Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [98]
It was only after she had accepted an invitation to stay at Cressida’s home for a second night that a casual conversation about the tragedy in the market-place a fortnight ago brought a startling revelation from the Greek woman.
‘Yes,’ she remembered, ‘I saw a young girl on her own in the market-place that day. And an old man with white hair. I couldn’t, in all honesty, tell you what happened to him, but the little girl was rescued from the crowd by a Greek. A kindly man whose mother named him Georgiadis. I believe that she is still there.’
Tomorrow, Barbara decided, trying hard not to leap up and kiss the woman just in case she got completely the wrong idea. Tomorrow, I will find her.
Having completed, to his total satisfaction, his work with the scribes, guiding them in the direction that he thought they wanted to go, the Doctor returned to the cave in which James and Judith and the other Christians were still sheltering.
There was sadness on the Doctor’s return when he was told of the death the previous evening of Hebron.
It was rare for the death of one that he had met so briefly to affect the Doctor. After all, he mused briefly, people die all the time. Compared to his own lifespan, that of humans was like a dragonfly compared to a redwood tree. But still, something deep within the Doctor was upset by the news of Hebron’s demise.
There was a new arrival within the cave whom the Doctor did not recognise. Another ancient man with white hair and a face shaped by the ravages of time. James broke off from telling the Doctor the sad news when he saw that the Doctor’s attention had been caught by the newcomer.
‘Let me introduce yet another friend,’ James explained quickly. ‘A Greek of our acquaintance, Papavasilliou.’
The Doctor shook Papavasilliou’s hand, being surprised by the strength of the man despite his wizened and frail-looking limbs.
‘I am honoured to meet you,’ said Papavasilliou. ‘My friend Hebron, now departed, spoke often and with great compliment about you, Doctor.’
The Doctor smiled, genially. ‘Any friend of Hebron is, I am happy to say, a friend of mine. Are you also a Christian?’
Papavasilliou shook his head. ‘Not as such. Whilst I share many of the aims and hopes of these good people, I have my own beliefs which I share with no other, save, perhaps, the sheep that I tend. They know me well, for that is my own way.’
‘I approve,’ said the Doctor, smirking that James was just out of earshot.
‘Nevertheless,’ continued Papavasilliou, ‘l do admire the gentleness and faith of them all.’
‘As do I,’ the Doctor noted, genuinely.
There was a puzzlement in the face of the old shepherd.
‘Your accent,’ he said after a moment. ‘Your Greek is quite superb for one not of this land. The inflection of your voice indicates that you have travelled far?’
The Doctor gave a dismissive wave of the hand. ‘I am from many places and have many homes, and yet no home save that which I carry in my heart.’
Papavasilliou smiled warmly. ‘You remind me of a young girl I know. A Briton who speaks with the voice of a sage unique in one so young.’
The old man stopped and wondered if he had said something wrong. He could not understand why the Doctor was dancing gleefully around before him like a child.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Passage of Time Leaving Empty Lives Waiting to Be Filled
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, É-lö-ï; É-lö-ï; lä-mä sã-bach-thã-ni?, which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Mark 15:34
‘Who would have thought that a man could shed such blood and still live?’ Praefectus Maximus noted as Edius Flavia received yet another scream-inducing blow from the flagellum across his back. The metal balls dragged chunks of flesh with them as they scudded across Flavia’s skin.
‘More, praefectus?’ asked the sergeant. For a moment Maximus was silent. ‘Sadly yes, sergeant,’ he said as the whip came down again.
Flavia’s scream coincided with the entrance of Gaius Calaphilus,