Doctor Who_ St. Anthony's Fire - Mark Gatiss [72]
The Doctor put his arm around her and gazed about at the shell‐shocked Chaptermen, supplicants and reprieved prisoners. Yong was looking at him interestedly.
The Doctor glanced across at the huge circular panel through which the column of fire had passed.
All it revealed now, through the transparent membrane of the hull, was the blackness of space and the silent green majesty of the planet Betrushia.
* * *
Liso and Bernice stood at the edge of the jungle in silence. The great black ship steamed but showed no sign of activity.
Suddenly, from out of the trenches came Thoss, his eyes rolling with fervour. ‘Keth! Keth!’
He threw himself down before the enormous craft and didn’t look up, even when the bulkhead slid slowly open and a ramp began to descend into the mud.
Liso stepped back involuntarily as two pink‐skinned beasts walked out of the ship, their strange bodies covered in some kind of loose material. Their tiny eyes were fixed in an unnaturally happy state.
One of them stepped forward and looked down at the prostrate form of Thoss. It smiled a beatific smile and swept its purple robes around for effect.
‘Hello,’ it said.
* * *
14
Papal Bull
Yong was finishing the remains of something very unsavoury when a battered and dishevelled Doctor was ushered into his opulent quarters. The Magna stood up, dabbing his mouth with a silk napkin and extending a hand. ‘My dear man! Come in! Come in!’
Warily, the Doctor walked across the black and white tiled floor towards Yong’s throne. A mild breeze was stirring the muslin drapes.
‘Tiger‐bone tea?’ asked Yong.
The Doctor’s eyebrows rose quizzically.
Yong grinned. ‘I find it most efficacious after a really good rant.’ He poured two cups of steaming black liquid from a large, elaborate china pot.
‘Earth tigers?’ said the Doctor at last. ‘I remember them as an endangered species.’
‘They were,’ said Yong with what may have been genuine sadness, pressing his manicured fingers to his chest. ‘Unfortunately, there are none left at all now. Only the bones.’
He rolled his eyes and took a long drink. The steam rose up until his forehead glistened.
‘Where is my friend?’ said the Doctor quietly.
Yong put down his cup. ‘Ah, yes. The young lady. She’s been quite a thorn in my side, I can tell you.’
‘I can imagine,’ said the Doctor without smiling.
Yong’s eyes narrowed. ‘She’s safe.’
The Doctor plonked himself down in a padded chair and put up his feet on Yong’s desk. His tea remained untouched.
‘What I want to know is how she came to be here in the first place. I left her, you see, on a planet not far from here. Massatoris. Perhaps you know it?’
Yong tapped his fingers against his chin. ‘Massatoris… Massa… ah, of course. I remember now. We had a little trouble with the locals. Difficult bunch.’
‘Trouble?’
‘Yes. They didn’t quite see things our way.’
The Doctor rubbed his eyes and the dusty wrinkles on his face concertinaed. ‘Why haven’t you killed me?’
‘Well, we haven’t been introduced for a start,’ smiled Yong.
There was an icy pause.
‘Doctor,’ said the Doctor.
Yong slid a finger over his rosebud lips. ‘Doctor. I see.’
‘I don’t,’ said the Doctor with sudden anger. ‘I don’t see what you’re doing rampaging around the galaxy in a battlecruiser got up as a cathedral, why you imprisoned my companion, what you did to Massatoris and who the devil you think you are.’
Yong blinked slowly and half smiled. ‘Do you want the answers one at a time or all at once?’
The Doctor glared at him.
Yong sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers.
‘I am William Hon Yuen Yong, Magna of the Chapter of Saint Anthony.’
‘The what of Saint who?’
Yong stood up and strolled across the room, his robes swishing over the glistening second skin of his bodysuit. ‘You haven’t heard of us? Oh, how distressing.’
He cleared his throat. ‘The Chapter of Saint Anthony was formed after the eventual dissolution of the High Catholick Church. As I’m sure you remember, all the faiths of the Earth were merged with the idea