Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [56]
but there was a sudden crash. Harry fell backwards off his chair in alarm as glass shards showered over him and the swinging branch of an apple tree nearly took his head off.
Another crash, as another bough smashed a further window.
And another, and another.
„The earth...‟ Emmeline croaked. „It has tasted blood again... Power - oh, there is power.‟
Through the shattered glass and tattered curtains, the almost-full moon shone. Emmeline fell to the floor. From his prone position, Harry did not see all of her swift transformation, but what he did see was something he would never talk about.
The Doctor dived across the room and grabbed at Godric‟s bag. He stationed himself by the windows. „Emmeline, I know you can understand me, and I know you can control yourself.
You want to leave, to follow the trail of blood, but you mustn‟t. It‟s dangerous.‟
The wolf snarled at him, sounding more aggrieved than ferocious.
„Isn‟t it more dangerous to have that thing here?‟ asked Harry.
„I don‟t think so,‟ the Doctor said. „It sounds like there‟s been another murder, another blood sacrifice. And the villagers will be out for more blood: hers. And if you‟re not worried about her,‟ he continued, reading Harry‟s mind,
„think of what will happen if she has to protect hers-‟ The Doctor suddenly yelled in alarm as he found himself hitting the floor with his nose. Creeping ivy had slithered unnoticed through the broken glass and wrapped itself round his ankles.
Harry and Godric dashed forward to help, ducking and dodging flailing tendrils of greenery as they went. Emmeline half prowled, half cowered in a far corner.
As fast as they untied the Doctor‟s ankles, the ivy wound itself around again. As Godric held up a chair to protect them from a rain of shed fruit, Harry got out his penknife and hacked away at the vines. But his mind wasn‟t on the task.
„What did you mean?‟ he shouted at the Doctor above the crashing of glass and the howl of the wind. „You can‟t mean what I think you meant!‟
„I beg your pardon?‟ shouted back the Doctor.
„You called it the Grail! You didn‟t mean - not the Grail?‟
„Why not? It makes perfect sense!‟ yelled the Doctor.
„Legend tells us that water sprang up where Joseph of Arimathea placed it. Which, incidentally, was supposed to be just down the road from here. Where did Godric find it? In a spring. A load of knights go off on a quest to find it, but can they? No. Because probably two days before, it had ended up inside a tree.‟
„What is it with you and trees?‟ Harry asked, not expecting an answer. He cut through the final tendril, and held out a hand to haul the Doctor to his feet. Godric flung down the chair, and the three of them ran for the door. Godric had to dart ahead and open it, so Emmeline could get out before the cup - surely not really the Grail - got too near.
„Upstairs!‟ shouted the Doctor, and they all headed upwards.
„I don‟t think that‟s really evidence,‟ called Harry as they jogged up the stairs.
„Ah, but you‟re forgetting the main thing,‟ the Doctor replied. „It must be some powerful object - a powerful and good object - to have such an effect on an unnatural creature.‟
They had reached the bedrooms by this point. The Doctor, Harry and Godric piled into Harry‟s room. Harry sat, panting, on the bed. „Hadn‟t we better keep an eye on her?‟ he said, nodding towards the corridor where they‟d left Emmeline behind.
„Once she gets out of the moonlight she‟ll be able to change back,‟ the Doctor said, unconcerned.
Godric was frowning. „You say that this wolf - this woman -
is an unnatural creature, and that is why the Grail - if it is such, which I can hardly believe - causes her pain. Yet I have heard you speak of it - of her - as a creature of nature, of earth.‟
„Ah,‟ the Doctor said. „Well, she‟s both. A creature of nature twisted to unnatural ends, you might say. Created from the earth and from blood - the most natural things in the world, but turned into something nature never intended.‟
Godric nodded. „I understand. But there is so much more that I do not... It