Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [62]
The blacksmith’s store was a wide, tidy space. The blacksmith himself was a portly, white-bearded old man, quite well-off, judging from his clothes. What was he called again? O-Kajiya. The Doctor had said they were in luck – the man was an expert swordmaker, a genius when it came to metal. Better still, he had a cart for rent.
‘Yeah, but what does he know about alien pods?’ Chris had asked. ‘What if it’s a nuclear bomb?’
‘If it’s a nuclear bomb,’ said the Doctor, ‘which it isn’t, it won’t make any difference whether it goes off in the stable at our inn or at the blacksmith’s shop.’ He drummed his fingers against his chin. ‘Besides, I don’t want it with us, in case the samurai catch up with us.’
Chris had shrugged. If the pod was really important – like, world-destroying or history-changing – they’d already know. But it wasn’t. On a cosmic scale of things, they were chasing around after a bit of insignificant space junk. The world wasn’t going to end – nothing important was happening to him or the Doctor.
People had already died because of that piece Of junk, he reminded himself, as he walked up to the blacksmith’s shop. He sighed. The whole thing was so stupid.
The blacksmith and two assistants were buzzing around the pod, which was lying in the cart. They’d done a great job, loosening and chiselling away the fused soil, even polishing the metal of the outside. It looked like a brand-new, er, whatever it was.
They bowed low when they saw him. Chris returned the bow, feeling guilty, 126
partly because he was a fake samurai and partly because he didn’t know how much danger they were in from the pod.
Of course, if the Doctor thought the thing was dangerous, he would never have left it with them, and it had been pretty inert for a while. . . On the other hand, there were the people who wanted the pod. . .
Samurai-san,’ the blacksmith was saying, ‘I’m very glad you called. The statue is ready to be collected, and your horse’s damaged shoe has been replaced. Isha-sama paid us in advance, of course. All is in readiness, but I was wondering if you could kindly tell me more about this object.’ The blacksmith laid a hand on the pod’s smooth surface.
‘I wish I could,’ said Chris. He had no idea what the Doctor’s cover story had been. ‘I don’t know very much about it.’
‘I have never seen such fine metal, nor any metal object which resembles this.’ The blacksmith seemed to consider for a moment, then said, ‘I must inform you, honoured customer, that I had a strange visitor last night, asking if I had seen an object similar to this.’
Alarm bells went off in Chris’s skull like a bad hangover. Oh great. He remembered to be polite. ‘Please tell me about your visitor, O-Kajiya.’
‘It was a pale-skinned woman, with hair and eyes like copper,’ said the smith. ‘Very beautiful, but very frightening. One of my lads thought she was a demon.’
Lady Justice’s brastrap, thought Chris.
‘She asked if I had seen any unusual metals – if perhaps someone had brought me a sample I could not identify.’
‘What did you tell her?’
‘Be assured, samurai-san, that I did not mention your statue. She was very impolite, and I could not be sure of her credentials.’
Chris bowed again. ‘You did the right thing, O-Kajiya. I’m grateful.’ One of those alarms was still going off. ‘This was last night, right?’
‘ Hei. ’
Chris frowned. He didn’t like that timing. ‘I better tell the Doctor about this. We’ll come back and collect the pod and the horses soon.’
The blacksmith bowed. Chris bowed. And legged it in the direction of the inn.
In the dust of a Toshi street, the Prompter of Confessions was stirring. It had been thoroughly squashed by a cartwheel, the indentation taking up most of its stubby length.
But the biomachine’s powers of recuperation were considerable. It had replaced thousands of damaged cells in the last few hours, run maintenance 127
cheeks on its simple nervous system and sensory apparatus. Its single, sluglike belly-foot was ready to begin the slow task of taking it home.
It would seek out its mistress again,