Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods (12 page)

‘Come and eat,’ said Laura, mistress of the house.

Amy went slowly towards the table, keeping a close watch on Reyn. He was walking lightly beside her, at her pace, and seemed prepared to let Laura do the talking. It was difficult to judge with a different species, but from the white hairs above each of his orange eyes, and his rather stately way of moving, Amy got the impression of an older man, even elderly. In fact, the pair of them – Laura and Reyn – struck Amy as being rather like an old couple who had been companions for a long time and were very comfortable with each other. Reyn went to the head of the table and waited politely for the two women to sit, one on either side of him.

‘Were you lost for long?’ Laura said.

‘Not really,’ Amy replied. ‘A couple of hours, maybe?’

‘Very quick! I must have wandered for at least two days.’ Laura smiled as if the memory was somehow fond. ‘Of course, it was all a very long time ago. It’s almost as if it happened to somebody else.’

‘About that,’ said Amy. ‘Weren’t you…’

‘Younger?’

‘Yeah…’ Amy fumbled around for a way to break the news.

‘Don’t torment yourself, Amy. I know that ten days have passed outside Swallow Woods since I walked under the trees. And, before you ask, sixty-one. Sixty-one years have passed here.’

That made her nearly eighty. ‘Still,’ Amy said feebly, ‘you’re looking good on it.’

‘Thank you. Yes, I think I’ve weathered rather well.’ Laura gestured around the table. ‘Please, won’t you eat?’

Reyn had not held back while they were talking. His plate was piled high with food and he was enjoying it. He tore into a chicken leg with great enthusiasm, stopping every couple of bites to dab a linen napkin against his mouth and wipe his fingers. It was an odd mixture of ferocity and fastidiousness. Laura gave him an indulgent smile.

Amy took a sample bite of bread and butter. The taste was odd, very bland at first, and then it was as if the flavour remembered to kick in, and her mouth was flooded with sensations of warm, nutty bread and creamy, salty butter.

‘I have to say,’ she said to Laura through a mouthful of cheese, ‘You seem pretty laid back for someone who’s been held captive for six decades.’

‘Captive?’ Laura gave a good-humoured snort, to which Reyn lent his odd rasping, coughing laugh. Laura reached out and took hold of his hand. ‘Do you hear that? She thinks you’re holding me captive!’

‘You have to admit, lady, that you made the same mistake yourself, once upon a time.’

Laura gave him a fond smile.

Amy put down her fork. All this mutual admiration was starting to make her feel slightly nauseous. She sincerely hoped that she and Rory weren’t like this. The thought of Rory made her anxious and perhaps even, though she didn’t like to admit it, scared. Crossly, she said, ‘OK, you two, tell me what’s going on. Reyn’s ship crashed here, didn’t it? That’s what’s causing all the time pockets and disappearances. So how come it’s not his fault?’

Laura and Reyn looked at her in surprise.

‘Yes,’ Reyn said. ‘Yes, my ship crashed here. I’ve not had the resources or the right equipment to fix it. But rest assured, Amy, if I had my way I would have left your planet centuries ago. I’m not a monster. I certainly wouldn’t hold anyone against their will.’

‘But all the missing people!’ Amy said. ‘Not just Laura – there’ve been hundreds!’

‘Three hundred and nine, to be exact,’ Reyn said. ‘And not all of them have been as lucky as Laura.’

‘
Lucky
? Oh yeah, she seems a real lottery winner to me!’

‘Please, Amy,’ Laura put in quietly. ‘Let Reyn explain. ‘When he does, you’ll understand. There’s no malice at work here. Just chance turnings on the road, and some bad luck – and,’ she squeezed Reyn’s hand, ‘no small measure of happiness, in the end.’

‘All right,’ Amy said. ‘I’m open to explanations. Just make them good.’

‘I shall endeavour to do my best,’ Reyn replied drily. Pouring out pale yellow wine for them all, he leaned back in his chair, goblet in hand, lord of the manor. ‘I was an explorer, Amy. My ship could cross space as if it were no distance at all… Laura, my dear, do you have a skein of wool to hand so I might demonstrate?’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Amy. She tapped her forehead. ‘I’ve got the basics sorted.’

Reyn studied her thoughtfully. ‘Laura, does she strike you as remarkably at ease with the notion of space travel? And, indeed, at meeting a shape-shifting alien?’

‘If something has happened in the outside world to make her like this,’ Laura said, slowly coring an apple, ‘it’s happened in the last ten days.’

‘Yeah, well, don’t worry about me,’ Amy said. ‘I’ve been around a bit, that’s all you need to know. Right now we’re talking about where
you
came from. Your ships can travel through space. Yeah, great, I’m with you there. Spaceships – no problem. Massive fantasy castles and disappearing people – slightly more of a problem. So keep on with the explaining.’

