Part 31 (1/2)

'What about Vanessa and the people who love her?' She stepped forward, but the Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. 'What about her life? What about Norris, didn't he have a right to live? What about her father?'

'Her father -' Ra.s.sul stabbed the pistol towards Tegan. Then he stopped mid sentence, stepped back, and regained control of himself. 'Ah yes,' he said. 'I think we can now dispense with the services of her father.' He almost spat the final word with contempt. Then he turned to Vanessa.

'Don't you agree?'

Tegan heard the scuffing footsteps from the other room before she saw Prior shuffle into the main chamber. His eyes were still gla.s.sy and unseeing as he approached them. Then he blinked, and immediately they focused and he looked round himself in surprise. 'Vanessa?' He seemed to latch on to the person he knew best. 'Oh thank goodness you're safe.' He went over to her, looking in bewilderment at the mummies standing beside her.

Vanessa reached out, the back of her hand stroking down his cheek. To his neck. Then she gripped him tightly with both hands, squeezing his windpipe, choking off the coughed gasps that might have been words. Prior sank to his knees, smoke rising from his daughter's hands as she throttled him. A sickly sweet smell drifted across the room, and Prior collapsed to the floor. His eyes were gla.s.sy and unfocused again.

There was silence for a while. In the doorway, Vanessa stood flanked by the two mummies. Prior's smoking corpse lay in front of them. Ra.s.sul stood beside the other mummy, pistol in hand. The Doctor stared open mouthed at Ra.s.sul. Atkins and Tegan looked in horrified fascination at Prior's body.

'It's time to make the final moves,' the Doctor said suddenly in a loud voice.

Everyone looked at him, including Vanessa.

He shrugged. 'Someone had to say something.'

From behind them came a faint rustling sound, almost like a breeze through the trees in a forest. The Doctor ran to the dais, Tegan close behind. Ra.s.sul joined them as they looked down at the bandaged form inside the casket. It was moving slightly, the chest rising and falling, the wrappings on the lower arms creasing and un-creasing as if the hands were clenching into fists. A faint sigh came from beneath the strips of cloth covering the face.

'Oh no,' Tegan said huskily. 'She's waking up.'

Ancient Egypt - c5000BC She was still alive, but Ra.s.sul did nothing.

He watched as they dragged the girl's sagging body towards the tomb. He followed, taking his designated place as the last of the relics were carried after her. The ring of Bastet, born on a velvet cus.h.i.+on; the snake statue of Netjerankh; the scarab bracelet; the figure of Anubis, G.o.d of the rituals of death. Ra.s.sul followed, holding the hourgla.s.s before him like the talisman it was. And at his back he could hear the Devourer of the Dead snapping in frustration as she was cheated of her victim. The girl was still alive as they removed the dress. She could stand alone now, unmoving apart from her eyes. She was still alive as Anubis directed the priests to smear her naked body with bitumen.

She was still alive as they started to smother the bandages round her. And Ra.s.sul did nothing.

As the wrappings reached her face she screamed again, head back and mouth wide, as if to remind them she still had her tongue. A single word, screamed in terror, anger and accusation. A single word hurled at Ra.s.sul as he stood before her. And did nothing. The next twist of cloth cut off her voice, bit deep into her mouth and gagged her.

She was still alive as the bandages covered her forehead, leaving a thin slot through which Ra.s.sul could see her eyes widen. She was watching him, locked on to him. And he could see her pupils dilate, could almost feel her terror.

The opening of the mouth. Her scream had been like a pouring in of energy. His muscles tightened and his whole body tensed. She screamed a single word.

'Father!'

Chapter Fifteen.

They were all standing round the casket now. The Doctor, Tegan and Ra.s.sul had been joined by Atkins. As they watched the bandaged figure's movements become gradually more p.r.o.nounced and emphatic, Vanessa stepped up on to the dais. The mummies grouped behind her, and as she raised her arms high above her head, they mirrored her movements. The chamber seemed to fill with discordant music, perhaps from the organ in the drawing room above, as the wide sleeves of Vanessa's night-gown slipped down to her shoulders, exposing her bronzed arms.

The figure in the casket was struggling to sit up now, the arms still bound to her sides, but working to loosen the wrappings.

'Now it happens,' Ra.s.sul said, his voice barely audible above the rising noise of the organ. 'Now she becomes whole. Now the G.o.ddess Nephthys lives again.'

'And what good does that do you?' Tegan shouted across the coffin.

'My daughter will live again too. When the mind of Nephthys is complete, so too is the remains of my daughter's. Some part of her, however small, will be restored.' The sweat glistened on his forehead as he raised his arms above the coffin. 'That is worth everything. Nephthys is the instrument of my daughter's rebirth.'

The Doctor shook his head emphatically. 'You think you're using Nephthys,'

he shouted. 'But in fact she's using you. She's been using you ever since Horus chose your daughter.' 'No Doctor, you are wrong.'

'Am I? That blind faith that drives you to try to save some vestige of your daughter is how Osiran mental control works, don't you see that?'

'What do you mean?' Atkins asked.

'It's not just thecomplete take-over of the mind that the Osirans use. It's the pa.s.sion for discovering all you can about a mummy in your bas.e.m.e.nt, it's the devotion of a high priest, the impulsive selection of a good round number like a hundred years. It's the love of a daughter.'

Ra.s.sul was shaking his head now. 'No, Doctor, you still don't understand.'

As he spoke, two of the mummies stepped on to the dais. They took up positions either side of the casket, forcing Atkins to move aside. They reached into the coffin and took the writhing, bandaged figure, raising it to its feet with a gentleness that belied their ma.s.sive strength.

'When Nyssa's eyes open from the long sleep, and she sees the G.o.ddess, Vanessa and Nyssa will be joined and Nephthys will be whole again.' The triumph was evident in Ra.s.sul's voice.

Vanessa reached out, working her slender fingers between the bandages round the head. 'Let the universe tremble,' she said, her voice blending into the rhythmic swell of music. 'Let the darkness start here.' Then she tore the bandages from the face of the figure standing in the sarcophagus.

Tegan screamed, and the organ music stopped. Tegan stepped back, hands to her mouth, and almost fell down the step. Vanessa froze, her eyes meeting the gaze returned from beneath the torn remains of the bandages. Atkins looked puzzled, and Ra.s.sul stood open-mouthed in horror and amazement. The Doctor nodded slowly, his face set in grim satisfaction.

The figure standing in the coffin, held either side by an Osiran mummy, her head now almost free of bandages, was recognizably Nyssa. The grey hair hung in ringlets about her neck, the round face was creased and wrinkled round the bright intelligent eyes. The pale lips were pursed slightly as if in defiance.

When Tegan had seen the Doctor unwrap Nyssa's head in 1896, it had been to reveal the young woman she remembered from the previous day.

Now she looked nearer ninety than twenty.

'What is this?' Ra.s.sul screamed. His voice echoed round the chamber.

'What has happened?'

He looked to Vanessa for an answer, but she remained frozen in position, staring at Nyssa.

'I think we're a little late,' the Doctor said. His voice was quiet, but everyone turned to him. Even Vanessa swung her head slightly. 'I'm afraid your calculations were slightly off. As you can see, Nyssa has actually been awake for quite some time. Or at least, in a sort of waking sleep. Just enough to continue the ageing process while she dozed.'

'No,' breathed Vanessa, her voice an exhalation of disbelief.