Prince Yuri took the rifle from the guard, stood Myles in the center of the room, and sat down himself on the dais.
Then he directed Tobo, “Go and summon the Princess Lilla hither, for I wish her to see me kill this lover of hers, this beast from another world.”
Myles winced at the mention of his beloved, and thereat his tormentors smiled.
The soldier departed on his errand. Yuri toyed with the weapon, and watched his victim, with a sneer on his handsome lips. Myles returned his stare without flinching.
“You can put down your hands now, if you wish, you fur-faced mathlab,” the prince remarked.
Cabot did so, and instinctively felt of his face. The insult was unwarranted, for he had shaved only that morning.
“Don’t go too far!” he admonished his captor. “Remember Poblath’s proverb: ‘You cannot kill a Minorian’.”
“I’ve a mind to kill you right now,” the prince replied, “just to prove to you that your friend is wrong.”
“Go ahead and try it,” Myles challenged, half hoping that Yuri would take him at his word, and thus spare Lilla the pain of attending the execution.
A grim look settled on the usurper’s face as he slowly raised the rifle and pointed it at the earth-man’s right side.