Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [62]
James gave the Doctor a casually dismissive gesture. 'We must all do that before the judgment of God,' he said. 'It is what is contained within our hearts that truly counts'
Just then, there was a commotion at the entrance to the cave. 'Someone is coming,' said one of the Christians keeping watch on the approaches. A moment later, Daniel burst into the cave. Even in the dim light it was obvious that he was exhausted and very upset.
` What is wrong?' Judith asked instinctively.
Ì tried to stop them,' Daniel said, pitifully. 'But they would not listen to me.'
'Who?' asked James.
'Aaron. Jacob. John the weaver and his brother Samuel.
They're all dead.'
The cave was plunged into total silence by this revelation.
`How?' asked James at last.
`They tried to stop the executions. As though the Romans would have had any intention of allowing them so to do.' He stopped and wiped the tears from his eyes. `The Zealots attacked them and the Romans stood by and did nothing.'
Again, it took time for this information to register within the shocked and stunned group. Finally James picked up a handful of dust and poured it on to the fire, extinguishing it.
'We must make ready to flee this place,' he said as the flames died and the cave became a dark and cold place.
'Pack up your belongings and make Hebron as comfortable as possible. Byzantium is no longer safe for Christians. We leave within the hour.'
Vicki and Iola ran through the streets of Byzantium as the gathering gloom turned to the velvet black of night. The rain came as they ran, hard and slanted, splattering on their faces, set grim by the foul weather, and soaking their clothes to the skin.
'Hurry,' called Iola who was fitter and more sprightly than Vicki as they reached the corner of the market square and hurried towards the Greek quarter. 'The curfew is enacted. If they catch us, you will not be able to talk your way out like you did back at the hill.'
'That never happened,' Vicki said, catching up with her friend, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her so that rainwater cascaded from her bobbing head and fell to the puddles already forming on the cobbled streets. 'Do you hear me? We were never there. We've just been walking around and we lost track of the time.'
`My mother will flog the skin from our backs with no mercy if she discovers that we have lied to her,' Iola said in a terrified voice. Ì am not going to do that.’
'That's nothing to what she'll do if she fmds out how close we were to being deflowered by that Roman. Now say it, Iola, tell me where we've been.'
Iola shook her head. 'I can not...'
`Yes you can, tell me where we've been.'
'Just walking around the city,' said Iola in a staccato burst.
'We lost track of the time and we are very, very, very sorry and we shall never do it again.'
Vicki nodded, approvingly. 'Good, let's go.'
They reached the door just as Evangeline emerged from the Georgiadis house; she seemed more frightened than angry. 'Where have you been?' she screamed as the girls threw themselves into the house and Georgiadis himself, standing behind the door, shut it, and placed a wooden pole over the door frame to prevent any further entrances or exits.
Vicki gave Iola a sympathetic look. 'It's all my fault,' she said. 'We were just walking around the city, down by the sea walls, and in the Jewish quarter. We didn't realise how late it was. Well, Iola kept on telling me that we should get back home but I dillied and dallied. So, I'm totally to blame, and I'm very, very sorry.'
Georgiadis joined his wife and the pair looked at Vicki closely. `Do you believe her?' he asked.
`Not a solitary word of it,' replied Evangeline. Ìola,' she snapped. Ìs this story true?'
There was a long and terrible silence, during which Vicki's entire life seemed to flash before her eyes. Her pony, Saracen. Learning her lessons for an hour a day wearing a virtual reality headset. Her mother dying shortly before she and her father left Earth for a new life in 2493. Dido