Reyn bowed his head. ‘As you command.’

‘And you can drop the whole Camelot shtick too. Let’s keep the talk straightforward, OK?’

Reyn’s long ears twitched and flattened back slightly. ‘Very well. Our exploration ships, Amy, were unusual in that they learned from their travels. In time they came to consciousness.’

‘Yeah yeah, artificial intelligence, I’m fine with that too. Honestly, you’re not likely to say something I haven’t come across before in some shape or form. How has that ended up in mass kidnappings?’

‘The process – we call it the Shift – is a difficult transition, a vast and destabilising change. At home, we have teachers, scientists, all kinds of people to nurture them through the process. We can feed them information, show them experiences, give them all the knowledge we have accumulated. But my poor ship…’ He sighed. ‘When I crashed here in the woods, there were no people. I struggled to fix the ship with the resources I had. Before I could do that, the people came. It triggered the Shift.’

‘How?’ Amy said. ‘How does that work?’

‘During the Shift, the ship devours information. When the people came through the woods, it took them. You have to understand, Amy, it was acting on instinct. It was trying to learn. Every fifty years or so, the ship needs more. Every fifty years or so, it would pull people to it. It wants memories, experiences, life stories.’ He looked away. ‘It’s not painful, Amy, but it’s hardly desirable. Whenever the ship has pulled people into the wood, I’ve tried to bring them here instead. I’ve not always been successful.’

Jess and Vicky
, Amy thought.
Rory…
She pushed her plate aside and put her head in her hands.

‘Laura I was able to save,’ Reyn said. ‘And you, now. Your two companions…’ He shook his head. ‘I wish you’d been able to bring yourself to trust me. But there it is. My appearance, I have gathered over the years, does not always encourage that. I’ve tried to make this place beautiful and comfortable for all my guests, as welcoming as possible – but your species can be so suspicious! It’s not our way. We’re curious, like you, but not so mistrustful. Perhaps that’s a failing.’

‘You said that you’ve brought many people here over the years,’ Amy said thickly. ‘There was a young man came this way, about a century ago in Laura’s time. He would have complained a lot—’

‘He didn’t come this way, I’m afraid. If he passed in summer through the glade in the wood with the pool, he most likely found himself on board the ship.’ He studied her with his orange eyes, seeming to understand that this was someone important. ‘I’m sorry, Amy.’

Amy shoved her chair back and stood up. She started pacing around the room, coming to a halt near the long windows. Rain was pattering against the panes. She swung back round to face Reyn and Laura. They were sitting watching her, obviously concerned.

‘You say you don’t have the equipment to fix your ship,’ Amy said. ‘So why not just let this Shift or whatever it is finish, and then get out of here! Leave the town and the people in peace!’

‘It’s not that simple—’

‘Oh,’ Amy muttered through her teeth, ‘I just
knew
you were going to say that…’

‘At home, as I said, we have all kinds of experts to hand. Here, there’s only me. And there’s more. As the years have passed, the ship has become more bound to the world around it, more entangled with it. All the warps and pockets have become so complex that if I tried now to make the ship shift completely, if I tried to force it through – I don’t know what damage that would do.’

Amy turned back to the window. The rain was falling steadily now, and some of the water was leaking through and gathering in a small pool at the base of the window. Why would you make it rain, she wondered, in a fantasy world? Perhaps sunshine became boring after a while. Perhaps you started to crave some darkness, some semblance of risk.

‘Something’s going to happen soon,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what, but this time next week, there’ll be a lake covering Swallow Woods, and nothing where the town once stood. Is that what could happen if the Shift was forced?’

‘Yes,’ said Reyn, speaking slowly. ‘How do you know that, Amy? What makes you so sure?’

‘Don’t bother about that. Just give me answers. What could make that happen?’

Reyn didn’t reply at once. When Amy turned around, she saw Laura leaning across, holding the alien’s hand, her eyes pleading with him to speak.

‘Tell me,’ Amy said. ‘I’m not afraid of the truth. What might cause the ship to shift?’

‘I’ve maintained the balance for centuries now, Amy,’ Reyn said, ‘but it’s very delicate. The ship might come to a crisis if there were too many people trying to get in at once. But the real risk comes from people trying to get out. Trying to leave through the portal place.’

‘The portal place?’

‘The clearing in the wood with the pool. Where we met. That’s where your world ends and mine begins.’

‘And coming through there,’ Amy said, ‘brings you either here or to the ship.’

‘That’s right.’

