Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

done?”
    Price licked his dry lips, and then plunged right in. “Clan Deathstalker is no more. The Emperor has had them all executed. They made a brave stand, but in the end they were betrayed, and butchered, to the last man, woman, and child. The Standing has been destroyed. I’m sorry, Lewis, Owen, but you two are all that now remains of Clan Deathstalker.”
    Lewis actually stumbled back a step, hurting so badly he couldn’t breathe. Jesamine was quickly there to take his arm, as much to hold him up as comfort him. His harsh features worked, but no tears came. He’d never been the crying sort, before. Brett and Rose looked at each other. Silence stood alone, with the robots, and suddenly looked his age. Owen sighed heavily.
    “The years change, but the pattern remains the same.” He turned to look almost fiercely at Silence. “Did I die for nothing? Does anything of my heritage remain, or any of the things I fought for?”
    “We are your heritage,” Jesamine said steadily. “You made possible a Golden Age that lasted for two hundred years. All because of you.”
    “Two centuries of peace and progress are nothing to be sneered at,” said Silence.
    Lewis looked at Captain Price, and when he spoke his voice was cold and very dangerous. “Were you and your fleet part of this butchery, Price?”
    “No, Sir Deathstalker!” Price said quickly. “The atrocity was carried out by Church Militant and Pure Humanity fanatics, led by a Paragon who was revealed to be an Esper Liberation Force thrall. And no, we don’t understand how that could be possible either.”
    Lewis turned his back on him. Jesamine went to take Lewis in her arms, but he stopped her with a look. “My family is dead. My father, my mother . . . all of them. Even the children. Even the children ?” His hands were clenched into impotent fists at his sides, and his ugly features were twisted with more grief than they could contain. He still wouldn’t cry, as though he would deny Finn at least one small victory. “They’re all dead because of me,” he said finally. “Because of Finn’s hatred for me.”
    “No, Lewis,” said Jesamine. “You mustn’t think that. Finn would have had to kill them all anyway, eventually. He knew they would never bend the knee to him. He had to kill them, because of who they were, and what they represented. Because they were Deathstalkers.”
    “But . . . the children too?” said Lewis. “How could Finn do that? He was my friend. We worked together for years, spent weekends at my old Family Standing. We had . . . good times together. How could I have been so wrong about him?”
    “He betrayed your trust,” said Jesamine. “He’s responsible for what he does. No one else.”
    “I don’t know what to do,” said Lewis. He was hugging himself, as though he was cold. “My Family is dead. My home destroyed. What do I do now?”
    “When all else is lost,” said Owen Deathstalker, “there is always revenge. A cold comfort, but better than none.”
    Lewis nodded slowly. “I will see Finn Durandal dead. For all his crimes, and all his betrayals.”
    “The Clan will go on,” said Owen. “The line continues, through you.”
    “And you,” said Lewis.
    “No,” said Owen. “I have another destiny.”
    Lewis looked at him sharply. Owen turned away, to face Captain Price on the viewscreen. And all in a moment his presence exploded outwards, and once again he was standing on every bridge of every starcruiser in the fleet, facing their captains. His presence was vast, imposing, and so much more than human. Lewis backed away from the man still standing before the viewscreen, and looked at Silence.
    “How does he do that?” he whispered.
    “I have no idea,” murmured Silence. “And that’s why he is the Deathstalker, and I never was. Now watch. And listen.”
    Owen spoke, and every member of every crew on every ship heard him perfectly.
    “I am Owen Deathstalker, and you are all my descendants, my children. It seems the time has come again for war and rebellion, against an unjust tyrant on a stolen throne. Finn must be brought down, for your Golden Age to be restored. And you must do it, because I have to deal with the Terror. Trust me to do that, as I trust you to do what is necessary in this war. Fight well, and honorably, because you cannot defeat evil through evil methods. Go with my blessing, my children. Make me proud of you.”
    He shut down his presence and was suddenly just a man again,