Part 21 (2/2)

They were at the side of the Grange, close to the back. s...o...b..ld led the way round towards the drive. They walked briskly. The sky was alive with trails of fire; the air was thick like drifting smoke.

'Another eruption,' the Doctor mused. 'Not long now, I fear.' He looked round. 'What's that noise?'

s...o...b..ld strained to hear. He could just make out a rus.h.i.+ng sound, like the wind only stronger, louder, more regular. He turned to try to work out where it was coming from.

'It's the river,' he realised. 'There's a weir just upstream from here.'

'River?'

'Well,' s...o...b..ld admitted, 'more of a brook. Over there.' He pointed into the gloom. 'About twenty yards. Doctor,' he went on as they continued on their way, 'you said there wasn't long. Until what, do you think?'

'Until a molten ma.s.s of red hot magma rolls across the moors and through Middletown devouring everything in its way.'

'Unless we can stop it somehow,' s...o...b..ld said gloomily.

The Doctor stopped, putting out his hand to stay s...o...b..ld. 'I'm afraid we have other things to deal with,' he said.

Ahead of them, from out of the smoky air, Lord Urton emerged, his eyes blazing like burning coals.

They had encouraged her, then cajoled her. They had threatened her with a rifle, but still she refused to go with them. Eventually a large corporal had lifted Rosie Devlin bodily and carried her kicking and shouting to the cart. He dumped her into it, and pushed her back when she tried to climb out.

The children sat at her feet, sullen, weary, too tired now to cry.

'He'll be here soon,' she rea.s.sured them through her tears. 'He just had some work at the mine to finish.'

Little Annie climbed on to her mother's lap and put her thin arms round her neck, clinging on and crying into her chest. Lawrence and James watched. Lawrence choked back a sob.

'You should have let us wait for him,' James told the soldier as the cart pulled away unsteadily.

'He'll come, you'll see,' Rosie shouted into the smog as they b.u.mped along. Her words dissolved into tears. 'You'll see. He'll show you, Harry Devlin will. Show you all.'

The corporal watched the cart disappear into the ash*filled sky. He wiped the grime from his face on his sleeve, smearing it across with the moisture from his smarting eyes. He knew as well as she did that Harry Devlin was not coming home.

The air seemed to crackle and spark around him as Lord Urton stepped towards them. The Doctor and s...o...b..ld backed slowly away, matching him step for step.

'I'll try to distract him, Doctor,' s...o...b..ld said quietly. 'You should be able to get past him while he's... while he's busy with me.'

Urton circled round them, forcing them to change direction as they continued to back away.

'Very n.o.ble of you,' the Doctor said, keeping his eyes on Urton. 'But I imagine he'd go for me before you. Without undue modesty, I think they believe me to be more of a threat than your good self.' He grinned suddenly. 'And anyway, I don't intend to lose you.'

'Thank you,' s...o...b..ld responded automatically. He could hear the sound of the weir again, and realised they were close to the brook.

Too close. He took another step backwards and almost slipped down the bank. He reached out to stop the Doctor. 'Look out.'

'Ah,' the Doctor exclaimed as he glanced back at the steep bank and the murky water below. He turned back as Lord Urton once more stepped out of the thickening air. His hands were stretched out in front of him like a sleepwalker. The firelight sparkled behind his eyes.

'Oh,' the Doctor said. 'How deep is it?'

'I don't know,' s...o...b..ld replied. He risked a look backwards. 'Very' he decided. 'Ten feet or more, what with the melting snow. And it's too wide to jump. I ' he paused, embarra.s.sed. 'I can't actually swim, you know, Doctor.'

'I didn't,' the Doctor said. 'But I hope it won't be necessary. It's a thought, though,' he added with a frown. 'I wonder...'

