Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

considering how his last visit had turned out, he decided against it. His hand still twinged sometimes. So he increased his pace, striding furiously through the corridors, his head full of all the things that might have gone wrong, and what he might have to do to put them right, until finally he came to the House itself. Two armed and fully armored guards stood before the great double doors. They pushed the doors open, and gestured for him to go right in. He hurried past them, and out onto the floor of the House; and the first thought that struck him was how quiet everything was.
    He slowed to a halt in the middle of the floor, and looked about him. Everyone was looking at him, and not kindly. From the MPs filling the Seats, to the AI and esper and clone representatives, to the aliens filling their Section, to King Douglas sitting stiffly on his Throne; Lewis couldn't see a friendly face anywhere. Jesamine was standing beside the Throne. She wouldn't look at him at all. Her gaze was fixed on the floor at her feet. Lewis's bad feeling grew suddenly worse.
    There was a sudden crash of booted feet behind him, and Lewis looked around sharply as a small army of guards and security men filed quickly through the double doors, to take up positions around the House.
    They all had energy guns. Many of them were drawn, and pointing at him. The double doors closed, and very clearly on the ominous quiet came the sound of locks closing. And Lewis began to realize just how much trouble he was in.
    "Drop your weapons, Deathstalker," said the King, from his Throne. His voice was cold and flat and strangely empty, but his eyes were burning. "Do it, now; or I'll have my people disarm you. By force, if necessary."
    "Douglas?" said Lewis. "What's going on?"
    "You will address me as your Majesty," said the King. "Drop your weapons. I won't tell you again."
    Lewis moved his hands slowly and carefully to his weapons belt, and undid the buckle. He lowered the gun and sword to the floor, straightened up and stepped slowly back from them, keeping his hands m clear sight all the while.
    "And the rest," said the King.
    Lewis removed the throwing knives from his boots and up his sleeves, and dropped them to the floor.
    The clatter seemed very loud in the continuing hush. He had a few more, nonregulation weapons about him too, and he gave them up too, because the King would know about them. Of course he would
    know; Douglas and Lewis had been partners. The last thing to hit the floor was the force shield from his wrist. Lewis stood before the House, defenseless.
    "Now will you tell me what's going on, your Majesty?"
    "The charge is treason," said Finn Durandal. He strode out from among the security men, and stepped down onto the floor of the House. He stopped carefully out of Lewis's reach, and looked coldly at him.
    When he spoke again, his voice was full of authority, and contempt. "Lewis Deathstalker; you have betrayed your King with the woman who was to be his Queen. You have thrown aside duty and honor, in order to satisfy your own base lusts. You are not fit to be Imperial Champion. You are hereby stripped of that office, on the authority of the King and this House. You are now under arrest. You will be taken from this place to a secure location, where you will be held under guard until you can be tried for treason."
    "You have evidence," said Lewis, trying hard to sound calm, though his chest was so tight he could hardly breathe. "You must have, or this wouldn't be happening. Where did you get that evidence, I wonder?"
    "You'll find out, at your trial," said Finn.
    But Lewis had already looked past Finn to see Anne Barclay, standing among her security men. She'd stepped forward deliberately, to draw his gaze. She looked at him coldly, and Lewis knew immediately where Finn had got his evidence.
    "Oh Anne; how could you?"
    She met his gaze steadily, but said nothing. And Lewis remembered her begging him to run away with her. Remembered her saying This is your last chance, Lewis . . . And he remembered her clinging to him, and wondered how he could have been so blind, and so stupid.
    "She did her duty," said Finn. "She came to me, and I didn't believe her at first. I couldn't believe you of all people would do such a thing. But Anne had incontrovertible proof. After that, it wasn't hard for her people and mine to turn up more. You went to great pains to cover your tracks, but people always talk.
    Then, we went to the King. He didn't want to