Free Deathstalker Destiny by Simon R. Green Page B

Scour, “we felt the change. Your transformation affected everything else, like ripples spreading out from a stone thrown into the center of reality. It was decided that we would take one of you for examination. You had the most weaknesses, and your particular talent fascinated us. If we could control your ability to summon alternate versions of yourself, we would have an endless supply of Maze people to experiment on. We have tried cloning our subjects in the past, but the nature of this place interferes with the process. You are the answer to all our problems.”
    “Someone is coming,” said one of the severed human heads, and all the Blood Runners turned to look.
    “What do you mean, someone’s coming?” said Scour. “No one can come here without our permission. No one can find us, unless we allow it. Who could possibly be coming here?”
    “The Deathstalker,” said the severed head, and the other computer heads took up the name, chanting it over and over again, until Scour shut them all with an angry wave of his hand. “He will be here soon,” said the first head. “Soon , ” whispered the other heads in unison, and then they fell silent.
    “Another Maze subject for our experiments,” said Lament. “Fortune smiles on us.”
    “Fool!” snapped Pyre. “This is the Deathstalker! He toppled the Empire! And if he can find his way here, to us, he must be even more powerful than we believed. He must be stopped, before he can reach Hazel d‘Ark. Together, who knows what they might be capable of, so close to the Summerstone?” He turned and glared at Scour. “Take her. Break her. Rip her secrets out of her before the Deathstalker arrives. Do whatever you have to.”
    “I always intended to,” said Scour. “I trust I can count on not being interrupted?”
    “We’ll protect you,” said Pyre. “But don’t dare fail us.”
    “Come,” said Scour to Hazel. “Let us return to my laboratory. And begin our explorations into the limits of suffering.”
    Hazel kicked and struggled as the two headless bodies dragged her away, and couldn’t loosen their grip one bit.
     
    Owen Deathstalker came at last to the Obeah Systems in the Sunstrider III , only to find there was nothing there. No colonies, no civilizations, nothing. Just an empty sector of space, marked on the charts as the Obeah Systems through old tradition. Owen cranked open the ship’s sensors as far as they would go, but there were no lifesigns anywhere, no energy sources, no traces of artificial habitats; nothing. He sat back in his chair on the bridge, and scowled darkly. He’d made good time in getting here from Lachrymae Christi, pushing the stardrive to its limit, and he refused to believe it had all been for nothing.
    “Are you sure you’ve brought us to the right place, Oz?”
    “I was navigating ships before you were born, Owen,” said the AI testily. “I told you there was nothing indicated at these coordinates, but you wouldn’t listen. As far as I can tell, the Obeah Systems are what we navigators refer to as a MAMFA location.”
    “And what the hell does MAMFA stand for?”
    “Miles And Miles of Fuck All.”
    “I’d have you overhauled if I knew where your hardware was. Suggest something, Oz! This location is the only clue we’ve got to finding Hazel. Think of something.”
    “She could be dead, Owen.”
    “No. I’d know.”
    Oz was quiet for a while, and when he finally spoke his quiet voice was unusually hesitant. “There are legends about the Obeah Systems. Old legends. They say the Blood Runners’ world isn’t always there. It comes and it goes. That it’s a place only they can reach, and no one can find without their consent. But you’re not just anybody, Owen. You know I’ve never really understood your powers, but ... you once reached across space to destroy a Blood Runner, on his secret world. Reach out again ... and maybe you’ll be able to see where we need to go.”
    Owen shut his eyes and concentrated.