Doctor Who_ Byzantium! Part 31

Zealots, too, were being rounded up and slaughtered.

It was as if the city had finally decided, en ma.s.se, just exactly whose side it was on.

Barbara dodged through the streets, keeping to the shadows. She saw terrible things as she crept from doorway to doorway towards the barracks where, she had been a.s.sured, Vicki was known to be.

She pa.s.sed the summary execution of a Jew, a Zealot presumably, caught at the rim of the Jewish quarter by a group of angry, shouting legionnaires. He tried to sprint for his life but was skewered on the end of a gladius gladius, then dropped to the ground and was hacked to death in an obscene orgy of violence.

Putting a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming or being sick, or both, Barbara raced across the now-deserted market square, barely paying any heed whatsoever to the dozens of blood-soaked bodies lying strewn around the forum. She turned left at the temple walls, remembering how she had stumbled in there, afraid for her life, what seemed like a decade ago, but which had actually been just sixteen days.

She circ.u.mnavigated the walls of the compound and arrived at the barracks gates to find two lone sentries barring her way. She shrank back into the shadows, waiting for them to make the next move just as, behind them, she saw the movement of three figures, dull and indistinct against the torch light of the barracks frontage.

After a moment, the sentries moved out of sight, leaving the way into the gates clear. But still Barbara waited, knowing that someone inside the barracks would be coming her way soon.

When they did, and it proved to be Vicki, running low to the ground in a zigzag pattern to minimise the chances of being seen, Barbara almost let out of yell of delight, but she caught her breath until Vicki and her companions were actually out of the gates. Then, she leapt from the shadows and called out Vicki's name.

'Crikey!' said Vicki, angrily. 'Give me a heart attack, why don't you?' Then she threw herself into Barbara's arms for a joyous reunion, much to the obvious discomfort of the two young women with her.

'Far be it from me to interrupt this... whatever it is,' began Dorcas.

'This is Barbara,' whispered Vicki. 'She's a friend. I thought you were dead.'

'And I, you,' answered Barbara drawing Vicki and her friends into the shadows from where she had come. 'I found the place where you stayed in the Greek quarter.'

'Georgiadis, and Evangeline, and Iola?' asked Vicki, quickly.

'They're all right,' Barbara told her. 'It might be an idea to try and get back to them, actually. At least that's one friendly shelter in this city. Judging by the things I've seen, we could use one.'

'It is the reckoning,' Felicia told them with a look of horror.

'We are all doomed. Doomed Doomed.'

For some reason, this made Vicki smile. 'Not if I can help it.' She said. 'Come on, I know a short-cut to the Greek quarter. Then we can figure out what to do next.'

They crossed into the forum again, Vicki letting out a brief, but high-pitched scream as she saw the bodies of the executed traitors up close.

'My G.o.d,' she said, 'who could have done this?'

'Honourable men,' noted Barbara sadly. 'They are all honourable men, apparently.'

Dorcas looked quickly around her and then motioned for the terrified Felicia to keep up with them. 'We have not far to travel,' she said, rea.s.suringly. 'Once we can get a message to my people, we shall leave this town far behind us.'

Barbara gave her a suspicious look. 'My people?' she asked.

'The Christians,' replied Dorcas.

'Oh,' Barbara noted. 'That's all right then, I thought we might be about to meet some real religious maniacs.'

At the entrance to the Greek quarter, finally, their luck ran out. As they rounded a corner, their way was barred by the terrifying sight of one of the Zealots, wild-eyed, his coat soaked in blood. Roman blood.

'Stand,' he shouted loudly. 'Who goes there?'

'We mean you no harm,' Barbara pleaded. 'We have to get off the streets.'

The Zealot laughed, chillingly. 'Sister, we should be on the streets, putting to death the filthy dogs that rape our land: He removed a knife as smooth and shining as a shark's tooth and held it glinting in the light. 'They say unto me, "Yewhe,"

they say. "Go forth into the streets and find those who collaborate with the dogs of Rome. And put them to the blade."'

'We are no collaborators,' Barbara replied. 'We are in as much danger as you from the Romans. Please, you must let us past.'

'Must?' cried Yewhe. 'Must? I must do only G.o.d's will, sister. And He. through His servant on Earth, Matthew, has commanded me to slay those who do evil in his sight.'

They were trapped. They could not turn around and go back the way that they had come for that would almost certainly lead to them running into one of the Roman patrols that were, even now, meting out justice to most of Yewhe's kind.

'Who do you plan to start with?' Dorcas asked Yewhe, trying to engage the clearly mad individual in conversation.

'Why, those within the compound,' he replied.

'That would be suicide,' noted Barbara with genuine concern.

'You'd be killed before you got fifty yards into the place, it's crawling with Romans.'

'Then I shall die, as I have lived, magnificently fighting the scourge of my people. Yes, they shall kill me, but before I ascend to heaven, I shall send an indeterminate number of those heathen sc.u.m straight to h.e.l.l. I shall become a martyr to my people and will inspire them to rise up and throw off the yoke of Roman oppression that has choked us for too long.'

Barbara had heard this kind of fanaticism before, and she shook her head. 'Yewhe,' she replied, softly. 'That would be pointless. The Romans will be mostly gone from this land in another fifty years and your killing a few of them, and then getting yourself killed,' she paused, 'or, for that matter, threatening a group of terrified little girls like us, will not affect any of this. I have seen the future, Yewhe, and what you seek will come to pa.s.s. It will just take time.'

