Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [9]
‘I see,’ said the monk. ‘Now tell me who you truly are.’
‘Sorry?’
‘For example,’ said the monk, ‘let me tell you a story.’ The Doctor gave Chris an I-told-you-so smile. ‘You’ll like it, it’s about a pupil who was teasing his 19
master, Kosen, a great calligrapher. Kosen was preparing some words for a temple carving. He took up his ink brush and wrote “The First Principle”. His pupil, who was always criticizing him, said, “That’s no good!” So Kosen tried again, and again, but each time the pupil had some criticism of his calligraphy.
‘Finally, the pupil stepped outside for a moment, and Kosen snatched up the paper and quickly wrote “The First Principle”. When the pupil returned, he exclaimed, “A masterpiece!”’
‘Why?’ said Chris.
‘That is the question,’ said the old man. ‘Why?’
Chris thought, but nothing came out. The Doctor grinned. ‘As I recall,’ said the monk, ‘you haven’t given me a satisfactory answer to that question either.’
The Doctor’s grin changed to an embarrassed smile.
‘Speaking if conspiracies. . . ’ said Chris, putting his hands on his hips and looking between the two of them.
It was a conspiracy all right, thought Chris, as he swept the steps of the meditation hall.
The monastery was a small collection of low buildings, surrounded by an earth embankment that looked like it could keep out an army. Monks were hard at work everywhere, hoeing the garden, hanging out washing. It was midday, and the air just starting to get warmer.
Almost as soon as they’d arrived, he’d been handed a broom and sent out to sweep the steps. The Doctor and Kadoguchiroshi, who, surprise surprise, had turned out to be the chief monk, had disappeared into one of the other buildings, chatting.
He realized with a start that the slender monk sharing the sweeping was actually a nun. She worked silently, with the hint of a smile on her face. He wondered if it would be good manners to talk to her.
She had carefully swept away the last of the dust before she spoke. There was something about her movements, simple and graceful, as though sweeping was an art form and she was an expert. ‘My name is Chiyono,’ she said.
‘What’s yours?’
‘Chris,’ he said. She was in her thirties, he guessed. Her eyes were deep and dark.
‘I saw you come in with Yukidaruma-san,’ she said. Chris laughed out loud, and glanced around in embarrassment. But the monks weren’t paying him any more attention than before.
The nun was smiling at him. ‘“Mr Snowman”?’ he said.
‘Kadoguchiroshi found him in the snow,’ said Chiyono„ so we called him Snowman. Are you in his service?’
‘Sort of,’ said Chris. ‘Yeah, I guess I am.’
20
Chiyono grimaced suddenly, leaning hard on her broom as though it was a walking stick. Chris put out a hand to steady her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes,’ she said, after a moment.
‘No,’ said Chris, ‘I mean, really all right.’
She looked at him with those dark eyes. ‘I am dying,’ she said.
Chris opened his mouth and closed it again.
: What are you thinking, Kuriisu-san?’
I was thinking,’ he ventured, ‘that if I was dying, I wouldn’t waste my time sweeping.’
‘What would you do?’
Chris thought about it. ‘What I’m doing now, I guess. Go on travelling with the Doctor, and see as much of the universe as I could.’
The nun smiled. It was so beautiful it froze his mind. ‘The further you travel,’ she said, ‘the less you know.’
A bell sounded. The deep booming ring echoed out through the still air of the valley, each note blending completely into the sounds of tree and wind and water before another was struck.
Still smiling, Chiyono picked up her broom and walked away.
Chris didn’t even notice the Doctor until the small man nudged him in the elbow.
‘Everything’s arranged,’ said the Doctor. ‘We’re welcome here, and, better still, Kadoguchiroshi thinks he’s got some information about the source of the temporal distortion.’
‘Oh good,’ said Chris. ‘I think I’m in love with a nun.’
‘Swept off your feet?’ Chris pulled