Harker smiled. 'I am, if anyone is. Would you like to stay here with me, with us?'
'Oh yes,' said Halloweenie. 'I thought the Forest was frightening at first, but it isn't, not really. I could be a Boy here, couldn't I? A real Boy.'
'Of course,' said Harker. 'You always were.'
'What will happen to the toys eventually?' said Julian. 'When they've given up their fear, and become… adults?'
'I don't know,' said Harker. 'These are the first independent AI minds since Shub. They might become as human as us. Or, given the state of Humanity these days, they might not settle for so little. Perhaps the creations will outdo their creators.'
'That could be… dangerous,' said Giles.
'Stop thinking about Shub,' said Harker. 'Things are different here. Besides, the toys are powered by energy crystals. Eventually they will run down, and then the toys will need new crystals. And the only place to get those is Human space. The toys will need humans. And humans will always need toys. But that's the future. Lionstone must never know the secret of Haceldama. She would look at my children and see only another Shub in the making. She'd scorch this whole world rather than risk that.'
'Give us the tactical information you possess,' said Evangeline, 'and we'll keep Lionstone so busy she won't have time to think about Shannon's World. Once it's clear we know what you know, your information will become redundant, you won't be important to her anymore.'
'But you know my secret,' said Harker. 'Can I trust you to remain silent?'
'The underground has more important things to worry about than one basically neutral planet,' said Evangeline. 'As long as we come back with your information, no one will care where it came from. No one but us need ever know about Shannon's children.'
They all looked at Toby, who sighed heavily and then shrugged. 'It would have been great footage, but I guess it can stay on the shelf till it's finally safe to show it. Wouldn't be the first story I helped to bury. Right, Flynn? So, no one will ever know.'
'Wrong,' said Julian. 'The Empire will know, because I'll tell them. I'll tell them everything.' He stood up sharply, pushing back his chair, and the disrupter in his hand was trained unwaveringly on Harker. His face twisted with a smile that had no humor in it. His voice sounded strange, forced. 'No one move, or Harker's dead. Before Finlay rescued me, the mind techs planted one of Wormboy's worms deep in my brain, with hidden instructions. To destroy any real threat to the Empire. Harker and his army have activated my worm and its programming. Get up, Harker. You're coming back to Lionstone with me. Anyone interferes, and I'll kill him, right here.'
All around, the toys lifted their weapons and then hesitated, unsure what to do that wouldn't lead to the death of their leader. Giles's hand went to his gun, but Finlay put a hand on his arm, stopping him. They couldn't risk it.
'Can you teleport him out of here?' Finlay murmured.
'No. His esp blocks my powers,' said Giles quietly. 'But I might well be able to shoot him before he can get off a shot. Let me try.'
'No,' said Finlay. 'I want to try something first.' He raised his voice. 'Julian, listen to me. I got you out of the interrogator's cell. You hadn't broken. You were too strong for them. Be strong now. Giles says your powers are greater now than they've ever been. Fight the worm. Fight it! Be your own self!'
Julian frowned, his mouth working silently. The hand holding the disrupter began to shake. And then slowly the fingers opened, and the gun fell to the ground. Toby pounced on it, as Julian fell shuddering to his knees. Some of the toys aimed their weapons, but Harker stepped down from his throne to kneel beside the shaking esper.
'Help me,' said Julian, his eyes squeezed shut. 'It's still in my head. It wants me to kill you. It always will. But I won't…'
'You can be free,' said Harker, his head down next to Julian's. 'You can. My children broke their programming; you can break yours. Be strong. All you have to do is believe.'
Julian's back arched as a horrid pain coursed through him. His head snapped back, his face twisted in agony. His brief contact with Giles had filled him with more power than he'd ever known, and he drew on it all now, determined to be free even if it killed him. His left eye slowly bulged forward. And out of the bloody eye socket oozed a small grey worm, pushed out of the esper's brain by the sheer force of his will. It fell squirming onto the ground, and Finlay crushed it under his heel. Julian sank back into Harker's waiting arms. His eye sank back into its socket, and he managed a shaky smile.
'Well-done,' said Finlay. 'I always knew you had it in you.'
'I'm half-dead, and he's cracking jokes,' said Julian. 'Someone hit him for me.'
They all laughed, even Julian, as they all took turns hitting Finlay.
And that was the end of their mission to Shannon's World, wrongly renamed Haceldama, the Field of Blood. The humans and the toys celebrated long into the night, singing and dancing in the light of many fires, the occasional stream of moonlight, and the thick clouds of glowing spirits who came swooping in out of the night with their endless song. Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat danced paw in hand around the fire and were content, knowing the truth about themselves at last. And Halloweenie, the Li'l Skeleton Boy, sat on Harker's throne, drumming his bony heels against the wood, and dreamed of what it would be like to be more than just a boy.
CHAPTER THREE
TO BE A DEATHSTALKER
It was another perfect day in paradise. On the planet Virimonde, great green fields stretched lazily under a vast blue sky, marked here and there by low stone walls, spiky hedge boundaries, and ancient beaten paths. Beyond the fields lay dark, sprawling woodlands, with tall trees and drooping foliage, cool calm refuges from the heat of the summer sun. Sparkling rivers and streams splashed around water-polished stones, tumbling over sudden dips and hollows, where the fishing was always excellent. Food animals of all kinds grazed peacefully in the fields, and what passed for birds on Virimonde were singing their little hearts out under a cloudless sky and a beaming sun. A marvelous open, peaceful world of bounty and tranquility. And David Deathstalker owned it all.
The Deathstalker and his friend Kit SummerIsle, called by some Kid Death, raced their modified flyers in and out of the trees, sweeping this way and that at breathtaking speed, and whooping wildly as they went. The flyers were really little more than gravity sleds, a board to stand on and a vertical yoke for the controls, stripped down to the bare essentials for extra speed and better maneuvering. David and Kit had shut the force shields down, so they could feel the wind buffeting their faces and driving tears from their narrowed eyes. If something were to go wrong; if they misjudged speed or distance or reflexes, and ended up crashing or in collision with some unyielding object, without the force shields' protection they would be instantly killed, but neither of them gave a damn. They were young and fit and rich, with warriors' lightning reflexes and instincts, and, therefore, they were immortal. Accidents were things that happened to other people. And so they went, whipping in and out of the trees, slamming through the gloom of the forest so fast it was nothing but a blur of browns and greens around them. The lead went back and forth between them as they tried seeing how close they could get to the trees without crashing, testing their skill and courage and luck to the breaking point, and laughing breathlessly all the while.
The Deathstalker and the SummerIsle, firm friends and heads of their respective Clans, young and daring and still searching for some definition of who they really were. David; tall and handsome and always immaculately dressed. Dark of hair and eye and wild of heart, a warrior as yet untested in war. A fairly minor cousin of an ancient Family, until Owen's outlawing made him suddenly head of the Clan and Lord of Virimonde. An occasional secret supporter of the rebellion, mostly just for the fun of intrigue.
And Kit, Kid Death, the smiling killer, a slender figure in black and silver, pale and more than fashionably thin, with icy blue eyes and pale blond flyaway hair. Who became head of his Family by killing his father, his mother, and all his brothers and sisters in a series of more or less legal duels. Kit SummerIsle, sometime favorite of the Empress Lionstone, sometime supporter of the underground—a dangerous and isolated man who went where the killing was. Until he met David Deathstalker.
After a while, the adrenaline pounding through their systems began to make them feel giddy in the head, so
