Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods (11 page)

‘Nice trick,’ Amy said gamely. ‘All your public transport problems solved. You should speak to the government.’

He waved his hand again, and now they were standing in a broad stone courtyard.

‘Lady,’ he called out, his deep voice resounding off the stone walls like a great bell. ‘I’ve returned, but only one of them came with me.’

Amy looked around to see who he was addressing. One of the wooden doors around the courtyard opened, and an elderly woman emerged. She was white-haired, but walked quickly towards them. When she reached the fox-man, he bowed with a great show of gallantry, and clasped her hand. Then the old woman turned to Amy.

‘Welcome,’ she said. She threw her arms around Amy and hugged her with surprising strength. ‘Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve seen another human, never mind spoken to one! I’m so glad to see you!’

‘OK…’ said Amy. ‘Um, thanks?’

The old woman released Amy from the embrace, and took hold of both her hands. ‘Tell me your name,’ she urged.

‘Amy. Amy Pond.’

‘Amy. Welcome to our kingdom, Amy. I’m Laura Brown.’

The fox-man smiled sharply.

‘You know,’ said Amy, ‘I had a feeling you were going to say that.’

The rain was coming down more heavily, and the wind was picking up, but the police search was finally getting organised at the edge of Swallow Woods. The place where Jess had parked her car, several hours earlier, was cordoned off. Lighting scaffolds were going up; and the distinctive blue and white tape was spreading out across the field which Jess and Amy (and, once upon a time, Rory and Emily) had walked across to enter Swallow Woods.

Galloway watched all this progress with a steadily growing sense of relief. At last, this investigation was properly under way. The quiet country lane, along which he had driven many times in the last eighteen months, was the busiest he had ever seen it. It had not escaped his notice, however, that almost all the officers here were from outside of town. Somehow, the local police had found themselves jobs back at the station – Porter included.

The big lights were ready. Galloway gave the nod, and the field was bathed in their harsh white glare. He climbed over the fence, and stood for a while looking at the woods.

Gathered in the hollow, the trees were dark and impenetrable. They seemed almost to suck in the light. The rain was turning the ground beneath Galloway’s feet to mud. He took a few squelching steps forward. Something was moving near the tree-line. An animal? Galloway screwed up his eyes.

Two small figures were moving across the field towards him. Their progress was slow and unsteady; one of them was leaning on the other, half-carried, half-dragged. They looked like battlefield survivors, pulling themselves bit by bit out of no-man’s land. As they came closer, Galloway recognised them. He had been thinking of nothing else for days now.

Galloway broke into a sprint, reaching them before anyone else. He threw his arms around Vicky Caine, and then knelt down before her.

‘Oh thank God,’ he whispered, brushing a wet lock of hair away from her scratched and dirty face, only realising as he spoke that he had seriously begun to doubt his ability to find them. ‘Thank God!’

Jess Ashcroft put her hand on his shoulder. It felt oddly as if she was the one taking care of him.

‘So you’re all here… Good, good, that’s something of a relief, I can tell you.’ The harsh searchlights made her look pale and exhausted. ‘How long have I been gone? Quickly, Inspector!’

‘What?’ Her question made no sense. ‘Four hours, maybe five?’

She gasped. ‘Is that all?’

A couple of paramedics arrived. They covered both girls up, and tried to hurry them towards an ambulance. Vicky was taken off, but Jess wouldn’t budge. Grabbing hold of Galloway’s arm, she said, ‘I need you to do something for me and I need you not to ask any questions. The man you have in custody. You’ve got to get him here as quickly as possible.’

‘
What?
’

‘The storm’s coming, Mr Galloway. We can’t stop it now. Only the Doctor can do that. If we’re not too late already.’

Galloway wasn’t sure whether she was serious, or just plain mad.

‘But we should be OK,’ Jess said firmly. ‘Amy’s still got her chocolate device.’

Rory and Emily had run out of places to hide. The ship turned out to contain no more than a few empty rooms similar to the one where Rory had woken up, and the passages all led back to the spherical room containing the circular console.

As they arrived there for a third time, Emily started to sound a little desperate. ‘We’re not going to get away, are we? There’s nowhere to hide!’

‘Not looking good, is it?’

