Deathstalker Return (59 page)

“Jesus, he’s even more long-winded than Lewis,” said Brett. “Can we please get to the point? I really would like to get out of this appalling place as soon as possible. Finn must know we’re here by now.”

“You must excuse Brett,” Lewis said to Silence. “It’s either that or hit him a lot, and it does wear you out after a while.”

Silence gave Brett a long thoughtful look, and Brett felt an urgent need to hide behind someone. Silence smiled suddenly. “You’re one of Random’s Bastards, aren’t you? Claim descent from Jack and Ruby Journey. They were brave souls, but I never trusted either of them. Must run in the family.”

Brett was still wondering how to take that when Silence turned back to Lewis. “After my reported death, I needed a new course. The Maze kept me young and powerful, so I decided to work from the shadows, as Humanity’s secret protector.”

“Didn’t do too good a job of it, did you?” muttered Brett.

“Brett!” snapped Jesamine.

“Oh, stuff all that respect shit,” said Brett, surprising everyone, including himself. He stepped forwards to glare right into Silence’s face. “You’re the last living legend, on a par with Owen and the others. So why didn’t you stop Finn?”

“Because I decided a long time ago that Humanity should make its own way,” said Silence. “I wanted to be its guardian, not its god. And I could have been your god, if I’d wanted. But I have to say, I didn’t see Finn coming. He’s really just a focus for a whole bunch of preexisting trends. If it hadn’t been him, it would have been someone else. It was his time. Humanity has gone mad, not just Finn Durandal. He isn’t doing anything they don’t want him to do. How else do you think it all fell apart so quickly? And . . . I never was as powerful as the others, despite what the legends say. You need Owen, to stop the Durandal and the Terror. And I need Owen too. I need his certainty, and his moral vision, to tell me what to do for the best. Perhaps I just want him back so he can solve everything and look after Humanity, so I won’t have to anymore. A selfish thought, perhaps, but . . .”

“What’s it like?” Lewis said abruptly. “What’s it like, inside the Madness Maze?”

“It’s different for everyone,” said Silence. “I don’t know whether the Maze is just a machine, or whether it’s alive. Or whether it’s so advanced that such terms don’t apply anymore. Walking through it changes you on every level you have, and adds on some new ones. It’s like a wake-up call from God. As though the best part of you had been sleeping all your life, and the Maze awakened it.”

“Why does the Maze make some people crazy?” said Jesamine. “Why does it kill people?”

“I don’t know,” said Silence. “I saw good people destroyed by the Maze, right in front of me, and I never knew why. But I do believe this: that a Deathstalker can make it safely through the Maze, all the way to its hidden heart. The rest of you are of course free to try, but I can’t guarantee your safety or your lives.”

“You couldn’t drag me into that abomination,” Saturday said firmly. The reptiloid had been studying the entrance to the Maze for some time, pulling faces and muttering under her breath. “That thing feels
wrong.
Unnatural. It should be destroyed. Besides, reptiloids are perfect already. Everyone knows that.”

She snorted loudly, turned her back on the Maze, and stalked as far away from it as she could get in the confined space. Her back radiated disapproval, and her tail lashed angrily back and forth. The others studied the entrance to the Maze silently. Jesamine faced it square-on, her arms folded tightly. On the one hand, the Maze scared the crap out of her, but on the other hand, she felt rather resentful that her safety couldn’t be guaranteed, just because she wasn’t a bloody Deathstalker. That aristocratic bullshit had been thrown out centuries ago. She was every bit as good as Lewis. If not better. She was a star, dammit, a diva. She’d been worshiped and adored.

Brett scowled at the Maze. Looked at in just the right way, the Maze was really nothing more than just another security system, to protect a hidden treasure. And Brett had never seen a security system he couldn’t get past eventually. Not that he had any intention of going in, of course. He had more sense. Even though it would be the ultimate test of his talents . . . and the greatest prize he’d ever got his greedy little hands on. He glanced across at Rose, and was immediately worried by the look on her face. She was smiling. Brett had seen that look, that smile, before in those rare moments when Rose found herself face to face with an enemy she thought might actually give her a real fight. Rose saw the Maze as a challenge.

