Doctor Who_ Curse of Peladon - Brian Hayles [51]
Half-heartedly, Jo moved after the three aliens, who were now well ahead. She looked to see where they’d got to, speaking to the Doctor as she looked away from him.
‘But I don’t understand. What are you going to do?’
‘I’m going to see a man about a door,’ came the reply. But when she turned to ask him what he meant by such a idiotic remark, the Doctor had vanished.
The last details of Hepesh’s plan were being spelled out to the leader of the crack unit that Hepesh had specially selected for the most difficult task: the taking of the king.
‘My men are armed and ready, my Lord Hepesh,’ reported the tense-faced captain. Neither he nor Hepesh saw the burly shadow of Grun slip into the deeper darkness of the shrine and hide there, listening.
‘Thank you, captain,’ acknowledged the High Priest.
‘Understand that no harm must come to the king. He is to be taken prisoner with as little force as necessary.’
‘Yes, my lord,’ replied the captain. ‘But his personal bodyguard?’
‘You need show no mercy towards them. They will not regard you or your men as friends...’
The captain smiled, his face cruel. ‘My men fight to kill, my lord. They are the best.’
In the shadows, Grun’s face tightened in cold anger. Once, every soldier had been the king’s man, totally dedicated to his cause and comrade to every soldier. This man Hepesh had turned them against each other as though they were each other’s enemies! ‘Now, Captain,’ continued Hepesh, ‘at the moment we storm the throne room, two men must ignore the fighting and move immediately to seize the king. They must be—’
The High Priest stopped in mid-speech as Grun’s mighty form stepped forward from the shadows. At first the captain and Hepesh, elated with the imminent success of their plan, assumed Grun to be at one with them. The sharp grate of his sword being drawn from its scabbard soon told them otherwise.
‘Grun,’ Hepesh exclaimed, extending his ringed hand in greeting, ‘you have chosen well! I shall not—’
It was then he saw the glint of the naked sword, and knew that he was closer to death than he had ever before been. The captain stood between Hepesh and Grun and spun about at Hepesh’s cry of warning, his sword at the ready.
‘Captain—look out!’
The captain, like all soldiers in the citadel, knew Grun to be the greatest of the King’s’ warriors, but he was no coward. With a swift lunge, he attacked. Over the ring of blade on blade, it was the High Priests voice that called: ‘Guards! To me!’
The captain, brave as he was, stood little chance against Grun’s strength and skill. With a sweeping, backhanded stroke, the King’s Champion severed the tendons of the captain’s sword arm. Before the sword had fallen to the ground, the follow-up lunge to the throat had ended the captain’s life. Grun turned to find the enemy that he had come for—but Hepesh knew Grun’s intent, and had slipped into the shadows by the door. Before Grun could locate him, the sound of armed men behind him made Grun turn. Facing him were two more of Hepesh’s picked commandos. At the sight of Grun, they faltered—but had no other choice but to fight for their lives. Handling two opponents with arrogant ease, Grun brought one down with a straight-armed stab to the chest—that very move, however, left him blind to the figure of Hepesh, who, coming in behind him, struck the great warrior on his unprotected head with a massive stone from the altar footing. Without a sound, Grun toppled to the ground, and lay there utterly still.
Without glancing at the fallen body, Hepesh stepped over Grun, and moved out to the tunnel. ‘Come!’ he called to the waiting commandos. ‘It is time! The hour of Aggedor is at hand.’
10
The Battle for the Palace
Jo looked at the alien delegates impatiently. Splitting hairs was getting them nowhere. ‘This discussion’s gone on long enough,’
she said. ‘What about taking a vote?’
Alpha Centauri immediately raised several tentacles in protest. This was normal procedure on intergalactic civil service committee. A decision too quickly arrived at aroused