Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [15]
The Doctor tethered the horses to a young tree, smiling to himself.
The village was a few dozen huts and a well. Somewhere, someone was singing while they worked. An elderly man was hobbling across the square of dirt in the centre of the village, leaning hard on his stick. ‘Look, Grandfather!’
said the little girl. ‘We’ve captured a giant!’
‘ Hajimemashite! ’ said Chris. The little girl gave him a whack in the knee to silence him. He looked back at the Doctor, helplessly.
The Time Lord walked up. The elderly man bowed to him and Chris, his eyes uncertain. ‘I am the head man of Shuuraku village.’
‘This is Chris, and I’m the Doctor. We’re on our way to Hekison. We need to buy some arrows.’
32
The old man bowed again. He put a hand on his granddaughter’s shoulder.
‘Go and tell the fletcher to bring a quiver of his best arrows.’ She smiled and ran off.
‘ Arigatou, ’ said the Doctor. ‘We’ve heard that Hekison has had excellent luck recently.
‘And no wonder,’ said the headman, ‘with the Bodhisattva herself visiting them.’
‘Kannon?’ said the Doctor.
‘I haven’t seen her myself,’ said the headman. ‘But their fortunes have been much improved since she made her first visit. Each night I pray that she might grace us with a visit as well. Come, you must drink some tea with me.’
The Doctor coughed. He glanced at Chris, still trapped by an army of children.
‘Release the prisoner,’ said the headman, ‘and go back to guarding your fort.’
‘ Hei! ’ shrilled the kids.
‘Lesson number forty-seven in a series of twelve million,’ murmured the Doctor
‘Know the local manners,’ said Chris, as they followed the headman to his house. The Doctor smiled at him, pleased. ‘That’s an Adjudicator lesson too,’
Chris said.
Kiiro tugged on the giant’s rope, silencing him.
Aoi’s father said, ‘We’re not interested in every detail of your journey. Stop prattling.’ The giant bowed.
‘I ought to go back and deal with that impertinent headman,’ said Father.
‘He said nothing to us about Kannon.’
The snowman bowed, indicating he wanted to speak. Aoi’s Father glared down at him. ‘My lord, I think it was just his best guess at what the other village had found,’ said the man. ‘I don’t believe he would have held any real facts back from you.’
Father considered for a moment. ‘There can’t be much left to your story,’ he said.
‘Have I told you about regeneration?’
Chris glanced over at the Doctor. ‘Not much,’ he said.
‘It’s time you knew more about it, then.’
Chris grinned. ‘Are you going to tell me about the Time Birds and the Time Bees?’
‘No I’m not,’ snapped the Doctor.
33
After a few hours’ travel, the plains had turned to forest. They were following a narrow path between the trees. There was a ribbon of blue sky far overhead, and the air was rich with the scent of humus.
Chris eased his horse forward until they were level. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Regeneration is when you turn into someone else, right?’
‘Not precisely,’ said the Doctor. ‘I won’t go into the technical details, but, if a Time Lord comes very close to death, we can replace our bodies.’
‘Is this like the way you heal really fast?,
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s a qualitatively different process.’
‘So you change into a completely new person.’
‘In a way. . . New face, new personality. I never. . . ’ He glanced at Chris, sideways. ‘You never know what you’re going to get. Whoever it is, it won’t be me any more.’
‘It’s like reincarnation,’ said Chris. ‘Without dying.’
‘Hmm. Death’s easy for human beings. You only have to do it once.’ The Doctor frowned. ‘Regeneration is not so hard for other Time Lords as it has been for me, for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that they do it in medical facilities. Slowly. With assistance. It was never meant to be an emergency measure.’
Chris was silent for a while. Usually the Doctor would talk about history or books, or ramble lengthily about the places and times