Philip Palmer - Hell Ship

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.