'Kadoguchiroshi found him in the snow,' said Chiyono so we called him Snowman. Are you in his service?'

'Sort of,' said Chris. 'Yeah, I guess I am.'

20.Chiyono grimaced suddenly, leaning hard on her broom as though it was a walking stick. Chris put out a hand to steady her. 'Are you all right?'

'Yes,' she said, after a moment.

'No,' said Chris, 'I mean, really all right.'

She looked at him with those dark eyes. 'I am dying,' she said.

Chris opened his mouth and closed it again.

: What are you thinking, Kuriisu-san?'

I was thinking,' he ventured, 'that if I was dying, I wouldn't waste my time sweeping.'

'What would you do?'

Chris thought about it. 'What I'm doing now, I guess. Go on travelling with the Doctor, and see as much of the universe as I could.'

The nun smiled. It was so beautiful it froze his mind. 'The further you travel,' she said, 'the less you know.'

A bell sounded. The deep booming ring echoed out through the still air of the valley, each note blending completely into the sounds of tree and wind and water before another was struck.

Still smiling, Chiyono picked up her broom and walked away.

Chris didn't even notice the Doctor until the small man nudged him in the elbow.

'Everything's arranged,' said the Doctor. 'We're welcome here, and, better still, Kadoguchiroshi thinks he's got some information about the source of the temporal distortion.'

'Oh good,' said Chris. 'I think I'm in love with a nun.'

'Swept off your feet?' Chris pulled a face. 'And while you were out here, I was put to work in the kitchen! Come on, that bell's for the mid-morning meal.'

Much later.

The Doctor and Kadoguchiroshi sat together in the old Zen Master's room.

The Doctor had sent Chris off to get them some horses; they'd continue their investigations in the morning.

The Time Lord poured green tea into the Roshi's small cup. The tea set was hundreds of years old, beautiful, simple pieces of glazed pottery.

'Why have you come here?'

The Doctor smiled. 'The roses blooming on Mount Cadon,' he said.

The Roshi returned his smile. 'This isn't a formal interview, Doctor.'

'I didn't want to risk a knock over the head!'

'I rely rather less on the stick than my predecessor. There are less violent ways of startling the mind into awakening.' The old teacher took a sip of tea.

'We must do this properly tomorrow.'

21.'Yes, please,' said the Doctor. 'Your tea room is one of the calmest places in the universe. I carry it around with me in case of emergencies.' He tapped himself absently on the back of the head. 'But to answer your question, I'm here because I detected a minor temporal distortion somewhere in this area.'

He took the rainbow egg out of his pocket.

The Roshi glanced at the bit of technology. 'Now tell me why you're really here.'

'This is why I'm here,' said the Doctor, surprised. 'There really is a temporal distortion.'

The Roshi gazed at him.

'This terrible waiting,' whispered the Doctor.

The Roshi poured him a cup of tea, pushing it towards him.

'Do you remember why I couldn't defeat the jiki-ketsu-gaki jiki-ketsu-gaki?' said the Doctor at length, tucking the detector back in his pocket.

'You were afraid she would kill you.'

'She had to be stopped, and I was the only one who could do it.' The Doctor turned the cup around in his hands. 'Everything was going so well until I realized what it would really take.'

'And so you hesitated.'

'In a sense.' The Doctor laughed. 'I climbed out through a window and bolted.'

'You might have died if you'd stayed.'

'I would have died if you hadn't pulled me out of the snow. Eighteen people died because I climbed out of that castle window. Killed because I didn't finish the job. I can't afford to hesitate. I don't have the luxury.'

The tea cup made a sound like shattering gla.s.s as it struck the floor. The Doctor looked at the broken pieces, appalled.

'Why are you here?' said Kadoguchiroshi.

The Doctor breathed out a sigh. 'Chris,' he said.

The old man bent and gathered up the pieces of the cup he had dashed to the floor. The Doctor watched him, frowning.

Chiyono took Chris shopping. It took them an hour to walk down to the town.

'OK,' he said, as they trudged along the muddy road, maybe you can give me a hint.'

'A hint?'

'I'm trying to work out this riddle that Kadoguchiroshi gave me.'

' A koan, A koan, ' said Chiyono. ' said Chiyono.

'Yeah. Listen: there was this guy called Kosen, and oh, you've heard it.'

Chiyono was nodding. 'What do you think the answer is?'

22.'I don't know, but I think it's got something to do with reincarnation or something. Am I on the right track?'

'This is the road that leads to town,' said Chiyono.

