Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

didn't want to be here, didn't want to be doing this. Presiding over a Session that no one cared about, when so many things were going wrong; in the city, all over Logres, all across the Empire. The influence of the Church Militant was spreading like a disease, infecting world after world. The gospel of Pure Humanity was taking hold on planets he would have sworn had more sense, or at least more decency. And now there were scattered reports coming in of Neuman fanatics killing Ecstatics in the streets. The most harmless creatures in the Empire, being hunted down like animals. The Paragon in Douglas seethed within him, demanding he go out into the city and do ... something. Something to stop the madness.
    Ok Father, you tried to warn me. Tie Throne is a trap, you said. A duty without end, a responsibility without comfort. A weight that crushes, borne because someone has to do it. But Father . . . you never told me how alone I'd feel. Jesamine; where are you?
    Finally the House reached a point where everybody who was coming was there, and the Session at last got under way. No one mentioned the missing Champion, or Jesamine, just as no one mentioned Douglas threatening to give up his Crown, during the Neuman riot. He was back on the Throne, wearing the Crown, so no one said anything. Everyone just pretended it had never happened. The House could be very good at that, when it chose. The day's business passed smoothly enough, with little need for Douglas to intervene. Until finally he got the chance to raise the one matter he really cared about; his own plan to snatch a little sanity back from the ever-increasing madness.
    "I propose a great Parade of Paragons through the city," he said, and everyone listened politely. "Since most of the Empire's Paragons are still assembled in this city, awaiting the Royal Wedding, let's take this opportunity to fete them as they deserve. To celebrate their achievements, as heroes of the Empire. Finn Durandal came up with the idea originally, and presented it to me, and I think it's a good one. It gives us a chance to reestablish the popularity of the Paragons and their authority. Show the city, and Logres, and the Empire, that this House and this Crown still stand one hundred percent behind the Paragons.
    "The media will love it. Prime-time coverage guaranteed. With a little encouragement from the right quarters, I'm sure the news channels could be persuaded to build up to the event by showing lots of programming covering the Paragons' past triumphs and victories. Remind the people of just how much the Paragons have done for them in the past. How much they owe them. That will bring the crowds out onto the streets, to cheer their heroes, and provide news coverage that can be shown to all the worlds in the Empire. How say you, honorable Members?"
    The honorable Members loved it. Mostly. Some (fairly) open supporters of Pure Humanity still wanted to investigate and even prosecute individual Paragons for their actions during the Neuman riot, very definitely including the Deathstalker, but they were quickly shouted down. The House wanted its heroes back. Wanted to feel safe again, behind the protection of the Paragons. And they all understood the appeal of a good Parade. Good publicity and good feeling from the Parade would spill over onto the House too. The King's proposal was accepted, and passed, by a huge majority.
    They then spent the rest of the Session arguing fiercely over who was going to pay for it.
    Lewis and Jesamine lay naked together, wrapped around each other, on the mattress on the floor of Lewis' mostly empty bedroom. They smiled at each other, basking in the afterglow of a very happy time, the sweat still cooling and evaporating on their bodies. Nothing like delaying and denying sex to make it
    really frantic. It had to be Lewis's place. They couldn't afford to be seen going to Jesamine's place together, and there wasn't a hotel in the city that wouldn't be straight on the comm to the gossip rags, so
    ... Jesamine's own security people ran static, including the use of Jesamine's official double, to distract and lure away the media pack that followed Jesamine wherever she went. (Given how smoothly the whole operation went, Lewis had a strong feeling they'd done this many times before, but he said nothing.) The two of them sneaked successfully into Lewis's apartment entirely unobserved, Jesamine carrying an esp-blocker in her purse so there was no way they could be