The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [60]
consciousness ever since he first heard of Vilmio’s imminent attack.
If he himself had been ordered to take the castle, he wouldn’t bother with ladders, or battering rams, or any of that nonsense – or ghosts. There was only one foolproof way of getting over the perimeter wall.
If Max Vilmio brought in a helicopter, they were sunk.
To Sarah’s consternation, the great hall seemed to be set out as if for a trial. The Doctor and she were marched between two ranks of men-at‐arms who kept back the assembled members of the household. Standing behind the high table, surrounded by his knights, stood the Barone, set of face and still. Behind his right shoulder was Guido, who gave her a sympathetic shake of his head. This was none of his doing, it seemed to say.
On the Barone’s left stood Maximilian, upright and stern the very picture of unalloyed rectitude.
‘May I ask why I have been brought here in this unseemly fashion?’ said the Doctor. That’s my boy thought Sarah. Get in first.
‘Nay, Doctor – if that is truly what you are. It is for me to ask why you have come to my house to peddle your iniquity.’
‘I assure you that my –’
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‘Be silent!’ The edgy temper of the essentially weak man flashed out.
‘You come to the realm of Their Most Catholic Majesties to attempt to suborn and seduce to your satanic craft one of the most faithful sons of our Holy Mother Church! Your foolishness is as vast as your wickedness, it would seem.’
What was he talking about? thought Sarah.
The Doctor, on the other hand, looked as if he knew exactly what was going on. ‘Whatever you have been told, my lord –’ he started to say.
‘Did I not see with my own eyes how you sullied the hospitality of my house by passing a secret message to my kinsman under my very nose?’
So that was it!
The Barone was holding up the piece of vellum she had given to Maximilian. ‘Master Vilmius has explained to me how these base words are but a fraction of a spell to raise the spirits of the dead! Necromancy is the work of the Devil; and those who practise it the Devil’s servants.’
Sarah could see that Maximilian’s lips were twitching.
The gleam of triumph in his eye was more than she could bear.
‘You’ve got it all wrong!’ she cried. ‘It’s not the Doctor who –’
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A shudder and a gasp ran right through the whole assembly.
‘Silence, villain!’
It was the officer who had arrested them who spoke. A servant had no rights. If it were possible, she’d made matters worse.
‘May I speak, my lord?’ said the Doctor, quietly.
‘Why should I listen to yet more of your lies? It is within my power to have you hanged this very hour.
However, to show the people the mercy of their lords, enjoined on them by the word of God Himself I shall grant the lenity your foreign deviltry ill deserves. Tomorrow you will be taken to Palermo, there to await the question of the Holy Inquisition.’
The Doctor bowed. ‘You are most kind,’ he said for all the world as if he were thanking him for telling him the way to Piccadilly Circus.
‘Take him away. Throw him into the deepest dungeon, where he cannot practise his evil art; and take his catamite with him.’
The soldier seized the Doctor’s arm, but at a gesture from the officer stepped back. With a slight inclination of his head, the Doctor moved in dignity towards the door.
Sarah followed close behind, but could not bring herself to forego a last glance at Maximilian Vilmius.
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He was openly smiling.
For a long time after the door slammed behind them, they said nothing. What was there to say?
‘I’m sorry,’ the Doctor said at last.
Sarah grunted.
‘All right, all right,’ said the Doctor, after another long pause. ‘There’s no need to go on about it. My strategy was a mistake. It was aimed at flushing him out, making him reveal himself; and it has succeeded in producing exactly the opposite result. It seems our discussion about the rights and wrongs of intervention was a trifle academic. We’re effectively barred from any action whatsoever.’
She couldn’t even say, I told you so,