‘And going back out again—’

‘Could destabilise the environment I’ve set up here, and bring on exactly the kind of crisis I’ve been trying to stop. That’s why I’ve never left your world. That’s why nobody leaves.’

‘I told you I wasn’t a captive,’ Laura Brown said softly, ‘but I can’t go back from here. This is where all our journeys end, Amy. There’s no way back through Swallow Woods. Not if we are all to survive.’

Porter saw Galloway safely out of the station on his way back to Swallow Woods, and then quietly, and unnoticed, she slipped down to the cells.

The station was almost deserted; everyone was home or else down at the search. The sergeant led her down the bare bright corridor to the cell, and Porter waited patiently while he unlocked it. The strip light above them fizzled.

‘Been like that all night,’ the sergeant complained. ‘Can’t stand fluorescents. Susceptible to bad weather.’

Porter made vague noises of agreement as he opened the cell door. ‘Very quiet, this one,’ he said. ‘Almost too quiet. You’d think he’d ask for a cup of tea at some point, but, no, all he wanted was the spoon.’

The door swung opened. Porter looked past the sergeant into the cell.

The Doctor was standing on the bed with one hand aloft. In that hand, he was holding up the spoon so that it touched the ceiling. The other hand was covering his left ear. Seeing the pair at the door, his expression turned from intense concentration to faint embarrassment. He brought down his arm and jumped from the bed.

‘Sorry. Had to do some… important… spoon work.’ Carefully, he handed the piece of cutlery over to the sergeant. ‘Thanks for that. Good spoon. One of the best.’

The sergeant gave Porter a ‘he’s all yours’ look, and left them alone.

Porter leaned in the doorway, arms folded, blocking the exit. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘What’s going on?’

‘You already know what’s going on. Aliens. Starships. Space bending back round on itself. Time, too. But you’re in luck. Help is here.’ He gave a bright smile; did jazz hands. ‘Where’s your friend?’

‘He’s off to search the woods. With dogs.’

‘Ooh, no, terrible idea! Who knows what that will do? Some people can get very testy, particularly when they’ve been on their own for a long time. Dogs send the wrong message, don’t they?’

‘That’s why I’m here,’ Porter said. ‘Jess said—’

‘Oh, Jess made it! Excellent! What about Pond, was she with her?’

‘No sign of her, not yet.’

The Doctor’s face fell. ‘Ah. Well. At least Jess is a start. But there’s still Amy, and Rory, and Emily, and of course the small matter of whatever minor apocalypse is about to hit Foxton; just because it’s only going to affect one small town and an equally small woodland area doesn’t make it less of an apocalypse for the people concerned – not to mention that if the motorway gets flooded the traffic is going to be appalling throughout the rest of the county for who knows how long— Sorry. Talk too much. Always did. You were saying?’

‘Jess said that you knew about…’ Porter stopped, as if having difficulty saying the words.

‘Say it,’ suggested the Doctor. ‘You’ll feel so much better when you do.’

‘About the woods,’ Porter said, in a rush. ‘You know what happens when people disappear in Swallow Woods.’

The Doctor smiled at her, gently, kindly. ‘Yes, you knew, didn’t you? Detective Constable Porter, who has lived in this town all her life, and can hear the same noise that I can hear, and who knows that there’s something not right about the woods. Something that can’t be solved by ordinary methods – not even by a hard-working, fair-minded, and meticulous policeman. And particularly not by his dogs. Who went missing? Somebody close to you?’

Porter looked past him, over at the wall. ‘My mother’s older brother. My uncle, of course – although that’s not how you think of a 15-year-old boy.’

‘When did it happen?’

‘About… 1960? No, 1959. That fits with the dates, doesn’t it? Every fifty years, give or take a few years. At least, I think that’s right – people round here don’t exactly talk openly about all this. He was the only one that time. Gran never got over it. Sometimes she would be so sad. Right to the end of her life…’ Porter stared up at the little window on the far wall, dark and wet with rain. ‘Sadness like that, it gets handed down, doesn’t it? Even though I never knew him – my mother hardly remembers him – you still get touched by the sadness. He’s why I joined the police. Always wanting to find lost things, always wanting to put things right…’ She shook her head. ‘It’s not just me. The whole town is like that! There’s a strange sense of loss that comes from living here in Foxton. It’s like something has always been missing, but you don’t dare to remember what it was. You’re always thinking about it, but you know you wouldn’t go looking, because in your heart you know that the answers can only be found in Swallow Woods. And who goes near Swallow Woods? If you go there, you might not find your way out again. You’d be lost too, and perhaps people wouldn’t quite remember you either. Poor Gordon Galloway. I bet he’s sorry he ever moved down here.’