The Spear of Destiny by Marcus Sedgwick Read Free Book Online

spear
     …’
    ‘Yes, the spear,’ said the
     Doctor. ‘The spear. But which spear?’
    He nodded towards the door of the
     TARDIS, where the spear was leaning.
    ‘But you just gave that back to
     him.’
    ‘No, I gave him the copy we were
     going to leave in the museum. That one is the real one – I hope.
     It was all such a rush.’
    He winked and Jo burst out
     laughing. ‘That’s brilliant!’
    ‘Thank you. One of my better
     improvisations, I’d say. Bit of a nuisance.’
    ‘But, anyway, why didn’t the
     spear hit you?’
    ‘Temporal grace,’ said the
     Doctor. ‘No weapons can function inside the TARDIS – even
     something as simple as a spear. Once I was inside, I was safe.
     It was easy enough to sidestep it and catch it. Then I simply
     swapped the spears and walked back out of the old police
     box.’
    Jo smiled. ‘And what about the
     Master?’
    ‘Oh, well, they’ll find the
     capacitor I was talking about under the temple, and then they
     might take me, and the Master, more seriously. But you know him.
     He’ll talk his way out of it in the end. Though it might take a
     little longer than usual. The only thing I can’t work out is
     where his TARDIS is. Or
Skithblathnir
, I should say.’
    Jo fell silent.
    ‘What is it?’ asked the Doctor.
     ‘Is something wrong?’
    ‘The Master’s TARDIS. You think
     he made it look like a Viking ship?’
    ‘That seems likely. It must be
     where the legend comes from. It would have made it easier for
     the Norse to understand if it looked like one of their own
     ships.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Jo. ‘And how big would
     it be?’
    ‘Any size at all. Why?’
    Jo rummaged in her pocket,
     looking for the piece of wood from the model that she’d snapped
     off: the tiller. Instead, she found a strange metallic
     device.
    ‘Doctor, is this something
     important? I found it. I … well … I broke it.’
    The Doctor took it from her,
     studied it briefly, and then laughed so hard it almost drowned
     out the sound of the TARDIS materialising at UNIT HQ once
     more.
    ‘My dear girl,’ he said. ‘You
     appear to have removed the dimensional stabiliser from the
     Master’s TARDIS. He’ll have a hard time travelling without it.
     Jo, you are quite superb! Even I would be hard put to make a new
     one.’
    ‘What, even you, Doctor?’ said
     Jo, laughing.
    ‘Well,’ he said, ‘using
     Viking-age technology – yes.’
    And with that he pushed his way
     out of the TARDIS, and back into the safe warmth of the British
     summer in 1973.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, eleven ebook short stories will be available to download and collect throughout 2013.
ELEVEN DOCTORS.
ELEVEN MONTHS.
ELEVEN AUTHORS.
ELEVEN STORIES.
FIFTY SPECTACULAR YEARS.

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    First published by Puffin Books 2013
    Text copyright © Marcus
     Sedgwick and BBC Worldwide Limited, 2013
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