Doctor Who_ Combat Rock - Mick Lewis [106]
Doctor, do you see the beauty, the absolute beauty of it?’ As he spoke, he ripped free the machete buried in the Krallik’s torso.
An arrow took him in the right shoulder, pushed him back across the room. He didn’t make a sound.
The Doctor, trapped against the wall, clinging tightly to Victoria, heard the babble of alien tongues and the sound of more arrows leaving their strings – the dry pock! pock! of them hitting the Mumi.
‘ Doctor! Victoria!’
The Doctor was sure it was the cannibals calling his name at first, because that was all he could see in the confusion – a group of naked warriors with leaves gummed around their penises, clutching bows and stone axes with wooden handles.
He wondered stupidly at their amazing ability to mimic a Scottish accent, and then Jamie was emerging from behind them, forcing his way through the throng now filling the room.
Smoke was squeezing in through the gaps in the walls fast now, and the Doctor’s eyes were already beginning to stream.
‘Get down, Jamie! Watch out for the Mumi!’
His warning was too late for one of the tribesmen. A snake had propelled itself right into his open mouth. He convulsed in a twisted dance, having completely swallowed the diminutive serpent. Two natives sprang forward, stone axes rising, falling, slamming into the crawling Mumi. The axe heads might have been stone, but they were sharp and very strong. Between them, the two cannibals soon bludgeoned the chieftain into a leathery mess on the floor. They backed away in superstitious awe when they saw the snakes winding through the desiccated wreckage.
Kepennis vaulted nimbly over the bodies of the Krallik and Wemus and straight into Jamie’s arms.
‘Kepennis...’ Jamie said, startled. ‘What’s going on?’
Instead of replying, Kepennis thrust him hard into Santi, who had forced herself into the room despite the protests of her cannibal proteges. Both Scot and Indoni dancer tumbled together in an undignified heap on the floor. Kepennis raised the machete with his good arm, aiming for Jamie’s head.
Then, abruptly, Kepennis froze. He tried to take a step forward as the cannibals continued to retreat from the snaky bundle of dried flesh that was the Muni. There was no-one to stop him. He dropped the machete. He swivelled slowly to face the source of his torment.
‘Not... possible...’ he gasped, hands shaking uncontrollably in his exertions to free himself from whatever was controlling him. ‘I have... the stronger mind. You cannot...’
‘It doesn’t seem that you do, Kepennis,’ the Doctor said gravely, withdrawing slowly from Victoria’s embrace and approaching the rebel guru.
Kepennis sank to his knees. ‘The horror...’ he said.
‘The horror,’ the Doctor finished for him, releasing his hold on Kepennis’s mind. ‘Jamie, perhaps you’d like to get your new friends to look after the Krallik for us.’
Jamie had regained his feet, and was looking both embarrassed and utterly clueless, a combination actually quite easy for him. ‘The Krallik?’
Santi took over for him, speaking to a cannibal with grey tight curls and crazy eyes. She pointed at Kepennis. The Indio chief motioned to his men, and soon Kepennis was being pulled roughly to his feet, the natives dragging him away from the uncoiling nest of snakes on the floor.
Victoria came up behind the Doctor, coughing as smoke drifted into her lungs. ‘Doctor,’ she spluttered. ‘What did you do?’
‘Come on, this whole place is burning up!’ Jamie bellowed, as the cannibals hauled a silent Kepennis into the antechamber. Santi seized Jamie’s arm to encourage him to follow. Her eyes widened momentarily as she spotted Pan’s corpse.
‘Oh, nothing really, Victoria,’ the Doctor said, taking her hand and ushering Jamie to carry on ahead. Just something I should have thought of doing a lot sooner.’
‘But what?’
‘Well, don’t you see: Kepennis controlled people’s minds by relaying his own thoughts to them via the fungus