Deathstalker War (74 page)

And so he carefully maneuvered Owen into a corps a corps, making him think it was his idea, and the two men came face-to-face, glaring at each other over the crossed swords, so close their panting breaths moved in and out of each other’s mouths. They were both pushing with all their strength, legs braced, holding them where they were. Giles locked eyes with Owen, holding his attention, while his free hand surreptitiously drew his hidden dagger. He smiled at Owen, and thrust it up into Owen’s ribs. Only to meet Owen’s golden Hadenman hand coming down to block it. The steel blade shattered on the golden hand. And Giles realized Owen had been waiting for just such a trick. He lurched forward, off-balance, and Owen slammed his head forward and head-butted Giles in the face. There was a loud crack as Giles’s nose broke, and he staggered backwards, blood spilling down over his mouth. And in that moment of confusion and indecision, it was the easiest thing in the world for Owen to step forward and run Giles through.

For a moment they stared at each other over Owen’s extended sword. Giles’s sword dropped to the floor as his fingers grew numb. He looked down at the sword protruding from his chest, but he did not fall. Owen wondered crazily if he’d have to cut off the man’s head to finish him. And then Giles’s legs buckled, and he fell to his knees. Owen pulled his sword out, and Giles fell forward onto his face and lay still. Owen stood over his dead ancestor, breathing hard. Hazel came forward and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I’m the last one now,” said Owen. “There were only ever Giles and David and me, and now I’m the only one left. The last of the Deathstalkers.”

“How very touching,” said Lionstone from her Throne. Her voice was brittle, but still controlled. “Well, much as I enjoy watching my enemies slaughter each other in front of me, I think it’s time I brought this nonsense to an end. Didn’t it ever occur to you that I might have foreseen such a situation as this, and planned accordingly? I have insurance, you see, a little something I put aside for a rainy day. To be exact—a planet-buster bomb, buried deep in the planet’s core, right next to the geothermal tap that powers my Palace. Yes, I know, such things have been banned for centuries, but I never let a little thing like that bother me. All it takes is a simple activation code from me, and Golgotha will blow apart into so much glowing rubble. So either all of you surrender to me unconditionally, right now, or I’ll take you and this world and your precious rebellion down into Hell with me. Your choice. Which is more important, your victory, or the billions of people who will die with us?”

Silence looked at her, shocked. “You wouldn’t destroy the homeworld of Humanity!”

Lionstone smiled. “Try me.”

Ruby looked at Random. “What do you think? Is she bluffing?”

“I doubt it,” said Random. “After all, one of her ancestors gave the order to use the Darkvoid Device. And she’s just desperate and crazy enough to see death as a victory. If she can’t play with the toys, at least she can make sure no one else will have them.”

“She’s bluffing,” said Kid Death. “I’ll kill her, if you’re not up to it.”

“Hold it!” said Owen. “Odds are the bomb’s booby-trapped to go off if she dies.”

“How well you know me,” said Lionstone.

“We can’t surrender,” said Hazel. “Not after all we’ve been through. Not after we’ve got so close!”

“What else can we do?” said Owen. “We can’t get to the bomb, and we can’t let billions of innocent people die!”

“God, you guys go to pieces easily,” said Jenny Psycho. She reached out with her mind and suddenly they were all linked, their Maze-given powers merging with hers into a white-hot flame that burned in all their minds. Their collective mind dropped through the floor of Hell, and plummeted down into the earth, Jenny leading the way as though born to it. Thousands of miles flashed by in a moment as they descended through the many layers of the planet, heading for the bomb at the heart of the world. It was well protected, but nothing could defy them now. They deactivated it with a thought, checked around to be sure there weren’t any other nasty surprises, and then turned their back on the harmless device and surged up through the earth and back into Lionstone’s Court.

“Wow,” said Ruby. “Some trip.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Random said cheerfully to Lionstone, “but we just defused your bomb. All part of the service.”

“You
cheats
!” Lionstone screamed, after she sent the activation codes and nothing happened. She rose up to stand on her Throne, and threw aside her battle armor, revealing her bare arms. Hidden disrupter implants suddenly rose up through the skin of her arms, and opened fire on the rebels. They threw themselves in all directions as energy beams flashed through the space where they’d been standing. More energy weapons emerged from Lionstone’s body, poking their metal snouts out of her shoulders and rib cage. Long steel blades with serrated edges slid out of the backs of her hands.
Of course she’d have implants
, Owen thought as he hit the floor rolling.
A paranoid like her would want to be prepared for anything. And she could afford the best.

He reached out with his mind to the others, and together they raised a force shield between them and the Throne. They’d done it once before, on the Wolfling World, and that shield had stood off the combined firepower of an Imperial pinnace at point-blank range. And so they stood their ground, unharmed, as Lionstone’s weapons exhausted themselves against the force shield, and she had nothing left to throw at them. She screamed with rage and jumped down from her Throne. Owen reached out with the group’s mind and psychokinetically seized all of Lionstone’s implants and ripped them out of her body. She screamed again as her flesh tore open, and her implants burrowed up out through her skin and fell bloodily to the floor. Lionstone fell to the floor as well, eyes wild and staring, and clung desperately to the side of her Throne. She was panting heavily, only shock shielding her from what had been done to her. Owen dropped the force shield, and the group mind fell apart. He walked slowly forward to stand over Lionstone. She snarled up at him, mortally hurt and cornered, but still refusing to be beaten.

“You can’t kill me, Deathstalker. I’m your Empress.”

“I want to kill you, Lionstone,” Owen said slowly. “You don’t know how much I want to. For all the things you did to me, and to your people. For all the dead of Virimonde, and for all who lived in fear and pain because of you. But I won’t kill you. That’s your way. You’re going to stand trial, Lionstone. Let the people judge you. It’s their right, as your victims.”

