Deathstalker War (53 page)

“How are we doing?”

“As well as can be expected,” the SummerIsle said calmly, not looking round. “Our security codes probably no longer protect us from attack, but at this height and speed most of the machines on the ground shouldn’t be able to track us. Our real problem is the flyer’s energy crystals. According to the onboard computers, we don’t have enough power left to get us all the way back to the Standing, and still maintain full shields.”

“Then drop the shields,” said David. “Our only hope is to reach the Standing.”

“My thoughts exactly. How are the girls doing?”

“As well as can be expected. I still can’t believe everything went wrong so fast. You’ve seen what’s going on below. All the towns are in flames, and there are war machines and ground troops everywhere. This isn’t a strike force, it’s an invasion.”

“Look on the bright side,” said Kit. “At least they’re not scorching the planet.”

“I don’t even want to think about that. I’ve never seen anything like this, Kit. They’re butchering these people. My people. And it’s all happening because of me.”

“No it isn’t. It’s happening because the peasants were stupid enough to fool around with democracy. They were just asking for trouble.”

“I let them do it. I could have said no. Could have cracked down hard, with my Security people. I’d have had to execute a few ringleaders, burn out some farms, but everyone else would have been safe. I failed them, Kit. It was my duty to protect these people, keep them from harm. My duty as a Deathstalker.”

“David, can we concentrate on the matter at hand, please? Like, what are we going to do if we get to the Standing and it’s under the Steward’s control?”

“Improvise. There are secret ways and hidden booby traps that only I and my people know about. Owen told me about them. If the Steward has got the Standing, I’ll take it back from him. And then I’ll cut off his treacherous head and use it as a footstool.”

“Cute. Assume we can take back the Standing. Then what? It won’t hold out long against war machines, and we don’t have anything there that would get us offplanet. Unless that’s another of your little secrets?”

“Unfortunately not,” said David. “But I wouldn’t leave now, even if I could. My people are dying. I won’t abandon them.”

“But what can you
do
, David?”

“I’ll think of something! I’m a Deathstalker!”

“That,” said Kit, “is what got us into trouble in the first place.”

David thought about that, and then looked at Kit. “They’re after me. It’s still not too late for you to split off on your own. Take the girls and head for cover. You used to be Lionstone’s favorite. She might well take you back, if you publicly disowned me.”

“Not a chance,” said Kit. “You’re stuck with me. Forget the altruism and keep thinking. You’re the brains in this partnership. Find us a way out of this.”

“Let me take the controls,” said David. “I know this area better than you.”

They switched places, and Kit went back to check on the girls, to try and comfort them. He wasn’t very good at things like that, but he supposed he ought to try. The attack ships came out of nowhere, disrupter fire raking the side of the unshielded flyer. Explosions rocked the small craft, and flames erupted in the cabin. David fought the controls as the ship plunged toward the earth. Kit grabbed a fire extinguisher and played the foam over the nearest flames. Smoke filled the cabin. Jenny hugged Alice to her. The flyer’s engines cut off, and the ship dropped like a stone.

David kicked in the reserves, cursing in an endless quiet monotone. The ship’s plunge slowed, but it was still going down. The attack ships struck again, and the whole rear of the flyer blew apart. Air rushed out the great hole in the rear, sucking the smoke out with it. The flames roared up, and Kit was forced back by the sheer intensity of the heat. David yelled for everyone to brace themselves, and frantically searched his sensor screens for somewhere reasonably flat to land. There was a field next to some open woodland, and David decided he’d settle for that. He took the flyer in, the controls fighting him all the way. The ground leaped up to meet them.

The ship hit hard, bouncing across the field and digging a great trench through the grass before finally skidding to a halt just a few yards short of the tree line. The cabin was full of smoke again. Flames roared as they took hold. David sat slumped forward in his chair, only his safety straps holding him upright. Blood ran down his face from a cut on his forehead, and he was hazily aware he’d cracked his head against something hard and unyielding on the way down. Smoke caught in his throat, and he came suddenly awake as he coughed and almost choked. Kit was suddenly there at his side, undoing his straps. David tried to help, but his hands were numb and awkward. Kit threw back the last of the straps, and David forced himself out of the chair and onto his feet. He felt like shit, but his head was clearing. He coughed again, and glared into the smoke.

“Alice! Where’s Alice, and Jenny?”

“I’m sorry,” said Kit. “David, I’m so sorry.”

