Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [114]
History and destiny were important to these people, clearly.
Now it was Ian’s turn: ‘... so, there I was, stuck in the praefectus’s villa, surrounded by enemies. I couldn’t relax tor a single moment. I was a pawn in a game.’
‘Oh, I know the feeling, believe me,’ Barbara told him. ‘And what of Vicki?’
By the light of the fire, it was difficult to tell if the girl’s face was really as red as it appeared to be. She didn’t speak for a long time. Just as she hadn’t said more than five words about her time in Byzantium, since they’d left the city.
‘Vicki...?’
‘I was thinking about those poor people,’ she told her companions. ‘All of them. It’s a rotten life they’ve got, isn’t it?
And what rewards do they get at the end of it?’
‘That,’ replied the Doctor, ‘is a question to which none of us know the answer. More’s the pity.’
Vicki stood up suddenly and, without a word, ran from the fireside and into the desert. Barbara moved to follow her but the Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder.
‘Let the girl go, my dear. She’s been through a lot. What she doesn’t need right now is a lot of fussing and falling about. She’ll return soon enough.’
‘She might get lost,’ Barbara said, worriedly.
‘The light of the fire will guide her back. It will be seen for miles. Let her be, Barbara. I’m afraid she’s discovered a painful lesson about life.’
‘Which is?’ asked Ian.
‘That growing up is a hard and lonely business,’ said the Doctor as though he was speaking from personal experience.
‘What are you looking at?’ he chided Ian. ‘Think I don’t know what it’s like, hmm? I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know.’
‘I don’t doubt it,’ replied Ian.
The long shadows, of night crossed the Doctor as the fire flickered, stirred briefly by a gust of wind that rippled across the face of the desert. ‘l never thought that I would see you all again,’ he told his friends suddenly. ‘I just wanted to tell you both, and young Vicki too when she conies back, that even if we are marooned in this era for good, then I’m pleased that we are at least together.’
Ian and Barbara didn’t say anything.
There was nothing to say.
‘My only regret,’ Ian ventured, ‘is that I didn’t say goodbye to Gemellus and Thalius and the general. They were honourable men, even if their methods were questionable.’
‘I think we may try to get some sleep now,’ the Doctor continued, a gentle smile of relief on his face as, in the half-distance, he could see the figure of Vicki emerging from the desert and walking back towards them.
‘It’ll be all right, Doctor,’ said Ian, brightly. ‘You’ll see.’
‘We have a long journey ahead,’ the Doctor continued.
‘And, at the end of it, a carriage to the stars awaits us.’
Epilogue
Two Thousand Light Years from Home
And these signs shall follow them that believe Mark 16:17
London, England: 1973
Ian could hear snatches of Barbara’s conversation with Julia as he stared at another glass case on the far side of the hall.
‘You must look us up if you’re ever in Redborough,’ the woman was saying, handing Barbara a slip of paper with her address hastily scribbled on it.’ We’re right next to Robert Lee’s bookshop. If you get lost, just ask Mr Ameobi in the newsagents where the Franklins live.’
Ian Chesterton gulped at the prospect and kept his attention firmly focused on the short stabbing sword in the case in front of him. He caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the glass and instantly regretted his choice of orange shirt and purple kipper tie, bought on the recommendation of Greg Sutton from John Collier of Bond Street. ‘Johnny,’ he called, as his son stopped his frantic chasing of an imaginary friend and ran to his father’s side.
‘Look,’ Ian said, pointing to the sword. ‘What do you think of that, eh?’
‘It’s so cool,’ said Johnny, his jaw dropping