Yewhe thought about this for a moment. 'Fifty years?' he asked.

'Yes,' replied Barbara. 'Then Thrace shall be free.'

It was a lie, of course, and Barbara crossed her fingers as she said it.

'Too long,' replied Yewhe as he advanced on Barbara.

Vicki, Felicia and Dorcas.

He raised his dagger above his head and Vicki choked down a scream as she saw the madness in his eyes.

And then he slumped dead at her feet, Ian Chesterton standing behind him with blood dripping from a Roman gladius gladius and a bemused expression on his face. and a bemused expression on his face.

'Perhaps one of you could tell me just exactly what is going on here?' he asked. He saw the equally dumbfounded looks that Barbara and Vicki returned to him and shook his head. 'Seemingly not,' he continued.

'How on earth...?' began Barbara.

'Long story,' said Ian. 'Ridiculously long, if truth be told. I'll explain everything, but I think it would be wise if we find somewhere safe first. If there is such a place in Byzantium.'

Such a place did exist. It was the Georgiadis house, and they reached it without further incident and found the Greek family about to barricade themselves into their home.

'So, you are not Vicki's aunt and uncle then?' Evangeline asked, curiously, as Barbara sat and tried to recollect her thoughts and explain the adventures that she had experienced since leaving the Greek quarter earlier in the evening.

'In a manner of speaking, I suppose,' Barbara told her.

'We're all the other has.'

This seemed to satisfy the Greek woman who was busy feeding her tired guests as best she could.

Ian, meanwhile, was still trying to clean the blood from the sword, explaining to Dorcas and Felicia that it was this gift from the praefectus praefectus that had saved all of their lives. 'Ironic, really, since it was Thalius and the general's keenness to put their own house in order that's causing chaos for everyone else.' that had saved all of their lives. 'Ironic, really, since it was Thalius and the general's keenness to put their own house in order that's causing chaos for everyone else.'

'I am sure that the madness will pa.s.s,' said Dorcas. 'But in the meantime, we must use whatever means are available to us to find our own paths in life.'

And, with it, a chance to walk and admire the distance we can put between us and the past,' Felicia added.

'So, feel up to explaining how you found us in the nick of time?' Barbara asked.

'I was told Vicki was alive earlier today,' Ian noted, putting down his sword. 'l spent hours trying to find her in the Villa.

When I couldn't, I figured she might have tried to get back to this place, so I got the location from one of the soldiers who abducted her and, well, the rest you know. Finding you was a bit of a bonus, though!'

Iola was delighted to see Vicki again. 'I thought they would have killed you,' she told her friend.

'No,' Vicki replied, 'though I think they had something even more horrible in mind for me. Marriage.'

'Oh, that's not so bad,' Iola told her, confidentially. 'In fact, I think that Mother and Father have got someone in mind for me for next year when I shall be of age to wed.'

'Don't you find that at all outrageous?' Vicki asked.

'No! replied the girl. 'It is our way.'

Vicki left it at that, but couldn't resist asking Ian and Barbara what they should all do next.

'Help is on the way,' said Dorcas, enigmatically, and as she finished speaking, there was a hammering on the Georgiadis door.

'Let me in,' came a voice from outside.

'Who is it?' asked Georgiadis.

'A friend,' Dorcas told him, rushing to the door and removing the bar.

Tobias dived into the house and hugged Dorcas in his well-muscled arms. 'You followed as you said that you would,' she noted.

'By the trail of your dead,' replied the Egyptian, giving Ian an impressed glance.

'He wouldn't listen to reason,' noted Ian, still cleaning his gladius gladius. 'But he got the point. Eventually.'

Dorcas turned and smiled at her a.s.sembled friends. 'Now is the time to reveal to you that I have sent word via courier to our brother Christians in the hills. If you will allow us to shelter here this night, then tomorrow we shall be able to smuggle ourselves outside the city walls, whilst the rest of the town is still distracted with the full horrors of the b.l.o.o.d.y events of tonight.'

Georgiadis looked at his wife and then nodded. 'Stay as long as you wish,' he said, kindly. 'Our home is your home.'

'We shall leave at first light,' Tobias noted and Ian nodded his agreement.

'I should like to stay,' Felicia told them. 'I do not think I could face another step.'

'You are welcome to remain here for as long as you wish,'

Evangeline told her.

Dorcas gave her friend a hug. 'You would face grave danger by staying within the city,' she noted.

'No greater, surely, than you shall face in the hills, being hunted by Roman death-squads. I admire your bravery and resourcefulness, Dorcas,' Felicia replied, 'but that is not the life that I wish to lead.'

'And what of us?' Barbara said. 'Without the Doctor, what are we to do?'

'Ah,' Ian said. 'You know, I've been giving that a lot of thought in the last couple of days. I can't say for certain that I saw the Doctor die. Can any of you?'

Vicki and Barbara both shook their heads.

'Whatever the truth,' Ian continued, 'our only option is to head for the TARDIS and hope that the Doctor is waiting there for us. Let's get the h.e.l.l out of this city.'

The Doctor had been foolish, he knew, to leave the relative safety of the Christians' camp and come into the city on his own, but he still harboured hopes of finding Vicki alive. Yet now he found himself, instead, in the midst of his worst nightmare imaginable, once again in the market square where the horror of the last two weeks had begun, as, around him, the night air was filled with the screams of the dying.

And the blank staring eyes of the dead.