Doctor Who_ Bunker Soldiers - Martin Day [100]
He glanced at a crucifix attached to a nearby wall. ‘Did He do something as undignified as that? These are weighty questions. I have been asking them all my life.’ He sighed. ‘Perhaps little has changed.’
‘And we need to find if mother has survived,’ said Nahum, his voice breaking a little.
‘Yes,’ said Isaac. ‘So much death,’ he added quietly. ‘So much death.’ Then he closed his eyes tightly against the tears, and said nothing more.
Dodo touched Lesia’s arm lightly. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, the words tumbling over themselves. ‘I’m sorry... Your father. What happened to him was terrible.’
Lesia gripped Nahum’s hand tightly. ‘I have lost a father,’
she said, ‘but I have gained a husband, and a father.’
Dodo beamed brightly. ‘You mean...’
‘There is no one for us to hide from now,’ Lesia replied.
Dodo was about to say something else, but she left her words unspoken in the scented air. It felt as though she was saying goodbye, and that was how she wanted to remember her friend: strong-hearted, even while staring into the gaping maw of death.
Escorted by soldiers, Dodo walked from the cathedral, and did not look back.
The Mongol attack had destroyed those parts of the governor’s residence that had survived the fire. Only a single tower remained, and Dodo found the Doctor and Steven at its top, looking down on the ruined buildings of Kiev in awestruck silence.
They embraced in silence, and stared at the city where thousands of innocent people had died. The walls had been breached in many places, falling on to the hovels that clustered for protection at their base. Residential areas had been razed to the ground, and every state building over a storey tall was little more than a pile of rubble. Of the Church of the Virgin, little remained. The collapse of its roof had done more damage than any Mongol siege engine or gunpowder shell.
Only the Cathedral of St Sophia was untouched, its towers seeming close enough to touch. And, underneath them, the catacombs that had for so long concealed an alien secret.
The air over Kiev was thick with the stench of death and infection. Crows wheeled overhead, the only beneficiaries of the battle.
The Doctor turned as Batu and Mongke appeared behind them. The wind tugged at the Mongols’ beards and hair and, perhaps, irritated their eyes. Only that could explain their tearful gaze as they, too, looked over the city.
‘You must let anyone who has survived live,’ said the Doctor. ‘A dead city is of little use to your empire.’
‘Of course,’ said Batu, without looking at him.
Mongke turned to the Doctor. ‘The weapon under the cathedral, the “angel” .What was it?’
‘A poor trapped beast, far from home,’ said the Doctor. ‘Still trying to fight its own war, and make sense of a puzzling world.’
‘As do we all,’ said Mongke.
‘You too have behaved with honour,’ said Batu, addressing the Doctor. ‘You shall live to travel to other lands, other cities.’
‘Thank you,’ said the Doctor.
‘We have heard that your blue box contains rooms,’ said Mongke. ‘How is this possible?’
‘A mere trick with mirrors,’ the Doctor said. ‘You have listened to my many tales of strange beasts and stranger lands with great interest. It is time, at last, to see my magic at work. As a mark of thanks, for sparing our lives, I will show you the greatest trick you shall ever see.’ He turned to Steven and Dodo, managing a half-smile. ‘I will make my blue box disappear before your very eyes.’
Epilogus
Sic itur ad astra
We stood in stunned silence inside the control room for many minutes. For once, I welcomed the oppressive hum, the distant noise of the engines. It meant we were away from Kiev, and safe.
My first instinct was to take a bath, but I knew the dirt I felt on my skin would not come away easily.
‘There were times...’