Doctor Who_ Bunker Soldiers - Martin Day [99]
XXX
Memento Mori
‘I expected more of this weapon of yours!’ Batu exclaimed angrily. He prodded at the congealed remains with the tip of his sword, then turned towards Dmitri. ‘Why has it died? Why was it trying to attack you?’
Dmitri, still dazed from his encounter with the monster, shook his head. ‘I do not... I do not know.’ He paused, then crouched on the floor, wrapping his arms around his body.
Dodo thought she saw signs of the madness returning. ‘I feel most unwell,’ he said, and closed his eyes as if to sleep.
Isaac calmly stepped between him and the Mongol leader.
‘None of us understand this creature,’ he said. ‘Perhaps the Doctor can explain.’
Batu nodded, and was about to turn to consult with Mongke when he noticed the flash of bright yellow on Isaac’s tunic. ‘The mark of the sons of Abraham,’ he said with respect. ‘Your faith has protected you.’
‘I have little faith left, sir,’ the old man said. ‘Perhaps I had before your army approached, but with everything that has happened...’
‘Nonsense!’ beamed Batu. ‘Do not your scriptures talk of ungodly nations being used to punish the people of God when they fall from faith? Perhaps, like Genghis before us, we are the instruments of the Almighty!’
‘Perhaps,’ said Isaac.
Lesia spoke suddenly, her voice clear despite her grief. ‘I have prayed that all the people of Kiev may be saved. I do not believe that my prayers fell on deaf ears.’
‘But the carnage that awaits us,’ said Isaac. ‘The death of your own father... What is left for us now?’
‘My father once said that “No” is still an answer to prayer,’
said Lesia, her face smudged by soot from the torches and by her tears. ‘The Lord’s ways are not our ways. For my father, this was justification for working through his own strength. That was his undoing. His faith was ill-directed, but well intentioned.’
‘God smiles on you, pretty girl,’ said Batu. ‘There is some reason... I cannot pin it down. But there is reason in all this.
Always.’
Mongke nodded. ‘You are all safe now – honoured guests of the khans! Your bravery is commendable.’
‘Your butchery will one day be punished!’ spat Nahum suddenly, holding Lesia tight to him. ‘You cannot gloss over your evil!’
Mongke shook his head. ‘We merely do what has to be done.’
‘Please, let’s find the Doctor,’ said Dodo, tiring of dances with words around the massacre of innocent people.
Batu nodded. ‘We shall find him, and he shall tell us the secrets of this place... of the creature.’
He moved into the tunnels, followed by a small knot of soldiers, then Dodo and the others. A contingent of archers brought up the rear.
As the last man stepped away from the angel’s crypt and into the shadows the entire labyrinth shook, gripped by a powerful explosion. Soldiers came running, through rubble and flame and falling debris, but it was too late.
The casket had exploded, scattering the walls with useless shreds of metal and quicksilver circuitry. Of the angel itself, only a dark smudge on the floor remained. In time, that too would fade.
Dodo and the others came to a halt in the main aisle of the cathedral. It seemed barely touched by the battle, and autumnal light streamed in through the stained glass. The air was still heavy with prayer and the smell of incense; just for a moment, it was as if nothing had changed.
Batu allowed them to rest there for a moment. Dodo looked at the survivors of Kiev – Isaac, Nahum, Lesia and Dmitri.
There might be others, somewhere in the city, but as far as she knew, that was it. Tens of thousands of people, whittled down perhaps to less than a handful.
She looked at Dmitri, slumped in a pew, seemingly asleep.
‘Do you think he will ever recover?’ she asked Isaac.
‘Who can say? I shall tend him, as best I can. He shall be comfortable.’
‘What will you do?’ Dodo asked. ‘Now it’s all over, I mean.’
‘We shall make a new home somewhere. And I shall continue my work, and try to bring God’s words to the people.’
‘After all this,’ Dodo said, amazed. ‘And after what you said to the Mongols...