Doctor Who_ The Awakening - Eric Pringle [34]
‘All right, all right!’ he wheezed. ‘You’ve made your point!’
The trooper ignored him. He frogmarched Turlough onto the Green and stopped only when Sir George Hutchinson, who had been overseering the preparations, cantered across on a big chestnut horse.
Sir George reined his horse to a halt, and from his vantage point glared down at Turlough. He pointed a black-gloved finger at him, and his voice was a paean of triumph. ‘One by one,’ he shouted, ‘you and your companions will return to my fold, and you will never get out again.’ He paused, and glanced across the Green, at its feverish activity. ‘It’s a pity you have seen this,’ he said, and then, turning to the trooper, he snarled, ‘Lock him up!’
With that Sir George galloped back to his other soldiers.
Before Turlough had a chance to protest, he was dragged roughly away.
In the church, the Doctor and Jane felt as if they were being dragged into the vortex of a whirlpool.
The very air around them was being stirred into violence. The monstrous roaring of the Malus in the wall mingled with those shattering sounds of battle to fill the nave with tumult. Smoke and masonry belched from the wall. The flickering lights whirled and dazzled and behind diem the image of the Grey Cavalier had solidified into a towering man in plumed hat and long curled wig, with a broad, pointed moustache and a thick beard, who was now moving slowly but threateningly towards them.
Jane’s nerve gave way. She was going to run, but the Doctor grabbed her arm. ‘Stand perfectly still,’ he whispered.
‘What is it?’ Jane croaked. Her throat had dried up and felt as rough as sandpaper.
‘I told you,’ the Doctor reminded her. ‘It’s a psychic projection.’
Jane winced, and submitted. ‘It pains me to say it, but I’m sorry I ever doubted you.’
She shivered, and the Doctor returned her jacket and placed it across her shoulders. ‘We all learn from our mistakes,’ he said drily.
Suddenly, swooping up from nowhere and adding to the already strong impression that the world was being torn apart about their ears, a wind - a real wind this time - rose in the nave. It came up out of silence to roar and howl, and hit the Doctor and Jane like a tidal wave. They staggered under the pressure - Jane would have lost her balance and been dashed to the floor had not the Doctor managed to hold on to her and push her upright again. The power of the wind took their breath away.
‘Now what?’ Jane gasped.
‘More psychic disturbance!’ the Doctor shouted above the howling of the wind. And then suddenly there was another thing to worry about: the Cavalier was almost upon them - he loomed up out of the noise and with a rasp of steel drew his sword.
The Doctor retreated, and dragged Jane with him.
‘It seems he intends to kill us!’ he gasped. ‘Make for the underground passage. Run!’
He pushed Jane in the direction of the vestry, and followed close behind her. As they ran up the church, the Malus roared again and lurched inside the wall. It was growing more powerful with every movement. Little by little, it was breaking free.
The trooper frogmarched the almost
unconscious Turlough across a deserted courtyard on the edge of the village. His left arm was locked so tightly around Turlough’s throat that his air supply was cut to almost nothing, and still he maintained the pressure which forced Turlough’s right hand high up between his shoulder blades. Turlough was in desperate straits.
The courtyard was seldom used and the hard earth had grassed over with weeds, over which the trooper now heaved Turlough towards a small, red-brick building at the other side. When they reached it he unbolted the door and threw him inside.
Turlough pitched headlong across the cement floor.For a moment he lay breathless and dizzy, sprawled lull length with his face in the dirt. He heard the door close and the bolt