Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [17]
‘Spare him!’ Father had shouted.
Kiiro turned to look at Aoi’s father, lowering his blade. The giant didn’t get up.
Kiiro bowed to Father and sheathed his katana.
Aoi’s prisoner sagged against a tree. ‘Your father’s merciful,’ he said.
The young warrior pulled him upright again. ‘There are questions you’re going to answer,’ he said sternly. ‘Both of you.’
Kiiro was tying up the giant, who was lying on the grass, breathing hard.
‘Sorry, Doctor,’ he gasped, as Aoi’s father pulled the ropes tight.
Aoi wished they’d told more. He wanted to know who these foreigners were, why the Roshi had chosen them for his mission.
Why the snowman had spared his life.
‘Kannon,’ said Father, and snorted. ‘This is the wishful thinking of frightened peasants, nothing more.’
‘Possibly,’ said the snowman. ‘Since we didn’t actually get as far as Hekison village, I can’t say.’
Behind them, Kiiro was quietly drawing his katana. Aoi folded his arms, holding himself still. Should he say something?
The snowman said, ‘If you’re planning to investigate, then perhaps we can help. I’ve had considerable experience with deities.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Father. ‘You don’t know anything.’
‘I know that, whatever this thing is, your daimyo is very interested in it,’
said the snowman. ‘He’s sent you to collect the kami, hasn’t he? In the hope it will give him some kind of advantage in the civil war?’
‘That’s right,’ said Father. ‘And therefore, you are going to have to die.’
The foreigners looked at each other.
‘Wait a moment,’ said the snowman.
Aoi’s heart was pounding in his ears. Should he intercede? Beg his father to spare them?
He closed his eyes as his father nodded to Kiiro.
36
4
Rescue (hopefully)
There was a brilliant flash. For a dreadful moment, Chris thought it was moonlight on moving steel.
Then he saw it was a disc of gold and red, cartwheeling across the grass, accompanied by a whizzing roar.
The samurai were looking around in bewilderment. They didn’t know what the light was either. With a violent pop, another flash erupted in the nearby trees, accompanied by a great puff of foul-smelling smoke and a shower of red sparks.
There was a sharp crack. The samurai recognized that sound all right. ‘Find them!’ shouted their leader.
The youngest samurai snatched up a brand from the fire and ran towards the shower of red sparks. He yelled as another of the spinning yellow wheels erupted at his feet. A third landed in the fire and exploded with an almighty bang.
‘ Oni-bi! ’ shouted Kiiro. ‘Demon fires!’
There was a volley of shots, over their heads. ‘Demons!’ shouted the leader.
‘We haven’t got a chance in the dark!’
The young samurai ran up to Chris, and grabbed the rope trailing from his wrists. He pulled on it, hard enough for Chris to lose his balance and fall over in the grass.
‘Leave the prisoners!’ shouted the leader. He was already loosing the horses.
‘Leave them, Aoi, they don’t know anything!’
The man grabbed the young samurai and practically threw him on to his horse. A beam of red light burst out from behind the trees, roving the clearing, cutting through the drifting, brimstone-flavoured smoke. The three warriors thundered away.
Chris rolled over, and saw that the Doctor was still kneeling in place, his back to the hellish light. The Time Lord was looking over at the grass, where the yellow sparking thing was spinning its last.
37
Two figures came out of the trees. Chris squinted into the fierce red light. ‘I really, really hope this is a rescue,’ he said.
The shorter figure marched over to them. It was holding the source of the red light. Chris stared. It was a big handheld flashlight, with a torn square of red cellophane stickytaped in place over it.
The figure shone the light down on to the Doctor. ‘Catherine wheel,’ the Time Lord said.
‘Miss Penelope Gate,’ said the small figure. She was wearing what looked like a Victorian safari outfit, holding a musket in her gloved hands. She handed the torch and the gun to her companion, a slender man with red