Philip Palmer - Hell Ship

And behind them walked ten bipeds dressed in red robes.

“Cuzco join us!” I screamed up, and he laughed, and then he shat, and I had to dodge out of the way of his vast turd as it crashed to earth.

“Fray,” I said, “we should attack while they are still in the lake,” and I beckoned with one arm to make my meaning clear to him.

And Fray turned to me, and there was sadness in her eyes; but she did not move.

“Quipu?” I turned to Quipu. His five heads were still; he was holding a home-made sword in one of his hands and he pointed the blade towards me.

Around me were the bloodied corpses of the Kindred and the bodies of many of our own: Zubu was dead, and so was Doriel; and Caramo also. Doalya the foolish blind aerial-she was a broken wreck. Sargan, who could drum his own body, had been eviscerated by Kindred and his brains ripped out. But Biark was alive, and so was Sahashs, and Loramas, and Thugor, and many more. But none of them moved; they all had that eerie stillness.

I was the only warrior left able to fight; my entire army had joined our enemy. And I realised that my strategy had failed; the paklas still controlled each creature’s mind, except for mine.

And so I waited, a dreary patient wait for my own inevitable doom. Waited until the ten Ka’un had walked across the dry lake and had joined me on the battlefield, while their monsters stood flanking the lake shore like statues in a Sabol temple.

And I watched as their leader-a male with a face like black parchment-walked towards me, proud and calm. He was the one I had seen before; the one who had stared so curiously at my body as I dangled naked from a hook.

“Greetings Sharrock,” he said, in my own language, without use of pakla. “I am Minos; and I am the captain of this ship.”

“You are the one who did this, aren’t you? You released me!” I said, appalled, retrospectively, at my own stupidity.

“Yes.” Minos did not smile, but he was clearly delighted at his own great joke.

“You disabled the pakla-links, temporarily.”

“I did. And it yielded us a battle most glorious.”

“What I did to the Machine Mind-”

“Achieved precisely nothing. The power to control the ‘paklas’ ”-Minos tapped his forehead with a long finger-“is here. All in here.”

I nodded; my humiliation was complete. I had played the foolish pawn in Minos’s cruel game.

And yet I did not care.

“And now you are going to kill me?” I asked.

The Ka’un drew his sword and held it aloft; the universal sign for a challenge.

I stifled a gasp at this unexpected move; and wondered if this was merely another jest; and yet a flicker of hope stirred in me.

“My name is Minos,” said the Ka’un. “And I shall fight you for this world!”

And I nodded assent; then I raised my sword and attacked him.

Above me Cuzco and Djamrock and Tarroth beat their wings in syncopation with the clang of my hull-steel sword on Minos’s far superior fusion-forged weapon. Fray and Quipu and all my comrades watched, paralysed, their bodies controlled by Ka’un. The giant sentients standing by the lake shore were silent too; and the nine other Ka’un watched impassively as Minos recklessly gambled their world on a single combat with a warrior supreme.

And as I fought, I wondered if the nine other Ka’un would honour Minos’s bargain in the event of his death. For I was alone, one warrior against an army of monsters; even if I did beat Minos, I could be slain by them with effortless ease.

And yet, I sensed that Minos was sincere. With his black old face and his tired eyes, he looked as if he would welcome the release of defeat in glorious battle.

So with hope in my heart, I struck and I stabbed and I danced, and I used all my warrior skills against this aged slender monster with the dry and withered face and the weary eyes; for I was Sharrock, and Sharrock could never, ever, be defeated!

However, after a few minutes of masterly and dazzling and heroic swordplay I realised, to my utter and abject horror, that I could not actually beat this bastard. For Minos was faster than me; and defter; and more skilful. His strokes were unerring, his grace was faultless, and he was strong. His body looked punier than mine by far; but each strike of sword on sword shook me to the core. I leaped over his blade but he leaped too and we fought in air, clashing swords wildly till we both somersaulted and landed back on grass, but his mid-air turn was faster and his fall more agile, and he struck again, and the blade cut my shoulder and blood flowed.

My injuries were not to blame, for my battle strength was on me, and I fought like a Maxolun possessed. But even so I could not compete with a devil like Minos.

And then my blade shattered and I fell to the ground helpless and Minos raised his blade as if to cleave my head.

But a female Ka’un stepped forward; and fire sparked from her fingers. And Minos drew back.

The female Ka’un looked into my eyes, and I looked into hers; and I saw nothing there but nothingness. Then she drew her sword; there were jewels on the hilt and the blade gleamed in daylight and then she passed it to me hilt uppermost; and when I held it was like caressing a soul.

A second Ka’un stepped forward holding a jug and poured water from the well of life over my ripped and bleeding flayed body; soothing my pain; giving me strength to continue.

Fray roared; they gave her freedom to do that much.

Cuzco beat his wings and stared down and I looked up at my old friend and acknowledged him.

And the battle resumed.

I was refreshed now, I had a superior sword, my comrades had shown their support; and my spirits were high!

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.