'Nothing,' sighed Joel. 'Go back to sleep.'

48.

5.Yes, but is it Kannon?

Out The Doctor went into the shrine first. Penelope waited outside, musket in hand, nervously glancing around.

The villagers had been kind to them, newcomers who must seem so bizarre.

Thank goodness for Joel's translator. After their simple hospitality, she did not wish to frighten or offend them.

After a moment the Doctor came back out of the humble building. He put a conspiratorial finger to his lips.

Penelope took out Joel's flashlight flashlight, following the Doctor into the small building. She hesitated with her thumb on the switch of the portable electric light.

Since the man was making such a show of being able to see in the dark, let him examine the 'G.o.d' without benefit of light.

She was surprised when he took out a torch of his own, no larger than a pen, and played it over the dark bulk of the 'G.o.d'. He let out a long, slow whistle, making Penelope jump.

It was as impressive as when she'd first seen it. More impressive, since the shadows hid so much detail. Rather than raise the roof of the shrine, previously inhabited by some kind of Shinto idol, they had simply removed the floor and dug into the earth. The room smelt like a tilled field. Or an open grave.

It was ten feet long, a ma.s.s of melted stone, with patches of shiny metal showing through here and there. At the top, there were perhaps a dozen jointed metal. . . arms?

'Kannon of a Thousand Hands,' said the Doctor.

The impact had crushed some of the 'arms' and bent others, so that they reached out from the object's body in random, twisted directions. It made Penelope think of the discarded sh.e.l.l of some giant, macabre insect.

'Try to be quiet,' she whispered. 'No one but a priest is supposed to enter the shrine. I have no idea what the penalty for blasphemy might be.'

49.The Doctor's torch beam moved across a row of small pots filled with earth, set before the kami. Offerings of some kind? The pots overflowed the wooden building, on to the steps.

'I thought at first it must be a meteor,' she said. 'But it seems to be a metallic object, partly encased in melted rock.'

'Soil,' said the Doctor. Kneeling, he brushed his fingertips across the surface of the kami kami. 'Melted right on to the metal skin. It must have made quite an impact.'

The Doctor switched off his torch. Penelope blinked in the sudden blackness, and then was half blinded. She raised a hand to her face, involuntarily.

It was the rainbow-coloured egg, singing with brilliance.

'An object from another world,' breathed Penelope, looking at the kami. 'Or perhaps from Earth's future? How long does it take the human race to develop vehicles which can journey through s.p.a.ce?'

'Wouldn't you like to know,' muttered the Doctor. He was brushing a hand over the surface of the object, the shining ovoid cupped in his other palm.

Penelope made a sour face at his back.

'I am certain that I am very stupid,' she said, 'not to recognize it at once.'

He took out some sort of mechanism and waved it over the surface of the object, listened to the slow clicking noise emanating from the machine. 'Thought so. . . '

'No doubt you know precisely what it is.' For a moment Penelope felt the clenching in her heart she a.s.sociated with her husband her former former husband. husband.

She pushed him out of her thoughts.

'I have no idea,' said the Doctor, standing up and taking the torch out of his mouth. 'But I seriously doubt it's here to make the rice grow faster.' He looked around suddenly. 'There! Did you hear that?'

Penelope held her breath, listening. Were they about to be discovered?

They waited for long seconds. The Doctor shone his torch beam across her face. She shook her head.

'Hmm. . . ' The Doctor snapped off his torch, plunging them back into blackness. 'Those bushi bushi know this is here. If they're feeling brave, we can expect them tomorrow morning. If their discretion is the better part of their valour, they'll be back with reinforcements.' He eyed the thing. 'We need to find some way of getting rid of it.' know this is here. If they're feeling brave, we can expect them tomorrow morning. If their discretion is the better part of their valour, they'll be back with reinforcements.' He eyed the thing. 'We need to find some way of getting rid of it.'

'But we must discover its true nature,' said Penelope. 'What is it? How can it have these powers?'

'I thought we weren't supposed to interfere?'

'We can observe,' said Penelope, adjusting her gla.s.ses, without interfering.'

The Doctor grinned. 'You're going to love Heisenberg. Seriously, I've done about all the observing I can without proper tools. I can't even see half the 50 thing's surface for mud. For now, what it actually is doesn't seem to be as important as the effect it's having on everyone around it.'

'As for the bushi bushi,' said Penelope, 'the village is fortified to some extent, and it has a flesh-and-blood guardian. But I fear you're right: the inhabitants are in great danger. We'll speak with the headman in the morning.'

They hesitated at the doorway of the shrine, listening. It seemed no one had been disturbed by their visit.

Penelope glanced back at the object once more. 'In the morning,' she whispered again.

Chris opened one eye as someone booted him gently. 'G'way,' he said.

'Come on,' Joel shouted. 'You're missing the meeting.'

Chris opened his bleary eyes. He was lying on a tatami tatami, huddled under a sleeping bag and a blanket. The cut on his cheek throbbed and the stubble on his chin itched.

Given the choice of this hangover and more hours in the Room, he wasn't sure which was the worse fate.

He crawled out and pulled on his straw shoes. He didn't bother with his topknot, just wandered out of the hut, holding his swords.

Joel had kneaded and stroked his shoulders until he'd drifted back to sleep.

He had hoped that he'd already done the Room thing for one night, that, if he had to have another dream, it would be about something else.

But he had found himself back in there, and he'd just huddled in a corner of the Room, forehead on his knees, waiting for morning. Hoping for morning.

