Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis - Kevin Clarke [32]
Ace needed no further hint. As one, they bolted through the entrance and were running hard across the grass outside. To her surprise, Ace noticed the Doctor was still holding the bow.
‘TARDIS,’ he puffed. ‘The statue will follow this.’ He held up the bow as he spoke and, still running, they disappeared among the trees.
8
At the far edge of the forest, near the road, Richard started in surprise at a distant rumbling. At first he took it for one of the cars he had seen in Windsor, but his countryman’s hearing soon differentiated between them and the deeper, more sinister sound he now heard. The ground began to shake beneath him. Lady Peinforte, however, was unmoved. ‘Fear not, Richard,’ she said. ‘It is the Nemesis come alive.’
Richard stared at her, chilled to the marrow of his bones. ‘Alive?’ he gasped.
‘Why, yes,’ replied Lady Peinforte calmly, as though it were the most natural activity possible. ‘Which means it is complete.’ Her face hardened and set. ‘And now it shall be mine.’ She gazed into the distance. ‘Why, I shall be mistress of all that is. All that shall be. All...’ her voice rose to a screeching crescendo, ‘all that ever was. Yes, all. All...’
Richard understood in that moment that Lady Peinforte had gone completely mad. He was filled with pity for her.
He put his hand on her arm. ‘Come, lady,’ he said gently,
‘let’s find some shelter.’
Lady Peinforte turned on him furiously. ‘How dare you?’ she screamed, staring at his hand on her arm as though he were as leper, begging for coins. Richard immediately withdrew it, and as quickly his expression of warmth and care was replaced by the servant’s professional mask.
‘I shall lead and you follow,’ screamed Lady Peinforte.
Her madness seemed to seize her completely. Her voice rose to an unearthly shriek. ‘There is no alternative!’ With this she marched off through a thicket of gorse. Richard painfully followed.
They emerged by the side of a road. Occasional cars passed. Fifty yards away, a young man stood by the roadside with his thumb out. Richard reached the road in time to see a car pull up in response to this signal, and the young man clamber in. The car moved away.
Ahead of him, Lady Peinforte was speaking over her shoulder. ‘We needs must walk, Richard. We have no craft.’
Richard caught up with her. ‘We can avail ourselves of one of these steeds, my lady,’ he said. ‘I know the method of it. Sit you here and rest awhile.’
To his surprise, she concurred without a murmur and sat down on a milestone. Richard put out his thumb at a passing car, and was surprised when it passed without stopping. Her ladyship, however, did not notice.
‘All that is, and shall be...’ she murmured.
Lavinia P. Hackensack, widow, of New Haven, Connecticut, called to the chauffeur of her Lincoln Continental to pull over. Something about the pair of hitch-hikers engaged her attention. Thus the door opened as Lady Peinforte rose to her feet and approached the car; her ladyship was inside the vehicle before Mrs Hackensack had even finished asking her where she and her young man were headed.
Inside the now ruined crypt, there were only two figures left. Karl was freeing De Flores from the Cybermen’s programming console. Their laughter echoed round the rafters of the tower.
‘Herr De Flores,’ Karl repeated, wiping the tears from his eyes, ‘your day is over.’
‘You betray me?’ gurgled De Flores. ‘Have I taught you nothing?’ He shook off the last of the wires and stretched.
Then he patted Karl on the back and together they made for the door.
Inside the limousine, the cocktail bar, television, and the ankle-deep carpet proved of no interest to Richard or Lady Peinforte, preoccupied as they both were with the experience of rocketing along at thirty miles an hour.
‘You folks students?’ ventured Mrs Hackensack happily.
Lady Peinforte ignored her. Richard hastily tried to attract Mrs Hackensack’s attention to himself. ‘Alas,’ he spread his arms expansively, ‘I am but a servant, madam, and cannot read or write. My lady is of noble birth and has some Latin