Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [90]
I don’t care if you don’t know how! I don’t know how! If I knew how I WOULD HAVE RELEASED MYSELF! You’ve got to listen to me! You’ve got to do something! It was their law, you see, any slave with psychic abilities had to be segregated, had to be safely stowed for the voyage, had to be locked away. You can’t leave me in here! Every minute is like a month! It’s like being 183
locked in a prison cell forever, a slave cell, with no way to open the doors from the inside, no doors at all! If you let me out, I’ll be back to normal, harmless, helpless. I won’t bother anyone, I promise. All of this mess fuss will be over, I promise! I won’t be any more trouble!
Out!
OUT!
GET ME OUT OF HERE!
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20
Half a cat is better than none
One of Gufuu’s doctors had prised the dead child from the Doctor’s arms and taken the poor creature’s body away. Another doctor was sitting beside the strange foreigner, trying to clean some of the dirt from his face and clothes so that he could examine the man’s wounds.
The foreigner pushed his hand away. ‘Go and attend to someone who needs you,’ he grumbled. The physician glanced up at Gufuu, who nodded. The man bowed, gathered his dignity, and walked away.
‘How did you enter my camp?’ Gufuu demanded. ‘Didn’t my guards try to stop you?’
‘They were distracted,’ said the Doctor. ‘So sorry. What’s your plan, Gufuu-sama? Has there been sufficient slaughter, or do you still have your heart set on possessing the pod?’
‘I am an inch from victory,’ said Gufuu mildly. ‘Umemi lies slain, his army destroyed. And the monastery has no warrior monks. The pod will shortly be in my grasp, as it rightfully should be.’
‘You’ve got what you truly wanted,’ said the Doctor. His forthrightness was still admirable, as infuriating as it was! ‘Umemi’s power is shattered. You can easily take over his estates. Why bother with the pod? It’s of no use to you.’
‘Doctor,’ said Gufuu, ‘before, you were concerned that war might break out over ownership of the pod. Now that it’s too late to worry about that, why are you still encouraging me to avoid the object?’
‘Because the superior warrior knows when not to fight, as well as when to fight,’ said the Doctor. ‘And now is not the time to fight. You need risk nothing.
Talk to the monks. Find out what the pod truly is – I’ll help you.’
They were wise words, it was true. But what motive was the Doctor hiding?
‘Why ought I to take your advice?’
‘Because I came back from the dead to talk to you,’ said the Doctor, brushing soil from his sleeve.’
‘How’d you like to go back where you came from?’
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The Doctor looked up. ‘Oh no, not you again.’
The demon woman, Te Yene Rana, was leaning over the cloth wall, grinning. ‘I’m pleased to see you again.’ She ducked under the curtain and came into the enclosure. ‘Are you going to answer his question?’
Gufuu looked between them, mildly. The Doctor said, ‘She knows what the pod is. She owned it once, and now she wants it back again. That’s why she joined forces with Umemi-sama –’
‘– who’s now extremely dead,’ she said. ‘And so I’ve offered my services to the winning side.’
‘And what have you told the daimyo his prize actually is?’
‘It’s a weapon, of course,’ said Te Yene Rana. ‘Or will be, with adjustments and experimentation.’
The Doctor looked at Gufuu. ‘ O-daimyo,’ he said, ‘she has no intention of allowing you to use the “weapon” – she only wants your help in recovering it for herself, and in taking revenge on her enemies.’
Gufuu-sama smiled. ‘Perhaps,’ he said, ‘I want her help in recovering it for myself, and in taking revenge on my enemies.’
With a movement as simple as a flick of the wrist, he slid his katana from its sheath and slipped it through the Caxtarid’s neck. Her head bounced, once, its expression of surprise almost comical.
The Doctor looked up at him. Something flickered over his face, but he wisely kept his thoughts to