Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [64]
‘The people don’t worship Aten, you know. They still worship the gods you’ve banned.’
Akhenaten’s eyes were hard in the red light. ‘It hardly matters what super-stitions the peasants entertain. My religion is for Pharaoh, not for them.’
Ace’s sigh echoed. ‘You talk too much.’
‘I’ve been talking since I ascended to the throne. Explaining, over and over.’
‘Why explain anything to an assassin?’
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘You used the word.’
Ace stiffened. ‘I meant –’
‘You’re worth talking to because we’re equals. Equals in the eyes of history.
I am the most extraordinary Pharaoh who has ever lived.’
‘I’m not here for your crukking autograph.’ There was that glint in his eyes again, like metal. ‘You are crazy.’
He grinned, fleshy lips pulling back from his teeth. ‘I’m a god.’
‘I’ve met lots of gods,’ said Ace. She stirred the coals in the brazier with a stick. ‘They’re boring. They never have any depth, like cartoon characters.
Not like real people at all.’
‘The priests don’t worship me. They hate me for taking away their power.’
‘Look, shut up, alright? I’m not interested.’
‘The army hates me because I’m not running about conquering hairy no-mads in the desert.’
‘You just let foreign princes walk in and take whatever they like!’
Akhenaten shook his head. ‘You don’t know anything about it. Egypt’s foreign lands administer themselves, they have their own armies. I need my troops here. Where they can keep an eye on the priests, and I can keep an eye on them.’
‘You should have kept a few more then, shouldn’t you?’ said Ace pointedly.
122
Pharaoh laughed. ‘But I was expecting you.’
‘You what?’
‘The Setites have been plotting on and off for months. They were just waiting for someone disposable to come along. Someone who’d follow their orders.’
Ace roared and was on her feet, clutching the khopesh in furious hands. He just sat there chuckling. She was losing control, she could feel it.
No, she had already lost control. She had let herself be controlled. Like a good soldier, she was only following orders.
Her head buzzed and she held the sword, held the sword. She could work out what to do, she could work it out. What would she do?
What would the Doctor do?
Why, he would stop her, of course.
When aliens or time-travellers tried to change Earth’s history, he stopped them. Put things back the way they were supposed to be.
Ace sat down on the floor of the cave, hard. Glowing coals scattered from the overturned brazier. The khopesh clattered away out of her hand.
‘Lost your stomach for history?’
Ace grabbed at her sword, dropped it again.
‘You see,’ said Pharaoh, ‘war is easy. Any fool can flail about on a dusty plain, killing at random. It’s much more difficult to make precise changes.’
‘What am I doing?’ said Ace.
Akhenaten stood up, back to the wall. ‘I’ll make you a deal,’ he said.
Kadiatu, Thierry and the Doctor were having wine for breakfast when the soldiers banged on the front door. There was no sign of Mme Thierry. With an expression of resignation, Thierry scooped up some bread and cheese and a cobwebbed bottle. ‘This ought to placate them,’ he said, ‘and perhaps they’ll give me a little intelligence in return. Mlle Lethbridge-Stewart, be sure they don’t see you! Attendez. ’
Hot summer sunshine was coming through the window, lighting up the kitchen in orange and white. Kadiatu was onto her second loaf of bread, smearing great slabs of salty butter onto the slices. The Doctor was pulling a piece of cheese into smaller and smaller fragments. They sat in silence for a while, listening to Thierry cracking jokes with the soldiers. After a while the apple merchant lead them out onto the front lawn to polish off the bottle of wine.
‘It’s a principle of war,’ said the Doctor, ‘that one doesn’t assume the enemy won’t come, but instead one must be prepared for their coming – not to assume they won’t attack, but instead to make one’s own position unassailable.’
‘Who said that?’ said Kadiatu.
123
‘Sun Tzu. Chinese general, Fourth Century BCE. That