Part 24 (1/2)

A rumble of sound, the start of a huge explosion.

Then nothing.

The smoke swirled about him like a yellow mist. The landscape was a hazy impression of jagged shapes; trees were skeletal lines of black as they emerged from the smoke; the ground was a ma.s.s of bubbling sulphurous pools that spat burning liquid through the thickening air.

He picked his way through the nightmare maze of fire. His expression was set, dark and impa.s.sive. His eyes were deep as faceted gemstones that absorbed rather than reflected the light, sucking it into their depths. His hair blew back from his head in a brown halo as he walked briskly onwards.

A splash of fire caught the sleeve of his jacket, glowing for a moment before burning itself out. The soles of his shoes trod smoke as he walked.

He paused only once. A dull rumble of sound penetrated the murky atmosphere, rolling in from behind him. The Doctor allowed his mouth to twitch momentarily into an approximation of a smile as he listened. He hoped to hear more, to hear the thunder*roar of the water pouring down into the old river bed, cras.h.i.+ng towards the fissure, sweeping him off his feet perhaps in a sudden torrent. But there was nothing.

Ahead of him, through the gloom, two shapes were becoming visible, arms linked together so they seemed to form a single body. With a deep breath of the rancid air, the Doctor stepped towards them.

Chapter Nineteen.

Solid State They stood arm in arm, linked, together, and looked out over the fissure. They were on an area set back from the jagged tear across the moorland. Behind them the ground rose sharply, an outcrop of rock jutting up from the landscape. The air in front of them was thinner, the smoke drifting across the open mouth of the abyss driven by a strong breeze.

Nepath breathed in the acrid fumes, relis.h.i.+ng the taste of the fire in his mouth. With Patience beside him he watched the bubbling rolling ma.s.s of fiery liquid that oozed over the edge of the fissure, spreading across the moorland. With each heaving, bubbling eruption of liquid, a wave rippled down the river of fire that flowed towards Middletown.

The glow was hot on Nepath's face as he watched. His eyes were wide, his mouth an open 'o' of rapture. He stood immobile, letting the firelight dance and flicker in his eyes and across his reddened cheeks. He licked his lips.

'Lord of all you survey?'

The words broke the spell and wiped the smile from Nepath's face. He turned slowly, Patience turning with him until they faced the Doctor.

'And what will you do,' the Doctor asked quietly, 'when there are no more worlds to conquer?'

'Let's cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we, Doctor?' Nepath said.

The Doctor was within ten feet of them now, coming down to their level from the rise. 'You make it sound like the Rubicon,' he said. 'But of course you crossed that long ago.'

'What do you mean?' In spite of himself, Nepath was intrigued.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Only that you made an irrevocable decision when you elected to deal with the creature that is now destroying our world.' He lowered his voice, eyes set hard on Nepath. 'Was it worth it, I wonder?'

'Any price!' Nepath retorted. He looked at his sister, drawing her close to him, feeling the warmth of her body close to him. 'I would have given anything to get her back.'

The Doctor took another step closer. Despite the circ.u.mstances, it was a strangely threatening gesture. 'It did not occur to you, I suppose, that what you were offering was not yours to give?'

Nepath met his gaze. 'But it is mine now,' he breathed. '”Lord of all I survey,” that's what you said. But I shall have far more power than that.'

'Is that why you did it? For power?' He made the word power sound distasteful.

'Of course not. You know why I have done this. And I would do it again,' he said defiantly.

The Doctor gave a snort of feigned humour. 'How very odd,' he said. 'You'd make the same mistake twice? Sign in blood, on the dotted line, with no guarantees once again.' He shook his head, almost in pity it seemed. 'And all for nothing. For a dream, an illusion. A cheat.'

Nepath was silent, frowning as he tried to work out the Doctor's meaning.

'Talk all you like, Doctor.' Patience Nepath's voice was soft. 'You can't alter things now.' She smiled at him. 'After all, you are already dead.' She untwined her arm from her brother and advanced on the Doctor. The air around her began to hiss with the increased heat.

'Look who's talking,' the Doctor responded. He stood his ground, ignoring her for the moment, addressing his comments to Nepath. 'Can't you see that you've been cheated? You might have kept your side of the bargain, but you've got nothing for it. Nothing but misery, pain and death.'

