Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [38]
‘Exactly my feeling,’ Sarl agreed. ‘I don’t think we’re going to waste his time asking whether I should have robot medical aid for the arm you so carelessly broke.’
‘It was not careless,’ Leela said without thinking. ‘I broke it deliberately. It was that or kill you.’
‘Should I be grateful?’ he asked.
Leela shrugged. ‘That is for you to decide.’ Was it possible that the TARDIS had miraculously brought them back to a time before the death of Taren Capel? No. Her every instinct told her it was not possible. When they fought him they did not know him for what he was. If this was before then how would they not have known? She must ask the Doctor about this. In the meantime she would rely on her instinct and know that she had helped kill the murderous Taren Capel. ‘You think you could have killed me?’ Sarl asked.
Leela only half heard him. ‘Killed who?’
‘Me,’ he repeated. ‘Do you think you could have killed me?’
‘I know I could, she said flatly. ‘You know it too.’
‘It’s not about the arm.’ Padil was getting angry. ‘It’s about the principle.’
Sarl stood up with some small difficulty and made his way towards the door on the far side of the room. ‘Capel, humanity be in him,’ he said, ‘will soon be telling us all what we are to do and why he wants us to do it.’
‘How will he do that?’ Leela asked.
‘In the meantime,’ Sarl went on, ignoring her question, ‘I’m going to the boundary to call a medVoc and get myself patched up.’ He opened the door and there was a rush of noise and smell which came abruptly to Leela from the brightly lit alley. She was getting used to the stench, or perhaps the cascade berries had worked, and she could pick out many more of the masked and underlying scents now. She could pick them out but most of them she could not identify. There were the familiar ones: metal smelting and hide curing and brewing, but others were alien to her. Sarl left without a backward glance. She considered following him. No one in the room could stop her. She doubted whether anyone, even those with stun-kills, would try. But if she was going to find her way back to the Doctor quickly and tell him what she had found out about Taren Capel then she would need these people to help her. And there were better ways, she thought, to get that help than by knocking them down and breaking bones.
She smiled at the still frowning Padil. ‘Will you show me the Sewerpits?’ she asked.
Padil visibly brightened. ‘Of course,’ she said, clearly pleased by the friendliness. ‘I wasn’t born here and I didn’t grow up here but I know the Sewerpits as well as most. I’ll be glad to be your guide. We’ll start early, shall we?’
‘Why do we not start now?’
Padil frowned. ‘It’s almost dark,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘It’s dangerous out there after dark.’
Leela stood up. ‘I am not afraid of the dark, are you?’
Padil picked up a stun-kill from the floor beside her and got to her feet. ‘I don’t think you’re afraid of anything much, are you?’ she said. The admiration was back in her voice.
‘It is stupid not to be afraid of anything,’ Leela said. ‘A stupid warrior lives only long enough to get others killed.’
‘That sounds like it’s a quote from a training manual,’ Padil said, checking the settings on the stun-kill.
‘I learned from the best and most skilled.’ Leela crossed the room to the door and stood waiting.
Padil was taken slightly by surprise and scurried after her. ‘I thought they must be the words of Taren Capel, humanity be in him.’ There was awe in her voice. ‘Were you actually trained by him?’
‘Of course I was not trained by him,’ Leela said impatiently.
‘He was not a warrior. He had fewer fighting skills than you have.’
‘But you have met him? You have actually been in his presence?’
Leela could see that Padil was barely able to contain the excitement at the thought. And there were other people in the room who had overheard what she said who were almost as thrilled as she was. For the first time Leela understood how careful she must be not to tell them the truth about their shaman. She shook her head. ‘No,’ she lied.