And before any of them could stop her, Rose Constantine darted forwards and plunged into the Madness Maze. She disappeared between its metal folds, leaving only a brief rasp of happy laughter behind her. And before he could stop himself, Brett ran in after her. Because he just knew it was all going to go horribly wrong.

The Maze swallowed them both up without a murmur.

 

 

At first, it wasn’t too bad. The Madness Maze turned out to be an infinite number of branching shimmering metal walls, leading away in all directions, opening up some ways and closing off others. Brett found it rather disturbing that none of the metal walls showed his reflection, but he made himself concentrate on Rose. There was no sign of her anywhere, even though he’d entered the Maze right behind her. He called out her name, but there was no reply, and something seemed to suck all the volume out of his voice, making it a small and furtive thing. Brett swallowed hard, and set off into the Maze.

It didn’t take him long to decide that he really didn’t like being there. The narrow paths were distinctly claustrophobic, it was far too quiet, and he couldn’t shake a horrid feeling of being watched by unseen malevolent eyes. It was cold, bitterly cold, even more so than on the surface, but he knew it wasn’t the cold which made him shake uncontrollably. He felt lost, and vulnerable, and his skin crawled in anticipation of something he couldn’t even name.

He knew he wasn’t alone in the Maze. There was something in there with him, and it wasn’t Rose. Scents and sounds came and went before he could properly identify them, and the air moved slowly back and forth, as though the Maze itself was breathing. Something thudded loudly in the distance, a great bass sound, like the slow beating of a great sticky heart. Brett plunged on, almost running now, choosing branching ways at random. His breathing was painfully fast, and his face was wet with sweat, but it never even occurred to him to turn back. He had to find Rose. If only to prove to himself, as well as Silence, that he was a Random after all. Birds chattered in iron voices, and it seemed to him that the light was fading away. His hands didn’t feel as though they belonged to him anymore.

And suddenly there she was, right ahead of him, lying on the metal floor, curled up into a tight ball and shuddering violently. Shadows were leaping all around, though there was nothing there to cast them. Brett ran over to Rose and knelt down beside her. She was crying, great heaving sobs that shook her whole body. Bloody tears ran down her jerking cheeks from squeezed-shut eyes. Brett put a hesitant hand on her shoulder, and she turned quickly and hugged him to her, burying her face in his shoulder.

“I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I didn’t think it would be like this. I don’t . . . I can’t stand this, Brett. I can’t. Get me out of here. Please, get me out of here.”

Brett got her back on her feet, though he still had to bear most of her weight. He looked quickly about him, trying for a glimpse of whatever had unmanned Rose so utterly. But there were only the shadows, growing deeper and darker by the moment. Brett started back down the corridor, back to the entrance, and then he stopped suddenly and looked back over his shoulder. He could have sworn someone just called out his name. It was no voice he knew, but it knew him, and it promised him things. Things he’d always wanted, even if he’d never known it till just then. But he would have had to leave Rose, and he couldn’t do that. The Maze was killing her. So he turned his back on the voice, and tenderly half led, half carried Rose out of the Madness Maze, and back into the waking world.

Getting out was a lot easier than getting in, and the two of them soon staggered out of the entrance to the Maze. Lewis and Jesamine were quickly there to help Brett with Rose, but she wouldn’t let him go. In the end, Brett and Rose sat down on the floor together, holding each other like frightened children. Silence watched them, remembering a time from long ago, when he had brought Investigator Frost out of the Maze in much the same way. And probably for the same reason. Jesamine tried to comfort Rose, but she shook her head stubbornly.

“Brett. I want Brett.”

“I’m here, Rose. We’re out of the Maze. We’re safe now.”

“No. I’ll never be safe again.”

“What happened in there?” said Lewis. “You were only in there a few moments.”

Brett didn’t have an answer for him. He hugged Rose as tightly as he could, and her leathers creaked loudly, but still he couldn’t seem to reach her. Her eyes were glazed over, her face was slack, as though she was fading away. So Brett did the only thing he could, no matter how much it scared him. He reached out with his esp, and deliberately reestablished the mental bond they’d shared when their minds first touched. Their thoughts slammed together, like two sides of the same coin, as though they belonged together and always had. Brett took her pain and shock for his own, and bore the weight of it for her, where she could not. And she took from him the strength and courage she needed, though he hadn’t even known it was there. And if they both found dark places in each other’s minds, the darkness was nothing compared to the shared light they generated. Brett Random and Rose Constantine; two wounded souls, healing each other.

