Doctor Who_ Bunker Soldiers - Martin Day [80]
XIX
Pestilentia
Dmitri was mad.
We had left a man struggling in the midst of a barbaric dilemma, and seemingly on the verge of barbarism himself, and returned to find a drooling idiot with every last vestige of sanity gone.
I watched the poor man as he sat in the corner, brooding, dribbling, spouting rubbish. ‘How long has he been like this?’ I asked, hardly believing that his decline could have been so sudden.
‘Only a few minutes,’ said Dodo.
I turned to Yevhen, who was preening himself at the head of the great table. ‘Long enough for you to take charge?’
‘Naturally,’ said Yevhen with a lopsided smile. ‘We need strong leadership at a time like this.’
‘And Isaac agreed?’
Isaac shuffled uncomfortably. ‘My lord Yevhen has been an adviser for longer than I.’
I turned my attention back to Yevhen. ‘I notice you did not intercede until after the execution of the Mongol envoys.’
‘That was perhaps the governor’s last sane act. It was certainly one I did not disagree with.’
I stooped in front of Dmitri, staring into his eyes. He barely seemed to know I was there.
‘The pressure of authority is a terrible thing to behold,’ said Isaac softly at my shoulder. ‘The burden has proved too great for this poor fellow.’
‘Unless it’s a side effect of the monster’s attack,’ I noted, observing the cuts and lacerations still visible on the former governor’s face.
‘We have seen it!’ Nahum blurted out, reminding me why we had returned so swiftly to the others.
‘Is that so?’ queried Isaac. I saw that we also had Yevhen’s undivided attention now.
‘We were searching for...’ I noticed Nahum’s warning look, a look I was sure Isaac shared. ‘We were searching for someone.
We thought we had found them, but it was a creature, a beast.’
‘What did it look like?’ asked Dodo nervously, doubtless remembering the attack she had suffered.
‘It looked like a human, but not quite finished,’ said Nahum.
‘A golem, father?’
‘I have read of such things,’ said Isaac. ‘But my thoughts on legends and fables are, I think, known to all.’ He shot Yevhen a glance, but the new governor was looking the other way.
‘It can impersonate people,’ I said, remembering what had happened to its face. I shivered at the memory – it had been like watching an invisible child creating a face from clay. I turned to Dodo. ‘All that time you were tending Lesia... I’m not sure it was her at all.’
‘Then where is my daughter?’ asked Yevhen.
‘We don’t know,’ I said.
‘But why impersonate her, and then do nothing but attack this poor child?’ asked Isaac, looking at Dodo. ‘And why kill some, but leave others untouched?’ He turned to Nahum. ‘Did the beast make an attempt to attack you?’
‘No, father. None at all.’
‘It seems travellers and Jews are safe from this succubus,’
muttered Yevhen.
I rounded on him. ‘So much for this dark angel of yours! So much for the defender of Kiev!’
‘What do you know of the dark angel?’
‘Enough,’ I said simply. ‘Enough to know that you’ve released some monster, and you don’t have the slightest idea how to control it!’
‘Bickering will not help us,’ interjected Isaac. ‘We must prepare for the Tartar attack – and deal with this creature, if it attacks again.’ He turned to Nahum. ‘Where is the beast now?’
‘It came back into the building,’ he replied.
‘It could be anywhere,’ I added. I looked around the room.
Oppressive under Dmitri’s attempted curfew, it felt darker still now. ‘It could be here, with us.’ I couldn’t help but look at the soldiers stationed at the doorway – but what was to stop the beast, if it had more than one face, from being in our midst? It could be Yevhen, or Isaac – or even Dodo. Or even the poor, muttering fool that had once been Dmitri.
‘We should hunt the creature,’ said Nahum.
‘We have more important considerations,’ Yevhen said. ‘If this thing does not trouble us, it shall be ignored.’
‘But what is it trying to achieve?’ I asked. ‘One minute it seems to attack indiscriminately, the next it goes into hiding.’
‘I do not know,’ said Isaac.
‘The Doctor would know,’ I muttered under my breath.
It was as if