Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

pressies."
    "You're not King till you're crowned," Lewis said grimly. "Wait till it's all safely over and done with, and then you can start opening your presents. Probably mostly socks and handkerchiefs anyway. That's mostly what I get from my relatives these days. You know, when I was a kid, I would have been outraged to get an item of clothing as a Christmas present. Now, I'm grateful for something so practical.
    How sad is that?"
    "If I get socks, they'd better be jewel-encrusted," growled Douglas, and they both laughed quietly together. Douglas stopped laughing first, and fixed Lewis with a stern look. "I'm going to be King soon, Lewis, and I have a horrible feeling everything's going to change. Between us. This v could be the last time we'll be able to speak to each other as equals. So tell me, as your friend: why did you want to become a Paragon? You don't give a damn for the fame, or the joys of combat, and we've already established it wasn't for the money. So why, Lewis? Why give your life to a job that kills most people before they hit thirty?"
    "To protect people," Lewis said simply. "The Deathstalker inheritance. A family duty; to protect the innocent from those who would prey upon them."
    He didn't mention Virimonde. He didn't have to. The homeworld of the Deathstalkers had been
    destroyed on the Empress Lionstone's orders. Wrecked and ruined, its people had been slaughtered, its cities and towns devastated, its green and pleasant lands trampled into mud and scorched to ashes. The new Empire had overseen its terraforming and repopulation, but Virimonde was a poor and grim place, and would be for centuries yet to come.
    The last of the old Deathstalker line, David, had died there, abandoned by his allies. No Paragon to save him in his hour of need.
    Like all Paragons, Lewis had taken an oath at his investiture to protect the innocent and avenge injustice.
    He had more reason than most to take that oath very seriously.
    "So; why are you a Paragon, Douglas?" said Lewis. "I know going in was your father's idea, but you've stayed on long after you could have retired with honor. At forty, you're the third oldest Paragon still serving. Why have you stayed so long? What's kept you in the Circle?"
    "I wanted to lead and inspire people by example," said Douglas. His voice was calm and clear and very sane. "I didn't win my place as a Paragon, like you and all the others. I had to prove myself. To you, and to the public. Everyone expected me to fail. To limp off home, crying to daddy that the game was too rough. I won't say I wasn't scared at first; people seemed to be lining up for a chance to kick the crap out of the heir to the Throne. But a funny thing happened. In proving myself, I found myself. When you're a King's son, growing up you get the best of everything by right. Nothing is denied you, so ... nothing really matters. You only really value what you earn by your own efforts. And I earned my place in the Circle."
    "Is that why you've stayed so long?" said Lewis. "Because you had to keep proving to yourself that you were worthy? Douglas; no one has doubted that in twenty years."
    "Jesus, Lewis; do you really think I'm that shallow? I stayed because I finally found something I'm good at, and because people needed me. I was making a difference. I could see it every day, in the people I saved and the bad guys I put away. And because I made myself over into something better, I hoped to inspire others to do the same. I wanted to show them that we can all be heroes. We can all be Paragons."
    "If the people had the guts to stand up for themselves, they'd never have needed Paragons in the first place," said a calm, deep voice, and Douglas and Lewis looked round sharply as Logres's third Paragon came striding over to join them. Servants scattered like startled geese to get out of his way, but Finn Durandal didn't recognize their existence by so much as a blink of the eye. Finn nodded to Douglas and Lewis as he came to a halt before them and smiled briefly. "I became a Paragon to beat the shit out of bad guys, and I thank the Good Lord daily that there's never any shortage. Put a sword in my hand and point me at a scumbag, and there's nowhere I'd rather be."
    "Yes, but you're weird, Finn," Lewis said kindly.
    Finn Durandal was tall, lithely muscular, and almost inhumanly graceful in his movements. He had a classically handsome face, topped with a mop of curly golden hair that he freely admitted owed nothing to nature,