Doctor Who: Virgin Missing Adventures [027] - Speed of Flight by Paul Leonard

Author:Paul Leonard
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426204879
Publisher: London Bridge
Published: 1996-10-22T22:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Xaai could feel Iikeelu’s eyes still on her, through all the pain. She wasn’t sure where she was any longer: she supposed she was still on the gondola. The room was dimly lit, wood-walled, and that only seemed to make the pain stand out more, in lines of fire along her body.

She could almost see the blood-coloured glow of it.

And there was sickness. Deep, poisonous sickness in her stomach and her veins and her mind.

‘What do you remember?’

Iikeelu’s voice: Icy.

‘You must remember.’

‘I killed Tuy,’ said Xaai desperately. ‘My name as a man was Xa. There was a fallen sun. There was a priest, a priest you couldn’t see. That’s all I can remember now. Please, if you just let me rest, I might remember more.’

The silence that, followed her words seemed to go on forever.

Xaai became aware of two slave-man guards standing by the door, watching the scene with their ugly, furless faces. The whips were still in their hands.

‘Where was the priest?’ asked Iikeelu.

Xaai struggled with the images in her pain-sodden mind. ‘Inside. Inside the sun. There was a chamber –’

‘So the sun was hollow?’

Snow. Steam in the snow.

‘Hollow. Yes. And cold inside. Even when –’

‘The sun is alive!’

‘– it was cold even when the sun was hot. It was shining.’

Iikeelu sighed. ‘Thank you. You’ve told me what I need to know. Jaxei! Call the squad commanders to my cabin!’

Xaai struggled upright. Pain danced around her body, and bile rose in her throat.

‘Please…’ But she wasn’t sure what to ask for. Perhaps she should ask Iikeelu to kill her. Even death would be better than this.

‘I suggest you get some rest,’ said Iikeelu briskly, half stepping, half flying, over Xaai. ‘I’m sorry for the pain, but we had to know.’

Then she was gone, and. Xaai was alone in the darkened cabin.

Slowly, painfully, she dragged herself across the rough wood to the door and tried to open it.

It was locked.

‘Please let me die,’ she whispered. ‘This isn’t what I wanted when I was a man. This isn’t what I dreamt about. Please let me die.’

But her heart kept beating, obstinately, despite the pain and sickness.

Eventually she started to cry.

The hallway was dark, but it was not quiet. Jo could hear the steady thudding of machinery, and a distant roar of steam. She looked around at the panelled stone, the geometrically arranged doors.

‘Does Epreto keep machines in his house?’ she asked Karilee.

‘Not as far as I know. I think –’ Karilee broke off, and Jo heard his steps echoing off hard stone as he walked across the hallway.

There was a faint flicker of red light. ‘Quickly! They’re leaving!’

Jo ran after him. The Doctor too?’ There was another flicker of light. Jo realized that she was looking through a window, a big picture window, that reached almost to ground level. Outside, a huge, cumbersome-looking machine was throwing out clouds of steam and red sparks. She caught a glimpse of the Doctor standing on a railed platform, his hair flying, and next to him a big man who might be Epreto.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.