evil is not to prevail.”

“You see?” said Owen. “We’re back to choice again. And I don’t have any. I can’t back out, go back to being who and what I was: a naive innocent, who never questioned where his comforts came from. I’ve seen too much; things I turned my head away from before. I have no excuse. I was a historian; I knew the suffering and injustice the Empire was built on. I just told myself it was nothing to do with me.

“My father lived for his intrigues against the Iron Throne. So much so that he never seemed to have any time for me. So I never had any time for his intrigues. I made my own life as a quiet, uncontroversial scholar. I should have known it wouldn’t last. And once I had my face shoved into the bloody underside of the Empire, I couldn’t look away anymore. Too many innocents are being hurt, every day, as a matter of course. So I’ll be the warrior my Family wanted me to be. I’ll be a rebel and fight for the cause, and if need be die for it, but don’t you ever think I’m doing this of my own will.”

“Of course you are,” said Giles. “You said it yourself. You couldn’t look away, once you saw how things really are. Same thing happened to Jack Random, to your father and to me. Everyone here thinks they’re fighting for their own reasons, but in the end we’ll fight and maybe die because we can’t look away. We won’t let ourselves. It’s as good a reason to fight as any, and better than most. I’ve listened when the others talked of you. You’re not interested in being a fighter or a hero or a leader of men; you just want to do the right thing. And that’s the only kind of warrior that’s worth a damn. If I had to have a historian as my descendant, I’m happy enough it’s you. I could have done a lot worse.

“Now, let’s go round up the others. We’ll be teleporting down to the Madness Maze soon, and there are things I need to discuss with all of you first. The situation down below is … rather complicated.”

“Now there’s a surprise,” said Owen, and his ancestor laughed.

“Come, kinsman; it is a good day for someone else to die.”

Hazel d’Ark and Ruby Journey had pulled up chairs around the kitchen table and were passing a second bottle of wine back and forth between them. They leaned well back, their heels up on the edge of the table, and rocked themselves gently. Hazel didn’t much care for the wine, but she determinedly drank her share, hoping it would quiet the growing tension within her. She always got jumpy when there was action coming up. She was okay once things got started, because then she was too busy to be scared. She just hated the waiting. She looked across at Ruby’s calm, impassive features and felt like throwing something heavy at her. Nothing ever bothered Ruby.

“So,” said Ruby. “Are you sleeping with him?”

Hazel blinked. “With who?”

“The aristo, of course. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He’s pretty enough, and looks like he might know a few things.”

“Not my type,” said Hazel briskly.

“You’ve never been choosy before. Some of the creeps you’ve shacked up with would have had to take a gene test to prove they were human. You always were a sucker for a nice smile and a cute little ass. Personally, I quite fancy Moon.”

“The Hadenman? You’ve got to be kidding! I’m not even sure how much of him is human. He probably only does it with vending machines.”

“Still, I bet I could make him crack a smile, if I put my mind to it. Besides, I’m told Hadenmen have all kinds of … special augmentations. And there’s always Jack Random. A bit older and more battered than I usually go for, but he was always something of a hero of mine.”

Hazel raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you had any heroes.”

“You don’t know everything about me. And don’t you dare tell him.”

“Don’t worry, your sick little secrets are safe with me. Ruby, why are you still here?”

“You promised me a good fight, and all the loot I could carry.”

“The odds are there isn’t going to be any loot, Ruby. Odds are we’re going to die down there. The Empire could turn up here anytime, and you can bet they’ll come in force. I’ve been in my share of tight corners, but never anything like this. There’s no back door this time. Just a rock and a hard place.”

“Stop hogging the bottle,” said Ruby. She took it from Hazel and hefted its weight disappointedly. “Going to need a new one soon. Look, it’s not as if we had anywhere to run. Our only way out of here is on the Standing, and since Giles is the only one who can pilot it, and he’s determined to check out the Wolfling World first … we’re stuck, girl. Look on the bright side.”

“What bright side?”

“Give me time, I’ll think of something. Look, it’s just another fight. Win or die, we’ll have a good time.”

“But its not just us anymore. If we really can get our hands on the Darkvoid Device, and wake the Hadenmen, we’d be in a position to tell the whole damned Empire to go to hell and make it stick. We could change everything, put everything to rights. If we die, that chance dies with us. That’s what’s getting me so jumpy.”

