by Steve Cole
Yaz rolled her eyes. ‘You’ll tell us next you forced the Tenctrama to absorb poor old Bittenmane.’
‘Yes! My will is absolute,’ Attila claimed grandly. ‘If I am to rule the world, I must have subjects.’
Aetius gave a hollow laugh. ‘You certainly have a fine imagination.’
‘You joke because you are afraid!’ Attila marched over from where the TARDIS was being manhandled upright. ‘Without an army, you cannot hold against the Huns. It is we who have the advantage over you.’
‘It has been a long campaign, Attila,’ Aetius said wearily. ‘You have achieved your ambitions in Gaul. You have a thousand carts weighed down with loot to take back to your people. And I have kept Roman rule here in place.’
Attila smiled. ‘For now.’
‘What’s important is that we have triumphed together over the Tenctrama and their dark magicks,’ Aetius declared in full Party Political Broadcast mode. ‘We have triumphed over our enemies, because it is God’s will. Only through war can we divine whose cause is truly just.’
‘War never determines who is right. Only who is left.’ The Doctor jumped down from the cart, a little more her old Tigger self. ‘Bertrand Russell said that. Over tea and scones one day. It’s good, isn’t it?’
‘Pah!’ Attila snorted. ‘What’s good is that you are leaving us, witch.’
Aetius gestured to the TARDIS. ‘We will load your tent onto the cart and then—’
‘No need! Thank you.’ The Doctor ran up to the doors and pushed her key in the lock. ‘Oh, and do put up a fence or something around those cemetery gardens, won’t you? Keep people out … just in case.’
Yaz shivered as she and Ryan and Graham followed her to the TARDIS. Aetius, Attila and their men watched them balefully, while Liss turned and walked away into the stunted remains of the forest.
Ryan watched her go with a sigh. Yaz reached for his hand, to squeeze it, but hesitated. He took hers instead, without a moment’s thought.
‘’Ere, Doc,’ said Graham quietly, ‘what happens to Aetius and Attila?’
‘Both will be gone from the world within a few years,’ she said. ‘And their respective empires will fall apart without them.’
‘So, all that fighting and killing,’ Ryan said. ‘It was all for nothing.’
‘It’s always for nothing,’ she told him. ‘Still. Look at them there, two mighty leaders standing together. After all this.’ She smiled, blew her fringe from out of her eyes. ‘History won’t remember them for what they did here, but …’
Yaz smiled too. ‘It’s not the end of the world.’ She followed the Doctor, Ryan and Graham into the TARDIS.
‘Hey! I’d better get fixing the force-field generator,’ said the Doctor. ‘If we were to bump into a griffon vulture during take-off right now …’
‘Don’t,’ said Ryan, ‘just don’t!’
Minutes later, wheezing and groaning like a mob of hillbillies on the mightiest moonshine, the TARDIS faded away.
Aetius stared in wonder, while Attila laughed heartily. ‘Goodbye, witches,’ the Hun shouted to the air, ‘and may your magicks never fail you!’
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Epub ISBN: 9781473531666
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BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
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Copyright © Steve Cole 2018
Publishing Director: Albert DePetrillo
Project Editor: Steve Cole
Cover Design: Lee Binding/Tealady Design
Production: Sian Pratley
Steve Cole has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Doctor Who is a BBC Wales production.
Executive producer: Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens and Sam Hoyle
First published by BBC Books in 2018
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback ISBN 9781785943690
