Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

ship right down so she could show Owen something. A section of the bulkhead next to Owen became transparent, so he could look out at the planet below. It wasn’t much of a view. In the middle of a desert area lay a great crater, deep and dark, full of twisting gray mists shot through with shifting lights. But just the look of the crater made Owen feel strangely uneasy, disquieted.
    “You’re looking at what used to be Angel City,” Glory said coldly. “Now it’s just a hole in the earth, full of quantum instability. Millions of people died here, wiped away by a moment’s anger of the Mad Mind. A wound in the world that will never heal. Most of the people died immediately. They were the lucky ones. Unfortunately, those closest to the edges of the effect were only partially touched. They live on, no longer human, in a place where reality is only a sometime thing. We’ve seen some of them; monsters in shape and spirit. Constantly changing, never solid or confirmed in one nature for more than a few moments. Angel City is a place of horror now, and always will be.”
    “We’ve sent in all kinds of rescue operations,” said Dominic. “Scientists and priests, protected by force shields. All volunteers, wanting to help. None of them ever come back. The last I heard, the powers that be were trying to figure out how to enclose the whole area in one big industrial-strength force shield, and then just blast the thing out into space. Where it can be someone else’s problem.”
    “Why not just aim it into the sun?” said Owen.
    “What if the quantum instability were to affect the sun?” said Glory. “For now, all we can do is put up warning signs, saying Here Be Monsters . Post guards to shoot down the poor things that occasionally come crawling up out of the crater. And pray to God that the mess doesn’t start spreading.”
    “And this is just one of the nightmares your friend the Mad Mind left us,” said Dominic.
    “What one power can do, perhaps another can undo,” said Owen.
    He reached out with his mind. He could feel Hazel’s presence permeating the crater, dark and confused, moving restlessly over the wound in the earth, never still. It wasn’t her, just something she’d left behind, and Owen erased it in a moment, like a memory he didn’t want to remember. The gray mists and the shifting lights disappeared like a bad dream, and there was just a great hole in the ground. Owen could sense sparks of life moving in the crater, but they were just people now. He hoped they wouldn’t remember either. He sank back in his seat, exhausted, for the moment.
    Dominic and Glory studied their ship’s sensors for some time, arguing loudly over what had just happened below, their voices full of shock and something that might have been awe. Eventually, almost reluctantly, they turned and looked back at Owen.
    “How the hell did you do that?” said Dominic. “What kind of power have you got?”
    “I don’t know,” said Owen. “I’m still learning. Hopefully, enough to stop Hazel, when I finally catch up to her.”
    “Can you bring back the city, and the people who died?”
    “No. I’m only human.”
    “Those energy gyves aren’t affecting you at all, are they?” said Glory.
    “Afraid not,” said Owen. “But I’ll keep them on at court, if it will make everyone feel more comfortable.”
    “I should crash the ship into the ground right now,” said Glory. “Rather than risk letting you run loose.”
    “Please don’t. It wouldn’t affect me at all,” Owen said calmly. “Will you relax? I’m not another Mad Mind. I just want to talk to your Emperor. Find out what he knows about Hazel. Why she became . . . what she was, and why she came here in the first place. I need to know these things, if I’m to stop her. You have no idea what she’s going to become, eventually. I’ll still play the prisoner at court, for your sakes. I don’t want to harm anyone. I just want answers to my questions, and then I’ll be on my way.”
    “Why don’t you just dig them out of our minds?” said Dominic. “You could do that, couldn’t you?”
    “Yes,” said Owen. “But I won’t. Because that would be inhuman, Defender.”

    They landed at Heartworld’s main starport, in the capital city Virimonde. Owen was briefly startled. There had never been anything in the history of his world to explain where the planet’s name had come from. It was just another sign of how much history had been lost when the