Roman raised an eyebrow, shrugged, drew his revolver and to the horror of the bystanders, shot the three men dead.
Not a one of the prisoners showed the least surprise or pleaded for mercy.
Anana, her face grey with shock, stared at him open-mouthed. 'That was murder! They surrendered!'
'This is war,' he said without emotion. 'And all of these men are mercenaries; paid assassins; criminals hiding from justice in their own countries, evading a well-deserved date with the firing squad, the noose or the guillotine.' To Pietro he said, 'Remove the others at the Casa to a remote place and shoot them.'
'What about Ricardo?'
Roman sighed. 'We will decide Ricardo's fate at another time. For now, we return to Port Haven and defend against the enemy.'
Kara's brother drew his gun the moment he heard the noise, a distant rumble, followed by a thunderous concussion that could be felt through the ground.
'What is that?' Camilla said, her eyes wide.
'That is the sound of my father's warship reducing Port Haven to dust,' Kara's brother told her.
'Port Haven has guns too!' she rejoined weakly, looking uncertain now, and afraid.
'As I told you, not like those on the warship,' Kara's brother repeated grimly. 'That ship is still several miles distant, yet even from that distance can pound this island and everything on it to rubble with impunity.'
The explosions became a constant rumble that didn't relent. It wasn't long before they heard the sound of horses hooves and people's voices. Kara's brother instinctively drew his gun, then quickly put it away and ordered the others to do the same, as soon as he spotted the refugees on the road.
The lead figure, a very tall, thin woman wearing a black dress and kerchief, walking very erect with a long walking-stick, spotted them and stopped.
'You had better hurry if you wish to join the fighting,' the woman told them, 'or else there will soon be nothing left.' The refugees trailing behind her were all children, the elderly or the infirm, Kara's captors noted.
'Fighting?' Camilla blurted in surprise from her seat on the wagon. 'You mean, Port Haven is trying to fight back? Against that?'
The woman raised her chin defiantly, even as a thunderous concussion shook the ground. 'Port Haven has been evacuated. Those bastardos will find themselves facing five-thousand rifles at least as they try to climb up and over the rubble!'
'The fools!' Kara's brother muttered under his breath as they made their way past the slow-moving columns of refugees. 'They won't stand a chance using old-fashioned bolt-action rifles against the new repeating-rifles and machine guns. All they're going to succeed in doing is slowing down the process of surrender, and making our escape more difficult.'