Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [76]
‘You could have just said no,’ said Fitz. ‘What’s your suggestion, then?’
Anji looked at the control panel. Behind the wooden door, she could hear sounds – sounds like knights shouting and brandishing swords. She thought of all those possible mathematical combinations. Then she took off her left shoe, and smashed the heel right into the panel.
‘What on Earth did you do that for?’ Fitz yelled.
But his complaints were drowned out by the screeching of the portcullis as it slid upwards – and the creaking of the lowering drawbridge.
‘You could have fused the whole thing! We could have been stuck here!’ Fitz seemed to be saying above the noise.
‘Could have – but didn’t,’ replied Anji, pitching her voice above the shrieking metal. ‘I knew it was a good idea to wear high-heeled shoes.’ She tried to yank her shoe out, but it was jammed fast. Something thumped hard on the wooden door and she knew she didn’t have time to extricate it. ‘Damn! Come on! Quick!’
She ducked down to crawl under the portcullis, still grinding its way upwards. Fitz followed, with slightly more difficulty, as he had twelve inches more body to manoeuvre. He yelped, and Anji turned back. ‘What is it? Are you all right?’
‘I caught my coat on a spike!’
‘Is that all?’
‘It’s brand new! It must be a cursed coat. This world doesn’t like it!’
There were more noises from the other side of the wooden door. It sounded like the knights were charging it. But the drawbridge was still rasping its way down. Anji looked at the moat – it was about twenty metres across, and she really didn’t fancy swimming it. Besides, having met the triplets, she was rather worried that the occasional bubble bursting on the surface might be from a shark, or a shoal of piranhas.
‘Come on,’ she called to Fitz, who was still extricating himself from the bottom of the portcullis – and was in danger of being carried up with it if he didn’t get a move on. She began to crawl up the drawbridge, which was now at a forty-five-degree angle. It wasn’t easy, but she figured the further away from the knights she was, the better.
Nights at the Round Table
139
Fitz, finally free, began to climb after her. ‘Is this such a good idea?’ he said.
Anji had reached the end of the bridge, and was beginning to wonder that herself. She was flat on her stomach, holding the edge of the wood with a death grip as the bridge continued to jolt its way downward. It was down to about thirty degrees, creaking and clanking and. . .
And then there was silence. Both the portcullis and the drawbridge had stopped moving. Fitz and Anji were suspended in midair.
And the silence was broken by a tremendous crash as the wooden door fell and the knights poured into the gatehouse.
Fitz clambered up to Anji’s side. ‘The bank’s only about ten feet in front of us,’ he said, peering over the front edge of the drawbridge.
‘Yes, but we’re ten metres in the air!’ she countered. ‘We can’t get a run up at this angle – we’d break every bone in our body!’
‘They’ll break them for us if we don’t at least try!’ yelled Fitz, gesturing behind them. Anji turned to look. The knights had reached the portcullis, but luckily their heavy plate armour was proving an obstacle in navigating the only half-lifted grille.
‘Can you swim?’ she asked Fitz.
‘No!’
A knight was partway through the barrier.
‘Well, now’s the time to learn. We stay here, they catch us. We’re going to dive off the side. You watch me, and then copy what I do. When you hit the water, don’t panic, and move your arms up and down. I’ll help you to the bank.’
Fitz’s eyes were wide open in horror. ‘But. . . ’
Anji decided she’d better not mention her shark/piranha theory.
The knight had made it under the portcullis, and was beginning to struggle up the sloping drawbridge towards them.
‘No time to argue!’ she called, kicking off her remaining shoe and standing up and praying for balance. She tossed her bag as hard