Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

existed only to kill. Their armor could shrug off energy weapons. And Owen and Hazel went head to head with hundreds of them here, and won… Look at those heads…"
    "They give me the creeps," said Brett. "Like something out of a nightmare… How could Owen have defeated something like this…"
    "Because he was a Deathstalker," said Jesamine. "That's why we have to find him. Because we need him now more than ever."
    They finally left the rows of Grendel heads behind them, and came to the old infirmary. It was just a wooden hut with open windows and a single doorway. Lewis led the way in, and the air was so thick with ghosts that he could hardly breathe it. He'd seen this place recreated in a hundred docudramas—Owen's last redoubt in the fight against the invading Grendels. So many dramatic scenes had been reenacted here, between the most famous actors in the Empire, of Owen and Hazel and Beatrice… all of it legend, because no one was left to tell the truth of it. But in this indisputably real place, the walls were lined with data crystals and private viewscreens, promising to reveal the truth at last. And in the middle of the room, on a raised bier under a single gentle light, lay what looked very like a coffin.
    They all gathered slowly round it, and looked in, to see the well-preserved body of a woman in a nun's clothing. For a long time, none of them said anything.
    "That can't be her, can it?" Jesamine said finally. "Not her. Not…"
    "St. Beatrice," said Lewis.
    "It's got to be some kind of model," said Brett.
    "Not according to this plaque," said Lewis, studying a simple brass plate at the head of the coffin. "It's her. Preserved here, all these years…
    "Now, that is seriously gross," said Brett firmly. "And not a little creepy. Dead bodies on display? This is barbaric! Not to mention sick."
    "I wouldn't disagree," said Lewis. "But I don't think it's a viewpoint we should share with the good people of this city. This is obviously a sacred place for them."
    He looked at the body's expressionless face, and tried to feel something, some of the awe he'd felt on entering theMission , but the truth was, she could have been anybody. Whoever had preserved her body had done a good job, at the expense of taking all the personality out of her face. Lewis bowed his head respectfully anyway. The body seemed very small for a woman whose legend had become so huge.
    Every man, woman, and child in the Empire knew the story of the blessed St. Beatrice, who gave up wealth and standing to follow her faith; and now here she was, a waxy, shrunken display piece in a mu-seum most people didn't even know existed.
    Eventually, they turned to the data crystals set out on shelves. They checked the titles, but most of it seemed to be dull history about how the colonists built their great biocities and created a paradise out of hell… but one crystal was labeled Owen's Defense of theMission , and everyone wanted to see that.
    Lewis plugged it into a display screen and they all stood and watched. It turned out to be a series of interviews with lepers who'd survived the defense, and what they saw. When it was over, Lewis and his companions looked at each other.
    "Now, that really was bullshit," said Brett, almost angrily. "Even the official legends never said…"
    "It has to be exaggerated," said Lewis. "Memories embellished, over the years."
    "I mean, no one could do things like that!" said Brett. "All right, the official version has Owen and Hazel as first-class warriors; death on two legs and unbeatable with a weapon in their hands. And there are the miracles they're supposed to have performed, but, but… triggering earthquakes, just by frowning?
    Blowing Grendels apart just by looking at them? Shooting lightning bolts from their hands? Owen bringing himself back from the dead?"
    "They went through the Maze," said Lewis. "And they were never fully human after that. Everyone who knew them said so. And some of the miracles really did happen. There were news recordings of them at the time, even if they're lost to us now. And some of the apocrypha hint at things like this… that Owen and Hazel must still be alive, somewhere, because after what the Maze had done to them, they couldn't die…"
    "This is seriously creeping me out," said Jesamine. "I thought Deathstalker's Lament was over the top when I starred in it, but this… If Owen and Hazel really could do things like that, they weren't human anymore. No more human than the