Doctor Who_ Wooden Heart - Martin Day [69]
Love?
‘These people deserve to be shown love and compassion. They are relying on your mercy,’ continued the Doctor.
‘Please,’ said Jude, sobbing. ‘I don’t want to die!’
But I am tired. So tired…
‘I can pilot this ship to a brighter part of the universe,’ said the Doctor. ‘Well away from prying eyes, but close enough to stars for the Castor to recharge itself.’
But I can’t keep the darkness quiet any longer. The things I have seen…
There was an agonised tone in the creature’s voice; Martha noticed that the shadowy angel was now as tall and as wide as the room itself and it was almost within touching distance of the Doctor and Jude.
‘Ah,’ said the Dazai, weighing up the angel slowly. ‘I wonder if I may be able to help with that…’
And with that she stepped forward, bravely and quite deliberately. With a final smile, and her frail arms outstretched, she walked straight into the shadow.
She flowed into the angel, and the angel flowed into her; an impossible figure and a prosaic one merging and overlapping like the meeting of wind and fog. The Dazai cried out in unendurable agony, her tiny body writhing and twisting in black shrouds and shadow.
Freed from the strange paralysis that had overcome her, Martha ran immediately to her – but the Doctor smoothly interposed himself. ‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘Just leave her for a minute.’
‘But it’ll kill her!’
‘I’m not so sure,’ said the Doctor. ‘Look!’
The Dazai had fallen onto her back now, staring up at the vaulted ceiling with sightless eyes. Her arms and legs were shaking, her thin lips pulled tight in wordless agony – Martha couldn’t even begin to imagine the tormented images rushing through her mind.
Then, brushing aside the Doctor’s offered arm, the Dazai got to her feet. The shadow creature seemed to have entirely vanished – or been absorbed within her tiny frame. Though unsteady, and still shaking from her experiences, there was a strange, detached look on the Dazai’s face – she seemed almost younger, the worst of her wrinkles smoothed away, her eyes burning brightly. But there was obvious pain in her eyes, a sorrow so deep and so acute that Martha had to glance away.
It was like looking into the Doctor’s eyes when he alluded to his home and his people.
‘Oh…’ The Dazai shook her head slowly, as if in disbelief. ‘Oh,’ she whispered again, a long, drawn-out sigh as silent tears began to course down her cheeks.
The effect on the creature in the centre of the room – and the voice that Martha and the others heard – was even more remarkable.
It’s all… gone. I am free of it all!
‘That’s right,’ said the Doctor, a soothing note in his voice. ‘You can just concentrate on sustaining your world – on enjoying everything that you have created!’
I no longer feel… guilt. It is not my fault any more!
‘It never was,’ said the Doctor quietly. He placed a reassuring arm around Jude. ‘Just you concentrate on keeping the bubble world ticking over. At least until you get to a new star system. People like my friend Jude here are depending on you!’
I think I may be able to manage more than that.
Suddenly the room flickered, the wires and artificial lighting replaced with the rough stone cave on the island. The two regions became one, just as they had when Martha and the Doctor had first attempted to return to the Castor from the forest.
Petr and Saul stood to one side of the great stone column, eyes and mouths wide, understanding nothing. ‘Doctor?’ said Petr, a note of panic in his voice. ‘Where are we?’
The suspended creature pulsed brightly.
With less to think about, less to control… I should be able to…
Once more the stone column split open, a door sliding back to reveal a square of impossible brightness. Small, dark figures moved impatiently in the light, stepping one by one out onto the floor of the chamber.
The missing children.
Within moments, the cave was