The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [82]
‘Well done! Now, walk down a step at a time and a hand at a time. Inch by inch.’
She found she could do it. It was almost like the feeling of abseiling that she’d found so easy, swinging down the cliff at the summer camp when she was fourteen, only without the security of-the rope under her bum.
As she crept down, she could feel that the Doctor had grasped the end of the sheets; and presently she felt his strong hand reaching out to pull her into the safety of the open window.
‘Oh, Doctor…’ but she could find nothing more to say as she clung on to him, with her legs almost giving way under her; but then it all came flooding back: Louisa, Giuseppe and the story-book treasure; Maximilian and the fate of the world; how long this had all taken and…
She pushed him away and said, ‘Doctor! It’s almost midnight and…’
‘I know,’ he said, ‘Orobouros. Come on!’
Somehow her legs found the strength to follow him as he ran from the room (the same room she’d seen Guido in when his Father was so angry, but empty now). As she tried to catch him up, through the gallery and down the last flight of stairs, she heard the thunder break at last, with a crash which hurt her ears; and as it died away, she realized that the clock was striking twelve.
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With no hope left, she stumbled to the door and out into the courtyard after the Doctor.
The thunder and the lightning were almost continuous now, and by the fitful light she witnessed the whole dread story in a series of tableaux: Louisa in her white dress standing by the open door of the little workshop; Giuseppe inside with his pickaxe raised on high; the Doctor shouting
‘No!’; and the pickaxe falling with the awful inevitability of Fate towards a wall glowing with an unnatural light.
Whether it was due to the lightning that struck or the unknown forces unleashed by the boy, it was impossible to tell, but the sound of the storm was joined by the thunder of collapsing stones as the great protecting wall of the ancient castle was swept into the sea, carrying with it most of the workshop and part of the clifftop beneath. There was no hope whatsoever that Giuseppe had not gone too.
With a scream which tore at Sarah’s heart, Louisa ran forward, calling, ‘Giuseppe!’ She clambered over the pile of stones which were all that remained of the workshop, and ran to the newly made edge of the clifftop.
‘Giuseppe!’ she called again. ‘Wait, my love. I’m coming!’ and stepped out into the empty space.
At last the rain came; and as Sarah strove against the Doctor’s restraining arm, the tears of Heaven coursing down 287
her cheeks mingled with her own until it was impossible to tell them apart.
But the tale was not yet told. Even as Sarah leant against the wall under the cloister where the Doctor had led her, empty and past hope, he left her side to move slowly forward towards the ruin with his hands held ready, half curled, like a wrestler waiting for his opponent to attack.
But what could he be expecting? Sarah thought. If Maximilian had been incarcerated in the wall that Giuseppe was meaning to open up, then he must have been swept into the sea too.
But then she understood. A movement on the edge of the cliff caught her eye. For an absurd moment she thought it might be Louisa, somehow safe from harm. But then she saw the great head, black hair plastered down by the sea and the torrential rain, and the strong left arm, hauling the body over the edge, and she recognized him.
The Doctor waited, quite still. Maximilian pulled himself to his feet. For a moment, they stood and gazed at each other in silence. Then Maximilian spoke, his deep voice rumbling through the dying thunder.
‘Well, Doctor? What are you going to do? Kill me?’
The Doctor still did not move. Maximilian shrugged and turned away. With no attempt to hurry, he climbed to the 288
top of the ruined wall and walked away into the sheeting rain.
‘But Doctor! You can’t just let him go!’
Again Sarah saw the tiredness of the centuries in the Doctor’s eyes. ‘There’s nothing we can do here,’ he said.
‘We’d better go back.