Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [89]
Gufuu-sama ignored the pulsing pain of his wounds, coolly walking the length and breadth of his camp, taking stock of his situation.
180
His army and that of Umemi-san had been far too evenly matched. Similar numbers, similar arms. All these years, neither of them had been able to gain the upper hand, and this battle had been no different.
He stepped inside his war camp. It was a wide, grassy area, shielded from the wind by curtains strung tautly between poles, each curtain bearing his butterfly mark. Some of the wounded had been evacuated to nearby houses and a temple at the end of the valley, but few places in this contested territory were safe. He had ordered the rest brought here.
His doctors drifted from body to body, some of the injured warriors writhing, some still. None of them could be used in further fighting; anyone who was still capable of combat was outside, guarding the camp.
The foreign boy, Mintsu, was helping one of the doctors as he washed the wounds of a badly hurt samurai. The lad looked nauseated by the work. He had intelligence and useful knowledge, but little spirit. Still, he had managed to slay an attacker. Gufuu-sama had witnessed it himself What courage the thick of battle could inspire!
Seeing him, the lad ran up, and bowed deeply. The glass frames he wore on his face fell off, and he snatched them up. Gufuu restrained a smile.
‘ O-daimyo,’ said the boy, ‘what happens now? Why haven’t we gone back to your castle?’
Gufuu-sama decided to forgive the lad his rough manners, given his barbarian origins and the shock of his first battle. ‘Once our reinforcements arrive,’
he said, ‘we’ll attack the monastery. I’ve sent a messenger demanding they hand over the pod, but Kadoguchiroshi is a stubborn old priest – I doubt he’ll capitulate. He sheltered one of my concubines after she ran away, and I couldn’t even buy her back from him.’
The boy looked as though he was going to cry. Gufuu-sama sighed internally. The lad was going to need toughening up if he was going to serve. He was gazing at something behind Gufuu-sama’s shoulder. . .
A moment later, there came a cry of surprise. Gufuu whirled, his sword half drawn.
It was the Doctor.
‘Oh my God,’ said Joel, faintly. Gufuu just stared.
The man was filthy, covered in fresh soil. His eyes blazed in his dirt-streaked face. He looked like a demon, something that had fought its way free from hell and was here to curse them all.
In his arms, he held the corpse of a young peasant girl. Her rough clothes were soaked with blood.
‘See what you’ve done,’ he breathed, then he swayed and fell forward, on to his knees.
181
Unturtled
Out
Out
OUT
Oh God! All the gods! GET ME OUT OF HERE!
Don’t you understand? I’ve been in here so long! No no, not just the last month, but for years! YEARS!
Don’t you understand? They put me in here because of my brain! Because of the way my brain works! When they found out I could move things with my mind, they put me in here! ‘Nothing more dangerous than a slave with a weapon,’ they said, even though I could barely lift a coin with my mind, a speck of dust with my mind. They put me in here WHERE IT’S COLD!
Ican’tmovel’mlockedinherelcan’tgetoutlcan’tspeak ALLICANDOISTHINK!
THINK! And everything’s so jumbled, none of it makes any sense. I can’t get anything to work! Don’t you understand? This thing is supercooled! A life-support capsule! It ought to be dark in here, it ought to be silent in here, I ought to be asleep in here, but instead MY BRAIN IS WORKING FOUR
THOUSAND TIMES FASTER THAN IT OUGHT TO!
I don’t care who you are or what you are! JUST GET ME OUT!
I keep reaching out to you, and you don’t understand! I keep trying to protect myself, and you still couldn’t work it out! GET ME OUT FOR GOD’S
SAKE!
YES I’m a Kapteynian! Of course I’m a Kapteynian! Nothing more dangerous than a slave with a weapon! Nothing more dangerous than a slave who IS
A WEAPON! Don’t you understand?