Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

the last of the chains and lurched to his feet. He nodded his thanks to Stuart, and then headed for the bridge. Stuart hurried after him.
    "Hi, Your Majesty!" said Nina. "Damn, you look awful. If you've got any idea of where we should be going, now would be a really good time to share it."
    "Give me a chance to catch my breath," saidDouglas , smiling despite himself. "I'm still adjusting to the idea that I'm not going to die today after all."
    "Mistworld's still rogue" Stuart suggested diffidently. "And Lewis is bound to turn up there eventually."
    "It would be good to join up with him again," saidDouglas . "But my duty is here, on Logres. I have to put together a force to topple Finn. The Empire must come first. There will be time later for Lewis, and Jesamine. Head for the Rookery, Nina. I have some old and hopefully unanticipated allies there."
    "I always wanted to be a rebel!" said Nina. "Oh, darlings; making news is so much more fun than reporting it!"

Chapter 9
    THE TERRIBLE TRUTH
    On the bridge of the starcruiser Havoc, flagship of the Imperial fleet, Admiral Angharad West and Captain Alfred Price stood side by side, studying the image of the planet Haden on the main viewscreen.
    A lonely gray, almost anonymous world, it hardly seemed worthy of the attention of so many heavily armed starcruisers. Six hundred and seventy-two at present, with more arriving out of hyperspace all the time. King Finn was taking no chances. Haden was no longer quarantined, it was blockaded. On the Havoc, Admiral West looked down on Haden, and wished she could crush the whole rotten world in her fist. Given her way, she would cheerfully destroy the whole planet, and everything on it, and not leave even one molecule clinging to another.
    Admiral West was Pure Humanity and Church Militant, a fanatic of the old school. She had no life but her duty, and all the many things she hated. She was a short, graying bulldog of a woman, with a face that would have been entirely characterless without her permanent scowl, and the dogged cruelty of her eyes.
    Dressed in an ill-fitting garish uniform, she was one of Finn's creatures; a political appointee who would follow orders to the letter and never even think of disobeying them. Finn wanted the abominations on Haden taken alive and held for questioning, so that was what she would do; but still, in her cold, black heart-of-hearts, she ached to destroy Haden, or at the very least, the Madness Maze. For her, the Maze was nothing more than a temptation, a sinful alien device devised to turn humans into inhumans, to seduce the weak away from the Pure human form intended by God. She was allowed to scorch the planet; but only after all other options had been exhausted. Admiral West smiled slightly, and dreamed of fire and slaughter.
    Still standing at her side, because he hadn't been dismissed yet, Captain Price studied his superior officer out of the corner of his eye. His habitual calm, almost bored, expression hid his real anxiety. Tall, thin, almost ascetic, the captain was a military man of the old school, who believed very firmly in the chain of command, and never ever thinking for himself. The captain had got where he was, and stayed where he was, by never ever voicing an original opinion, agreeing with everything his superiors said, and knowing when to look the other way and hear nothing. But he'd never had a creature like Admiral West on his bridge before. He'd known aliens that came across as more humane. Captain Price was old enough to remember when Imperial officers still had honor. When they upheld right, not might. Like Captain John Silence, the greatest of them all, who was supposedly down there on Haden, with the Maze. For the first time in his long, uneventful career, Captain Price wondered if he was fighting on the wrong side. And if so, what if anything he was prepared to do about it.
    "They're all down there," West said suddenly. "The traitor Deathstalker and his lover, the criminals Constantine and Random, and their hangers-on. Traitors and heretics. If I had my way I'd send in my troops, burn them all at the stake, and glory in their screams."
    "Yes, well," said Price, "I really don't think that's such a good idea, Admiral. It could get awfully messy. I mean, if they're as good as they're supposed to be. And the King's orders were very specific: we're not supposed to drop troops without his direct order…"
    "I know, I know!" West snapped. "Wait until all the ships are here, and