Guyard's hand raked at his belt as he wheeled about. But the gun was not in his belt. Marene had taken it from him, had placed it beneath her own short coat. He was unarmed.
Four of the creatures were already in the room, Zuldi among them. More were coming up through the trap door.
Guyard knew that he was facing death, a hideous death. Zuldi and his monsters would gleefully claw him to pieces, throw him into the street.
One of the creatures charged him suddenly with huge arms and clawed hands outstretched.
Desperation and a sense of his own helplessness surged through Guyard. It gave him a mad strength beyond all reason. His balled fist lashed out with all the fury that twelve horrible years of hatred could give it. The flesh and bone of the beast's face fairly exploded into gory pulp as the blow landed.
At almost the same instant, another clawed hand grasped Guyard by the shoulder and sent him spinning backward to land with a crash against the table at the far side of the room. It was Zuldi.
Guyard stood leaning against the table, dazed and shaken.
He heard Marene's scream and saw the two creatures forcing her down through the trap door. They would not harm her. They would let her live for a worse fate. The black ship would be coming in less than two weeks.
"We saw you open the window a while ago. That's what brought us up." Zuldi was standing before him, his huge, round mouth with its yellow teeth hanging open in pleasure. "I'm so glad we came. Two examples in the same morning is more than I had hoped for."