Emperor of Gondwanaland Read Online Free PDF

was soon on deck. How welcome it felt! The first thing I noticed was my men’s shocked faces, as when they had first sighted the drifting hulk. Events seemed to be repeating themselves in an endless cycle.
    I looked back to the cutter.
    Merino had come unsteadily to his feet in the rocking dinghy. His dagger was unsheathed and upraised. Belgrano was still rooted to his seat in amazement, but in the process of shifting to stand. Tess was sitting calmly.
    The dagger began its plunge toward the Fanzoy’s breast.
    It was arrested in midair, Merino’s hand caught fast in some invisible grip.
    Things happened with baffling speed. Belgrano stood and moved on the Fanzoy. Either unable or unwilling to stop him as she had stopped Merino, she resorted to physical means, striking him an unexpected and massive blow across his thighs from her seated position. He toppled backwards and overboard.
    Merino’s dagger began to reverse its course, heading slowly toward his own heart.
    His face was frozen in a rictus of fear.
    Tess was immobile and dispassionate.
    I glanced frantically around on the deck. The tree-cutting lasers lay where the men had first dropped them upon coming aboard, not stowed because of the strange happenings.
    A slovenly failure I would certainly have upbraided them for. But now—what an unexpected blessing!
    I snatched one up, rested its snout on the rail.
    Before Merino could bury his blade in his own heart, I had driven a beam of light through the Fanzoy’s chest.
    She died soundlessly.
    Merino collapsed over the gunwale, his head dangling just over the waves.
     
    VI. The Slaughter, and Its Aftermath
     
    Now the sun was falling in the west, as we fished Belgrano—unhurt—out of the water, and brought him and the unconscious Merino aboard.
    The corpse of Tess we heaved into the uncomplaining water, watching it sink like an unattached anchor out of sight.
    Once we were all aboard the Melville , we turned naturally toward the Cockerel . It had drifted closer to us in the meantime.
    All the Fanzoii were clustered silently at the rail. They still seemed nonthreatening.
    Suddenly a human scream filled the air. I knew it instinctively for the death cry of the Sanctus. A shudder went through my crew.
    The scream served to awaken Merino, who got unsteadily to his feet. He passed a shaky hand across his wracked features, as if brushing unseen cobwebs away. I was at a loss what to do, and awaited Merino’s insights into the situation. Clearly the Fanzoii were murderers and brigands and had to be stopped. But how?
    Merino stumbled to the rail and rested his hands upon it. He looked toward the Cockerel , like Lazarus at his vacated tomb.
    There was a parting of the ranks of the quiet Fanzoii. Two individuals walked forward with the sheeted statue from Merino’s cabin.
    So now they were planning to taunt Merino with sacrilege, I thought.
    Merino blanched as if drained of blood.
    The Fanzoii whisked off the sheet.
    A man—clearly of flesh and blood—was revealed. He began to jig and prance and wave his arms, in a grotesque and obscene parody of a tarantella.
    Merino spoke in a voice empty of all emotion, as if from beyond death. “It is my cousin Sadler. He is no longer truly alive.” He turned imploring eyes on me and his voice rose in a shriek. “My God, sink that ship of devils and end his misery!”
    With that he collapsed onto the deck once more.
    I have said previously that I have always tried to live by a certain code. One tenet of that code was never to attack a helpless foe. For all the grief the Fanzoii had caused, I could not bring myself to fire upon them. What I would have done had they not escalated the battle I do not know. Perhaps tried to capture them unharmed, and so have doomed myself and all those who relied on me.
    As it was, the Cockerel ’s laser pistols suddenly appeared in the hands of the Fanzoii.
    One shot the dancing Sadler through the head.
    The rest began firing on us.
    The beams were not