'Argh,' said Chris.

'Kuriisu-san,' said Chiyono, 'I can't help you with the koan. You koan. You have to penetrate its meaning by yourself.' have to penetrate its meaning by yourself.'

'Oh come on, couldn't you just sort of nudge me in the right direction?'

'No one can,' said Chiyono. 'You could read all the scriptures, listen to endless lectures, and be able to speak eloquently on Zen, and the plum blossoms would still understand the truth better than you.'

Chris booted a stone. 'That's what the Doctor's always saying. You can't be told, you just have to understand.'

'The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.'

They got more than a few strange looks in the town. The Doctor had produced a bag of coins from his capacious pockets, and sent Chris to buy them a pair of horses.

Chris wanted to add to his samurai gear. The samurai armour was neat, made out of strips of metal, light and flexible. One of those ferocious face masks would be cool, too. The only problem would be finding a suit of armour that fitted. . .

'Is everyone from the future as tall as you?' the nun teased him.

'No,' said Chris. 'Depends on where people come from and what they eat.

Hey, how did you know '

'I watched over Snowman-san in the infirmary,' she said. 'We were always getting into trouble for chattering. Tell me a little bit about your travels.'

'Yeah. Well. . . ' Chris realized he wasn't walking any more, standing beside the town well, suddenly feeling too tired to move.

The nun waited.

'We lost a friend,' said Chris. 'The Doctor had known her for years.' The nun looked at him, silently. 'It's OK,' he said. 'You can ask me about it if you want.'

Chiyono sat down on the edge of the well. She touched his arm, and he sat down beside her. 'How did she die?'

'Like a hero,' he said. 'It's a long story, but. . . we were both poisoned, and there was only enough antidote for one of us. She insisted I take it.'

'Oh, Kuriisu-san. What a terrible way to lose someone.'

'Yeah. Well.'

'She must have loved you very much.'

Chris looked down at the nun, and suddenly there was such a painful lump in his throat he could hardly breathe. Chiyono watched him, waiting. 'I 23 don't think so. . . ' he managed eventually. 'It was just that she was really old, and. . . ' He shook his head.

'You may also ask me about it,' said Chiyono.

Chris looked at her with his sad blue eyes. 'Where do we go when we die?'

Chiyono looked at him, considering. 'What do you believe?'

'Adjudicators believe in the G.o.ddess,' said Chris. 'Justice. She makes sure that everyone gets what they deserve, even if it's only after they die.'

'But you don't feel sure of that.'

Chris shrugged. 'It must happen after we die,' he said. 'Hardly anybody gets what they deserve in this world. What do you think?'

'I don't know,' said Chiyono. 'I haven't died yet.'

Dinner was rice gruel and pickled vegetables. Chris wondered if he should have smuggled a stash of chocolate bars in.

The monks ate in silence, after chanting and prayers. The Doctor had borrowed a couple of wooden bowls. He didn't seem to mind the food, wordlessly showing Chris how to wield his chopsticks.

Chris expected to be sent back out to sweep again, but the Doctor took his sleeve. 'The Roshi's waiting for us,' he murmured, as the monks filed out of the hall.

The old monk was in his room, kneeling on a tatami tatami. A young monk was kneeling before him on another of the straw mats. The Doctor, of course, found it easy to sit j.a.panese style. Chris knelt awkwardly, towering over the other three.

'This is Dengon,' said the Roshi. 'Two days ago I asked him to investigate certain rumours about a village in the valley. He's come back from Hekison with some interesting news.

The monk said, 'According to the villagers, one month ago, a G.o.d fell out of the sky.'

'Ahhh. . . ' said Chris.

'The G.o.d landed in a rice field, and was taken back to the village, where it was placed in a shrine. Since then it has been performing miracles.'

There was a long moment of silence. Chris realized he was waiting for the Doctor to start asking questions, but the Time Lord was watching him, patiently. 'What, what kind of miracles?' he said.

'The villagers say it has been making their crops grow, healing people, and protecting them from bandits and pa.s.sing armies.'

'Nothing more impressive.

'No, Isha-sama.'

'Meteorite,' said Chris.

'Could be,' said the Doctor, tapping his fingers against his chin.

24.Chris thought fast. 'Or a bit of pa.s.sing s.p.a.ce junk. It isn't radioactive,' he added, 'not if there haven't been any deaths?'

'No, Kuriisu-san,' said the monk.

The Doctor took the rainbow egg out of his pocket. 'Could you hold this for me, please?'