'They're right to think you more dangerous than I,' s...o...b..ld said slowly. 'Which is why you have to get away, Doctor.' It was not actually a difficult decision to come to, he thought as he stooped down and scooped up a handful of the dry ash. Now that Betty was gone, there was little to make him reconsider. He had lived his life preaching a code that put others before himself. Now. it was time to live up to that code.

s...o...b..ld held the ash tight in his fist, afraid it would slip out between his fingers. With his other hand he pushed the Doctor roughly away. At the same moment he stepped up to face Urton, standing inches from his outstretched hands.

He could feel the heat from the twitching fingers, could see deep into the fire within his old friend's eyes. He leaned away as the hands clutched for him, and thrust the ash into Urton's face.

He had hoped that it might blind Urton, or at least distract him long enough for s...o...b..ld to run past. He had seen the Doctor head off along the bank of the river, continuing in the direction that s...o...b..ld had pushed him. But the ash had no effect. It seemed to explode into a myriad firefly sparks as it touched Urton. s...o...b..ld stepped back, knowing he had nowhere to go. Urton reached for him, the heat from his body singeing the air as he moved.

'Get down!' The shout reached s...o...b..ld at the same moment as he saw the Doctor emerge from the smoke behind Urton. He was in mid*air, his feet in front of him.

The Doctor's jump*kick connected as s...o...b..ld dived aside. s...o...b..ld rolled on to his back in time to see the Doctor's feet slam into Urton's back, sending Urton spinning forwards, arms flailing. Urton staggered to the top of the bank, teetered on the edge where the ground dropped away, his arms windmilling, sending flames shooting into the air.

Just as he regained his balance, just as he began to stumble forwards again, just as he turned to look down at s...o...b..ld lying defenceless before him on the ground, the Doctor stepped forwards. He leaned back, lifted his leg almost to the height of his waist and kicked out violently.

The Doctor's foot caught Urton full in the chest, sending him spinning over the edge. Steam hissed from the sole of the Doctor's shoe.

s...o...b..ld pulled himself to his feet and joined the Doctor at the edge of the bank. He was in time to see Urton splash into the river. A great cloud of steam hissed up, obscuring their view. A high*pitched scream, shrill and loud reached them. The steam thinned, and s...o...b..ld could see Urton clawing at the bank, his hands scrabbling to gain a purchase. But the rest of his body seemed to be dragging him back down, still and lifeless. His head remained clear of the water, his eyes flickering as he stared up at them, his mouth twisted into a scream of anger and fear.

Then he lost his grip completely, and sank slowly into the water. Steam erupted from his hands as they flopped into the river. His head remained visible a moment longer before it too was submerged.

'Let's get away from here,' s...o...b..ld said. His throat was dry and he felt sick to his stomach.

'You're right.' The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. 'There's something... something in the research, the books and papers that Professor Dobbs was looking at.'

The water below them was still hissing and steaming. Occasionally the view cleared enough for them to see the water bubbling.

'What's that, Doctor?' For the first time in a long while, s...o...b..ld felt there was a glimmer of hope.

'I'm not sure,' the Doctor replied. 'Confirmation, I hope.' He was still looking down at the thinning steam which clung to the river below. 'Confirmation of the nature of the world. The nature of the beast.'

When the steam had cleared, s...o...b..ld saw that Urton was lying on the river bed. Through the deep, bubbling, murky water he could see that the man was stiff, his body angled awkwardly like an ungainly statue. One of Urton's legs was bent almost at right angles beneath him. His eyes were wide open, staring lifelessly up at them cold and grey and empty. As they stood on the bank, staring down, the body s.h.i.+fted with the current flowing quickly from the nearby weir. The angled leg snapped away, drifted downstream a little way before sc.r.a.ping to a halt. Like brittle stone.

The first of the burning figures lumbered out of the gloom and started down the street towards them. Behind it, others broke through the foggy air until the street was ablaze with walking fire.

Wilson was tempted to order his men to wait until they saw the red of their eyes. But he was not sure they would appreciate the bleak humour. Even if they could hear him above the percussive impacts of the molten rock that fell like shooting stars around them and the crackling laughter of the approaching fire. Instead he raised his bayonet, hoping the faded light of the sun would catch on the blade and make it easier to see his gesture.

<script>