Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [79]
residents of Pompeii.
‘Susan!’
‘As if the life had been drawn out of them,’ he muttered.
Without the fire, a creeping dampness had gripped the Chapter Nine
room. The Doctor wandered towards the cloister door, Christmas Day dawned with some uncertainty, the sun a shivering in spite of himself.
pale circle of light against the white sky, like a neat hole
‘Ace?’ he called, half-heartedly. Could she have escaped punched in the clouds.
this carnage? Was she one of the unrecognisable corpses Freezing fog began to roll over the moor, drifting around strewn about the room? ‘Ace?’
the base of the monastery like smoke from an Arctic fire.
220
221
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
In the attic chamber, Ace and Robin were running out of
‘Come on, then,’ cried Ace, reaching for the lintel.
options. Billy Coote stood above the trap door, gurgling softly. His skin was giving off a faint luminescence and his The Doctor leant against a wall, his whole frame bent with twitching, glazed black eyes were focused directly at them.
emotion.
‘We can’t get past him,’ cried Ace, looking around the
‘Susan,’ he said dully.
room desperately. Her rucksack, with its precious load of Yet it couldn’t be. Couldn’t be...
climbing ropes, was propped against a wall, far too close to A tide of regret and grief overwhelmed him and he almost the advancing stranger for her to retrieve.
cried out.
Robin popped his head through the stone arch of the
‘I’ve missed you so much, my dear,’ he croaked, breath window. Dawn light bled feebly inside.
broken by sobs.
He looked down at the moor. Too far to climb unaided.
There was already a curious luminescence in Susan’s dark But the slate-covered roof of the tower was only a few feet hair. She turned her elfin face towards him and her eyes above them.
were full of forgiveness.
‘We can get to the roof with a bit of effort,’ he said.
‘You were always such an old worrier, Grandfather.’
Ace nodded quickly. ‘That’s an idea. But we could wait The Doctor’s mind raced, recalling all the precious times till he moves away from the trap door and then try and get he’d spent with her. Then a dark strand of memory rose up down the stairs.’
in his consciousness and he saw again Dalek-ravaged
‘Down the stairs to whatever was in the Hall? That’s why London, Ian and Barbara, and Susan with the man she had we came up here, remember?’
grown to love.
Ace grinned. ‘Oh yeah.’ She shot another glance at her
‘You had to leave me with David, Grandfather. It was rucksack. ‘If we can get...’
what I wanted, after all,’ she said, as though reading his Billy Coote took a step towards them. His mouth clicked thoughts.
open, saliva dribbling over his lips. An anguished, chilling He’d abandoned her on an alien world in an alien time, moan echoed throughout the room.
losing his last link with all that he could call home. Since
‘Roof it is,’ said Ace, quickly.
then, there had been but one brief meeting, during the They clambered through the window and crouched on the Borusa incident. No time to talk. No time to make up for all stone sill. Ace looked up. It was a climb of about five or six those lost years.
feet, over a section of ancient lead guttering and then on to
‘One day, I shall come back,’ he had said. But that day had the roof. She scanned the masonry with expert eyes. There never arrived. He had been too caught up in his own selfish were a couple of good handholds.
concerns, his ceaseless journeying through the Vortex. What Billy Coote arched his back and emitted another deep was he running away from anymore? Only himself.
moan.
222
223
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
Susan gave a little laugh, the light, lovely laugh he had One man stirred, however, and the weak sunshine made always cherished. She had called him ‘Grandfather’, and in Lawrence Yeadon squint as he turned up the collar of his that simple phrase was bound up so much feeling, so much overcoat and made his way towards The Shepherd’s Cross.
tenderness. Had he ever let anyone else