Hell Ship

by Philip Palmer

  And yet still I could not win. Minos was the devil; his lean and wasted body was quicksilver, but his arms had the strength of a hundred warriors. He played with me, forcing me backwards, parrying my blows so powerfully I grunted like a cathary; striking with his sword so fast he sheared my hair and nipped my ears but not even deigning to kill me. And then he stabbed me in the heart; but my second heart surged and it gave me the strength to continue with a brief attacking flurry.

  At which point he stepped aside with almost supernatural speed and I carried on fighting; my sword hacking at air until I realised he was nowhere near me.

  And then, scornfully, Minos lowered his sword and raised his other hand and a pulse of energy surged out of his fingers and struck my raw exposed body; and, with a bolt of sheer lightning from his fingertips, he electrocuted me!

  The energy bolt knocked me to the ground. I lay on the grass, breathing heavily, then I scrambled clumsily to my feet.

  He fired a second energy bolt and this time my entire flayed body lit up; my very veins seemed to be aflame.

  He fired a third time; and my two hearts burned in my chest and sparks shot from my eyes.

  And then there was silence.

  Minos held his sword lightly but he clearly thought the battle was over; his bio-energy attacks were just a coup de grace and he was now waiting for me to remember how to die.

  And at that moment, I thanked my stars for one thing: that we Maxoluns also have the power of bodily electricity!

  It is, after all, what allowed me to open the locks in the exterior world. And it is furthermore the power that enabled me to steal the Jewel of the Seventh Sun for Malisha.

  And thus the bolts of power that surged into my body had redoubled my strength, not sapped it. I felt as if I’d drained a glass of strong rich wine, and now was ready for the evening’s misbehaving to begin!

  And so I lunged with my sword; and my blade was fast and the blade penetrated Minos’s head through the soft skin on the underside of his chin; then I thrust the blade up further into his brain; and he was dead.

  There was a shocked silence.

  And then a thundering of hooves; and Fray was at my side.

  And a swoosh of air, and Cuzco descended, and joined us. And Quipu too and Lirilla. Their babble of words made no sense to me but I knew they were there to fight by my side.

  For now that Minos was dead, I realised, the power of the pakla had gone; it truly was his mind that had control of it. And so the creatures of this world were free.

  And, in consequence, we had the remaining nine Ka’un entirely surrounded.

  There was a baying and roaring and a keening and a screeching from the great mob of creatures. And Mangan was suddenly at my side too, roaring hysterically at the Ka’un. Fray’s eyes were bloodshot with rage; thousands of alien creatures of every kind and morphology were possessed with a terrible blood-lust. And all we wanted to do was kill these evil fucking Ka’un now.

  And I wondered what Sai-ias would expect of us at this momentous moment. Would she want us to forgive and spare the Ka’un, now that they were helpless, and we were the ones with the power?

  I did not think so.

  “Kill!” I screamed and the charge began; and the female Ka’un who had given me her sword raised her arms and looked me and she actually smiled.

  And then she burst into flame. Her body became a burning candle. And the same happened with each of the other Ka’un; their bodily-energy turned on itself and their flesh became fire.

  And the candles burned till the flesh was all gone. And the fires then were snuffed; and we knew the Ka’un were dead.

  And we were left, we captives of the Hell Ship, free at last, on a world in space, confronted by pillars of ash and charred bone that were all that remained of our captors.

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