Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

innocently back.
    “What?” he said. “We just went for a stroll. It wasn’t like you needed us here. Did we miss something?”
    “I swear to God, you’re worse than children,” said Jesamine, automatically signing a photo a fan put in front of her. “I can’t take my eyes off you for a moment. Tell me you haven’t done anything embarrassing. Have you seen Manfred Kramer?”
    “No,” said Brett, though his heart leapt painfully in his chest. “Was he looking for us? We must have missed him.”
    “I didn’t miss him,” said Rose.
    “Hush, dear,” said Brett.
    “You’re looking very shifty, Brett,” said Jesamine. “What have the two of you been up to?”
    “Not nearly as much as I’d hoped,” said Brett, leaning casually against the wall. “No one in this city knows a good business proposition when they hear one. The sooner we’re out of this dump, the better.”
    “We’ll go when Lewis is ready, and not before. In the meantime, I have fans to attend to. Who shall I make this out to, sweetie?”
    And Brett had to find a table with Rose and just sit there, outwardly calm but inwardly shaking, while Lewis finished his discussions with Akotai, and Jesamine signed absolutely anything the long line of fans put in front of her. Some of them actually wanted parts of their body signed, so they could then go off and have the signature tattooed over. Jesamine took it all in her stride. Eventually it was decided that all the Mistworlders who wanted to join Lewis’s rebel force (which was a hell of a lot of them) would join the fleet in their own ships. It was a matter of pride and paranoia. No Mistworlder would ever agree to take passage on an Imperial ship.
    And then Akotai wanted to wait until Manfred Kramer returned, and Brett almost wept with frustration. Luckily Jesamine decided she’d had enough of her fans, after one of them wanted her to sign a particularly intimate part of his body, and she insisted on leaving right then. Brett would have kissed her, if he hadn’t known that would look suspicious.

    Soon enough, the rebel fleet pulled away from Mistworld, joined by a strange collection of very individual Mistworlder ships. Silence asked Lewis where they were heading next, and Lewis’s answer upset almost everyone. Shandrakor , he said, and everyone else said Oh, shit , in varying disgusted, appalled, and terribly distressed ways. Everyone had heard of the legendary planet of monsters. No one went to Shandrakor by choice, unless they were suffering from a very serious death wish. Jesamine and Brett found themselves in agreement for perhaps the first time in their lives, saying Why? in pretty much the same dismayed tone of voice. Rose, predictably, was the only one who seemed pleased at the prospect.
    “Trust me, Lewis,” Silence said heavily, “everyone is already seriously impressed that you and your companions survived one journey through the deadly jungles of Shandrakor. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”
    “Though it is just the sort of thing a Deathstalker would do,” said Captain Price, and the rest of the bridge crew nodded respectfully.
    “You’re not helping, Price,” said Silence. “Lewis, what is to be gained by going there? The world has no ships, weapons, or even people to add to our cause. You said yourself there was nothing worth salvaging from the old crash-landed Standing. All Shandrakor has is monsters . . . Oh. Oh, no . . .”
    “Oh, yes, Admiral,” said Lewis.
    “I do feel I should point out,” Price said diffidently, “that every hour we spend not heading towards Logres does give the usurper Finn that much extra time to prepare for battle. It would be a shame to throw away what little advantage we’ve got.”
    “We’re going to Shandrakor,” said Lewis. “I gave them my word.”
    “To monsters?” said Silence.
    “Many of them were human once,” said Lewis, locking Silence’s gaze with his own. “Some of them still remember. Do you remember, John Silence? Were you part of the decision to take all those made into monsters by Lionstone or Shub, all those poor unfortunates, and just dump them among all the other monsters on Shandrakor? To leave them there, so they could be forgotten?”
    “Robert and Constance made the decision,” said Silence. “And I . . . went along with it. There was no way of curing or restoring them. Relocating them to Shandrakor seemed kinder than just killing them all.”
    “Excuse me,” said Captain