Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [60]
'No, no, no! You can't mean it. Please! Please!' Her terror reduced her voice almost to a whisper. Again the Master lifted a restraining hand. Jo's captors stopped.
'You beg so prettily, my dear. But you see, I am so near to attaining one of my greatest ambitions: power to control, to rule, an entire planet—this planet, Earth. Nothing and nobody can be allowed to stand in my way.'
'You're mad.. ' she breathed.
'I suppose I am, from your point of view,' said the Master. 'You can hardly be expected to view the matter objectively. But I do want you to understand that it would give me no pleasure to kill you.'
A gleam of hope came into Jo's eyes 'You mean... ?'
'Oh, don't mistake me,' said the Master hastily, 'if it is necessary to sacrifice you, then sacrificed you shall be. However...'
He turned and looked up into the leathery face of the Damon, time-weathered by the centuries.
'Azal!' he called. 'The moment for the decision draws near. Once more, I demand the power that...'
Azal's great tumbling tones filled the Cavern. 'You demand!'
'And why not? Who in the whole galaxy is not my inferior? There not one creature!'
'Not... even... one?' It was like being in the middle of a thundercloud, thought the terrified Stan.
The Master obviously decided that he had gone quite far enough for the moment. He bowed to Azal. 'None save the last of the Dæmons,' he said.
Azal's wrath was appeased. The Master turned to Jo. 'You see?' he said regretfully.
Jo could hardly grasp his meaning.
'I'm sorry, my dear. I really am,' said the Master, 'but you will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you will be sacrificed in a worthy cause.'
'He means it. He really means it,' thought Stan desperately, looking at Jo, whose struggles were becoming so feeble that her captors were almost having to hold her up.
The Master looked up once more at the Dæmon. 'Oh mighty Azal, accept thou this offering as token of our fealty...' He picked up the ceremonial knife and touched its razor edge with a delicate thumb as though testing its sharpness. Nodding to Jo's two supporters to bring her to the Stone, he raised the knife high in the air.
'This is it,' thought Stan, 'it's the last chance to save her...'
'In the name of Athame...'
Stan took a deep breath.
'Hold!' The gargantuan voice of the Dæmon rang once more through the Cavern. The Master, plainly disconcerted by this unrehearsed turn of events, lowered the knife and looked up at Azal, hardly bothering to hide his arrogant impatience.
'Well?' he said, sourly.
'You tell me that you are strong enough to bear the Dæmon's burden of knowledge and power; that you...'
'I tell you...'
'BE SILENT! You tell me that you are superior to mankind in all respects; that you should lead them, rule them, be Master of their world. All this you would have me believe. Is that not so?'
'It is to, oh mighty one,' said the Master, a puzzled expression on his deceptively noble face.
'Then tell me also, oh Master of the Earth, how is it that one of these Earthlings you despise so much has made so much of a fool of you.'
The Master was even more puzzled. 'I... I'm afraid I don't understand,' he said, his arrogance visibly crumbling.
'Indeed?' rumbled Aral. 'Then I shall explain. Your prisoner has escaped to his friends...'
Had Stan not already been quaking with fright, the Master's face would have set his knees knocking.
'Go,' snarled the Master to Ashby, who happened to be nearest the door. Ashby rushed away. The door creaked open and slammed behind him. Then there was silence, broken only by Jo's attempts to control her sobs of fear. None of the coven dared to move. The Master was so still that he might have been carved from the same block of stone as his servant Bok.
In a few moments the door flew open. 'It's true, Magister,' Ashby gasped, 'he's gone. And, Magister, they're coming. All of them. They're coming across the green...!'
The Master snapped his fingers. Bok jumped up with glee, hobbled over to the steps and scuttled through the door, casually brushing aside the quivering