‘He tripped; Karen went flying free, almost fell into one of the gaping magmass wormholes. Corlis got up on one knee, glaring his hatred and frustration at me. I was almost within reach of him. His arms reached for me and I backed away – but, God, Jazz, those hellish arms kept reaching! They stretched like rubber, straining after me, and I could hear the tearing of muscles and ligaments! His face – God, his face! – it opened like a hinged steel trap, with rows of needle teeth that were visibly growing and curving out of his jaws! I don’t know what he was becoming – something utterly invincible, I’m sure – but I wasn’t about to give in to him. Not to that.
‘My SMG was in my hands, had been there all the time. But I’m not a soldier, Jazz, and I had never killed. Against this, however, I had no other choice. I cocked the gun (don’t ask me where I found the strength, for my muscles were jelly) and squeezed the trigger.
‘Well, as you know, bullets don’t kill them – but they do make a mess of them. The stream of fire I turned on Corlis was almost a solid wall of lead. It turned his trunk scarlet, punched holes in his chest and hideous face, blew him back away from me and sent him sprawling, flopping like a wet rag. And amidst the chattering madness of my weapon, everything else seemed frozen. In the relative quiet of Starside, that gunfire must have sounded like the laughter of hell! And only when the magazine was empty did the noise abate, allowing its echoes to come thundering back from the hills.
‘Stunning, the effect – but then the tableau unfroze. Urged on by Karen where she came to her feet, her men leaped toward Corlis. He sat up! – I couldn’t believe it, but he did. Already the holes were healing in his body, his bloody face sealing itself. He saw them bearing down on him with their silver-tipped swords and looked wildly all about. There! – a magmass hole; he stood up, all lopsided, crouched, sprang, went sprawling toward its dark mouth. In mid-air one of Karen’s retainers caught him; a sword flashed silver; Corlis’s head sprang free! His trunk crashed forward, spurting blood from its severed neck. Corlis’s dive took his twitching body down the magmass wormhole and out of sight. But his head lay grimacing, gnashing its evil teeth, where it had fallen.
‘Karen gave a cry of disgust, stepped forward and kicked the vomiting thing into another hole. Whatever Corlis had done, it must have been very bad. Scarlet stains were all that remained of him . . .
‘Karen looked at me, looked at the smoking gun in my hands. Her red eyes were wide now, making her face seem paler still. As well as the gun, she was aware of the rest of my kit; she couldn’t keep her gaze from straying to my packs, the nozzle of the flame-thrower hooked to my belt, the sigil on the left-hand breast pocket of my combat suit. The latter finally impressed itself upon her and she stepped closer, peering at the crest. It was a hammer and sickle, of course, crossed with the bayonet of an infantry unit. Some small soldier had sacrificed his suit for me.
‘But it signified much more than that to the Lady. She pointed, stretched herself tall – perhaps in outrage – and spat words in my face. They came much too fast to be anything but a gabble; I read them in her mind:
‘”Is that your banner? The curved knife, the hammer and the stake? Do you mock me?”
‘ “I mock no one,” I answered. “This badge is merely- ”
‘”Be quiet!” And she added: “Also beware, for if your weapon so much as snaps at me, then I’ll feed you as a tidbit to my warrior creatures!” And she pointed to the anomalous monstrosities on the rock-strewn plain.
‘My gun was empty and I didn’t dare try to re-load. In a moment of inspiration I held it out, offering it to Karen; she at once shrank a little back from it. Then she scowled, knocked the gun aside, reached out and hooked her scarlet fingernails into the stitching of my pocket. She tore the offending blazon from me and tossed it away. “There!” she said, and : “Do you denounce these signs?”