Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

then the bricks fell on him and slammed him to the ground, crushing him under their weight.
    Silence blew the robot's grinning head away with a single shot, but its body didn't fall, so Frost shot out one of its knees, just to make sure. The metal body fell clattering to the ground, its steel limbs thrashing helplessly. Frost moved forward and yanked the disrupter from its hand, and shot the machine in the chest. It stopped moving. Silence and Frost put away their guns and hurried over to pull at the rubble covering Stelmach. He could hear them working, but he couldn't see anything. The smoke and dust had filled his eyes with tears. He
    could feel the weight of the broken wall pressing down on him like a bully in a schoolyard, but he didn't seem to be badly hurt. He could still feel his hands and feet, though he couldn't move an inch, trapped under what felt like half a ton of masonry. He lay still, breathing shallowly as the great weight pressed against his chest. They were calling his name, but he couldn't seem to find the energy to answer them. His pain seemed far away. He felt almost peaceful.
    And then he heard the sound of approaching metal feet. Silence and Frost didn't seem to have heard them, still occupied in dragging bricks off him. Stelmach blinked his eyes as hard as he could, forcing the tears and dust out until he could see again. They'd cleared a space over his face so he could breathe, and looking past Silence and Frost laboring to free him, Stelmach could see a company of combat androids striding down the street toward them. And it occurred to Stelmach that he could just keep quiet. The robots might not notice him, still buried under rubble. They might just kill Silence and Frost and then go on, and he'd be safe. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut. But he couldn't do that. They were his friends.
    He forced the warning out, yelling as loud as he could. Silence and Frost whipped around, saw the robots approaching, and their hands went to the guns at their sides. Only then remembering that they'd already used their disrupters on the first android, and the energy crystals in their guns still needed time to recharge before they could be used again. All they had were their swords. Metal blades against men made of metal, all of them armed with disrupters. Stelmach yelled at Silence and Frost to run. To leave him and run. But they stood their ground. They looked at each other, eyes locked on eyes, almost ignoring the advancing robots. Something passed between them—anger or desperation or
    something that might have been resignation. They turned to face the androids, who raised their disrupters. Stelmach tried again to yell for his friends to run, but he couldn't force the words past his dust-choked throat.
    And then a great force arose around Silence and Frost, a presence beating on the still air like giant wings, building and building until it struck out in a rolling wave of power that tore the robots apart and scattered their shattered parts the length of the street. As quickly as it had arisen, the force was gone, and Silence and Frost were only, merely, human again. They looked at each other for a long moment, then they turned and looked at Stelmach, still held down by the rubble. He could see the calculation in their eyes. Knew what they were thinking, had to be thinking. They knew he'd seen them use their secret abilities, and knew that as Security Officer he'd be duty-bound to report them.
    But if they just walked away and left him, left him here to die in the blazing town, their secret would be safe, and no one would ever have to know. Stelmach understood. It was what he would have done. But even so, he wasn't surprised when they bent over him and started pulling the bricks away again. They weren't like him.
    Eventually they got him out, and Silence helped support him while Frost briskly slapped some of the dust off his clothes. His head took a while to clear, but when it did he pushed himself away from Silence and made himself stand up straight.
    "You saved me," he said, his voice a harsh rasp that didn't only come from the dust. "You didn't have to do that."
    "Yes we did," said Silence. "We're family. You'd have done the same for us."
    "You don't understand," said Stelmach, forcing the words out. "I'm responsible for our being here. I sabotaged the pinnace. The Empress had heard stories of
    your… powers. She wanted confirmation. So she ordered me to put you into danger and spy on