Doctor Who_ The Hollow Men - Keith Topping [104]
Chen was about to protest when the policeman fell to his knees, his energy spent. Steven stared in horrified fascination as the first scarecrow reached Denman. The policeman‟s head snapped up and his eyes connected with Steven‟s, burrowing into his soul.
‘Run!’ screamed Denman, as arms of straw and corn fell upon him.
* * *
Suddenly the hands came away from her face, and Ace sucked in a whooping gasp of air.
The scarecrow staggered, batting feebly at the flames that tore at its chest and arms. Its cloth head smouldered, the brim of the floppy hat on fire. As it crashed into the ground a shower of sparks leapt into the air, glowing brightly in the sky.
Ace turned, wondering who had come to her rescue. She expected to see Steven Chen or Denman or one of the others.
Instead, standing some fifty yards away, was an archer. A quiver of impossibly burning arrows was slung from his belt.
The man was only partly visible, the line of a hedge running straight through him like a razor. He wore ancient clothing, dominated by an enormous bearskin that hung on his back like a cloak.
Ace shook her head. „I‟ve flipped,‟ she said, under her breath.
She glanced down at the scarecrow corpse. The creature seemed dead, but there was not a trace of the fire she had seen earlier.
Joanna appeared at her side. „What happened?‟ she demanded.
„Haven‟t the foggiest,‟ admitted Ace. She looked back towards the archer, but he was gone.
The courtroom dissolved around the Doctor, scenes from the outside world scudding across the sky above him. He saw the ethereal hunters sweeping over the village, attacking the scarecrows. He cried out in delight as Ace was saved by a man with a longbow. Just for a moment there was silence across the land, interrupted only by the distant call of a woodcock.
„It is the triumph of the human will,‟ the Doctor exclaimed.
Before him, only the judge was left in the barren wasteland that had once been a courtroom. But no trace of Jeffreys remained. The eyes, flaming like the burning scarecrows above them, told the Doctor that he was again in the presence of Jack i‟ the Green.
The Doctor pointed to the sky, awash with primal colours.
„Instead of using the dark legends which you made more terrifying - the wicker men, the pagan gods of the corn harvest - the villagers have called up the Wild Hunt. An ambiguous enough legend, not good, not evil, but moral. Just the sort of thing to slip past you, unnoticed.‟ The Doctor paused triumphantly. „Your ancient victims are turning against you, Jack. Human souls cannot bear your form of reality. They‟ll be at the palace gates soon. You‟re under siege!‟
Still Jack said nothing. The landscape changed again to the village green in the seventeenth century, surrounded by oak-beamed Tudor buildings. The people of the village stood around the edges of the green, shouting, their fists raised.
„You‟ve lost, Jack,‟ said the Doctor. „Their strength is too great. They are using the power of the land, the ley lines, the stone circles. Legends of God and man and nature. They‟re taking back what you stole from them over three hundred years ago.‟
„Battle is not yet won,‟ said the judge suddenly. The Doctor looked up to find the court room re-forming around him.
Jack‟s eyes were glowing within a human face once more, a black cloth on his head. „Thou hast been found guilty by this court. It is my duty to pass sentence. Dost thou have anything to say?‟
„No,‟ said the Doctor, surprised. „My mother always told me if I didn‟t have anything good to say about anyone, I shouldn‟t say anything at all.‟
„The sentence of this court,‟ said the judge, „is that thou shalt be taken to a place of execution, and there done to death. And may Jack have mercy upon thy soul. Take him.‟
Guardsmen, with Jowett and Long John helping them, grabbed the Doctor and held him aloft, marching towards the green, at the centre of which a freshly dug pit glowed blood-red.
„Greetings.‟ The voice was as ancient as thunder, and caught Ace completely