Doctor Who: Castrovalva by Christopher H. Bidmead

Author:Christopher H. Bidmead
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426193265
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1983-11-15T10:00:00+00:00

7

Within the Walls

Nyssa and Tegan were alone without the Doctor on a strange planet. In spite of his weakness and his wandering mind, just having him with them had given the two friends a sort of strength. Now they could do nothing but stare into the empty Cabinet, feeling a deep inner emptiness of their own.

Nyssa tried to be reassuring, but her voice was small and uncertain. ‘The Doctor must have opened it himself.

Nobody else could have done it. So it must have worked, the Zero effect. He must be feeling better.’

Tegan tore a leaf from a tree and wiped the blood from her fingers. ‘Until whatever happened... happened. We’ve got to find him.’ Her eye followed the gruesome trail of red stains in the grass for as far as she could see. It ran towards the great hill surmounted by walls and turrets, and Tegan found the name forming slowly under her breath:

‘Castrovalva!’ The sun was sinking lower in the sky, and in the yellowing light the small town took on a less friendly aspect.

‘And the data bank said it was going to be so simple!’

said Nyssa, as they set off towards it, following the trail.

But then, just as they were passing beneath one of the squat trees that edged the wood, with hardly a sound except the rush of air and the rustle of foliage, a sudden horrifying stream of silver cloth and feathers dropped down onto them. They started back at the sight of the tall hollow-eyed mask that confronted them, but before the two girls had time to catch their breath a crowd of other warriors had sprung up from the bushes.

‘Run!’ shouted Tegan, and they headed back into the woods, darting in and out of the low trees like frightened fish among coral. From behind them, puzzlingly, came no sound of pursuit, but they did not dare to look over their shoulders. Then, when they had run their lungs out, they dived into a clump of bracken and lay low.

In the woods around them nothing stirred. After a moment Tegan’s head reappeared above the green fronds...

and then Nyssa’s. ‘They’re playing cat-and-mouse with us,’

Tegan whispered.

‘Whoever “they” are.’ Cautiously the two girls stood up, and Nyssa went on urgently: ‘We’ve got to find the Doctor.

Until he’s properly regenerated he’s terribly vulnerable.’

Together, scanning suspicious-looking trees for any hint of movement, they made their way back towards the Zero Cabinet to pick up the blood trail.

It happened that at that moment the Doctor was lying unmoving on a flat patch of rocky ground on the far side of the big white hill where Castrovalva perched. Here the trail of blood showed more distinctly on the bare ochre soil, running in crimson splashes almost towards the point where the Doctor lay. Almost, but not quite, for it missed the Doctor’s head by several feet, running on towards a winding road, hardly more than a wide, well-trodden path, that turned upwards towards the lofty townlet.

The Doctor opened one eye—he had closed

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