Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [77]
Godric was a stranger to battlefields, but he knew that the knights he admired so much would not shrink from carnage such as that before him; they would think only of those to be saved. Although he could now never become a knight of the Round Table, trapped in this dismal century so far from his own, he must aspire to show the bravery of such a knight. He raised the Grail in both hands and ran towards the howling mob, heedless of dignity, trying not to look at the torn bodies lying in the waist-high grass. He heard footsteps hurrying up behind him and knew that the Doctor had followed him after all.
„Stop this at once!‟ the Doctor shouted in a voice that brooked no disobedience. Most of the villagers fell back as Godric rushed forward, as the wolf shrieked in pain and cowered from the chalice, as the wolfs latest victim stumbled away and apparently fell over his own feet.
Godric did not cease his run. There were still people to save. He must save them.
The villagers who had held off in surprise at Godric‟s charge, at the force of the Doctor‟s words, suddenly realised that the wolf was no longer attacking. A man raised his shotgun to his shoulder, aimed at the cringing target. Godric kept running towards the scene, running towards the wolfs fallen victim.
„No!‟ yelled the Doctor, launching himself at the farmer. But the man‟s finger was tightening on the trigger. He saw nothing but the cowering wolf that had attacked his friends.
Godric arrived.
The man fired.
Godric‟s body collapsed on top of the fallen Harry Sullivan.
The villagers scattered before the wrath of the Doctor. His rage was barely controlled, as he sent this man for water and that man for bandages. They barely noticed the wolf slinking away; the huge anger of this usually so calm man scared them far more than a mere beast.
Harry staggered to his feet, shocked, bruised, not entirely sure where he was, and still waving the silver candlestick that had saved his life. Well, the silver candlestick and Godric with the Grail. Harry seemed to be covered in blood, but the pain wasn‟t too bad. He knew you could be stabbed and feel nothing more than a punch, but it still surprised him. And then he realised that the blood he was covered in was not his own but Godric‟s. And there was Godric on the ground, unconscious, a ball of lead in his stomach. Wincing with pain, Harry knelt down beside the fallen boy. „Let me help,‟ he said to the Doctor, who was kneeling there tight-lipped and angry, trying to treat the lad‟s wounds.
„I didn‟t mean to...‟ said the farmer with the shotgun - now dropped to the ground. „„It was an accident...‟ he went on. „Let me help...‟ He grabbed a soaking cloth and reached out to the boy. As he did, he brushed the cup that Godric still gripped tightly in both hands. It was if it had burnt him. He snatched his fingers away hurriedly, gazing at the Grail in astonishment. „It... it hurt me!‟ he said. „What is that thing?‟
Neither the Doctor nor Harry answered him, but the Doctor muttered, „Pure in thought and deed,‟ under his breath, and Harry heard him.
Harry examined Godric as thoroughly as he could, assisted by the Doctor. After a tense few minutes he was able to announce that it seemed that no major organ had been hit.
„The danger is blood loss,‟ he said. „And blood poisoning.‟
The Doctor, with help from a couple of the farmers - Harry found his arm was too weak where it had hit the ground -
lifted the lad on to a table brought from the pub, and carried him to the Doctor‟s cottage. Harry pushed shut the door of the living room as he passed, to hide from view the overturned chair and the scattered ropes. They went upstairs, where Godric was laid on the Doctor‟s bed. The Doctor‟s bedroom was so pristine, thought Harry, that it looked as if he‟d never even slept there. But now there was a trail of blood spots all the way from the front door to the clean white sheets. The Doctor fetched a glass vial full of a sticky brown