Doctor Who_ Battlefield - Marc Platt [65]
Holding the weapon against her enemy, she backed within the bounds of the octogrammaton. ‘Too late, Merlin. The gateway is open. I am gone and you are lost!’
She turned to leave, but the door of the hall was flung wide open. On the threshold stood Prince Mordred, his sword in hand.
‘Mother!’ he said.
‘Mordred.’ Again she faltered, confronted by the child she had herself sacrificed.
‘And about time,’ complained the Doctor.
‘You live,’ said Morgaine, her voice trembling.
He advanced into the hall, ignoring the monster that loomed above them all. ‘No thanks to you, false parent!
Witch!’
‘Mordred, I thought you were dead.’
‘Thought or wished it so?’
He stepped into the octogrammaton with her and she raised a hand to stroke his hair. ‘Mordred, no. That was not the way of it.’
As they started to fade, the Doctor swung out with his umbrella handle and hooked Excalibur away from Morgaine. She turned with a glare of helpless rage. Then she and her son were gone.
Morgaine’s legacy loomed over the Doctor and Ace. The Destroyer, waiting, taking great draughts of air, as a dragonfly rests after its emergence, before launching on its first flight.
The Doctor was staring up at the monstrosity, intoxicated by its manifestation of raw evil. Of the 7,405,926 demons on the Talmudic table, this fiend probably made it into what Ace would call the Top Ten.
Ace tugged at his sleeve. ‘Doctor, can I have a word...’ She hardly dared move for fear of attracting the demon’s attention.
The Doctor took her arm and they edged for the door.
‘Merlin...’ The Destroyer’s voice came deeply and slowly.
The door opened and Lethbridge-Stewart barred the way. His eyes widened as he took in the towering presence of the Destroyer. He met its cold glare and knew he was a marked man.
‘Brigadier, you’re going the wrong way!’ The Doctor grabbed his shoulder and tried to force him back. Behind them, the monster began to stir.
Ace fumbled in her pockets and panicked. She looked back and saw her case of bullets lying on the hall floor, near the Destroyer’s taloned hooves.
She ran back.
‘Ace!’ yelled the Doctor.
As she grabbed up the case, the monster’s hoof kicked out wildly and took her on the hip. She went tumbling across the hall, only to be caught somehow in the Doctor’s arms.
He hurried her out, followed by the Brigadier. As they ran into the evening air, they heard the Destroyer’s cry of rage and hunger.
The Doctor found a path that led away from the building. Once they were clear of the priory grounds, he set Ace down. She was only winded and sat quietly recovering her breath.
There was a steady distant rumble like growing thunder. The shell of the priory was beginning to flicker with green light.
‘What was that?’ said the Brigadier.
The reply was almost casual. ‘That, Brigadier, was the end of the world.’
The old soldier nodded. ‘Same as ever, eh Doctor?’ But he had not forgotten the predatory eyes or how they had damned his soul.
The Doctor stamped at the ground with his brolly. ‘Oh, this is no good at all!’
‘I can have an airstrike in minutes,’ suggested the Brigadier.
‘No. Conventional weapons won’t even scratch it.’
‘How about silver bullets?’ said Ace.
‘Silver would do the trick, getting some is another matter.’
‘Professor.’ She held up the bullet-case for him.
The Brigadier finally appreciated the care with which the Doctor selected his relentlessly unorthodox companions. ‘Splendid,’ he said.
The Doctor beamed at the contents of the case.
‘Excellent work, Ace. Brigadier, give me your gun.’
He opened the pistol and started to load the silver rounds into the chamber.
‘You er... just fire the bullets into the monster, do you?’
enquired the Brigadier.
‘Yes, yes, it’s that simple, like most killings.’ The Doctor snapped the gun shut.
‘Good Lord,’ said the Brigadier, staring over the Doctor’s shoulder. ‘Look at that spaceship.’
‘What?’ As the Doctor turned to look, he was caught square on the jaw by Lethbridge-Stewart’s fist.
He went down senseless.
‘You toerag!’ Ace stared in blind rage as the Brigadier picked