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, crashing 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, relishing 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 furnishings.' 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 fashioned 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, crushing 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, crushing 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.

'Memories,' the Doctor said. 'The past.' He waited while Nepath and his sister drew apart. 'You should look to the future, you know. Not embrace the past.'

'Oh but I am.' Nepath seemed reinvigorated by his sister's embrace. 'We are.' He kept hold of her hand as he spoke. 'A future of flame, of conflagration. Of burning.' His eyes were deep wells of darkness. Behind him the fissure spat red hot trails of fire into the sky. 'Patience and I will hold dominion over the world, over the fire. Together, for ever, we shall rule the burned and burning land.'

'For whom?' the Doctor demanded. 'Not for yourselves, surely. Not for the people who are dying burning in the fires of the Apocalypse. No, you'll do it for an elemental force that had burned away what little was left of Patience Nepath.'

Nepath shook his head. 'You can't distract us now, Doctor. No matter what you say or believe, Patience and I are together once more. Nothing and n.o.body can tear us apart again.' He let go of his sister's hand, gesturing for her to approach the Doctor. 'Least of all you.'

On the high ground overlooking the dam, s...o...b..ld stood beside Colonel Wilson. Across the misty ocean of smoke and fire they could see the red stain of the magma as it swelled and bubbled. It seemed to be spreading sideways, thinning to a line.

'The blast just wasn't concentrated enough,' Wilson said.

'What do we do now?'

He shrugged. 'Get back to Ambleton and collect some demolition charges. Then hope we can get back here through the fire storm.'

'Have another go,' s...o...b..ld said. 'Yes, I suppose so.'

There was a noise. A sudden snap of sound like a whip cracking, or a pistol shot.

'What was that?' s...o...b..ld strained to see. It had come from the dam.

'I don't know,' Wilson said slowly. 'Unless...'

As they watched, a ragged tear was appearing from beneath the thinning red substance that adhered to the dam. A black line ripped out from under it, running across the wall.

'It's cracking,' s...o...b..ld breathed. 'That stuff is trying to hold it together.'

Wilson was nodding. Behind him the soldiers were shuffling, trying to shoulder their way into better positions to see. 'Maybe we weakened the wall. Perhaps enough for the pressure of the reservoir to do the rest of the work.'

As he spoke, a trickle of water ran down from the top of the crack. It reached the edge of the hot liquid clinging to the dam and a sudden cloud of steam exploded from its surface. At once the viscous liquid seemed to flow back towards the point where the water was beginning now to run out in greater quant.i.ty. Tried to smother it, to seal the hole.

But the water was gushing out now. Pouring forth like a waterfall with enough force to spew out from the dam wall and cascade to the smoking ground below. The sound was incredible a rumbling roar of exploding water forcing its way through the widening gap; the thud and crump of falling masonry colliding with the side of the dam and tumbling to the ground below; the percussive hiss of erupting steam and smoke as the water splashed across the molten rock that tried to force it back.

'Good G.o.d,' Wilson said as he watched.

s...o...b..ld nodded. 'Very likely,' he murmured. 'Very likely.'

The liquid was gelling, forming into a shape. A huge almost human hand was pressing back against the rushing torrent, splashing it out and back against the dam as it tried to force itself into the hole, to plug it. At the end of the hand an arm was forming, a body. A glowing ma.s.s that might have been in the shape of Sir William Grant struggled to stem the flow.

But the figure was swamped, overwhelmed by the rushing tide. It seemed to shrink, its head thrown back screaming as it fought and struggled to cling to the dam. It was human*shaped, human*sized now, receding into itself, adopting a familiar shape. Perhaps using the only memory that remained to it.

Then the dam wall below the figure, below the rush of water, bulged suddenly outwards. Exterior brickwork peeled loose from the bulge, tumbling away as the wall exploded under the pressure. The tiny figure was left clinging to the broken brickwork at the top of the hole, arms working, hands clutching as it struggled to climb away from the roaring ma.s.s of steaming water.

s...o...b..ld caught a flash of movement from beside him. He turned to see that Wilson was running running towards the collapsing dam.

'Where are you going?' he shouted. 'Come back! You'll be swept away!'

Wilson kept running. He was twenty yards along the top of the dam now. s...o...b..ld could see him stumble and stagger as the whole structure moved under his feet. But still he ran.

The figures formed three points of a roughly equilateral triangle. The Doctor; Nepath; his sister. The way that Nepath and his sister circled, the way the Doctor backed away and kept out of reach was like a dance.

'How can you believe there is anything of Patience Nepath left in that thing?' the Doctor asked as he backed away again. He was shouting to be heard. From somewhere in the distance was a rumbling, like approaching thunder.

'She is my sister, I can tell.' Nepath moved to cut off the Doctor's escape route. 'What does it matter to you anyway, Doctor?' he demanded. Now he was shouting too.

'What does it matter to her, more to the point?' The Doctor ducked under an arm as it was thrust at him. A lock of his hair recoiled as it was scorched by her clutching fingers. He staggered back, and ended up standing beside Nepath.

Nepath grabbed the Doctor by the arms, holding him tightly as he struggled. 'You were better off before,' the Doctor shouted at him as he tried to pull away. 'Better off with that blackened husk in the cabinet. At least that really was her. At least then you had your memories and your dreams.'

'What do you mean?' Nepath howled at him. He was pushing the Doctor slowly forwards, towards his sister's smoking, outstretched hands.

'I mean that now you have nothing. Nothing at all. There is none of Patience Nepath left inside that thing.' He twisted so that his face was close to Nepath's. 'Ask her I dare you,' he challenged.

Nepath did not answer, but he stopped pushing the Doctor towards her, and held him still.

'Tell the creature to leave her, just for a moment. See for yourself what's left.'

She paused, watching Nepath, waiting for his response.

'a.s.suming you have any say in how that thing behaves, any authority at all master of all you survey,' the Doctor sneered. 'Go on, ask it.'

Nepath snorted and pushed the Doctor forward another stumbling step. 'And what will that prove.'

The Doctor ripped his arm free, turned to face Nepath in a single blur of motion. His other arm came free too and they stood facing each other. Over the Doctor's shoulder Nepath could see his sister. Waiting.

'If that is truly a recreation of your sister, and not just some automaton' the Doctor shouted, 'then when the creature, the substance that binds her together. leaves it we shall see inside the frame that it is built on. We'll see the charred and blackened corpse of your dead sister, Nepath. Just as she was, just as she died. Just as you left her.' He turned towards the figure of Patience Nepath, her hands still extended, her fingers glowing red, her eyes on fire.

'But if not,' the Doctor said. 'You will be left with a sh.e.l.l, a statue, a shape. Or with nothing.' He twisted his head slightly, talking over his shoulder, throwing back an offhand comment. 'Or would you rather not know?' he said.

'That will prove nothing, Doctor,' Nepath shouted back.

'Then why not indulge me?' The Doctor gave a derisive snort. 'Or does it worry you what you might be forced to learn?'

'You're playing for time,' countered Nepath.

'But you have all the time in the world,' the Doctor shouted back. 'For ever, you said. That's long enough, isn't it?'

For a moment Nepath's eyes locked with the Doctor's. Then he turned slowly to face his sister. 'Do it,' Nepath hissed. His voice was barely audible above the roaring that seemed to be getting louder by the moment.