They ran down the steps and around the back of the console. Rory’s thinking was that – perhaps – it was special space plastic and it would act as some sort of barrier between them and whatever was coming. OK. Not very likely. But possible. There was another door behind them, through which they could run (again) if the need arose, so they wouldn’t be completely trapped, even if, in the end, they’d probably just end up back here (again). He looked around for something he could pick up and brandish, but everything was fixed down and, anyway, he wasn’t sure how convincing he would look.

The footsteps clanged steadily upon the metal grating. At the doorway, however, they stopped. Rory peered over the console, but the hollow of the room was too low down for him to be able to see out.

‘We don’t mean you any harm,’ he shouted up at their pursuer. ‘We hope that’s the same for you. Can’t we talk?’

‘
Talk…
’ It was a young man’s voice. ‘
Talk
…’

‘OK,’ Rory whispered to Emily, ‘so whatever it is, at least it’s got a throat.’

‘Ooh, that doesn’t make me feel better!’

‘Sorry! Yes! What I meant was that makes it similar to – and therefore less immediately terrifying for – us. Not that human beings are universally marvellous and lovely, of course, and not that we should judge by appearances… I’m going to stop talking now and do some breathing instead, if you don’t mind.’

‘Fine by me,’ Emily whispered. Leaning forwards on the console, she called out, ‘We’re scared, you know. Both of us are scared. We don’t know where we are and we don’t know what you want from us. Your standing out there isn’t helping much! If we’ve disturbed you, we’re sorry. We can’t hurt you and don’t want to hurt you.’

‘
Hurt
…’ said the voice.

‘I hope it won’t, you know,
fixate
on that,’ Rory muttered.

‘We don’t want to be here,’ Emily went on, ‘and we’d rather leave you in peace.’

‘
Peace
…’

There was a silence. The voice added nothing more, and its owner made no move.

‘Sorry,’ Emily said to Rory. ‘Best I could do.’

He squeezed her hand. ‘Brilliant job. The Doctor would be proud.’

‘Who?’

‘I’ve no idea. It just… came out.’ But he didn’t get a chance to chase that thought further. The owner of the voice entered the room.

He was a young man of about seventeen, with reddish hair, his cowlick slicked back inexpertly, and the merest makings of a moustache. He was in his shirt sleeves. He wore thick boots, and his trousers, held up by braces, were patched and muddy. Seeing him, Emily gave a loud, nervy laugh.

‘Oh, Harry, you daft article, you’ve given us ever such a fright! Why didn’t you say hello? Didn’t you hear my voice? It’s Emily! Emily Bostock!’

The young man walked forwards until he was standing at the top of the stairway leading down to the console.

‘My word,’ Emily said, coming out from the cover of the console. ‘I should clout you!’ She turned to Rory, a smile upon her face. ‘Don’t worry, Mr Williams, it’s only Harry. Harry Thompson. You remember? The one we saw in the pictures.’

There was something not right here, Rory thought, as Harry began to descend the steps. Perhaps it was just the light, but the young man’s flesh had a yellowish tint, tinged with green, and his eyes… His eyes were cold and dark and lonely as a winter night.

‘Emily,’ Rory said quickly. ‘Don’t go any closer.’

‘Why ever not? I told you – this is Harry! We’ve known each other all our lives. He wouldn’t hurt us!’

The young man was now at the bottom of the steps. Emily reached out and took his hand. As flesh met flesh, the lights all around began to flicker wildly. The throbbing sound, which had hitherto been no more than background noise, surged. The ship shuddered. Rory grabbed hold of the console with both hands.

‘Emily! Get back!’

But Emily didn’t seem in the least perturbed.

‘Hush now,’ she said, stroking the young man’s hand. ‘Everything’s going to be all right. You don’t have to be afraid. I won’t tell on you, not for all the tea in China. I won’t breathe a word. You’re not going anywhere, Harry. You’re not going anywhere you don’t want to.’

But the lights were still flickering, Rory noticed, and the ship still shaking.

Jess finished her story, picked up her cup of tea, and looked over the rim of the mug across the table.

The two detectives stared back.

‘I understand how it sounds,’ Jess said patiently. ‘But it’s all true. Time pockets. Spatial ones too— Look, does either of you have a scarf?’

Neither of them responded. Jess sighed and drank some of the hot sweet tea. She was exhausted. Galloway had told her that only a few hours at the most had passed since she had parked her car on Long Lane and gone with Amy into the woods. By her own estimate, and even bearing in mind how time jumped around in Swallow Woods, Jess reckoned she and Vicky had taken the best part of two days to get from the clearing to the edge of the woods. For the last part of the journey, a storm had been chasing them, and it had been getting worse.

