Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [100]
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Gardener got up from the garden and joined them, preening her feathers and removing dirt. ‘I have concluded my negotiations,’ she told Penelope. ‘We will return to Hekison village and help rebuild it. And protect it, although the Doctor has insisted we abandon our weapons and armour.’
‘Quite rightly,’ said Penelope. ‘All of these events have been lost to Earth’s history, and they must remain that way.’ She looked up as Mr Cwej joined them, dodging giggling children. ‘Speaking of history, Mr Cwej –’
‘It’s “Shvay”,’ he said. ‘Not “Kwedge”.’ He smiled. ‘Anyway, you can call me Chris.’
‘I beg your pardon, Chris. What I meant to ask was whether history was not, in fact, altered. Would Gufuu and Umemi have had their battle if not for the pod?’
‘The Doctor thinks so,’ said Chris. ‘He wants to doublecheck, but he thinks the battle probably just happened a few years earlier than it was going to.
In the end it won’t matter – neither of the daimyo was going to end up running the country. Their districts will be taken over by Hideyoshi within three decades.’
Penelope glanced at the farmers, who were deep in a discussion of the vegetable garden. ‘And these people? And the monks?’
Chris shrugged. ‘The Doctor doesn’t know. Peace is coming, at least. We’ll have to look it all up in the TARDIS databanks when we get back.’
‘Then you will not be leaving Mintsu-san in my care?’ said Kadoguchiroshi.
The old monk and the Doctor were walking through the monastery garden. The air was a little warmer than it had been. Soon the trees would be blossoming. ‘The Admiral will keep an eye on him for me,’ he said.
‘But you insisted that his actions were a serious crime.’
‘They were,’ said the Doctor. ‘But he’s not a bit like that, really. He just got carried away.’
‘What of Kuriisu-san?’
‘Did he ever answer your koan?’
‘Yes,’ said Roshi, stopping at the well. ‘I believe he did.’
The Doctor looked at the not-quite-random pattern of moss growing across the stones, the subtle shades of red and deep green. A tree was growing over the well, early flowers bursting into life on its branches.
‘It was wrong of me to try to force him into a mould,’ the Doctor said. ‘I think I mistook his faith and optimism for naivety.’ He sighed. ‘All these years among you, and I still don’t understand what’s going on inside your minds.’
‘The greatest masterpieces,’ said Roshi, ‘are created directly out of our own natures, when the busy, worrying, scheming mind is put aside for that single moment.’ He nodded. ‘Allow Kuriisu-san to continue to act out of his own 204
nature. And do not be deceived by changes in yourself, however dramatic.
Continue to act out of your own nature.’
The Doctor was silent for a long time. Loosened by the breeze, a blossom dropped from the tree. Roshi caught it. At last, the Doctor said, ‘In spring’s scenery, there is nothing superior or inferior. Some branches grow short, some long.’
Roshi smiled, and handed the Doctor the flower.
205
24
Room for living
It took them the best part of a day to reach the TARDIS, the Doctor wandering up the rocky mountainside without so much as breaking into a sweat, Penelope clambering over rocks and fallen trees with the same vigour and determination as had brought her safely home from Africa. Joel puffed and wheezed and required numerous rest breaks. He stayed quiet, partly because he was out of breath and partly because he didn’t want to push his luck.
It would have been easier, he reflected, if they hadn’t made him carry Penelope’s time machine.
When they reached the Castle, it was almost night. There had been a late snowfall this high in the mountains, hiding the shrivelled plants and the fetid pools. The Castle grounds almost looked peaceful.
Penelope was gazing at the blue oblong of the TARDIS, unimpressed, while Joel looked around at the withered trees and the burnt building.
‘Right,’ said the Doctor, rubbing his hands together. ‘First stop, 1996, where I’m going to have a little chat with Admiral Summerfield before I let you out.’ He gave Joel