Doctor Who_ Bunker Soldiers Part 15

'How will we recognise it?'

'Vomiting, an aged appearance to the skin, a fevered but cold brow, an inclination to sleep. Death seems surely to follow.'

Dmitri sighed in anguish. 'Why must the people of Kiev be bludgeoned in this way?' he asked desperately. I could see the frustration etched on his face how much more was he expected to cope with?

'How many have died?' I asked Yevhen.

'A handful,' he replied, still staring at Dmitri. 'But disease can spread like fire through a city that is preparing for siege.' He glanced at me momentarily, his eyes cold and grey. 'Perhaps, if it takes hold, there will be no one left by the time the Tartars invade.'

XII.

Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus Dodo banged heartily on the door. 'Lesia? Lesia? Come on, you can't stay in there all day!'

There was no response, and Dodo tugged on the handle of twisted metal. The door was unlocked and she pulled it open, the treated wooden planks grating across the rough stone floor. She turned to the guard behind her.

'You stay here. We ladies need our privacy.'

The soldier snorted, but made no move to follow her in.

Dodo shut the door on him with a broad grin. 'Come on, sleepyhead,' she said as she approached the comatose body in the bed. She shook her friend's sleeping form vigorously. 'Time to get up! If I can make the effort, so can you.'

The ma.s.s beneath the sheets offered little resistance to Dodo's prods and pushes; she made her way to the top of the bed, and pulled back the covers.

Lesia was still asleep, a blank, dreaming look on her face.

Her dark hair fanned out across the pillow like a ragged halo.

'Stop mucking about!' said Dodo. 'Your father will not approve!' she added in a haughty tone, before walking over to the window and opening the rough wooden shutters.

Sunlight, filtered through grey rain-clouds, painted the room with repressed watercolour light. 'Doesn't look very good out,'

Dodo observed. 'Anyway, I expect you and lover boy would prefer to stay in. We'll have to see what we can arrange, eh?' She was back at the top of the bed again, prodding the sleeping body with growing irritation.

'Lesia, will you get up!'

A dark look crossed Dodo's face.

'Stop it, Lesia.You're frightening me.'

Still there was not the slightest movement from the sleeping woman. Even her chest seemed motionless beneath her pale bedclothes.

'Lesia!'

Worried now, Dodo reached down to touch her friend's face. She noticed that Lesia's eyes were fluttering a little, as if she was dreaming but her skin was deathly cold to the touch.

'Oh my G.o.d...'

Dodo ran from the room.

Yevhen swept into the room, agitated. 'Is it the disease?' he queried.

Isaac, who had only just arrived, looked up from his cursory inspection of the sleeping girl. 'I do not think so,' he said.

'Physicians have been called, and we shall of course rely on their expertise in the stars and the humours...' He puffed his cheeks.

'But I must admit this is a malaise the like of which I have never seen.'

'She's just as I found her,' offered Dodo, wary of Yevhen's wrath, but he seemed to ignore her words. Instead, he strode to the bed and gathered his daughter to him, first gently and with concern etching his features, then more strongly. He whispered into her ear, but the young woinan remained little more than a doll in his arms.

'You might decide it best to leave her be,' suggested Isaac.

'Some conditions '

'I will decide how best to protect my own family!' Yevhen spat, glaring at the older man. 'I know where my priorities lie. I wish that were true of all the city leaders,' he added, his words ripe with implied threat.

'What do you mean by that, sir?'

'Do not play the fool with me, Jew,' spat Yevhen. 'The governor may be ignorant of your alliance with the travellers, but I am not.'

'What are you on about?' asked Dodo, who could stand in silence no more.

'Isaac has engineered the release of your friend,' said Yevhen through gritted teeth. 'Have you not heard?'

Isaac smiled sweetly. 'I am naturally pleased to hear the governor has decided that Steven is innocent of murder. But I am afraid to say that I had nothing to do with the governor's change of heart.' He stared levelly at his fellow adviser, refusing to be intimidated by him. 'Your daughter is ill, sir,' he continued in a voice so quiet Dodo had to strain to hear it. 'I humbly suggest we keep our thoughts and our prayers focused on that.'

Yevhen nodded, as if shamed by Isaac's words, but Dodo could see there was still a fire burning behind his eyes.

'How much longer are these doctors of yours going to be?'

she queried.

'I imagine they are dealing with those poor souls who have fallen victim to this vile disease,' said Isaac. 'The numbers are growing by the moment.'

Yevhen straightened, and turned away from his daughter. It was clear he had made a decision. 'Is it not plain what is wrong with the girl?' he asked grandly. He turned to Isaac. 'You are so wise, and yet you do not see the evidence of your own eyes?'

'What are you talking about?' asked Dodo.

'A night-time visitation,' Yevhen announced grandly. 'I can feel it in her fever, smell it on her skin. She has been corrupted.'

