Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [34]
If her Sergeant Major could see her here, going soft in a nobleman’s estate.
Sedjet hadn’t even put her on guard duty since their little chat – such work was below any future wife of his.
For a moment she was off amongst the stars, soaring in crazy loops in a one-seat fighter, trashing Dalek platforms as they buzzed towards her in clumsy squadrons. The electrodes in her helmet passed information back and forth between her brainstem and the ship, so fast she could feel the nuclear heat in its belly, its nausea at the high-g turns.
She forced herself out of her memories and back into the real world. Which consisted of Sedjet bounding in and pecking his wife on the cheek. His pet monkey scurried up to him and his daughters called their greeting. Hi, honey, I’m home.
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He came over to Ace, his eyes weighing up her choice of dress and jewellery.
‘I think,’ he pronounced, ‘you should wear something more open. Something that would reveal your scar more clearly.’ He fingered the long mark on her left shoulder. It was quite visible under the flimsy linen, a ragged blue-and-red line at odds with the geometry of the pleating.
She caught his hand. ‘Sedjet,’ she said, ‘would you come with me for a moment? I want to talk to you. Just come right this way.’
He followed her, bemused, out into the entrance courtyard. The sun was just setting; the servants were lighting torches beside the path to the front gate.
Ace faced Sedjet and said, ‘You’ve shown my scar to your wife. You’ve shown my scar to your scribes. You’ve shown it to visiting dignitaries and generals.
You’ve even shown it to your three nephews when they came calling.’
‘But,’ protested Sedjet, ‘I thought you were proud of the scar.’
‘I was proud of it,’ said Ace, ‘until you started showing me off like a bit of jewellery.’
Sedjet opened his mouth and closed it, like a goldfish. It looked really stupid. He said, ‘Do you expect to be a woman warrior, and not attract any attention? Look at you!’ he waved a hand, taking in her pale skin, her long brown hair, her hard muscles, her scar.
‘I just want to get on with my job. I don’t want to do weapons practice in front of your business associates like I was an acrobat. Right?’
He shook his head. ‘I have not asked you to bear arms for the past week.’
‘And I’m going stir crazy! I’m not your bloody dancing girl. I just want to do my job, okay?’
‘Listen to me, sister,’ said Sedjet, starting a slow burn. ‘I plucked you out of the desert like a fading flower. I saw to it you were nursed back to life, fed, clothed. Even though you were a woman, even though my friends raised their eyebrows, I gave you employment. I even desired to marry you. I saved your life!’
‘And I saved yours, toe-rag,’ and suddenly she was laughing, ‘so we’re even, aren’t we?’
‘Tepy,’ he said sharply, ‘what do you want?’
She stopped in place, suddenly silent, her mouth still open.
The feel of soaring through empty space, the pock of Dalek shrapnel on her wings.
Slowly, one by one, she took off the bangles and dropped them on the floor.
Her naked feet slapped across the faience tiles. He followed her out into the courtyard, shouting, scattering the servants. ‘You never play by the rules!’
he yelled, pushing past his wife, stepping over a necklace as Ace let it fall to the floor. ‘You always break the rules!’
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‘And I’m going to go on breaking them,’ said Ace.
She went into the street, not expecting him to follow. But he stood at the gate, shouting out into the night.
‘You’re one of Set’s, do you know that, you irritating little slut? You’re a woman of Set!’
Ace turned, suddenly, holding the last of her bangles in her fist. She looked down at it. It was the personal force shield generator.
They stood a little distance apart, quivering in their anger.
‘You’re just scared to admit you’re not leaving,’ he growled. But now he looked like a hurt little boy, instead of a furious, wealthy, powerful man.
‘If I’m stuck here,’ she said, ‘I’ll spend my life the way I want to.’
‘You’re a woman of Set,’ he said