Part 25 (1/2)

'Is that you, Professor?' said a m.u.f.fled voice.

A pile of debris s.h.i.+fted and fell apart. At the bottom of it, beneath the coffee table that had sheltered them, crouched Shou Yuing and Ace. They were covered in soot and plaster dust. 'Ace!' the Doctor exclaimed. 'And Little Cloud too. Thank goodness. What happened?'

'The hotel fell on us,' complained Shou Yuing, not overtly impressed by the Doctor's linguistic prowess.

'And there was this woman with a pet demon,' added Ace.

'Morgaine and the Destroyer,' agreed the Doctor.

Ace levelled with him. 'And I also remember a chalk circle that was supposed to protect us.'

'You're still alive, aren't you?' he complained. 'Where's Excalibur?'

'Ah,' said Ace.

Shou Yuing looked awkward and said quickly, 'The woman seemed to want it very badly.'

'Very, very badly,' concurred Ace.

'So we gave it to her,' Shou Yuing added.

'Good,' said the Doctor.

'I mean, it's not our fault,' Ace protested. 'Now if I'd had some nitro...' She faltered. 'What do you mean, good?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Oh, just that exotic alien swords are easy to come by.' He dabbed a smudge from her nose with his scarf. 'And Aces are rare. Have you got the scabbard?' Ace brimmed with something like love for him.

She held up the battered relic.

'Well, that's something anyway,' he said.

'Doctor,' called the Brigadier. 'What do you make of this?'

Across the lounge by the fireplace, the air was s.h.i.+mmering like a heat haze. The Doctor scrutinized the miasma for a moment.

'How did Morgaine leave?' he asked.

'Big flash of light and gone,' said Ace.

The Doctor picked up the scabbard and tentatively extended it towards the heat haze. There was a crack of static and the air ahead opened up like a tunnel of swirling light.

'That's where she went,' said the Doctor. 'Through an interst.i.tial vortex.'

'So now what?' said Ace.

He lowered his head thoughtfully and looked at her under the brim of his hat. 'Excalibur seems to be the crucial element in all this. We have to get it back from Morgaine.'

'She's dangerous, Doctor,' interrupted the Brigadier.

'And as I recall, interst.i.tial transfer involves a lot of technological nonsense. Machines.'

The Doctor grinned. 'Brigadier, you remember.'

'The Master with a Greek accent? I'd been trying to forget.'

'Greek!' said the Doctor. 'You should hear his French one! But Morgaine doesn't use machines. She has the Destroyer.'

Ace was getting bored with all this 'old boy' back-slapping. 'Professor,' she complained, 'why don't we just nip through the vortex and jump the witch?'

The Doctor looked suddenly grave. 'Pa.s.sing uns.h.i.+elded through this vortex would be insanely dangerous. The forces loose inside could rip you into molecules, if you're lucky.'

There was a moment's silence.

'Shall I go first?' asked the Brigadier.

'No, me,' insisted the Doctor. 'Ace?'

'Stay here,' she said. 'Yeah, yeah...'

The Doctor tidied his jacket, straightened his scarf and pulled his hat on tight. 'High drama is just the same as comedy, Ace. It's all a matter of timing.'

He and the Brigadier stepped into the swirl of the vortex together and were gone.

Chapter 2.

'Where is my army?' demanded Morgaine.

The Destroyer raised his head and savoured the air. His groomed hair was turning coa.r.s.e. From his temples, two small nodules were starting to break through the blue-grey skin.

'Your army has gone the way of all flesh,' he growled with relish.

Smoke drifted across the silent battlefield, an insubstantial veil that failed to obscure the horrors it might have hidden.

Warriors from two universes lay bleeding in the muddy gra.s.s. Many were dead. UNIT soldiers and Morgaine's troops. Medics moved among them, searching for the living.

Ancelyn sat on the ground. wiping the blade of his sword with a bit of rag.

Beside him, Winifred Bambera dabbed at a gash that had cut through her sleeve into her arm. The missile was secure, but there were reports to make and casualties to deal with.

A body in full armour lay twisted in front of her where it had fallen. She knelt and pushed open the visor. The dead eyes of the Knight Commander stared coldly up at her. The officer could be hardly more than sixteen years old. Ancelyn's sword had punctured his breastplate. But the Commander had attacked first...

'A good fight.' said Ancelyn.