David stared at him for a moment, and then pushed him aside and fought his way through the smoke and the rising flames to where Alice lay still next to a breach in the cabin wall. A disrupter blast had punched right through the metal hull, splaying the jagged steel edges inward. Blood dripped slowly from the sharp edges. Alice had been torn open all down her left side. Broken ribs showed clearly in the red meat, and half her guts were falling out her side. Her eyes were mercifully closed. David made himself look away to where Jenny lay trapped under the splayed-in metal, not far away. She was dazed, but still struggling feebly. David picked Alice up in his arms, and yelled back to Kit.

“I’m taking Alice! You get Jenny out!”

Kit loomed out of the smoke, and grabbed David’s arm. “David, she’s . . .”

“I’m getting her out! You see to Jenny.”

Kit looked at Alice, and the red-and-purple guts hanging down from her side, and then nodded, and went over to kneel beside Jenny. David staggered over to the escape hatch, kicked open the door, and dropped down to the ground outside. Kit tugged at the jagged metal pinning Jenny to the floor. It was wide and heavy, and the sharp edges cut at his hands. He strained with all his strength, but couldn’t budge the metal an inch. Jenny had shaken off her daze, and was looking up at him with desperate eyes. She couldn’t help him. The metal had pinned her arms at her sides. Sweat was running down both their faces now, flushed from the raw heat of the approaching flames. Kit stopped pulling at the unresponsive metal and thought hard. The fire was getting closer, the flames leaping up as they consumed more and more of the cabin. If he didn’t get Jenny out soon, the flames would cut him off from the only exit. Jenny saw his thoughts in his face.

“Kit! Don’t leave me! Please, don’t leave me to the fire!”

“No,” said Kit. “That would be cruel.”

He drew his knife and stabbed her through the eye. He wanted it to be quick. Jenny jerked once and then lay still. Kit withdrew his knife, put it away, and headed for the exit. He’d done all he could. He dropped down from the escape hatch and hurried across the open ground to shelter in the trees. They wouldn’t protect him from disrupter beams, but they should confuse long-distance sensor readings. He had to find David. He’d know what to do. He found David a short way inside the woods. He was crouching beside Alice. He’d propped her back up against a tree trunk, and tried to push her dangling guts back into the great wound in her side. His hands were red with blood, and his clothes were soaked with it, where he’d pressed her close against him. He looked up as Kit approached. He was crying, the tears making slow tracks through the blood that had trickled down his face from the wound in his forehead.

“She’s dead,” he said, and in his voice was all the loss in the world. “She trusted me to look after her, and I failed her. Just like I failed everyone else.”

“I’m sorry,” said Kit.

“I killed her, you know. She died because she was with me.”

“You can’t blame yourself,” said Kit. David’s tears disturbed him, but he didn’t know what to do about them. “They’re killing everyone here. You tried to save her. You did your best.”

David nodded slowly, unconvinced, and wiped tears and blood from his eyes with the back of his hand. He sniffed a few times, then looked up at Kit.

“Where’s Jenny?”

“Dead. She died of her wounds while I was trying to free her.” Kit wouldn’t normally have bothered lying, but he didn’t want to upset David further. He looked around him. “Any idea where we are?”

“Yeah. I know this place. The Standing’s not five minutes’ walk from here, on the other side of the wood. We almost made it, Kit. We were so close. Just a few minutes more, and we’d have been safe. All of us.”

Kit knelt down beside David. “This is Lionstone’s doing. Blame her. Now let’s get moving. They’ll be here looking for us soon.”

David nodded and got to his feet. Kit stood up with him. David looked down at Alice. “I hate to leave her.”

“She’s already gone, David. She’s beyond pain now. We’ll take revenge for her later.”

“Yes. There will be revenge, later.”

David turned and walked off into the woods, and Kit went after him. It was cool and calm and quiet among the tall trees, a dark and private place almost set apart from the rest of the world. The troubles hadn’t reached here yet. The air was full of the smell of grass and bark and living things. Kit strode along beside David, enjoying the calm and the songs of the birds. David strode along the open trail, eyes dark and brooding, untouched by the peace around him. Kit kept trying to think of something to say to him, but couldn’t think what. He didn’t have much experience with this kind of thing. So he strolled along beside David, his hands near his weapons, and left his friend to his thoughts. David would come up with something. He always did.