‘It’s all true,’ she said, quietly but firmly. ‘There’s a clearing in the woods with paths running out from it. People get lost there, lost down pockets of time and space. It’s been stable for a very long time, but now something’s going wrong. I don’t know what it is, but I do know that it’s going to become critical tonight, and I do know that the town is at risk. What you have to do is let me talk to the Doctor.’

Galloway cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair. When he spoke, he used a very gentle tone that Jess, frankly, found pretty patronising.

‘What I don’t understand,’ Galloway said, ‘is that you must have met Laura Brown. She’s a friend of your sister. You must want her to get home safe and sound—’

‘Well of course I do! I want everyone in the town to be safe, and that’s why you have to listen to me, Inspector! Listen to what I’m telling you!’

Galloway continued not to pay her any attention. ‘I know that sometimes relationships between the press and the police can be tense, but you’ve always dealt fairly with me, and I feel as if I’ve always dealt fairly with you—’

‘Yes, you’ve been marvellous! Wonderful! Brilliant! Now let me see the Doctor.’

‘However,’ Galloway went on, talking over her, ‘even though you have clearly been through an unusual and probably distressing experience, you’re running a risk of being charged with wasting police time.’ He rubbed his temples. ‘Did the red-haired girl put you up to this?’

‘Amy? No! I told you – she’s still in there! Look, if I could just speak to the Doctor—’

Galloway shook his head. ‘Oh, no! Not a chance! He’s obviously a very dangerous man, more dangerous than I thought already. I know the type – they have a twisted kind of charisma, they get other people to do their dirty work for them. Even sitting in the cells, he got the Pond girl to work on you. And now he seems to be controlling you in some way. For your own protection, Ms Ashcroft, you’re not going anywhere near him!’

‘For my own protection… Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ Jess gave up on Galloway and turned to the young female detective, who had been sitting silently throughout.

‘It’s Ruby Porter, isn’t it?’ Jess said. ‘I knew your brother at school – James. He was great at cricket. Look, let’s not waste any more time. We both know about the woods. We both know there’s not a rational explanation for what happens – well, what we commonly understand as rational… Let’s not complicate things right now. But you know, don’t you, that there’s something wrong with Swallow Woods. I can explain it, Ruby. Everything I’m saying is true!’

Porter looked away from her. She stared resolutely down at the floor. Jess now keenly understood the frustration that had made Amy tear at her hair.

‘I know you’ve had a bad time,’ Galloway said. ‘It’s unfortunate you can’t bring yourself to be helpful right now, but at least you’ve confirmed my suspicion that whatever’s going on here, the woods hold the key. At first light, I’m starting the search. It’s not a big area. With police from three counties, local volunteers and the dog handlers, we’ll soon find Ms Pond—’

‘I wouldn’t count on it!’

‘—And we’ll soon find out what’s been going on in there.’

‘Whatever’s going on you’re not equipped to deal with it! A search party? You think dogs can resolve this? This has been going on for centuries!’ Jess stopped, backtracking slightly. ‘Dogs… Like a hunt…’ She addressed Galloway with new urgency. ‘You know, I’m not sure taking dogs into Swallow Woods is a good idea—’

‘I’m sure you don’t,’ said Galloway. He stood up to leave; Porter followed suit. ‘Not right now. But you’ll be glad in time.’

‘No, really, don’t do it!’ Urgently, Jess turned to Porter. ‘Listen to me! Please, you must understand! Something’s going to happen tonight that could destroy the town. We don’t know what it is yet, but I’m sure as I can be that dogs won’t help. Hunted people fight back, they attack…! Please, if you won’t let me talk to him, then you must! Talk to the Doctor!’

Galloway smiled benignly from the doorway. ‘Drink up your tea, Ms Ashcroft. I’ll get a car to take you home.’

Laura and the were-fox, who introduced himself as Reyn, led Amy inside to a big and comfortably appointed chamber. Long, high windows at the far end let sunlight stream in, and at the centre of the room was a large wooden table laid for supper. When she turned her head to look round, Amy thought she could see faint trails of golden shimmering light at the corner of her eye, like pollen drifting through the air.