Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [55]
This time, he had barely taken three steps before she was gasping out in pain. Another step, and she was writhing on the floor. Harry hurriedly walked backwards to his starting position, and after a few seconds she began to breathe normally again. The Doctor trotted down the other end of the room to check she was all right. „Wrap it up again and put it back in the bag,‟ he called back to Harry and Godric. „That obviously shields it, even if only a tiny fraction.‟ They did as he asked. Then, again on the Doctor‟s instructions, they brought four chairs down to the far end of the room, leaving Godric‟s leather bag in the corner behind them. The four of them sat down together, Emmeline shooting occasional anxious glances at the distant sack.
„So, what now?‟ asked Harry after there had been a silence for about half a minute.
„I think it‟s cards on the table time,‟ said the Doctor, obviously to the confusion of Godric, who glanced over at the table with a frown on his brow. „We need to pool our information if we‟re going to work out what‟s going on here.
And as everyone has experienced elements of the fantastical recently, I‟d ask you all to curb your natural scepticism -‟
here his eyes flickered towards Harry - „and accept what‟s being said. Harry, you probably have the most straightforward account, so let‟s start with you.‟
Harry almost laughed then. His, the most straightforward account! He wondered how the Doctor would react if he began, „Well, myself and my two friends - one of whom is also called the Doctor, and is an alien - landed here in our time and space machine, having defeated the plans of a race of evil metal cyber-robots in the far future. We were supposed to be on our way back to the late twentieth century where we were due to help my current employer, a high-up in a secret army organisation which fights alien threats, but unfortunately the time and space machine, which is a bit temperamental, dropped me off here by mistake. By the way, the whole world‟s going to be at war in less than three years.‟
But the Doctor would probably just smile and nod, or tell him it was „fascinating‟. Or suggest he wrote to the editor of
„Astounding Stories‟. Not to confuse matters even further, Harry of course listed just the expected series of events.
Found body. Got threatened. Discovered werewolf. Dug up body.
„You forgot “imprisoned in a tree”,‟ said the Doctor. Harry assumed this was some sort of early twentieth-century joke, and laughed politely.
Godric went next. The Doctor made the same „tree‟ joke again, then said he didn‟t really have much to add to Harry or Godric‟s accounts as he‟d been with one or the other of them since the first killing. So it was Emmeline‟s turn.
That took a bit longer. She touched briefly on coming to England to stay with her family, hoping to escape persecution in Germany, and how she hoped to marry an Englishman so she would not be sent back to her own country. She told them about the moon and how it affected her on different nights, about how on this night and the night before she was still in control of her mind and her actions, even when in the wolf shape. Drawing herself up straight-backed in the chair, she told them that she had not killed Lucinda Ryan.
„We know,‟ said the Doctor. „Someone set you up.‟
Harry didn‟t comment. He was more or less convinced, really. He just didn‟t want to be.
„I do not kill people. Only the sheep, and that I regret. But the power here is strong and -‟ She suddenly gasped, eyes opening wide.
The Doctor sprang to his feet. „Is it the Grail? Is it hurting you?‟
Harry opened his mouth to voice an incredulous