Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

zoo! I won't have this!"
    He gestured sharply with one hand, and all the force shields closing off the cells disappeared. Jesamine shrank back against Lewis, and Rose grabbed Brett's arm to keep him from bolting. Owen ignored them, concentrating on the twelve survivors as they emerged from their cells for the first time in two hundred years. The man and woman joined into one huge insect-like body. The one who had been turned inside-out all down one side had finally stopped crying, and was trying to smile with its half a mouth. A man who had once moved impossibly quickly slowed to a blur, kneeling before Owen. A man who had torn out his own eyes to keep from seeing, now looked at Owen with tears in his new eyes. An ever-changing shape settled for a while into an ordinary woman, wringing her hands together in joy at seeing Owen. A man who had slept for two hundred years woke up, and came out of his cell to kneel before Owen. A woman who had smiled endlessly for two hundred years sobbed quietly in relief. A great fleshy mass that had once been human threw aside his extra bulk like a shell and came out to kneel in his turn. A woman stopped fading in and out of reality long enough to kneel before Owen. Someone who looked just like Owen came out to kneel before the original. And a man who had done nothing but commit murder for two hundred years had to be coaxed out of his cell by the others. He showed Owen the blood dripping from his hands, and asked pitifully if he could stop now, at last.
    "It is over?" he said. "Please, I want to go home. We all want to go home."
    "Of course," said Owen. "And you will. None of this is your fault. Go back into the Maze, and it will heal you. Because I said so."
    He gestured with his hand again, and all twelve disappeared. Owen turned to the Shub robot. "They'll be
    back out again, in time. Wait here for them."
    "We will stay and care for them, in your name," said the robot. "Whatever comes back out. All that lives is holy."
    The others were looking at each other uncertainly. Even Silence had never seen Owen use his power so casually. Lewis cleared his throat.
    "Is it going to be that easy, dealing with the Terror?"
    "Beats the hell out of me," said Owen. "I haven't got a clue what the Terror is, never mind what to do about it. I think the first thing to do is go and get a good close-up look at it. Maybe that will give me a few ideas."
    There was a long horrified silence, followed by a loud clamor of objections from pretty much everybody, mostly along the lines of Are you crazy? They broke off only when the Hereward's AI came through on all their comm implants.
    "Sorry to interrupt, gang, but we are all in deep doo-doo. Welcome back, Owen! This is Ozymandias—or at least what's left of him. We really must sit down and have a nice little chat in the future, assuming we have one. At the moment, I'm sorry to have to tell you that what appears to be the whole damned Imperial fleet has just dropped out of hyperspace and assumed orbit around Haden. It seems Finn isn't taking any chances."
    Owen laughed. "Just like old times, isn't it, Oz?"

Chapter 8
    FINN TRIUMPHANT, MOSTLY
    It was the day of the Coronation, and Finn Durandal strode into theImperial Court as though he already owned it. He was followed by massed marching ranks of Church Militant and Pure Humanity faithful, looking for all the world like a general at the head of an invading army—which, truth be told, wasn't that far from the reality. Officially, with James dead and Douglas disgraced, Finn was being made King by popular acclaim and Parliamentary decree. Actually, Finn just said he was going to be King, and everyone else went along. The MPs held a special session in the House, and took it in turns to stand up and say What a good idea, and the people, desperate for a savior to rescue them from all the evils that troubled the Empire, clamored for the earliest possible Coronation. There were dissenting voices, but nobody listened to them, or at least, no one who mattered. Finn was going to be King, and that was all there was to it.
    Finn stepped out across the great hall of the court at a good pace, smiling and nodding regally as he progressed down the wide central aisle separating the crowds of carefully chosen guests. Rank after rank of the finest fanatics stamped after him in perfect lock step, looking neither to the left nor the right. For them, this was a holy occasion. The anointing of the chosen one. Both the Church Miliant