Doctor Who and the Crusaders Read Online Free Page B

as a sharp blow from the man’s fist caught her at the base of the neck.
    The Doctor and Vicki peered out from the bushes at Ian’s struggles. The soldier had lost his sword by this time, but he had a very good stranglehold on Ian’s neck and was doing his best to squeeze the life out of him.
    ‘Get me a rock or something, my child,’ murmured the Doctor mildly as he watched the fight. Ian managed to break the stranglehold, half rose from beneath the soldier’s body, intending to throw him to the ground but fell back as one of the man’s leather and metal wristlets smashed into the side of his head, the effort causing the Saracen’s helmet to fall off.
    ‘Be careful, Chesterton,’ said the Doctor, ‘he’s going to butt you with his head. Ah! I told you he would.’
    The soldier, conscious now that he had a new enemy behind him, was trying to get away from Ian and reach for his sword. The Doctor walked over a few paces and stepped on the sword firmly. Vicki ran up with a small stone and handed it to the Doctor, who weighed it in his hand reflectively.
    ‘Well, don’t just stand there,’ panted Ian.
    ‘Oh, very well. Hold him still, then.’
    Ian rolled so that the soldier lay on top of him and the Doctor stepped nearer and brought the stone down on top of his head sharply. The soldier groaned and rolled away. Ian picked himself up, and Vicki helped him to brush the dirt andleaves from his clothes.
    ‘Thanks very much,’ he said, sarcastically. The Doctor suddenly pitched the stone away from him and hurried his two friends into the cover of the ring of bushes as he heard the sound of approaching men.
    In a second, they watched as four or five men in simple hunting clothes, obviously retreating through the wood, fought a rearguard action against twice as many soldiers with the pointed helmets. One of the men in hunting clothes was badly wounded, a short arrow sticking out of his body at the top of his right shoulder, the blood coursing down his tunic, the red stain showing up clearly in the dappled sunlight. Another of the hunters fell, an arrow through his heart, while the tallest of the huntsmen, different only from his companions by his head of red-gold hair, fought a violent, hand-to-hand battle with three of the pursuing soldiers, running his sword through one and crashing the hilt on top of another’s face. The third, who carried a lance, reversed it suddenly and swung it in an arc. The end of it just struck the top of the red-headed giant’s forehead. With a roar of rage and pain, he fell into some bushes and disappeared from sight.
    ‘We ought to help them,’ said Ian urgently, but the Doctor held on to Ian’s arm.
    ‘Think of the women, Chesterton! We must hold ourselves ready to defend them.’
    ‘Yes, Barbara’s hiding somewhere on the other side of those trees,’ murmured Ian, with an anxious frown.
    Suddenly the fighting stopped and one of the huntsmen, the only one left standing, held up his arms as four of the soldiers made to run at him.
    ‘I am Malec Ric,’ he shouted.
    A man pushed his way through the small ring of soldiers and approached the huntsman.
    ‘You have no friends to protect you now, Malec Ric.’ The huntsman looked slowly around the wood, his eyes moving from first one and then another of his friends lying on the ground.
    ‘I am the Emir, El Akir,’ continued the man with the scar.
    ‘Am I to die as well?’ said the man at bay. ‘If so dispatch me and have done with it.’
    El Akir shook his head slowly, a cruel smile twisting his lips.
    ‘Your fate will be decided elsewhere. To tell of killing the English King, Malec Ric, is a vain story that only a fool might invent. To show a
captured
Malec Ric is what El Akir shall do.’
    The tall huntsman stared at the Emir coldly. ‘Take me then and leave my friends in peace.’
    ‘A king at liberty may give commands. A captured one obeys them.’
    He gestured sharply to the soldiers and the prisoner was hustled away by