Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

through like spotlights in the bloodred ambience, it was like walking through some vast, living cathedral. Lewis found the words of the AIs of Shub running through his mind like a mantra: All that lives is holy… Everywhere he looked he saw miracles of evolution, sophisticated refinements of shape and purpose that had no place in the world of ordinary plants. Everything was moving, driven on by slow intent. Some of the larger growths lurched back and forth under their own volition, on unguessable errands for unknowable reasons. Here and there lush flowers had developed mouths, and chittered softly in languages beyond human understanding, unless they were the kind of words people heard softly spoken in dreams and could never remember on waking. Some flowers had learned to sing, in strange and subtle harmonies; and this was sometimes horrid and sometimes pleasant, but mostly disturbing. Jesamine tried to sing along, but couldn't follow the alien patterns and subtle shifts in tone. Her voice clashed and shattered against such alien sounds.
    Finally they came toMissionCity . The jungle fell suddenly away, as if they'd stepped out of one room and into another, and the city lay sprawled out before them in its massive clearing. Lewis and his companions just stood there for a while at the edge of the jungle, taking in the city they had traveled so
    long and so hard to reach. Mission City was no human construction, no dead thing of steel and glass and concrete; this was a Lachrymae Chnsti city, a vast bioengineered entity, grown not made, designed by the minds of men but manufactured to order from the raw materials of the scarlet jungle by the guiding intelligence of the Red Brain. It was a living thing, holding humans within, like a mother cradling her children in her caring arms.
    Huge hollowed trees, vast as skyscrapers, soared up into the overcast sky, their interiors a wooden honeycomb of living space. Warm organic lights glowed from the hundreds of windows in the dark bark of the towering trees. Delicate corridors of woven vines connected all levels, hanging between the trees like so much crimson webbing, the connective tissues of a living city. Lower dwellings had been formed from hulking gourds or vast hollowed fruits or leafy constructs in blazing shades of pink. And everywhere there were flowers, and great rose petal constructs, and tremendous organic shapes blazing with warm, friendly lights. It was a city, and it was alive. They could feel the warmth of it and hear its breathing. And men and women went about their lives in it as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
    Lewis put away his sword and started forwards, and the others followed him. None of them had anything to say; in an Empire whose Golden Age was full of wonders, this was still something very new and marvelous. People saw them coming, and disappeared unhurriedly into the nearest dwelling. There was something not quite right about them, but Lewis couldn't quite put his finger on it. He came to a halt at the edge of the city, and looked about him for some clues as to what to do next.
    "I suppose our home must seem impressive to outsiders," said a warm, amused voice. "But you should see it in the spring. The whole place really comes alive then."
    They all looked round sharply, and there was a short, stocky woman smiling at them. Lewis hadn't heard her coming. He made himself take his hand away from the gun at his side.
    "You have a beautiful home," he said. "I had no idea…"
    "We don't advertise. We don't want to attract sightseers. It's all very efficient, you know. The plant life is nourished by the carbon dioxide we breathe out and the wastes we deposit in it. We're all part of one big symbiosis, really."
    "Do I take it you're Hellen Adair?" said Lewis.
    "Got it in one, Deathstalker. About time you got here. We've been expecting you for days."
    "Moon again?" said Jesamine, and Hellen grinned and nodded.
    "He really can see the future, sometimes. Which raises all kinds of philosophical questions, which mostly we try not to think about, for the sake of a quiet life. So, that's what a reptiloid is."
    "Lewis" Brett said urgently into Lewis's ear. "She's naked!"
    "Trust me, I noticed," Lewis murmured back.
    Hellen Adair was blond, pretty enough, with a good if slightly overmuscled figure, and had not a stitch of clothing on. Her skin was a glowing pink, of the shade Lewis usually associated only with gums, and her only adornment was a few