Doctor Who_ Empire of Death - BBC Worldwide [20]
'Good. Now, I want you to lay your hands flat on the table, palms down. Move your hands apart until the small fingers are touching the small fingers of those either side of you.
Good - the circle is complete. Remember, none may leave the circle unless I say so. Close your eyes and we may begin. Now I will recite an oath of protection three times. You must believe in the oath and the protection it offers.'
James cleared his throat and closed his own eyes before beginning the recitation. ask for the strength and guidance of the White Light. Please surround us with your protection.' He paused and then repeated the incantation twice.
A long silence followed, accompanied by the faintest of zephyrs flickering the candle flames. 'We have begun,' James announced, his voice calm and gentle. call upon the spirits of my sisters to guide me and provide a conduit between this world and the next. Dearly departed, do you have a message for us?'
No reply came, so the young man tried another question.
'Please come through to us. Is there someone here you wish to speak to?' Again, no reply. 'We are ready for you, dearly departed. Do you have something to -'
The Baroness felt James's body spasm and jerk beside her, his fingers tapping repeatedly against the table top, his teeth chattering. It was starting. Just as quickly, James's body relaxed and resumed breathing. When he spoke, it was with a voice not his own.
`Gute Frauchen...'
The Queen and her ladies-in-waiting gasped. The voice was unmistakably that of the Royal Consort, Prince Albert, whose remains were interred elsewhere in the Mausoleum.
'Are you there, gute Frauchen?' the voice asked.
'I am here,' Victoria replied. ' Es ist kleines Frauchen.’
`Weibchen, I feel how you grieve for me, but there is another way'
'What way is this?'
'In Christ we shall rise again.’
'Yes, my beloved. Your mortal remains are here now, in the Mausoleum. Every year we have a service here on the day you passed over and I pray for the day we may be together again.'
'If you wish it, that day may be soon. We can be reunited and yet you can still remain with our children.'
`How, my beloved? How is this possible?'
Luckner opened one of her eyes to peek at those around the table. The Queen's face was a mixture of exultation and wonder, her chest rising and falling rapidly. It was strange to hear the Queen refer to herself in the singular, instead of the royal 'we'. All pretence, all affectation had been shed. Her attendants seemed just as intent on the moment. As always, James was being swept along by the fervour of those around him.
'There is a place where the distance between this life and the next is at its narrowest, where the pull of the spirit world is strong.'
'Yes, my beloved. I received word about this from our daughter. I sent a contingent of men north to guard this place.'
James nodded fervently, his eyes still firmly shut. 'You have done well, Weibchen. But you must do more if we are to be reunited in this world. You must open up this gateway and send an envoy to the Other Side. But you must hurry - soon my soul will have made the transition and our chance will have passed.'
'I understand. Your kleines Frauchen understands, beloved.'
` Gute. You must send this boy back -'
Suddenly, the Mausoleum was filled with an unearthly noise, like the trumpeting of a dozen mechanical elephants and great blocks of granite grinding together. The cacophony reverberated about the walls, terrifying the six at the table. A white light flashed on and off, casting strange shadows across the incomplete stonework and colonnades. 'What is it?' the Queen shouted, her hands clasped over her ears. 'Did you summon this?' she asked the young man. James could only shake his head.
The noise ceased as abruptly as it had begun, leaving just the distant echo of a heavy thump. A second afterwards the light was gone too. Doulton ran into the