Doctor Who_ Bunker Soldiers - Martin Day [41]
Isaac turned. Rebekah was sleeping the sleep of the innocent, her peaceful expression utterly at odds with the commotion that had gripped the governor’s residence. Isaac smiled. They often joked that she would sleep through the Tartar attack – and he supposed that being murdered in your bed was not too bad a way to go. Not when one considered the Mongols’
reputation for torture and butchery.
Perhaps, indeed, this was the precursor to the attack. Isaac pondered this as he pulled on a simple linen gown then padded barefoot towards the door.
‘What is going on?’ he asked a passing servant.
‘An attack, sir,’ replied the woman and then, realising whom she was addressing: ‘Your son.’
Isaac ran at once to Nahum’s temporary quarters, passing all manner of serving folk and soldiers proceeding, it seemed, in random directions. It was as if a giant figure had disturbed an ant’s nest, turning ordered discipline into chaotic anarchy in the blink of an eye.
A soldier was stationed outside Nahum’s room and there were more inside. Nahum sat on the edge of his bed, dabbing at his cheek with a white cloth. Dmitri – ful y dressed – was bending over him, alternating sympathetic noises with blunt questions.
Isaac ran over to embrace his son. ‘Have you been injured?’
Nahum shook his head. ‘Merely a scratch. Do not worry.’
He removed the cloth to reveal a small gash just in front of his ear, surrounded by tiny dots of bruised purple.
‘Even so, it should be attended to.’
‘It is fine. I am fine. Father, you should return to your bed!’
‘What happened?’
Dmitri smoothly interjected. ‘I rather suspect even your son is tiring of telling this story. He says that the cook, Elisabet, attacked him.’
‘I swear she flew through the air towards me,’ said Nahum. ‘I could not believe her strength!’
‘However did you repel her?’ asked Isaac.
‘That is the strangest thing,’ said Nahum, still shaking his head in disbelief. ‘She overpowered me in a moment. Her face lunged for my neck – I turned my head a little, and she bit my cheek. But you have never seen teeth so sharp, so narrow!’
Isaac nodded, taking this all in. ‘Go on.’
‘She stood, silently regarding me, and then, just as swiftly as she had come, she moved away. I was too frightened to follow,’
he added apologetically.
Isaac turned to Dmitri. ‘Elisabet, you say? Is she not the wife... widow... of...?’
Dmitri nodded. ‘I have ordered a search of every room.’
‘If she is hiding within this building,’ reasoned Isaac aloud,
‘and her attack leaves marks not at all unlike those found on Taras’s body. . then the Doctor is right. We have indeed imprisoned an innocent man.’
‘That matters little,’ snapped Dmitri.
Isaac shook his head. ‘But Steven –’
‘He has already found a way to leave our prison,’ interrupted Dmitri. ‘And, though I wish him well, we have other, more pressing, concerns.’ He turned to one of the soldiers. ‘Seek adviser Yevhen. Inform him that we must speak together.’
The soldier nodded and departed, just as another squeezed into the room. He was panting, clutching his chest, and the bright whites of his eyes spoke only of fear. He approached Dmitri respectfully.
‘My lord,’ he said between breaths. ‘There is something you should see.’
‘The cook?’
‘No, my lord,’ the soldier replied. ‘We have found a body.’
He was little more than a lad, kitted out in a padded canvas jacket several sizes too large for him. A visored helmet had fallen away from his head, revealing boyish curls and an innocent, though now horribly blank, expression. A short dagger had also tumbled from his hands, part of a vain attempt to halt an unstoppable foe.
‘I wish the Doctor were here,’ muttered Isaac under his breath as he bent towards the dead soldier. ‘I feel sure he would have some insight into this.’
‘But you are also a man of great learning,’ said Dmitri. ‘A trusted adviser. What say you on this matter?’
Isaac glanced up, only too aware of the fearful symmetry of the scene: a corpse surrounded by soldiers and attended by two puzzled, fearful men. It had been the same with Taras.
The boy seemed