Doctor Who_ All-Consuming Fire - Andy Lane [123]
We followed him. We had no choice.
The fakirs stopped singing just as we passed through behind them and felt the carpet beneath our feet. We were in a huge, high-ceilinged ballroom whose walls were cracked and whose carpet was thickly smeared with dust. Nobody else was present. A feeling of peace washed over me. I was home. I didn't care that it was, if Ace could be believed, almost twenty years since I had left. At least it was the same planet.
I turned and looked behind. The surface of Ry'leh hung like a painting on a wall of the ballroom. Tiny fivelegged shapes were rushing across the ground towards us, clutching weapons, as the metal shapes flew overhead like a flock of birds.
The gateway closed behind me, close enough for me to feel the sudden whoosh as it collapsed.
The Doctor led us into a deep recess in the wall. From there we watched the rakshassi milling around the temple, whose runners had cut deep gouges in the carpet. I could not see Sherringford.
'I thought you said half an hour,' he said to Ace.
'Anyone can make a mistake,' she said.
'Looks like a frying pan and fire situation to me,' Bernice added, looking around. 'How do we get back to the TARDIS from here?'
'We can worry about that later,' the Doctor said. 'Are we in the right place?'
'Search me,' Ace replied. 'I did all my research from an old copy of the Reader's Digest.'
'It's the Palace Hotel,' I said.
Holmes looked at me sceptically.
'It is,' I insisted. 'I practised medicine in San Francisco for nearly a year. I took rooms here when I first arrived. You sent telegrams to me.'
'It looks like we're too late,' the Doctor muttered. 'The earthquake has already happened. The hotel is still standing. I don't understand!'
'So they can still invade?' Bernice asked.
'More fool me, yes they can. And in the middle of a national disaster, it will be even more difficult to fight them. Still, at least we're here to try.'
In the centre of the ballroom, Sherringford emerged from Azathoth's temple.
'My brothers...' he began.
He got no further. A deep shudder ran through the fabric of the hotel.
Sherringford looked around wildly.
With a tremendous explosion, the doors to the ballroom burst open to reveal a wall of flame. Gluts of red-tongued fire leaped up the walls, scorching the plaster and cracking the marble. A wave of heat rolled towards us.
'Fire?' Holmes mouthed.
Ace grinned.
'Started after the earthquake when some stupid woman tried to cook breakfast after the gas main cracked. Caused more damage than the earthquake itself. The army tried to stop it by dynamiting the buildings, but they spread it even further. I remember the dynamite, it's why I enjoyed the project so much.'
An ominous cracking made me look upwards. What I saw made me shout:
'Run, run for it!'
We got to the door just as the ceiling gave way and huge chunks of masonry fell into the centre of the room. Rakshassi staggered around, blinded and deafened, their wings alight. A cloud of dust and smoke rolled towards us, hiding the hellish scene. Holmes led the Doctor, Ace and Bernice along the corridor. I stopped to look back. I thought that I had heard a voice, a sweet voice screaming, 'No, I cannot die, I cannot die!
Help meee!'
I took a step into the room, but the heat drove me back towards the door. A gust of superheated air drove the dust and the smoke away from me for a moment, and I saw that the temple had been smashed open by a falling concrete beam. Azathoth flailed helplessly in the wreckage, pinned by the beam. Its skin was burning.
'Watson!' it screamed, 'help meee!'
I took a step into the room. I wanted to help. I had to help.
From the smoke, a figure emerged. Its white robes were in tatters and its wings were ragged and torn. Its chitinous armour had been seared by the fire. It swayed uncertainly as it looked me over.
'Forgiveness only