“Things happen as they happen,” said Ruby. “And once things get this big, people like you and me don’t matter anymore. If we ever did. All we can do is play our part, not take any stupid risks, and try and keep from getting our heads blown off. Leave it to the heroes like Random and the Deathstalkers. We’ll just keep to the sidelines, fight when we have to and keep our eyes open for the main chance. There’s got to be something down there worth stealing.”

Hazel grinned. “Don’t ever change, Ruby. Stay as mercenary, self-centered and downright vicious as you always have. The universe would seem so boring without people like you in it.”

Ruby looked at her calmly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sometimes I think I’m the only sane person on this ship.”

The rebels all ended up together again in front of the main viewscreen on what passed for a bridge on the Last Standing. It was a large open area, with no visible control panels, and absolutely nowhere to sit down. Not for the first time,
Owen felt more than a little superfluous. Giles lectured them in his dry, sardonic way, and all listened with varying ammounts of politeness. Even so, none of them seemed in any hurry for the briefing to be over.

“The castle’s sensors show extensive workings deep below the surface of the planet,” said Giles. A map appeared on the viewscreen before them. It was intimidatingly detailed. Just looking at it made Owen’s head ache. “Most of the workings weren’t here the last time I made planetfall. They form the city built by the Hadenmen. It’s situated beyond the Madness Maze, and since the transfer portal I left behind is located on the opposite edge of the Maze, we have no option but to pass through the Maze to reach the city. Unfortunately.”

“And what does that mean, exactly?” said Owen. “You’ve never actually explained what the Madness Maze is.”

Giles pursed his lips thoughtfully. “It’s an enigmatic structure, built by the Wolflings, not long before they were all wiped out. Well, all but one. He guards the Maze. Sometimes I think he does it not to keep people out but to make sure the Maze doesn’t escape. And whatever he knows about the Maze, he has always kept to himself. The Maze … is hard to describe; you’ll have to see it for yourselves. I have never passed through it myself, but its function is no secret. The Maze affects the mind and body, shaping them in new, different ways. I believed it was originally intended to raise the Wolflings to the next step up on the evolutionary scale. Fortunately, and I use the word advisedly, they never got a chance to use it. I’m not sure Humanity could have survived what the Wolflings might have become.”

“Hold everything,” said Hazel. “If the Hadenman built their city beyond the Maze, does that mean they’ve all been through it?”

“I believe not,” said Moon. “The original scientists excavated down through the frozen planet to a position of their own choosing: a set of huge natural caverns. They collapsed the tunnel after them, at the end, to cover their traces and prevent anyone from following them. And at the end, I think they saw the Maze as just another defense for when they were sleeping in their Tomb. I feel that I should point out that there are bound to be other defenses protecting the city. Theoretically, my presence should be enough to disarm them.”

“But you’re not sure,” said Ruby Journey.

“No,” said Moon. “I have never been here before.”

“This just gets better all the time,” said Jack Random. “If the Maze doesn’t get us, the city might. And that’s not counting whatever the Empire finally sends after us.”

“If rebellion was simple, everyone would be doing it,” said Giles.

Random just looked at him.

They passed through the transfer portal one after the other, bristling with weapons, and found themselves on a shimmering silver plain. It stretched away around them in a vast circle, surrounded on all sides by darkness. The only structure was a tall metal door, some twelve feet tall and six feet wide, standing apparently unsupported in the exact center of the circle. The metal was a dark bronze in color, gleaming dully in the shimmering light from the floor. It was carved in rows of deeply-etched markings from an unfamiliar language. Owen moved forward to examine the markings, and the others let him do it. Owen shot them a scornful look as they hung back, and stood as close to the door as he could without actually touching it. The etched figures teased his eyes with hints of meaning, but remained stubbornly enigmatic. He heard a faint hum emanating from the door: a low, throbbing sound that seemed almost to echo in his bones. There was a feeling of imminence in the air, of something about to happen. Owen shifted his holster on his hip so that his disrupter hung a little more readily to his hand, and brought his face right up to the markings. A dim shadowy reflection scowled back at him with cold eyes.