Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis - Kevin Clarke [26]
A sudden burst of machine-gun fire from outside ripped through the window. Bullets tore across the wall above them. Lady Peinforte and Richard ducked. ‘We are attacked,’ shouted Lady Peinforte unnecessarily. ‘Quickly.
The arrows.’
Richard was seized by fear. ‘We have but one left,’ he told her. ‘And I do not think our arrows can stop these weapons.’ He stole a cautious look out of the window which told him everything he needed to know: De Flores and Karl with their submachine-guns were advancing briskly towards the tower.
Lady Peinforte, however, had other ideas. ‘Nonsense,’
she told him briskly. ‘Make it count. They destroyed the silver creatures.’
As though in mockery, a second burst of fire tore through the doorway, shattering bits of plaster off the sarcophagus. Richard panicked. He turned to his mistress.
Suddenly he felt very calm. ‘See, lady,’ he said. ‘We have no chance.’
Lady Peinforte stared in disbelief. ‘No. They cannot take the Nemesis,’ she said, ‘not now I have it.’ She put her arms round the statue, cradling it like a child. ‘They cannot.’
Richard looked back through the doorway. De Flores and Karl were only yards away. He fired the last arrow. It shot through the doorway. De Flores and Karl threw themselves to the ground as the arrow flashed over their heads. They remained still, evidently fearing another.
Lady Peinforte was groping inside her tomb. There was a creak, and a section of the wall of the crypt suddenly swung back in a shower of cobwebs, revealing itself as a hidden door. Richard was open-mouthed in surprise. Lady Peinforte smiled grimly. ‘Not for nothing did I design my own tomb,’ she said, and pointed at the ancient inscription on the wall. ‘Death is but a door. I always knew I’d cheat it.
Help me with the statue.’
Outside, Karl and De Flores were raising themselves cautiously on to their elbows. Richard implored her. ‘We cannot lift it, lady. We must fly.’
Ignoring him, Lady Peinforte began pulling at the statue hopelessly.
‘Put up your hands,’ said a voice. They turned to find Karl standing in the doorway, with De Flores behind him.
The machine-gun was aimed directly at them.
Even so, Lady Peinforte was defiant. ‘Never,’ she said unequivocally, standing in front of the tomb.
Richard’s reaction was different. He immediately fell to his knees. ‘You want the statue, masters?’ he cried. ‘Here, take it. Take it.’
Lady Peinforte looked down at him in the utmost contempt. ‘Thou feeble...’ she began.
‘And here is the arrow,’ continued Richard, snatching it away from her and holding it out to them. ‘See?’ He threw the arrow into the tomb.
There was a devastating flash of light which seemed to burn through the stones of the tower to the core of time and matter itself. Even though he had closed his eyes in preparation at the last second, Richard was stunned. Karl and De Flores, however, were not expecting it and were unable to move or, temporarily, to see. ‘Forgive me, lady,’
shouted Richard and, grabbing her by the waist, he threw her over his shoulder.
Lady Peinforte screamed from the depths of her being.
‘Unhand me. Nooo!’ Ignoring her protests, Richard forced her through the newly opened doorway into the entrance to the secret passage. Karl, recovering, found the trigger of his gun and fired a burst of bullets into the blazing light, but the door had already swung closed behind them. Karl ran to it and began feeling the wall, trying to find a way in.
De Flores recovered himself, and approached the Nemesis in wonder, fluttering a hand at Karl in passing. ’No matter Karl, no matter. They are of no importance.’ His voice was shaking with wonder. ‘We have the statue, the arrow... and the bow. We can destroy all creation.’ He looked at Karl triumphantly. ‘Wagner unfortunately must be rewritten.
The supermen must control the giants.’
‘But how are we to control the Cybermen?’ asked Karl.
‘Gold overcomes them,’ said De Flores. ‘We have no such weakness.’
There was a sound of movement inside the sarcophagus.
They turned and looked into it. The statue’s right hand had