Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

Durandal's law, enforced with sword and gun and overwhelming force.
    Not that there weren't problems with the Church Militant. Many of its leaders weren't at all happy about what was happening. The death of Clan Deathstalker was a public relations disaster for the Church, and they were all mad as hell that their people had been (albeit unknowingly) led by a possessed Paragon.
    One of Finn's people… The leaders went looking for Finn, to demand answers, and eventually found him in Angelo Bellini's office in the Logres Cathedral. He was sitting behind Angelo's desk, in Angelo's chair, and there on the desk was Angelo's severed head on a letter spike. Finn greeted the Church leaders cheerfully, informed them that he had just appointed Joseph Wallace, head of the Transmutation Board, as the new head of the official Church. Everyone knew that Wallace was a powerful force in Pure Humanity, and the Church leaders protested loudly. Finn explained that the Church Militant was now a partner with Pure Humanity; a junior partner, and therefore under his control. Some of the Church leaders went on objecting, and Finn shot them. The rest shut up, considered their options, and bowed their head to Finn Durandal.
    Finn dismissed them, and then sat back in his chair, staring thoughtfully at Angelo's severed head. He wasn't too unhappy about the way things had gone. The Church had been getting far too uppity of late anyway. Pure Humanity had always been a more practical, politically minded organization. The Church's new leaders would soon channel the fanatics' fervor into more useful directions.
    Sure enough, the new hierarchy started with a series of purges, officially to root out ELF infiltration, but actually to remove anyone who might object to the new directions the Church would be taking. There were no arrests, no trials. People just disappeared. The bodies were never found. Transmutation bombs could be very useful things.
    In the end, most of the Church just went along. They still got to hate and intimidate the same people, they still got the best of everything by right, and they were still top dogs.
    Finn then had James make another of his stirring speeches, saying that all the remaining Paragons had been investigated and officially cleared. He gave official thanks to Emma Steel for helping reveal the ELFs' possessing the Paragons, because he had to, to protect himself. For once, there was only polite clapping at the end. No cheers, no standing ovations. James left the House in something of a hurry. Finn was forced to keep the Paragons holed up in the Sangreal. But he thought he'd got the best out of them anyway. He only let them go on living because he liked to think of his old colleagues suffering.
    Finn relaxed in his apartment and poured himself a drink. Things hadn't gone too badly, really. The Deathstalkers were all dead, he had more direct control than ever now that the Church Militant had been subsumed into Pure Humanity, and Douglas was under house arrest for murder.
    Finn smiled, and put his feet up, and thought he'd take the afternoon off.
    Douglas Campbell, still officially the King of a disintegrating Empire, was held under close arrest in an old storeroom at the back of the House. The bare walls had no windows, there was only one door, and no furniture at all unless you counted the bucket in the corner.Douglas sat on the cold stone floor with his back against the bare stone wall, and passed the time planning his revenges. So far, the guards outside his door were treating him with extreme caution. They wouldn't talk to him, and his food and water was passed through a flap in the door. No one had entered the cell sinceDouglas had been thrown into it, and the bucket was getting rather full.
    Douglasdidn't know what was happening in the Empire. No one was allowed to talk to him. Most
    people didn't even know where he was. He'd thought at least Anne would come and talk to him, or at least shout at him, but the long, slow hours passed in silence, and Douglas wasn't even sure what day it was, or whether it was day or night—until James came, and ordered the guards to open the door and let him in. They didn't want to, but they couldn't ignore a direct order from James Campbell—the man who was going to be King, and probably a whole lot sooner than anyone had expected.
    James stood in the open doorway, watchingDouglas carefully until he was sure all the fight had gone out of him, and then he stepped inside the room and