Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [77]
He came out of his reverie to find that he was at the top of the fifteen-foot wall, and he could hear the murmur of voices on the other side.
He crawled forward until he could see down into the barren crater, half expecting to see an assembly of figures like the dead Skang.
But no. There was a small crowd of white-robed humans, settling in to the front rows of the seats, which now appeared as stool-sized rocks. A few of the teachers were coming into the natural arena from the caves in the sides of the crater. In the front row, he spotted Alex Whitbread, a pitiable figure, looking if anything even more haggard and ill than he had on the ship. The jigsaw was becoming clearer. This was why the man had been so desperate. As a Skang, he would have been hell-bent to rejoin the others.
The grand image of the Great Skang, which had dominated the temple, had disappeared entirely. Where it had been was nothing but the bare wall of the crater itself. In front of it, Hilda was already on the raised area, an expanse of roughly flattened pumice, talking to somebody the Doctor didn‟t recognise.
His mind went into high gear. This must be the beginning of the reward ceremony. The devotees must be getting ready to be brought in at this very moment. He was only just in time.
But how was he going to get to Hilda?
A change of plan. He would have to wait until the Skang had shown themselves in their true guise, and then intervene. After that... what?
Hilda held up her hand for silence. The subdued talking died down as the latecomers took their seats. The teacher who had been speaking to Hilda had left her to find his seat with the others, joining Alex Whitbread in the front row.
„Before we proceed to the proper business of the meeting, we have a sorrowful duty to perform,‟ said Mother Hilda.
Again she lifted her hand, nodding, but this time it was directed towards the gap in the wall of rock that was the entrance to the temple.
All heads turned to look.
Through the gap in the boulders, down the roughly hewn steps, came four guards, bearing on their shoulders, like a dead prince, the body of a Skang.
Must be the same one we found, thought the Doctor.
As they progressed down the central aisle, there were murmurs of horror and shock.
The body was laid at the side of the platform, and at a nod from Hilda the four guards left the arena, back through the front entrance. The alarmed assembly grew silent as Hilda moved forwards to stand by the body, and started to speak, telling them that Brother Will seemed to have slipped at the top and fallen to his death.
„...and this is confirmed by one of our brothers. Dafydd?
Would you be so good as to tell us what you know?‟
The teacher who had been speaking to her earlier stood up.
„I was coming up from the village. It was less than an hour after sunrise - I‟d been making sure that my people were ready for the ceremony - and I met Brother Will coming out of the temple. I walked with him along the clifftop for a short way He told me that he‟d had a report of intruders at the base of the rock wall. He said it was nonsense, but that he was going to have a look...‟ Dafydd, seemingly shaking with emotion, struggled to continue. „If only I‟d stayed with him!
But I‟d promised to be with my friend Brother Alex at this troubled time; and so I turned back to go to his room to try to comfort him.‟
„There was nobody else on the clifftop path?‟
„I could see the whole length of it quite clearly. There was no one.‟
Hilda thanked him and he sat down. „This is the first of our number on Earth to experience bodily termination,‟ Hilda went on. „In the present exceptional circumstances, I think it would be inappropriate to continue at once. If Brother Alex is to be returned to the fold... and I do say, if... then it would be