Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

couldn’t even tell where the entrance to the Standing had been, before the castle’s ancient computers blew it up, as one last service to Clan Deathstalker. Tall, wide-boled trees formed a guardian circle around the clearing, and shadows moved among them. Jesamine wiped at her perspiring face with a cloth.
    “There is definitely such a thing as too much sunshine, darling. God, it’s hot! And I really do hate this humidity. It does my skin no good at all. I just know I’m going to end up with another nasty heat rash.” She looked about her. “Where are they? They must have heard us land. You know, Lewis, I have to say that this doesn’t strike me as one of your better ideas.”
    “Do you want to abandon them too?”
    “Well, not as such, sweetie, but . . . shock troops, yes. I can see that. But what about afterwards?”
    “I gave my word as a Deathstalker.”
    Jesamine sighed. “Yes, dear, you did. Which was all very honorable. But you can’t feel guilty about everything the Empire did in the name of your legendary ancestor.”
    “I can try to put things right. And I will. I have to. That’s what being a Deathstalker means. Especially when you’re the last one.”
    He broke off, as he and Jesamine both looked round sharply. And one by one the monsters left the tree line and ventured into the clearing, emerging into the light of day like horrid ghosts from the eternal shadows of the jungle. There were all kinds, large and small, every possible example of mixed natures and merged genes. They moved in slowly from every side, wrapped in spiked armor and twisted shapes, with too many legs and eyes, or not enough, in forms so vile and so affecting that Lewis and Jesamine had to fight to keep from looking away. She stood very close to him, almost moved to tears at the horrible shapes that had once been men and women. She still kept her hand near her gun. The monsters filled the clearing, pressing slowly forward from every side until suddenly, at some unseen, unheard signal they all stopped. One creature came forward, to confront Lewis and Jesamine. It had been turned horribly inside out, its exposed red and purple organs gleaming wetly in the bright sunlight. A more or less human face had been stretched across its flayed chest. The mouth was wide and mobile, and the wide-set eyes . . . held no understandable emotion. The bulging body hung in a cage of thick-furred spindly legs.
    “You came back,” it said.
    “Yes,” said Lewis. “I told you I would.”
    “So you did, Deathstalker.” The creature’s voice was a low hiss, the words elongated and strangely accented. “I think I had a name once, but that was long ago, and I don’t remember it. I remember some things, flashes of home and family, but not whether I was a man or a woman. It’s hard now to even think what that meant. I am Speaker; I am the voice of those who remember being other than monsters. Why have you come back, Deathstalker?”
    “Because I made you a promise,” said Lewis. “I have a fleet of ships now. We’re going back to Logres, which was called Golgotha in your day, to throw a false Emperor off his stolen throne. I want you to come with us. All of you. Be my shock troops in this war. And afterwards . . .”
    “Yes?” said Speaker. “What, afterwards?”
    “You will all go home. We’ll search out what records remain, do our best to find out who and what you used to be. If all else fails, the espers will dig the truth out of your minds. But every damned one of you will go home. No one gets left out, no one gets left behind. Whatever can be done for you, to make you more . . . comfortable, will be done. Science has come a long way in two hundred years. Of course, this all depends on us winning the war . . .”
    “We can fight,” said Speaker. “We know how to do that. Could we really be . . . cured? Made human again?”
    “I don’t know,” Lewis said honestly. “But the blessed Owen has returned, more powerful than ever. I have seen him perform miracles. And there is always the Madness Maze. It transformed us; perhaps it can transform you.”
    “We will go with you,” said Speaker. “Taking a chance on your name, and your word. But if we fight for you, and do not die, you must promise to kill us, rather than return us here. We will either live as human, or die as monsters. We could not stand . . . to have to live without hope.”
    “I understand,” said Lewis. “I promise; I won’t let you down.”
    “Not