Kit was wary and alert, but even so the first he knew they had company in the woods was when three figures stepped out onto the trail ahead of them, blocking their way. One wore a Captain’s uniform, one was an Investigator, and the third figure stood well back, holding a gun in a not very threatening way. David and Kit came to a halt, and for a long time they all just stood and looked at each other. The woods were like a great green arena, a place where destinies could be decided, and anything could happen. Anything at all.

“I’m Captain Silence,” said the man with the sword in his hand. “This is Investigator Frost and Security Officer Stelmach. You’re under arrest, my lords. Hand over your weapons, and come with us.”

“I don’t think so,” said David. “I am the Deathstalker, and my people need me. Stand aside and let me pass, or die where you stand.”

“What he said,” said Kit. He smiled at Frost. “I’ve always wondered how I’d do against an Investigator.”

“You’d die, boy,” said Frost. “Throw down your weapons, and you’ll live to stand trial.”

“Get out of our way,” said David. “I won’t be stopped.”

The Captain shrugged. “Do what you have to, my lord. In the end, it always comes down to steel, doesn’t it?”

He stepped forward, and David drew his sword and went forward to meet him. Their swords slammed together, sparks flying on the air, and the sound of steel on steel was painfully loud in the quiet. Kit SummerIsle smiled his Kid Death smile and went lightly forward to meet the Investigator. They circled each other slowly, searching for weaknesses in the other’s eyes. Stelmach lowered his gun and backed off out of the way. He knew he was only an observer in this.

David boosted, calling on his Deathstalker inheritance, and new strength and energy surged through him, pushing back the tiredness. Even so, he knew it wouldn’t last long. It wasn’t that long ago he’d spent a whole evening drinking and carousing in the Heart’s Ease tavern. He almost smiled. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but his body knew different. Too much drink and too little sleep would have made him fatally slow without the boost to hold him up, and even with it he doubted he could last long. So he pressed the attack, his sword rising and falling with all his considerable strength behind it. Silence backed away, one step at a time, but still he met the Deathstalker’s every blow with equal strength, which should have been impossible. They swung and thrust, stabbing and parrying and recovering, blades moving almost too fast for the human eye to follow. And then Silence stopped and would not back away farther. He met the Deathstalker’s savage attacks with calm skill and would not be moved.

Kit SummerIsle, also known as Kid Death, the smiling killer, pressed his attack with more thought. He’d never lost a fight in his life, and didn’t intend to start now, but this was an Investigator, after all. Kit and Frost circled warily around each other, their blades licking out from time to time, to test the other’s speed and reflexes. They were masters of their craft, and saw no reason to hurry. They meant to enjoy this. They smiled at each other and went on circling.

David fought on, rage boiling within him. This one Captain had come to represent to him all the Empire forces, the blind, awful forces that were destroying his life and his world. He hacked and cut with increasing fury, drawing recklessly on the boost’s support, and it was only a matter of time before Silence turned aside one particular wide blow, and ran David through. He cried out with shock as much as pain, and sank to one knee, still somehow holding on to his sword. Silence’s blade had punched right through David’s gut and out his back. He could feel blood running out of him, hear it splashing on the ground below. Silence jerked his sword free, and David cried out again, blood spraying from his mouth along with the sound. He tried to force himself back onto his feet, and couldn’t. The boost was holding him together, but all his strength was gone. The Captain drew back his sword for the killing blow.

Kit saw David go down, and wasted no time with a cry of rage. He caught Frost’s sword in a close parry, kicked her hard in the kneecap, and, while she was off-balance, he whipped off his cloak and wrapped it around her head. He would have liked to kill her then, while she was helpless, but he didn’t have the time. He ran over to Silence, calling out to the Captain to distract him from David. Silence turned swiftly, and Kit ducked under the extended blade and rammed the Captain in the stomach with his shoulder. The Captain fell backwards, his breath driven right out of him, and Kit ran over to David and hauled him back onto his feet. It only took a glance to see how bad the wound was, but Kit couldn’t let himself think about that. There’d be help waiting at the Standing. There had to be. He got David moving, and then heard footsteps behind him. He looked back, and incredibly the Captain was back on his feet and charging after them. Kit reached for the gun at his side, and only then realized David was leaning against it. The Captain was almost upon them. And then there was the sound of a disrupter firing, and Silence fell to his knees, shot from behind. Kit looked back, and there was the Security Officer with his gun in his hand, eyes wide with horror at his mistake. Kit threw him a quick salute, pulled David to him more firmly, and led him off into the trees.