Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [74]
Suddenly Xernic cried, ‘Light!’
‘Sorry,’ said Fitz, patting his pockets, ‘I dropped it earlier.’ Idiot.
Xernic shook his head, looking a bit puzzled. ‘No, look over there. That’s not torchlight, is it?’
And indeed, at the end junction of the corridor, there was a tiny pale patch on the floor that might – just might – be made by natural daylight. ‘There might be a window! We can climb out!’ said Xernic, eyes shining. The idea gave them the impetus for a burst of speed, and they dashed down the passage.
It was daylight, and it was a window. Unfortunately, it was not one that any of them could climb through, even Anji, unless she lost a considerable amount of weight, and probably several limbs. Anji peered out of the narrow slot, Nights at the Round Table
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and was dismayed to see a large expanse of water directly below them. ‘We’re surrounded by a moat!’ she said. ‘Even if we find a window we can squeeze through –’
Fitz interrupted her. ‘Well, there must be a door somewhere. People have to come in and out. There’ll be, you know, a drawbridge kind of thing.’
She nodded. He was right. They just had to find it. ‘At least we’re at the outside wall,’ she said. ‘Theoretically, all we have to do is follow it around, and we’ll come to the way out eventually.’
‘And just hope we don’t meet the guards coming the other way,’ said Fitz cheerfully.
‘Well, would you like to stay here and wait for them to catch up with us instead?’ she asked, calmly and not showing her frustration with him in any way.
‘No,’ he said. ‘In fact, I suggest we start moving again right now. I think I can hear them coming.’
‘Fine!’ she agreed. And then a loud ‘ Grrrr! ’ as her heel caught again and tore a large chunk out of the tapestry ‘What sort of idiots built this place?’ she said, running off again.
‘Don’t blame them for your impractical gear,’ said the irritating Fitz who, she decided to point out, was wearing nothing but a pair of shiny boxers under his coat.
And they were both so busy arguing as they ran, that neither of them noticed as Xernic caught his foot in the torn tapestry and crashed to the floor. Just as the knights rounded the corner.
The Doctor was currently singing about summer holidays and doing things you’ve always wanted to. Hoover wasn’t an appreciative audience. All he’d ever wanted was to rule wisely and to prove worthy of the honour bestowed upon him by Earth. And he’d lost his wife, and his children, and soon he’d lose his whole planet. And who was this Doctor to make him feel so guilty about it all?
But then. . . who was he, to continue ignoring the guilt he deserved?
They followed the corridor along. There were more of the slit windows on the outer side, and no more torches; but the slits let in so little light that they almost missed the wooden door – in fact, they would have missed it if Fitz hadn’t been trailing his fingers along the wall. He suddenly let out a short cry and stopped dead. Anji came over to look. She tried the door – but it wouldn’t 136
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open. Fitz tried too. No luck. And the knights’ pounding footsteps were getting nearer and nearer.
‘We’ll have to leave it!’ Anji cried.
‘No!’ said Fitz. ‘Maybe we can break it down.’
Anji looked at the solid wood. ‘No chance.’ She looked closer. ‘There’s a keyhole,’ she said.
‘Well, what good’s that! I haven’t had chance to send off for my picklocks yet!’
‘We can look through it,’ she said, and bent to do so. There were only cracks of light, faintly illuminating a bit of iron grid here, a chain there. ‘I think the drawbridge is up,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to lower it when we get through.’
‘If we get through!’ said Fitz.
Anji tried to calm down and think logically. Drawbridges – as far as she knew, and assuming this future version played by the rules – could be raised and lowered only from this side of the moat. Which meant that the door had been locked from this side, too. So, unless the keyholder was still in the gap between this door and the