Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

both been through the Maze."
    "Then come in with me."
    Jesamine jerked her hands from his. "No. Don't ask that of me, Lewis."
    "I will stand between you and all harm. And I will tear the Maze apart before I let it hurt you."
    "Only a Deathstalker can safely navigate the Madness Maze," said Silence.
    "Hell with that," said Lewis. "She's with me."
    Lewis Deathstalker and Jesamine Flowers entered the Madness Maze together, hand in hand so they couldn't be separated. The shimmering metal walls came and went before them like the slow waves of an endless sea. The air was bitter cold, and it smelled of roses and iron. They could taste hot leather and spices in their mouths. Someone was singing a lullaby in an unknown tongue, in a voice like clashing knives. There was a feeling of clockwork turning with inexorable slowness, of chess pieces moving on the board of their own accord. And from somewhere up ahead came the great slow flapping of giant wings.
    Lewis and Jesamine wandered through the Maze like children in a great primeval forest, overawed by their surroundings and heading towards something they could feel, but not name. And despite all their best intentions, somewhere along the way they took different turnings and went their different ways.
    Jesamine skipped along, humming a happy tune, quite cheerful and unafraid, while layers of meaning and significance crystalized in her mind, and she finally understood all manner of things. The Maze led her round and round, pushing open doors in her mind and letting air into dusty old closets, and finally it brought her back to the entrance. She danced out into the world again, singing a glorious song. The others looked at her, dumbfounded, and then looked at the entrance to the Maze when it became clear that Lewis wasn't going to follow her out.
    "What the hell happened to you?" said Brett. "And where's Lewis?"
    "I'm fine. And Lewis is where he's supposed to be." She smiled widely at Silence. "No wonder you couldn't explain it to us. I feel like someone took my brain and scrubbed it clean of years of accumulated grime. And Lewis… is heading for the heart of the Maze. To get all the answers. I don't think I envy him."
    "You look different," said Brett. "More .. .you."
    "Why thank you, Brett. I feel like I could climb a mountain while singing an aria." She looked at Silence.
    "Is this how it was for you?"
    "It's different for everyone," said Silence. "We all became more than we were, more than human. I only hope you people have better luck."
    Lewis strode calmly through the branching corridors of the Madness Maze, never at a loss over which way to go. He knew where he was going. It was like coming home after being away for a long, long time.
    It was also like walking through a furnace, while the stoked fires burned away his imperfections. There was pain, and loss, but he embraced them as the hot steel accepts the tempering that turns it into a sword blade. Lewis was a warrior born, and now, finally, he understood why. The corridors unfolded before him like the pulsing crenellations of a living brain, like the blossoming of the flower at the heart of the soul, until finally he came to the guarded center of the Madness Maze.
    Everything stood still. A perfect moment, at the heart of the storm. Lewis felt calm and secure, like a small child in his mother's arms. He felt he could have just stood there forever, freed from the demands of need or conscience or ambition; but he was a Deathstalker, and duty and destiny were not his to put
    aside. He looked slowly about him. He was in a wide circular space, composed mostly of pure white light. In the exact center of that space stood a great glowing crystal, some four feet in diameter. Lewis walked over and looked into it, and inside the crystal, in its warm golden heart, he found a tiny human baby. The babe looked to be about a month old, perfectly formed, his blurred face only hinting at the person he might eventually become. His eyes were closed, and he breathed slowly and calmly, as though he had all the time in the world. One thumb was tucked securely into the slightly pouting mouth.
    "Well, took you long enough to get here," said a familiar voice.
    Lewis looked up, and wasn't entirely surprised to find the small gray figure of Vaughn standing right beside him. A small gray hand with fingers missing came out of a sleeve and waved briefly at him before disappearing again.
    "I might have known you'd turn up," said Lewis. "Any chance of