Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

hero. For two pins I’d walk out of here and Parliament could whistle for its report. Hell, for three pins I’d burn the place down as well before I left.”
    “Steady, steady,” murmured Owen, smiling unconcernedly so everyone could see.
    “Don’t let them get to you. They’d take it as a sign of weakness.” Hazel sniffed. “Anyone sees me as
    weak and tries to take advantage of it, they’ll be carrying their lungs home in a bucket.” “Get your hand away from your sword, dammit. You can’t kill anyone here. Duels are forbidden. You even start to draw your sword, and half a hundred guards will appear from everywhere. Even we’re not exempt. I do wish you’d keep up on the changes here, Hazel.”
    “Ah, you know you love a chance to make speeches to me. Besides, I could handle half a hundred guards.”
    Owen sighed. “Yes, you probably could, but that’s not the point. We are trying to make a good impression.”
    “Since when?”
    “Since we failed to bring back Valentine Wolfe for trial yet again.”
    Hazel shrugged. “Is it okay if I just half kill someone?” “If you must. Only try to do it when the holovision cameras aren’t looking. We really don’t need any more bad publicity.”
    Hazel looked about her. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many cameras here before. Either Parliament’s got something really juicy lined up, or someone told them we were coming. Hello, I spy a familiar face.”
    And she plunged off into the crowd, shouldering people out of her way if they didn’t move fast enough.
    Owen followed after, murmuring polite apologies as he went. It was a practice he was growing increasingly used to. The familiar face turned out to be Tobias Shreck, accompanied as always by his cameraman Flynn. Owen joined Hazel in greeting them, smiling genuinely for the first time since he’d entered the Chamber. Toby Shreck had been a news reporter during the rebellion, and had demonstrated an uncanny ability to turn up in just the right place at the right time, with Flynn always there at his shoulder to broadcast it all live. They’d covered a lot of the fighting Owen and Hazel had been involved in, and had even been there when the rebels finally threw down the Empress Lionstone and destroyed the Iron Throne forever. Toby looked much the same as ever, a fat, perspiring butterball of a man with slicked-down blond hair and a ready smile. He was wearing fashionable clothes of the very finest cut, tailored to disguise as much of his great girth as possible, but they didn’t suit him. He was more used to the easy casualness of combat fatigues, and it showed. Flynn was the same tall, gangling sort, with a deceptively honest face. A quiet, retiring sort in the field, he tended to fade into the background when working, a useful trait when people were firing guns all around you.
    His private life was another matter entirely.
    “Looking good, Toby,” said Hazel cheerfully, poking a playful finger into his more than ample stomach.
    “Lost a few pounds, have we?” “I wish,” said Toby. “Ever since I allowed myself to be promoted to management, I spend most of my time sitting behind a desk instead of getting out in the field where I belong.”
    “Leave it out,” said Flynn calmly. “You used to spend all your time in the field whingeing and grousing about all the comforts you were missing.” Toby glared at him. “Straight speaking like that is why you’re still a cameraman, while I am now management. And don’t contradict me again in public or I’ll have someone in accounting take a really close look at your expense claims for last year.”
    “Bully,” said Flynn.
    “You’re looking very smart, Toby,” Owen said quickly before they could fall into their usual bickering.
    “Right on the cutting edge of fashion.” “Don’t you start,” said Toby. “I know what I look like. Why do you think I always wore fatigues in the past? Every time I wear something good, I look like I stole it.”
    “So what’s management doing here?” said Hazel. “Parliament planning something special, is it?
    Something perhaps we ought to know about?” “Right,” said Owen. “What do you know that we don’t?”
    “Volumes,” said Toby airily. “But for once I’m as much in the dark as you. I’m really only here because I felt a desperate need to get out in the real world for a while. I’ve been feeling really bored just lately, to tell you the truth. It’s all so different these days.