Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

desperately. "I am getting really tired of enigmatic comments. I want some hard facts. Starting with, are you dead or not?"
    "Not," said Silence. "I knew the attack on my house was coming, so I left quietly beforehand, by secret ways, well before the mob arrived. I'd already made preperations to become someone else. I'd been looking for a chance to put an end to my old life, and move on. I'd been feeling increasingly uncomfortable as a living legend, especially when I discovered people had started worshiping my statues.
    I never approved of the whole legend business anyway. I didn't recognize any of us in the pretty stories Robert and Constance made out of our lives. But they were my King and my Queen, and so… I said nothing. It seemed best.
    "But now I had a chance to be free again. I could disappear and start a new life as someone else, without the burden of my past overshadowing everything I said and did. Robert and Constance didn't try that hard to confirm whether I really had died in the burnt-out ruins of my house. Alive, I was always a potential threat to all the myths they'd built their Golden Age on. Owen would have understood. He believed in history—because the truth is always a better foundation than even the prettiest of lies."
    "Jesus, he's even more long-winded than Lewis," said Brett. "Can we please get to the point? I really would like to get out of this appalling place as soon as possible. Finn must know we're here by now."
    "You must excuse Brett," Lewis said to Silence. "It's either that or hit him a lot, and it does wear you out after a while."
    Silence gave Brett a long thoughtful look, and Brett felt an urgent need to hide behind someone. Silence smiled suddenly. "You're one of Random's Bastards, aren't you? Claim descent from Jack and Ruby Journey. They were brave souls, but I never trusted either of them. Must run in the family."
    Brett was still wondering how to take that when Silence turned back to Lewis. "After my reported death, I needed a new course. The Maze kept me young and powerful, so I decided to work from the shadows, as Humanity's secret protector."
    "Didn't do too good a job of it, did you?" muttered Brett.
    "Brett!" snapped Jesamine.
    "Oh, stuff all that respect shit," said Brett, surprising everyone, including himself. He stepped forward to glare right into Silence's face. You're the last living legend, on a par with Owen and the others. So why didn't you stop Finn?"
    "Because I decided a long time ago that Humanity should make its own way," said Silence. "I wanted to be its guardian, not its god. And I could have been your god, if I'd wanted. But I have to say, I didn't see Finn coming. He's really just a focus for a whole bunch of preexisting trends. If it hadn't been him, it would have been someone else. It was his time. Humanity has gone mad, not just Finn Durandal. He isn't doing anything they don't want him to do. How else do you think it all fell apart so quickly? And… I never was as powerful as the others, despite what the legends say. You need Owen, to stop the Durandal and the Terror. And I need Owen too. I need his certainty, and his moral vision, to tell me what to do for the best. Perhaps I just want him back so he can solve everything and look after Humanity, so I won't have to anymore. A selfish thought, perhaps, but…"
    "What's it like?" Lewis said abruptly. "What's it like, inside the Madness Maze?"
    "It's different for everyone," said Silence. "I don't know whether the Maze is just a machine, or whether it's alive. Or whether it's so advanced that such terms don't apply anymore. Walking through it changes you on every level you have, and adds on some new ones. It's like a wake-up call from God. As though the best part of you had been sleeping all your life, and the Maze awakened it."
    "Why does the Maze make some people crazy?" said Jesamine. "Why does it kill people?"
    "I don't know," said Silence. "I saw good people destroyed by the Maze, right in front of me, and I never knew why. But I do believe this: that a Deathstalker can make it safely through the Maze, all the way to its hidden heart. The rest of you are of course free to try, but I can't guarantee your safety or your lives."
    "You couldn't drag me into that abomination," Saturday said firmly. The reptiloid had been studying the entrance to the Maze for some time, pulling faces and muttering under her breath. "That thing feels wrong.
    Unnatural. It should be destroyed. Besides, reptiloids are