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By Root 348 0

he looked harmless enough. Last night, bruised and pale and drenched to the skin, he’d been weak as a drowned cat. He made her think of a cat, actually. Those strange slender cream-coloured ones wealthy people owned, with blue or fawn tips to their noses and tails and paws. Sly animals; you never knew what they were about. So even with him limp and wet as boiled greens, she’d not liked him being taken on board the ship. Not that she said anything, of course, but Sabbath had sensed her discomfort and assured her the Doctor had been aboard the Jonah many times and had done it no harm.

Not yet, was all she thought. Fortunately, they hadn’t stayed on the ship. The Doctor had directed them to a house in the middle of the moor, a great empty place with two dead men in it. One of them was torn so badly that the Anji woman turned away, and even Sabbath had looked grave. He and the Doctor had spent a lot of time over the body, discussing its injuries and speculating how the man had died. The Angel-Maker had gone up and down all the dark staircases, just to be sure there was no one else in the house. In front of a gated recess beneath the cellar steps she had found scattered rose blossoms.

The Doctor and Sabbath had also spent a long time in one of the cellar rooms, the Doctor distraught because some machine was missing. He had described this to Sabbath, and then they had gone through the house together, taking particular trouble to examine all the papers in the library. By this time the sun was up, and Sabbath and she went into a nearby town – she thought it was called Bovey Tracy – to report finding the bodies to the police, while Fitz and Anji brought the Doctor to this little village inn where they had booked rooms the previous evening.

There had been much going to and fro all day, with interviews with the police, inquiring telegrams sent to London, and everyone making excursions to all the nearby railway stations to see whether a strange man had been seen. She presumed this was the same man she’d spied last night on the horse before it shied at the searchlights and sped away – he’d had a queer shape to him under his cloak, and that distortion rippled round him – not as strong as the Doctor’s, but strong. She’d told Sabbath and he’d seemed unsurprised.

The Angel-Maker’s eyes narrowed, and she stood up to see more dearly into the inn yard. That had been the sound of the door opening: was the Doctor up? But it was only the serving girl. Across the rooftops, a whistle sounded as the local train pulled in. The Angel-Maker ignored it, settling back on to the bench. Only one visitor to this village concerned her.

* * *

‘So,’ said Fitz, ‘the dead man, Sebastian, was the original, if you like, and our Dr Chiltern, Nathaniel, the one who was at the seance, is one of the copies.’

‘That seems to be it,’ said Anji, spooning up the last of her fresh blackberries and cream.

‘Only Nathaniel thought he was the original, and when Sebastian started babbling about a time machine, everyone thought he was mad and Nathaniel locked him up.’

‘Yes.’

‘And the fellow on the horse last night was another of the copies.’

She might have shivered just a bit. ‘Of a sort.’

‘We both saw him. He looked like Chiltern, except for that bandage over his eye.’

‘The Doctor thinks he hurt him with the gate.’

‘So there’s two copies. Where’s the other, what, five?’

She shook her head.

‘And what’s wrong with the one on the horse?’ he said. ‘Something off there.’

‘To say the least,’ she murmured. ‘The Doctor’s theory is that the settings were different when Chiltern tried the machine on himself than they were for Octave and the other man.’

‘Yeah, but different how?’

‘I’m not sure I really want to know.’

Fitz brooded over his teacup. ‘Where is she, anyway?’

‘Who?’

‘Sabbath’s little friend. The one who killed Octave and that other multiple bloke, the one the Doctor said she was put away for in the first place.’

‘She’s usually with him.’

‘Better him than us.’

Anji said uneasily: ‘Where is he?’

Sabbath had in fact spent an entertaining afternoon at