the dragons apostle page 4

Spears of lightening tore across the sky illuminating the mighty Transylvanian alps, making them stand out like demonic sculptures. The peasants of Trigoviste were terrified; how many hundreds of prayers were offered into the turbulent heavens that night, I could not even guess. The soldiers and the castle guards too, were frightened, but through the wars with the Turks they had seen many frightening things and they had learnt to counter fear with action. Some who had heard that devil-cry in the mountains were now talking of revolt and, as the storm's intensity increased, so did they in number, power, and determination. They were resolved: that night the Master would die on the stake.

‘Yes,’ mumbled the Doctor, ‘my word...mmm…’

‘What is it?’ asked Jo, while Vlad Dracula stood close to the safety of the candle.

‘Well, Jo,’ the Time Lord began, ‘these star maps, as you so rightly guessed, are centuries ahead of this era…’

‘Quite correct, Doctor.’ A voice interrupted from the doorway. ‘Star maps plotted from observatories on our own world. They are views of this solar system, some showing an insignificant little planetoid hidden, rather neatly within the rings of Saturn.’

‘Min Terr, if I'm not mistaken, Master,’ added the Doctor, his mind racing ahead to educe the Master's possible interest in the planet in question.

‘You are mistaken, Doctor.’ The Master replied, ‘In the Earth year A.D. 1997, a space-probe was sent to Min Terr with the purpose of searching for and communicating with any animal life there.’

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

he soldiers were growing more restless with every rumble of thunder. News had reached their ears that there was another devil in the castle, and that this one helped Vlad Dracula to escape. It was to have been Vlad's execution that day; now the Master was to take his place. On top of everything else, word now arrived that one of their number, Arminiu (a good friend to all), have been struck by fires of the skies while erecting the execution stake - surely an omen! Volta could no longer restrain them. Indeed, he joined their ranks and led them into the castle in search of the Master. That devil would be impaled.

‘You mean that there is life on this planet-thing?’ asked Jo.

‘The people of Min Terr evolved very quickly indeed, Jo,’ the Doctor explained, ‘by your twentieth-century they had developed a much higher level of technology than had the people of Earth. But, at present, the year 1457, why - they'd be experiencing their stone age…’ The Doctor was beginning to see what the Master had up his sleeve. ‘..and if my sums are correct, then Min Terr ought to be in the same relative position to the Earth 1457 as it shall be in 1997!’

The Master could not hold in a dastardly chuckle. ‘I told you, Doctor - you see before you the future ruler of this dear little planet Earth!’

‘But you can't mess up evolution!’ the Doctor shouted.

‘Really? And who is to stop me? A bunch of ignorant medieval peasants?’ And with that the Master collapsed to the floor with a painful thud. Janos Volta stepped from behind him and marched across the room to kneel before Dracula.

Dracula had provided the time-travellers with their own chambers, but the Doctor felt uneasy and was eager to return to the TARDIS and be gone. However, there was one problem to be resolved before he could allow himself to leave - the Master. Reluctantly, the Doctor left Jo on her own and went to visit his fellow Time Lord in his cell. He returned shortly to find Jo crying.

‘Cheer up, Jo. I think everything will be alright if we leave now,’ he assured her.

Then entered Count Dracula.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

nyone who dared to go out that troubled night, when hell and heaven met in fiery conflict, may well have heard above the clamorous clashes of the gods a strange, screeching, 'vamping' sound - not unlike that which had been heard by Volta and his men in the mountains that evening - and may well have seen, through the vial of rain, that one of the castle's battlements did vanish into thin air. Doubtless, such a spectacle would have been attributed to the evil of the night.

The Doctor and Dracula were having their own fiery conflict. The gaunt little man's self confidence had been re-inflated following his re-instatement by the guards.