Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [71]
The tall man tried to punch her, managed to hit her in the injured shoulder.
She yelped and fell onto the cot bed, trying to regain her balance. The tall man grabbed another sword, slashed down, trying to cut her in half as she twisted frantically aside. His sword tore a great vertical slit in the tent wall.
Benny elbowed him in the face and jumped out through the tear.
The tall man was hot on her heels. She turned as he thundered up behind her, bringing up the scimitar to parry – and again – and again – each blow she caught sent a ringing pain through her injured shoulder.
He was driving her backwards, backwards across the sand. She wanted to look around, to see if Vivant was there somewhere but she couldn’t take her eyes off the tall man. She was just barely managing to hold him off. She could have fought properly, if the light were better, if she were more familiar with the weapon, if she weren’t injured –
She hit something, stumbled backwards, and was suddenly falling, her leg caught in one of the storage tent’s tarps. Half the tent collapsed with her, saucepans clattering, boxes tumbling, a pile of blankets overbalancing.
134
She lay on her back, dazed, holding the scimitar over her. But the tall man was reaching into the debris of the tent, pulling something out.
Another gun.
Benny bit her lip, closed her eyes. Doctor! Ace! Here I come!
There was a single shot.
Benny’s whole body jerked.
The tall man fell like a tree. He collapsed on top of her and started bleeding on her shirt. She yelled and pulled herself out from under him.
Vivant was standing over her, holding a smoking pistol. Around him, French soldiers were moving into the camp, the Setites in tow, cuffed and cursing.
Denon reached down to her. ‘ Es-tu blessée? ’
She took his hand, let him pull her to her feet. Suddenly, she grinned all over her face. ‘Life could not better be.’
Sesehset was watching the sun come up. He sat alone in the desert, just sat in the dust. It was probably his last sunrise, and he wanted to see it.
The Setites had scattered. Peseh was selling his lands, moving to his estate in Punt. Senef had disappeared altogether. The others had various plans, places they could hide. Sesehset had no employer, nowhere to go.
He sat under the stela they had defaced. Last night their plans had been as sharp and certain as the cuts in the rock face. Now they were nothing more than the chips of stone in the sand, scattered, meaningless.
There was a terrible sound. Sesehset sprang to his feet, startled out of his angst, looking around frantically. He had expected to have more time before it started.
The noise was echoing up from one of the caves in the cliff face. Sesehset’s heart beat furiously. Perhaps it was just a rockfall happening underground.
Not the Devourer.
Who fails the test feeds the Devourer.
A figure came striding out of the black shadow. It wore unfamiliar clothing something covering its eyes.
‘Tepy,’ breathed Sesehset. ‘Are you a ghost?’
She stopped perhaps ten feet from him. He saw that she was carrying something long and slender in her hand, perhaps a staff.
She turned slowly, looking back at the stela, the grotesque figure of Pharaoh smiling up at his faceless god. ‘That’s why he changed the style of the art. He wanted to be remembered properly.’
‘Did you kill him?’
‘I didn’t kill him. He didn’t kill me.’
The priest realized he was trembling. ‘What now?’
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‘You set me up.’ Ace laughed. ‘Set up. I ought to be angry, Sesehset. But I’m so used to it by now.’
The priest was shaking his head, but she was saying, ‘You lot just wanted everything cosy again, back the way it was when you were rich and powerful. I could really have brought it all crashing down. No Ace, no Audrey, no Kathleen . . . no Bernice.’
Faster than lightning, she was grabbing his robe, the thing on her eyes reflecting his terrified face like black water. ‘I want you to open the hole in space for me, Sesehset.’
‘I can’t!’ He stumbled backwards, but she kept her grip on his robe. ‘I don’t know how, it isn’t –’
‘I watched that