Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [80]
„You are right. But that is in the past.‟
Harry was desperate to get through to her. Why couldn‟t she do this one thing that would help him so much? „But it might not be in the past any more! It might happen all over again with this woman!‟
But the spirit shook her head. „I would not let it happen a second time, and nor would my sisters. We have grown. We are a thousand years older now. No, I have no reason to help you.‟
Harry opened his mouth - but what could he say? What could he possibly say?
She smiled. „But if you would care to make a bargain with me...‟
What? Harry took an involuntary step back. „I don‟t think that‟s a very good idea.‟
„You want my help... It sounds to me as if you want it very much.‟
He steeled himself. „What do you ask in return?‟
Her hand brushed his cheek, and he tried not to flinch.
Merely companionship.‟
Harry was wondering what on earth was going on. Was there something in the Somerset water that made him irresistible? Or was a Naval blazer and some rather impressive sideburns just more attractive in the thirties than in his own time?
„You mean come into that tree with you?‟
She looked him up and down, finally addressing his shoulder. „I could have used my magic on you, but in regard for your friend with the blade -‟
„Scared, you mean,‟ interjected Harry. Surely this was not the only way...?
„- I did not. But were you to come to me voluntarily.‟
Harry shuddered. Eternity in a tree? She expected him to make that choice? „You‟re asking me to give up my life.‟
„I am giving you a longer life than you could ever hope for.‟
„But if I agree - and I‟m not saying I will, mind you,‟ Harry added hurriedly, „it won‟t do me any good. If I‟m stuck in your tree, I can‟t face off Lady Hester.‟
She smiled. „I will let you go. My magicks will draw you back. You only have to agree.‟
Harry began to pace, as much as he could in the tangled undergrowth. Whatever she said, it would be like killing himself. And he would face that risk gladly, in the heat of battle, to save others. He thought - almost knew - that he would put himself forward to be sacrificed if the need arose.
And this, this was not even a true death. He would never see Sarah or the Doctor again, but...‟
Sarah and the Doctor. They had abandoned him. Oh, maybe not deliberately, in fact, almost certainly not deliberately, but he knew now that they were not coming for him - they either didn‟t know where he was, or couldn‟t control the TARDIS, or - which had only just struck him, but he couldn‟t really bear to think about - something had happened to them. And here he was, stuck forty-odd years in his own past, with a war ahead - many people, even those not displaced from their own time, might welcome the opportunity to sleep safely in a tree between 1939 and 1945.
And then he thought of another reason why the Doctor and Sarah might not have returned for him.
The TARDIS was on a course for his own time. Stopping here had obviously been a hitch. Perhaps the Doctor and Sarah had continued on to what he thought of as the present day. What if, once there, they had found Harry waiting for them?
A Harry who had slept in the dryad‟s tree for all the years in between...
Before he knew it, he was facing the dryad. „I‟ll agree,‟ he told her, not stopping to think about what he was saying.
„But only for a few decades. We agree a time when you‟ll let me out again.‟
She smiled. „Done!‟
And that was that.
She did not mention to Harry that if the land went back to sleep again, she would not be able to let him out, and he did not think of it. But even if he had, he would barely have worried, because he knew that he must be right, and that was what both would and had happened.
Thomas Charnock staggered down the road to his house, the shotgun over his arm broken open and not reloaded. He turned off the track, fighting his way through the roses which he‟d planted round the door to please his wife, but which now reigned supreme across the whole of the path. He didn