'No,' he shook his head emphatically. 'No, that's not true. I have her back, just as she was. Everything is exactly as it should be.'

The Doctor did step back now, circling just out of reach of her as he spoke. 'Just as it should be? Look at her.' He pointed, careful to keep his hand away from her fingers as she stretched out towards him. 'Your older older sister, just as you remember her. Despite the pa.s.sage of time, the inexorable flow of the years, she remains unchanged.' sister, just as you remember her. Despite the pa.s.sage of time, the inexorable flow of the years, she remains unchanged.'

'She is restored,' he insisted. 'Brought back!'

'No she isn't!' the Doctor insisted. He jumped aside as she lunged at him. 'This is no more your sister than I am. She isn't even human. Look at her!' he shouted again. 'You can tell she isn't your sister, can't you? You must have some critical faculties, or are you completely blind to the truth?'

He was slightly slow avoiding her. With an almost balletic movement she whirled towards him, catching the edge of his jacket with her outstretched hand as she turned. The material smouldered, then burst into flames.

The Doctor stared at the fire, frantically patting it out with his hand. He tutted and sighed as he examined the damage, as if more concerned at this than the risk to his life or the devastation stretching out before them. 'This was something your sister used to do was it?' he asked, voice heavy with sarcasm. 'Parlour game perhaps? After dinner trick? I can well imagine that while the rest of you learnt recitations or played a musical instrument, she set fire to the soft furnis.h.i.+ngs.' He leaped aside as her hand swept back at him.

'As my sister said,' Nepath ground out through gritted teeth, 'you are already dead.'

'And as I said,' the Doctor replied, his voice level and his eyes hard, 'she is not your sister. No matter what you've been promised, no matter what you think think you have been promised, no matter how much you give, you can never you have been promised, no matter how much you give, you can never ever ever get her back. You know that.' get her back. You know that.'

Nepath just stared at him, face drawn. He felt empty inside. He hardly heard the Doctor's words, they came to him as if through water as his anger swelled inside him.

'She's gone, Nepath. There is no way to bring her back. You must see that.' The Doctor circled past Patience's clutching hands until he was standing beside Nepath.

She smiled as she continued to stalk him, as if it were a game, as if she was letting him think he could escape when all the time...

'She's dead,' the Doctor shouted at Nepath. 'And she'll always be dead. I don't care what a.s.surances you've been given. It doesn't matter what you do to me, she is dead she is dead.' His eyes locked with Nepath's, 'And you know that,' he said slowly, deliberately, clearly. And you know,' he said quietly, 'that it is your fault.'

Nepath just stared back. He could feel his lip quivering, could feel the emotion inside him about to burst out in a torrent, could feel his face creasing as he blinked back the tears. 'Patience,' he managed to sob. 'Oh, Patience.'

She was there at once. The Doctor jumped aside as she approached, as she took her brother in her arms and embraced him, as she kissed him.

The Doctor turned away.

Nepath ignored the Doctor. He concentrated on her touch, on her kiss, on her warmth, and he knew she was back. He knew he had done the right thing.

As the fuse reached the explosive charge fas.h.i.+oned from grenades and gunpowder, the glutinous, burning ma.s.s that had been in the shape of Sir William Grant smothered it. The charge detonated at the very moment the viscous liquid hardened rock solid around it, crus.h.i.+ng it against the wall of the dam.

The substance was well able to absorb heat, absorb it and use it. But in its hardened state, the effect was somewhat different. So far as it had intentions and made decisions, it intended to stifle the blast, to render it ineffectual. What it could not know was that the explosives rigged within the backpack were nowhere near enough to make any impression on the solid masonry.

But as the charge detonated against the surface of the huge wall, the smothering, crus.h.i.+ng ma.s.s of rock that closed over it had the effect of focusing the blast. The entire energy wave was directed at a single small area of the dam within the enclosing magma. The shockwave reverberated within the very structure of the dam.

Still it was not sufficient to break through the wall. But a single hairline crack erupted from the centre of the blast a jagged black line breaking almost invisibly across the dam wall, a tiny fissure in the surface.