They finally broke the mental link, dropped back into their own heads, and helped each other onto their feet again. Brett looked at the others, and smiled weakly. Rose was her old composed self again.

“Don’t ask,” said Brett.

“I wouldn’t dare,” said Jesamine.

“What did the Maze do to you?” said Lewis, stubbornly sticking to the point. Rose looked back at the entrance to the Maze.

“I didn’t expect that,” she said finally. “It made me feel so small, so limited. Like a caterpiller trapped forever in its cocoon. I couldn’t go on, but I couldn’t go back, and staying where I was was killing me by inches. The Maze has no mercy. I would have died in there, if Brett hadn’t saved me.”

“How do you feel, Brett?” said Silence.

“Lucky to be alive,” Brett growled. “That place is dangerous. It’s full of everything you never wanted to see. It can unmake you, tear up everything you thought you believed in. I won’t go back in there. Not for anything.”

Jesamine put a hand on Lewis’s arm, and made him look at her. “You don’t have to do this, Lewis. The Maze isn’t anything like we thought it was. It plays games with people. You can’t trust it.”

“I do have to do this, Jes,” said Lewis. “This is what it’s all been about. Everything we’ve been through was about getting me here, to this place at this time. Looking at the Maze . . . feels like going home. It’s where I belong.”

“But I don’t want you to go in,” Jesamine said desperately, staring imploringly into eyes that looked like they belonged to someone else. “Lewis, even if by some miracle you do come back alive, you might not be
you
anymore. Even the legends couldn’t disguise how different Owen and the others were after the Maze changed them. They were never the same again.”

“No. They were better. Don’t try to stop me, Jes. Be happy for me. This is my duty, and my destiny, as a Deathstalker. I’ve always wanted this. The Maze will make me into what I have to be, to save Humanity. Which includes you. And I’d do anything to save you, Jes.”

“Maybe . . . the new you won’t want me anymore,” whispered Jesamine.

Lewis smiled, taking both her hands in both of his. “Owen still loved Hazel.”

“They’d both been through the Maze.”

“Then come in with me.”

Jesamine jerked her hands from his. “No. Don’t ask that of me, Lewis.”

“I will stand between you and all harm. And I will tear the Maze apart before I let it hurt you.”

“Only a Deathstalker can safely navigate the Madness Maze,” said Silence.

“Hell with that,” said Lewis. “She’s with me.”

 

 

Lewis Deathstalker and Jesamine Flowers entered the Madness Maze together, hand in hand so they couldn’t be separated. The shimmering metal walls came and went before them like the slow waves of an endless sea. The air was bitter cold, and it smelled of roses and iron. They could taste hot leather and spices in their mouths. Someone was singing a lullaby in an unknown tongue, in a voice like clashing knives. There was a feeling of clockwork turning with inexorable slowness, of chess pieces moving on the board of their own accord. And from somewhere up ahead came the great slow flapping of giant wings.

Lewis and Jesamine wandered through the Maze like children in a great primeval forest, overawed by their surroundings and heading towards something they could feel, but not name. And despite all their best intentions, somewhere along the way they took different turnings and went their different ways. Jesamine skipped along, humming a happy tune, quite cheerful and unafraid, while layers of meaning and significance crystalized in her mind, and she finally understood all manner of things. The Maze led her round and round, pushing open doors in her mind and letting air into dusty old closets, and finally it brought her back to the entrance. She danced out into the world again, singing a glorious song. The others looked at her, dumbfounded, and then looked at the entrance to the Maze when it became clear that Lewis wasn’t going to follow her out.

“What the hell happened to you?” said Brett. “And where’s Lewis?”

“I’m fine. And Lewis is where he’s supposed to be.” She smiled widely at Silence. “No wonder you couldn’t explain it to us. I feel like someone took my brain and scrubbed it clean of years of accumulated grime. And Lewis . . . is heading for the heart of the Maze. To get all the answers. I don’t think I envy him.”