Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

figure came striding suddenly out of the shadows under The Highlander's hull, heading right for him, and Lewis straightened up to his full height. He wanted to make a good first impression. Of course he was the Champion, and she was just another Paragon, but still. . . this was Emma Steel. Voted scariest person in the Empire for the third year running. One magazine editor had offered a million credits for her to do a nude photo-shoot. Emma sent the editor a severed head in a box. Lewis studied Emma openly as she strode quickly towards him, her long legs eating up the distance between them. The official holos on her tribute site didn't do her justice. In person, Emma Steel radiated personality like a blast furnace.
    She was tall and willowy and almost impossibly graceful in her every movement. Her skin was a dark coffee color, and she wore her flat black hair pulled back and tied in a tight bun on the back of her head.
    Striking rather than pretty, she was still utterly breathtaking. She carried her Paragon's armor well, and her purple cloak flapped about her like the wings of a bird of prey. Her long-fingered hands never moved far from the sword and gun on her hips.
    She marched right up to Lewis, looked him up and down, nodded curtly and stuck out a hand for him to shake. When he took it, she gave his hand a brief knuckle-crushing shake, and then pulled him forward into a fierce embrace that drove half the breath out of him. She kissed him loudly on each cheek, rapped him on the armored chest with a knuckle, nodded at the sound it made, and then stepped back to nod approvingly at Lewis.
    "Deathstalker!" she said loudly, in a deep thrilling contralto. "Good to meet you at last. Love the armor.
    Congratulations on your new post. You earned it. Would have liked to be there for the Coronation, but I had to chase that Hellfire creep over half of Xanadu before I finally ran him down. I did send a card, and
    a present."
    "Ah yes," said Lewis. "The flower that eats insects. And small rodents. Douglas was . . . very impressed.
    Welcome to Logres, Emma. Your reputation precedes you."
    "Don't believe a word of it," Emma said briskly. "No law-abiding citizen has anything to fear from me.
    It's just that I never seem to meet any." She looked around her, and suddenly she was grinning widely. It transformed her face, making her look a lot younger than her early thirties, and not nearly so daunting.
    "God, I love this place! Biggest starport in the Empire. I grew up around Mistworld's starport; my great grandfather used to run it. Romantic places, starports. Always people coming and going, dropping in from fabulous far-off places. Families parting and meeting . . . and more crimes and scams and generally dirty dealing than any other place you can name. Mind you; Customs and Immigration here are crap. No one's challenged me at all yet."
    "They're probably still trying to find someone daft enough to try," said Lewis. "Do you have anything to declare?"
    "Only my magnificence," Emma said, and then laughed loudly. "No media here today? There's usually half a dozen news crews waiting to greet me whenever I step off a starship."
    "The King wants to keep your presence here under wraps, until he's had a chance to bring you up to speed," said Lewis. "Once the local bad guys find out you've arrived, they'll either go to ground or head for the hills. Besides; the situation here is ... more complicated than you might think."
    Emma shrugged easily. "Isn't it always? I never get the simple assignments. So; tell me all about the legendary Finn Durandal. I'm a fan of long standing. Studied all his major cases, and watched all five of the documentaries on him. It was because of him that I determined to become a Paragon. Mistworld's first. I'm really looking forward to working with him. You were his partner for years; what's he really like?"
    "Ah," said Lewis. "That's part of the problem. Finn rather thought he was going to be chosen as Champion. In fact, he set his heart on it. He took it very hard when Douglas named me instead. As a result, Finn . . . isn't as focused on his work as he once was. In fact, no one's seen much of him at all since the Coronation."
    Emma gave Lewis a hard look. "Are you tell me that he's sulking? That the legendary Finn Durandal is off sitting in a corner somewhere, pouting?"
    "Well, basically; yes. I'm sure he'll get over it, in time. But until he does, you're going to have to take up the slack. And since Douglas is the