Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [46]
'There are conflicting schools of thought on that. Some maintain that it is dangerous to waken a sleepwalker. I'm not sure that's true. But in any event I think our best bet is to allow the person most familiar with Celandine to attempt the awakening.'
Carnacki and Celandine were now out of sight in the green depths of the arboretum. For a moment there was no sound, then Carnacki began to shout, 'Doctor, come quick!' Zoe and the Doctor raced towards the sound of his voice and found themselves ducking back into the green shadows of the poppy bower. Here they found Carnacki
standing, distraught and helpless as Celandine kneeled among the
poppies, her body bent over Jamie's. It took Zoe a moment to realise
what she was doing.
Celandine was kissing him.
'Doctor! Stop her! It's the kiss of death, remember?' Zoe looked at the Doctor, who showed a maddening reluctance to take action. So she plunged forward herself, only to be brought up short as he seized her arm. 'No, look,' whispered the Doctor.
As Celandine held her mouth pressed to Jamie's, a warm red glow appeared on his skin, spreading out from his mouth to cover his entire face and vanish under his hairline. Zoe saw the same ruddy glow appear on his hands and fingers, which began to slowly wriggle. Jamie was stirring in the young woman's embrace. 'He's waking up,' said Zoe.
Celandine released Jamie, allowing him to sag back under the carpet of poppies. But he only disappeared for a moment before slowly rising up on his elbows, his eyes flickering blearily open.
Celandine's eyes remained shut as she withdrew deeper into the bower where she stood, silent and still. Carnacki moved to join her, touching her face and hands. She made no response. There was no sign that she was aware of his presence, or the presence of any of them.
Zoe kneeled beside Jamie as he groaned and blinked. She brushed red petals out of his hair. 'He seems to be all right!' She looked at the Doctor. 'Why did her kiss wake him up when it . . . '
'Put the others to sleep?' suggested the Doctor. 'Permanently.' 'Killed them. Yes.'
'There's no proof of that,' said Carnacki fiercely, turning away from Celandine. 'We only have the testimony of that butler.'
'No, it is true,' said a voice. It was an unearthly voice, low and supple and sibilant, like the wind stirring through leaves. Zoe felt the hairs crawl on the back of her neck. She turned and stared in the same direction as the others. At Celandine.
Celandine Gibson, or what had once been Celandine Gibson, stood in the verdant shadows of the bower. Her face was growing visibly paler as she spoke. 'It is true. I brought death to the Upcotts,' she said. Her voice was the soft, moist rustling of a breeze among green leaves. 'I sent each one into an endless sleep with the touch of my lips.' Zoe stared at her. Celandine seemed to be growing taller and slimmer before her eyes. Zoe wondered if she was hallucinating. 'Do the rest of you see this?' she said.
Carnacki stared, rigid with fear. Celandine was definitely growing thinner. Her limbs stretched with a slow vegetal subtleness, becoming thinner and paler and more attenuated. Her fingers extended and grew emphatically white, like pale shoots stretching through loam. Her face, too, thinned and stretched. Her lovely eyes swam closer together as the bones of her skull altered, narrowing and rising at the temples like a bulb swelling with growth. All over her body, her skin became moistly smooth and brilliantly pale, taking on the gleaming opalescent white of a freshly peeled onion. Beads of milky liquid dewed her face and hands, gleaming. From this pale sweat came a heady musky odour, like a garden releasing all its scents at the end of a hot summer's day.
Carnacki made a choking sound. 'She's transforming . . . ' he said. Celandine's neck and shoulders rose from her dress, growing more supple and narrow as she grew taller