Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [16]
‘A penny for them,’ said the Doctor.
‘I was just wondering why you’re telling me this,’ said Chris.
‘I know I’m going to regenerate again,’ said the Doctor. ‘If I don’t die first.
I can’t change it, and yet. . . sometimes I think about going home. Hiding in the libraries and cloisters.’
Chris looked at him, wondering. ‘My life goes by so quickly compared to theirs.’ the Doctor went on. ‘Time Lords with time on their hands. Going nowhere. Risking nothing. Doing nothing.’ He gave a rueful smile, looking up at Chris as though he’d forgotten the human was there. ‘That’s when I realize I’d rather be dead than back home.’
Chris didn’t know how to respond. He couldn’t imagine being that lonely, knowing there was no one in the whole universe who was like you. The Doctor didn’t fit in anywhere, not even back at home amongst his own people. ‘You’re so different from them.’
‘I hope you never have to meet them,’ said the Doctor. ‘They haven’t the first idea about how to have fun.’
Chris smiled. ‘Ahem.’
‘Yes?’
‘Can I ask you a personal question?’
The Doctor glanced at him, guiding his horse around a fallen log. ‘You can 34
ask. . . ’ he said.
‘You’re not planning on doing this any time soon, are you? Regenerating?’
‘I’m not planning on doing it at all. That’s the whole problem. I know it will happen, but not when. Unless of course I –’
A flock of birds exploded out of the trees to their left. The Doctor turned sharply in his seat. Chris reached for his; word.
An arrow shot between them, missing Chris by an inch, and buried itself in a tree.
‘Split up!’ shouted the Doctor. His horse was suddenly galloping away.
Chris turned his steed and rode hard towards the trees, sword in hand.
‘Cowabunga!’ he yelled, as a samurai jerked out from between the trees, horse rearing. Three of them, all mounted. Two of them galloped after the Doctor.
Chris charged right at the archer. Get in close, he told himself, where his bow will he useless. The man got off one more shot, the shaft ripping through Chris’s sleeve.
He gave the archer an almighty shove with his foot, while the man was still trying to get his sword out. The samurai roared and lost his balance, almost falling off the horse, his bow tumbling away across the grass.
Chris rode in a tight circle, suddenly very aware of the killing edge of the steel in his hand. Oh shit. No stunguns. If they started fighting, someone was going to get killed. Probably him, since he hadn’t spent a lifetime learning how to fight with a chunk of metal.
What should he do? Try to get away? What about the Doctor? He couldn’t see the Time Lord, or his two pursuers.
You bastard, you could have killed me.
The samurai had got off his horse, and was brandishing his katana. He roared, ‘Get down, you coward!’
Chris circled him, staying on the horse. The samurai slashed at his leg.
Chris turned the blade away with his own
‘I don’t want to fight you!’ he shouted.
The samurai looked at him as though he was insane.
What the hell was he going to do?
‘So that’s all you know?’ Father was saying.
The giant nodded. Aoi’s father hadn’t spoken for minutes, standing over the prisoners, considering their story.
Aoi remembered what happened next. He had finished binding the foreigner, still shaken by the man’s inexplicable surrender. He had grabbed the trailing rope. ‘Walk ahead of me,’ he told the man.
They emerged from the trees. Aoi’s father was in the valley, running to help 35
Kiiro, who was fighting the giant.
‘No!’ his prisoner cried. He tried to run down the slope, slipping in the wet grass. Aoi pulled him up short with the rope, and they stumbled down into the valley.
Kiiro and the giant were circling each other, slashing and parrying. ‘What is he?’ breathed Aoi. ‘Another demon?’
‘We’re not demons. He’s made of the same stuff as you are,’ said the foreigner, watching the battle in distress.
Incredibly, Kiiro was winning. He struck the giant across his face, and followed through with a kick that sent the huge man sprawling in the grass. Aoi’s prisoner shouted, ‘Chris!’ as