Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

Chapter 1
    Charnel House
    On the good ship Sunstrider II;
    “Bounty hunters!” said Hazel d’Ark disgustedly. “After all we’ve done, after all we’ve been through, we end up as nothing more than glorified bounty hunters!” “Beats our previous occupation,” Owen said mildly. Tall and rangy, with dark hair and darker eyes, he lounged bonelessly in the lounge’s most comfortable chair. “Chasing down war criminals is important work. I don’t know about you, but I find being the hunter rather than the hunted much easier on the nerves. Besides, must be a nice change for you, being legitimate.” “It’s the principle of the thing!” snapped Hazel. “We used to be somebody! We led armies! We overthrew the Empire! Risked getting our asses shot off time after time, and all so we could end up doing Parliament’s dirty work. Makes me want to puke.”
    Owen was thrown for a moment. He would have been prepared to bet good money Hazel wouldn’t recognize a principle if she fell over it on her way back from the toilet. But he rallied gamely and closed the discussion with an accurate if not entirely tactful point of order.
    “As I recall, this was all your idea anyway.”
    Hazel glared at him, and then turned away to glower at the nearest bulkhead. She was in one of her moods again, and not about to be swayed by mere logic. Owen sighed, but had the sense to do it very quietly. Truth be told, he found bounty hunting something of a comedown too, but all the alternatives had been worse. When he was fighting the rebellion, he’d never really thought about what he’d do when it was all over. Mostly because he was usually too busy trying to keep himself from being killed, but also because he’d never seriously expected to see an end to the rebellion in his lifetime. Most people who stood up to oppose the Empress Lionstone XIV, also known as the Iron Bitch, tended to end up in early graves. Often with bits missing. But then, nothing in his life had ever turned out the way he expected.
    Looking back, he seemed to have spent most of his time stumbling from one crisis to another, acted upon as often as acting from his own plans and wishes. There had been schemes and conspiracies all around him, most of which he knew only by the brief shadows they cast across his life in passing. And in the end it seemed to him that for all his intentions and bold companions, and the mysterious powers he’d acquired from the Madness Maze, he had finally come to stand defiantly before the Iron Throne through his own sheer stubbornness, and a refusal to be beaten by odds that would have frightened off a more sensible man. He’d ended up a hero and a savior of Humanity, and no one had been more surprised than him.
    He’d expected to fail. Expected to die, and die horribly. Instead, he’d overthrown an empire that had lasted well over a millennium, deposed its ruler and destroyed her throne, and seen the end of practically every social and political structure he believed in. And that was when the problems had really begun.
    Lionstone’s body was barely cold before the vultures began descending. Even while the last battles were being fought, the various parts of the rebel force had begun arguing fiercely with each other over what exactly should replace the old system. Even those few who’d been there at the end couldn’t bring themselves to agree. Owen had wanted things to stay much as they were, with some political reforms and injustices punished. Hazel had wanted it all torn down, with war trials for all the Families, for crimes against Humanity. Jack Random insisted on democracy for all, including all clones and espers and other unpeople. Ruby Journey wanted the loot she’d been promised.
    They were soon joined in the Court by representatives of the clone and esper undergrounds, fringe political groups of all shapes and shades, and more religious factions than you could shake a stick at. All of them intent on having their own way. Luckily, they were all too tired to start another war just yet. The argument became a deadlock, and everyone stamped off in different directions to plot and plan anew.
    For the moment Parliament was running the day-to-day business of Empire, on the grounds that somebody had to, and they at least had some experience in the area. No one trusted them an inch, but there was nothing new there.
    Men and women who had once been allies, sworn to defend each other to the death and beyond, now fought each other