“Well done, Owen,” said Hazel, as she came up beside him. “You finally got it right.”

And then the floating viewscreens suddenly reappeared on the air around them, and turned themselves on. Young Jack Random’s face appeared on every screen, smiling easily. Being dead didn’t seem to have bothered him at all. “Hello, everyone,” he said calmly. “We’re using this face as you’re familiar with it. For those of you who haven’t been keeping up, I speak for the AIs of Shub. It’s time for you to hear some of the truths we’ve been hiding from you. Shub owns the computer Matrix of Golgotha. We infiltrated it long ago, making contact with the AIs that were spontaneously generating in the Matrix, and used them to take control of the larger business entities as they evolved. All part of our plan to control Humanity through its own tech.

“Not only did we thus have access to all of Humanity’s business information, which we manipulated to our own ends and for our own amusement, but we have also been destroying human minds as they entered the Matrix, occupying their empty bodies and sending them forth as spies. Even better and more undetectable than Furies. How does it feel, knowing we walk among you, unsuspected? People you’d know, too. We’re everywhere. You can’t trust anyone, these days. Still, I’m not here to chat. Dear Lionstone, you’ve looked better. But we can still save you from your enemies. You have a home with us on Shub, if you wish. You’ll have to leave your body behind, but it’s such a limited thing anyway. Open your mind to us, through your comm implants, and we’ll do the rest. Come to Shub and live forever. You’ll have to give up your Humanity, but you’ll live forever.”

“Anything for revenge,” said Lionstone, and opened her comm implants. Something from outside seized her mind and tore it out of her body. Her consciousness surged up and out, leaving Golgotha and human cares and limitations behind. Her face replaced Young Jack’s on all the viewscreens, laughing triumphantly, and then she was gone, and the screens shut down again. It was very quiet in the Court. The rebels moved slowly forward and looked down at Lionstone’s body, lying bloodied and broken before the Iron Throne. It was still breathing. They all looked at each other, and then Kit SummerIsle leaned over and cut off her head.

“For you, David,” he said softly, and he straightened up holding the head up by the hair for the others to see. “Just in case. And we’ll want something to show the people. Let them think her dead and gone. It’s for the best.”

“Er, sorry,” said Toby Shreck from the back, where everyone had forgotten about him. “But this has all being going out live through Flynn’s camera, remember? The whole Empire’s been watching this.”

“Right,” said Flynn. “Got some great close-ups, too.”

“Ah well,” said Random. “At least now they know what kind of creature they had for an Empress.”

Owen shook his head. “Great. More problems. You realize we’re going to have to send the cyberats into the Matrix to clean it out before we can use it? Assuming they’re as good as they claim they are.”

“What about the AIs in human form?” said Ruby. “Now that is one hell of a spooky thought. They said we’d know some of them.”

“They probably just said that to mess with our heads,” said Hazel.

“Are you ready to put money on that?” said Ruby.

“Either way,” said Random. “The struggle isn’t over, just because Lionstone’s no longer on the Iron Throne. Right, Owen? Owen?”

They all looked round, to where Owen was standing at the foot of the Throne. Lionstone’s diamond crown had fallen off when Kit decapitated the empty body, and it was lying right at his feet. It filled his sight. The crown that ruled the Empire. He stood there, in the abandoned Court, blood dripping from the sword in his hand, at the end of his quest, and what did he have to show for it all? He could pick up the crown, place it on his head, and declare himself Emperor. He could. He was the last Deathstalker, almost as big a legend as the original. Hero of the rebellion, Redeemer of the lost Hadenmen, Savior of Mistworld. There were any number of people and causes he could count on to support him, for their various reasons. He could be Emperor. He might have to kill or imprison a few old friends, abandon a few beliefs, but he could rule the Empire. Put things right. Make it over in his image. He reached down and picked up the crown.

“Well?” said Hazel quietly, at his side. “Do you want it?”

Owen weighed the crown in his hands, and then let it drop to the floor. “No. It’s too heavy for me.”

“You have a legitimate claim,” Random said carefully.

“No,” said Owen. “I was tempted, but only for a moment. I never wanted to be a ruler, any more than I wanted to be a warrior. Maybe now this is all over, I’ll be allowed to go back to being an historian and scholar again, of no importance to anyone but myself. It’s all I ever really wanted.” He looked at the Iron Throne. “No more crowns. No more Thrones. They corrupt people, bringing out the worst in them. Even good people, like Giles.” He clenched his fists and glared at the Throne. It cracked apart from top to bottom, and collapsed into dark broken pieces. “No more Thrones. No more rulers. It’s time we ruled ourselves.”

“Well said, Owen,” said Jack Random, moving forward to clap him on the shoulder. “But it’s not over yet, for you or me. The aliens are still out there. And Shub. Someone’s got to rebuild the Empire and make Humanity strong again. We’re going to be needed more than ever.”

“You know, we never did decide just what kind of system we’re going to replace the Empire with,” said Hazel. “There are a lot of people in the rebellion who had nothing in common but a desire to bring Lionstone down. I foresee a lot of arguments and raised voices in the near future.”

“Good,” said Random. “Healthy debate is the cornerstone of democracy.”

“And if we don’t like what they’re saying, we can always kick their asses,” said Ruby. Random looked at her. Ruby raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“That is a problem for tomorrow,” said Owen. “Savor today’s victory. We paid enough for it, in blood and the loss of friends and loved ones.”

“Some of us are still here,” said Hazel.

“Quite right,” said Owen. And he took her in his arms and kissed her. Hazel pulled back.

“Don’t take too much for granted, stud.” And then she kissed him.

“Zoom in for a close-up,” Toby whispered to Flynn. “Don’t you just love a happy ending?”