Doctor Who by Stella Duffy

Author:Stella Duffy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448142385
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

CHAPTER SEVEN

At first it seemed as if the people had come to their senses. Young men straightened dishevelled robes, old men smoothed wild beards and tried to assume their usual wise faces. For a moment it appeared that the hold of the muses was over. Then Polyhymnia began to sing again, and the people joined in with her, much slower now, as they deliberately and calmly turned, forming a circle around Zoe and the Doctor.

‘Doctor?’ Zoe asked under her breath.

‘Stand close, and don’t give your full attention to Polyhymnia. I think they need to fully get our attention before they have power.’

The Doctor whispered a few more instructions to Zoe, who was struggling as much as he was to keep herself calm.

She nodded at his advice and began calculating light year distances, whispering to herself, ‘If Proxima Centauri is four point two two light years distance from the Earth, and the year now is ad 60, then the distance that Proxima Centauri has moved in relation to the Earth, between this year and my own time is… is…’

Zoe felt herself drifting off, her eyes desperate to lift to Polyhymnia’s own, her heart crying to sing with those now only an arm’s reach from her, closing in, closing tighter. She tried harder to think for herself. ‘Something simpler. OK, if… if… one light second is two hundred and ninety nine million, seven hundred thousand hundred… I mean, seven hundred thousand, no, I… I mean…’

Zoe burst into tears, the pressure too much for her and, pushing the hymn singers aside, she ran from the room, back the way they had come in.

It was so unlike Zoe to cry in public that the Doctor didn’t know what to say as he called after her. ‘Zoe! Come back, you don’t know… this place… Zoe!’

But even as he called, the Doctor felt his feet turn back, felt the song rise in his breast, felt his arms lifting and his whole spirit wanting to join in with those now standing tightly around him as they sang to Polyhymnia. He opened his mouth to join the song, and Polyhymnia stopped them all by raising her hand, a single movement that shushed the crowd immediately. They settled themselves on the floor, snuggled up to each other, and before a minute had passed the Doctor could hear light snoring all around.

‘That’s a good trick,’ he admitted.

Polyhymnia pulled back the heavy veil that covered her head and most of her face, speaking as she did. ‘I will teach you some time, my friend.’

Hearing the masculine voice, the Doctor looked up sharply, and where just moments before he had seen a statuesque woman, a strong and powerful conductor leading a crowd in passionate song, now he saw a small, wiry man, shorter than himself and apparently a good decade older.

‘Hero?’ he asked, incredulously.

‘One and the same,’ the older-looking man bowed. ‘How do you know me?’

‘You are famed, of course,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Your inventions.’

‘Ah yes, my “inventions”,’ Hero answered, looking around at the sleeping crowd.

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