The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [102]
355
‘Not now, boy,’ said the Doctor, connecting the wires coming out of the Template to the main machine.
‘But Doctor –!’
‘You heard the Doctor, Jeremy,’ said the Brigadier.
The two pieces of equipment were joined; the Doctor made a last adjustment to the controls and put his hand on the switch. ‘Well, Lethbridge-Stewart, wish me luck,’ he said.
‘Stop!’ cried Jeremy. ‘It’s Sarah! She hasn’t woken up!’
‘What!’ said the Doctor, snatching his hand away. It was the first time in their long acquaintance that the Brigadier had seen him go pale with shock.
He hurried round into the wire cage, where Jeremy was bending anxiously over the unconscious Sarah.
‘I took it for granted that…’ he lifted her eyelids. ‘She hasn’t come back from N-Space.’ He stood up and looked at Jeremy.
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘If I’d pulled that switch, the barrier would have locked solid and Sarah would never have been able to get back.
‘I should have killed her as effectively as if I’d put a bullet through her brain.’
356
Sarah had no idea how she was going to lead Louisa from her long banishment, but she wasn’t worried. She knew that she was doing the right thing.
Sure enough, as soon as she took her hand and together they left the ground and flew away from the castello, they found that they were moving through the shining tunnel which she had encountered the first time she came into N-Space.
Down at the end of the tunnel was the impossibly bright light which somehow didn’t glare, but was as soft and limpid as the sunlight which filters through the ripples of a shallow sea, dappling the golden sand with a lucid, shadowless pattern.
As they neared the end of their travelling, when they were no longer floating through the air but walking hand in hand, Sarah could see figures dressed in the fashion of an earlier time moving forward out of the brightness. She heard Louisa gasp.
‘Mama!’ she said, ‘And oh, my dear Papa!’
Letting go of Sarah’s hand, she ran forward into their welcoming arms.
More figures crowded round the returning exile; among them, Sarah could see the familiar face of Louisa’s Powly –
and recognized the features of the miniature in the bedroom: the much-loved Miss Grinley.
357
After a few moments, Louisa broke free, turned and ran back to Sarah. She threw her arms around her and hugged and hugged her. ‘Thank you my friend, my true, true friend,’ she said, pulling back and gazing at her with shining eyes.
But then a shadow flitted across her face. ‘I understand at last. I must say farewell to all my hopes. These eyes will never more behold Giuseppe…’ But she stopped speaking when she saw that Sarah was looking past her and smiling.
She turned to look. The little knot of people had parted to make a lane amidst them; and at the end of it stood the one for whom Louisa had waited so long.
She did not run. She walked to him almost reluctantly, as if fearful that he might be nothing but another hope, another memory. But then he opened his arms to her; and she was enfolded in his love.
‘Sarah.’
The quiet voice pulled her from the sight of the joy before her as the youngsters were hidden from sight by their families and friends.
‘It’s time to come back,’ said the Doctor.
‘I think I want to stay,’ said Sarah. ‘I’ve never felt so happy in my life before.’
He held out his hand.
‘Not yet,’ he said.
358
‘It’s worked,’ said the Brigadier. ‘He’s coming round.
Well, thank the Lord. All’s well that ends well.’
‘Hi there,’ said Jeremy to Sarah as she blinked open her eyes. ‘Hi,’ she said comfortably, but made no attempt to get up.
The Doctor, on the other hand, leapt to his feet and almost ran to the Transducer machine. He switched it off and hastily went to reconnect the Warping Template.
But even as he was tightening the second screw, there was a rending noise to tear the eardrums, and a flash of fire to sear the eyes. Maximilian was on his feet, and behind him, through a jagged gash of scarlet flame, poured an unending flow of fiends, filling the earth and the sky with a gallery of grotesque horror as far