Doctor Who: The Many Hands Read Online Free Page B

relax. They'd been in Edinburgh not even an
hour, and already he'd had her running up and down
hills and diving in front of stagecoaches – it was better
than any gym, at least.
    It was only when they got thrown into prison that
she got any chance to rest, these days.
    Martha could see that the Doctor was already
tensing. He seemed to have an inbuilt aversion to
authority: it would never occur to him, for example,
to speak to the Lord Provost himself and explain
the situation. That there was something abroad in
Edinburgh that had brought the dead to life, and if it
had done it once, it might easily do it again. No, the
Doctor would want to be out there himself, chasing
down the solution on his own. And that meant
escaping from soldiers and prisons whenever he got
the chance, and legs like Paula Radcliffe for her.
    The Doctor took her hand, and waggled his
eyebrows.
    They ran.
    She looked behind and saw that the soldiers had
been just as surprised as she had. Two of them fumbled
with their muskets, one landing on the cobbled street
with a loud clatter that convinced some pedestrians
that it had gone off. The third, however, was a little
quicker than his friends and was already chasing
after them. Perhaps he was the one who feared the
Captain's reaction the most.
    'Where are we going?' Martha shouted to the
Doctor.
    He was, annoyingly, two paces ahead of her and
holding her arm in a way that suggested he could
be six if he wasn't. He threw her a smile, which she
gratefully caught.
    'This way,' he said.
    Instead of pulling her down the road to their left
that must have led back down to the Grassmarket, he
pulled her upwards, towards the Castle. She couldn't
help thinking that there had to be a better place to
run, but it was too late to argue.
    There was a crack of musket fire.
    The Doctor pulled on Martha's arm again.
    When she saw where he was heading, she tried to
pull away.
    Even the Doctor couldn't think that was a good
idea.
    ***
    John Connolly shouldered his musket as he ran. He'd
had his one shot and, if he stopped to reload now, he'd
lose them. Mac and Gordy were close on his heels but,
as good lads as they were, John wouldn't trust them
to find the cludgie before they wet themselves. If the
prisoners had it away, McAllister would have them
all scraping out the latrines with their fingernails and
licking them clean before dinner.
    He stayed a breath behind the strangely dressed
pair as they ran up Castle Hill: he expected they'd
try to disappear down one of the Closes and out of
the city that way. Once they were out in the open, he
could risk a few moments to reload and wing them.
He should be able to make the shot. He practically
had his musket in his hands when he saw them turn
the other way instead. Were they soft in the head?
They were running straight into the Castle: once they
were inside, where would they expect to go?
    'We've got them now!' Mac shouted.
    Gordy didn't say a word: he had a good few years
on Mac and John, and his prime running days were
long behind him. He was already panting hard, the
poor old'un.
    As they came out onto the brow of the hill, the Castle
loomed up over them: it looked more like a mansion
than anything John would have called a castle, but the
giant plug of rock it sat on had kept the enemy at bay
since Adam and Eve's time. The ground before the
Castle was just a wide, empty expanse with little place
to hide. Any approaching army would have to march
unprotected before they reached the narrow archway at
the far side offering entry into the main Castle. It was a
system that had served them well those fourteen years
back when the Pretender's men had taken Edinburgh,
but not the Castle. The gates remained firmly closed
now as well, just in case the Jacobite ghost hadn't been
properly laid to rest after all.
    At any other time, there might perhaps have been
a brigade of redcoats practising their drill to lose
yourself amongst, but right now the Castle had only a
handful of city guards to