Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

death, by whatever means, and then Giles would step forward and reveal the true genetest, and the Deathstalker Family would rule the Empire.
    Giles never told me, and I never asked.
    Whatever the truth of his ambitions, it all went horribly wrong. The betrayer was himself betrayed, by his true son, the man you came to know as Dram. Shortly after the royal birth, he told Ulric the truth, currying favor perhaps, for Dram was always ambitious too. And perhaps it was jealousy too; a fear that he would be put aside in favor of his bastard half-brother. Father and son never did get on. Giles was always off somewhere in the ever-expanding Empire, being a hero, creating his legend, while his son was left behind, to grow up in the company of tutors and politicians, and a quiet mousy mother who had no idea how to cope with her increasingly ruthless child.
    The Emperor almost went mad with rage when Dram told him the truth about his beloved infant son. Ulric had been childless for many years, and so the insult Giles had done him became unbearable on many levels. He had the Empress Hermione imprisoned, awaiting trial and execution, and put a death warrant on Giles Deathstalker. They say Ulric signed it in his own blood.
    That's why Giles really went on the run, all those years ago. Forget that part of the legend. There was no great clash of two godlike men. Just a petty
    squabble over a miserable betrayal. Giles was forewarned by one of his many allies at Court. He fought his way into the Palace, killing many good men, grabbed the baby, and went on the run with half the Imperial Fleet snapping at his heels. There was only one place in the Empire that Giles could run to, where he wouldn't be expected: the Wolfling World. No one knew that he had a secret ally there.
    Some years before, the Emperor had sent Giles to this world, to hunt down and destroy the last Wolfling. I was a legend then, myself, and a constant threat and thorn in the side to Humanity, so Ulric sent one legend to deal with another. Giles hunted me down easily enough, but when we finally came face to face, with nothing on our minds but battle and death, we were both surprised at what we saw in each other's eyes. We knew, in a moment that seemed to last forever, that neither of us could defeat the other; that both of us would die if we fought. At long last we had found equals; someone worthy of our respect. We chose not to die. Instead, we sat and talked for hours, like two brothers separated since birth, who had only now found each other. Giles still had honor then, as well as a keen eye for a potential ally. He denied his orders, left me alive, and went back to the Emperor to tell him he couldn't find the legendary Wolfling. That I probably no longer even existed. Ulric believed him. Why not?
    His precious Warrior Prime had never lied to him before. Perhaps in that moment, in that first small betrayal, was planted the seed of rebellion, and ambition, and all that was to come. I like to think so. I like to think that in some small way I helped to contribute to the downfall of the Empire that slaughtered all of my kind but me.
    So who else could Giles turn to, with all the Empire turned against him, but me?
    He came here, seeking safety and sanctuary, and a base from which to someday
    strike back. So I showed him the Madness Maze. No other human had ever seen it before, save the Blood Runners, and they never spoke of it. I explained to Giles the nature and function of the Maze, and what it could do to him, if he dared to penetrate its secret heart. But he was frightened. He valued his humanity too much to give it up, then, no matter what the Maze promised. However, while he wasn't prepared to risk himself, there was still the baby. What safer place could there be to hide his child, I asked, than in the heart of the Maze? No one would dare go in after him, and he would in time become powerful beyond belief.
    Giles listened to the Maze, talking through me, its involuntary guardian, and was tempted. His son; a weapon he could use to bring down the Empire that had dared turn against him. And tempted, he fell, and was damned by his own ambition.
    I took the child into the heart of the Madness Maze and left him there. I have walked the Madness Maze many times, but it never chose to make me a god. It was enough that it kept me alive when I would much rather have died, and bound me to its service, an unwilling immortal guardian and mouthpiece. I would have killed the