His voice lowered to a near whisper. 'An incubus.'

Isaac reached out to his fellow adviser, as if he were about to put a comforting arm around him. 'You have been working too hard,' he said lightly.

'The evidence is clear enough!' snapped Yevhen, striding towards the door. 'My very own daughter has not been able to resist temptation. She has given in to l.u.s.t, and an incubus has her soul.' He glanced back towards the bed. 'She now sleeps the sleep of the d.a.m.ned.'

'An incubus!' Isaac spluttered. 'Were this malady not so serious, sir, I would laugh!'

Yevhen turned, pointing an angry finger towards Isaac. 'You do not believe in G.o.d, sir! Of course you do not believe in demons!'

'We believe in the same G.o.d,' offered Isaac with as much dignity as he could muster. 'Different expressions of Him, perhaps, but the same creator.' He held a hand over his heart.

'The only monsters I believe in are here.'

'You will burn in h.e.l.l for your blasphemy!' snapped Yevhen, marching through the doorway.

Isaac watched him go, and Dodo saw the unease that creased his features. 'It will, perhaps, be heaven to be away from you,'

the old man whispered.

Still boiling with contempt, and knotted with worry about his daughter, Yevhen marched down the corridor towards his rooms. He hated being away from his usual dwellings, and the madness of Dmitri's decree only inflamed his irritation further.

A soldier pa.s.sed by, his eyes turned away from the adviser.

For a moment Yevhen watched him go, then he snapped 'Boy?'

The lad paused, then turned. 'My lord?' he queried nervously.

Yevhen shook his head sadly. A broadsword hung from the boy's belt, a reminder that the defence of Kiev rested with such as him but his voice had barely broken!

'Come with me,' said Yevhen.

'But I have been ordered to search for a beast, at liberty within these walls.'

'You will have time enough to complete your search when you have performed an errand for me.'

'And the tunnels, sir. We must look out for secret pa.s.sageways.'

Yevhen's eyebrows arched, but he made no comment on the young soldier's revelation. 'There are enough dark monsters and tunnels in Kiev to last you a lifetime, boy. I merely wish you to deliver a letter.'

The soldier nodded curtly, and followed Yevhen into his room. The adviser strode over to a desk, rummaged for a small sc.r.a.p of parchment and a quill, and began to write.

After a few minutes, he looked up. 'Have you ever wondered what the holy scriptures truly say, boy? Or imagined how they would sound in our own tongue?'

The soldier's eyes widened, and he stammered as he searched for an appropriate response. 'I am content,' he said, 'with... with what I hear. What I know. What I am allowed to know.'

'But of course,' smiled Yevhen. 'I was like you once. But I had a desire to learn, to realise for myself. I had to teach myself Latin.' He watched as the ink dried on the parchment. 'Let me be honest with you. I am not sure the reward was worthy of the effort.'

'No, sir?'

Yevhen shook his head. 'We only want an illusion of freedom, do we not, boy?'

'I do not know, sir. You may be right.'

Yevhen handed over the sheet of parchment. 'Give this to Bishop Vasil.' He paused for a moment, thinking. 'I suppose he may already be... busy. In which case, give it to the most senior cleric you can find. They will know what to do.'

'My lord.' The boy bowed quickly, and headed for the door.

'One last thing,' said Yevhen, stopping him in his tracks.

The boy turned.

'The letter instructs that, once read, it is to be burnt in flame.

See that this is done.'

The soldier nodded.

'Soon there will be flames enough to burn all the vile libraries of Kiev,' said Yevhen quietly as he watched the boy go.

Dodo was escorted into the debating chamber. Steven and Dmitri looked up from their discussion, the former breaking immediately into a broad smile.

'Dodo!' he exclaimed. 'I'm so glad to see you!'

She hugged him, squealing in delight. 'You're a free man now!'

'Was it ever in doubt?' Steven laughed.

'Come, sit with us,' said Dmitri, his grave tones cutting through their celebration. 'We were discussing the Doctor.'

'Have you heard from him?' asked Dodo, unable to contain her excitement.

Dmitri shook his head. 'No, and neither would I expect to.

Even if the Doctor is, in time, victorious, I must a.s.sume for the moment that he fails. We may not see him again until the Tartars are at our very doors.'

'Or we just may not see him again,' said Dodo, copying his deflated tone.

'Try to understand why I must speak in this way,' said Dmitri. Dodo instantly felt ashamed of her irritation. 'The Doctor has told me. .' The governor struggled to articulate his thoughts. 'You come from a time that has yet to happen, a world that has yet to be yet it is our world, our earth, and we people are to you the corpses of history.'

'The Doctor said that?' queried Steven.

'Not in his words,' said Dmitri, 'but in the pauses between his words.' He sighed. 'I am beginning to wonder if we should just sit here, in sackcloth and ashes, and wait patiently for our executioners.'