He shoved the swords through his sash, awkwardly. He was halfway across the square when he realized that there was a samurai blocking his path.

'You there,' said the man. 'What do you think you're doing, wearing two swords?'

The man was weathered-looking, maybe in his forties. He had two coal-black eyes and a small moustache and beard. His hand rested on the hilt of his katana katana.

'Not again,' murmured Chris, glancing around. There was no sign of the Doctor. The few villagers he could see were carefully ignoring them.

'Speak up!' snapped the samurai. 'Are you afraid to face me?'

Chris found his mouth twisting up in irritation. He walked forward, but the warrior moved to block his path. 'You are a coward!' said the man. 'Why don't you draw your sword and defend yourself?'

'I've got no quarrel with you, whoever you are,' said Chris. 'Let me past, please.'

'Or you'll do what?'

'Ask you again,' said Chris.

51.The samurai grinned. 'Wherever you come from,' he said, 'you're made out of iron.' He clapped an armoured glove on to Chris's shoulder. 'I know j.a.panese samurai who'd have drawn their sword at lesser provocation. But sometimes it takes more strength not to draw your sword.'

Chris's scowl mutated into a helpless smile. 'Kuriisu,' he said, 'at your service,' and bowed.

'I am Kame,' said the samurai.

While he was bowing, Chris tripped him up. The samurai looked up at him from the dust in astonishment.

They both started to laugh.

Penelope glanced over at the Doctor, who was listening quietly while the headman spoke, his eyes focused on nothing. She was trying to guess his age.

Sonchou-san, the headman, had the largest house in the village. A proper house, made of cedar, not one of the rough thatched huts that did for most of the peasants. The drawing room, where they were sitting the Doctor had murmured the suggestion that she sit with her legs to one side, instead of painfully trying to kneel had an alcove with flowers, a wall hanging, and even a bookshelf.

Sonchou's wife had served them green tea and cakes at the low table. Like those of the other peasants, her clothes were simple linen, but clean and cared for.

Penelope was trying to copy the Doctor, who seemed to know what he was doing, waiting until their host drank before he started on the tea, holding the cup in both hands. He had even brought Sonchou-san a visiting gift, a small bundle wrapped in white paper.

'The stone is not Kannon herself,' said the old man. His beard was just beginning to grey. 'But an image sent by her. It fell into the rice one night.

The earth trembled, and fire leapt into the sky. When we went to see what had happened, the rice around the statue was fully grown, almost a quarter of the field. It was the Bodhisattva's gift to us.'

Penelope said, 'Tell him about your leg.'

The old man smiled, inclining his head in a small bow. He was kneeling, but now he unfolded himself, standing and lifting the leg of his trousers with a murmured apology.

There was a wide white scar across his left shin.

'I was dying when the stone fell,' he said. 'I had fallen from my horse. My leg was broken so badly that the bone was protruding from the flesh. I would have bled to death. But when the stone was brought into the village, my wound was miraculously healed.'

52.'That would tend to catch one's attention,' said the Doctor. 'Had the bone been set?'

'No,' said the headman. 'I felt intense pain as it was moved back into place, and further pain as my flesh healed before my eyes.'

'May I?' said the Doctor. The old man gestured him over, and he gently touched the man's leg, using just his fingertips.

'Psychokinesis,' he told Penelope.

She shook her head. 'Mediumistic balderdash. The object is certainly some sort of machine, with advanced surgical abilities.'

Sonchou-san said solemnly, 'We have suffered a great deal in recent years.

Many of us were killed during uprisings, including much of my family. When the wars began, we had to erect the fence around our village to keep out bandits and desperate soldiers. More than once our crops and goods have been taken by the samurai. But recently our luck has improved. We have pros-pered. With the arrival of Kame, our guardian, we gained a further modic.u.m of protection. All of this was the Bodhisattva's work. Under the kindly eye of Kannon, I feel we are safe at last.'

'Unfortunately,' said the Doctor, 'word of the statue's arrival has already reached Gufuu Kocho, and it won't be long before the other daimyo find out about it.'

'Surely Kannon will protect us.'

'Hopefully,' said the Doctor, 'but think seriously about this. What will you do if Gufuu's troops demand you give them the statue? What if bandits attack the village to steal it? Having something so precious may have put you in terrible danger.'

The headman shook his head. 'We will not give up the statue,' he said. 'We are its rightful custodians.'

'Very well,' said the Doctor. 'But believe me, by the end of today, you'll know just how much Gufuu Kocho wants what you have.'

'You're lucky to have a master,' said Kame. He circled Chris, his katana katana held lightly in one hand. 'My lord's entire family was destroyed in a siege. Of his retainers, only ten survived. All of us held lightly in one hand. 'My lord's entire family was destroyed in a siege. Of his retainers, only ten survived. All of us ronin ronin, masterless warriors.'

'That's terrible,' said Chris. He squinted, shrugging his injured cheek as he took small steps from side to side. The sword felt heavy today, awkward.

'In my youth, I would never have considered working for peasants,' said Kame. 'But if you survive to my age your perspective begins to change. These people sheltered my group after we escaped that conflagration. In return, I offered them my protection.'

He struck out at Chris, who turned the blow away with his own sword.

'Good,' said the ronin. 'There, I've told you why I'm here. It's your turn.'

53.'I travelled here through time with an extraterrestrial to investigate the temporal anomaly.'

The ronin struck again, and Chris parried again, nearly losing his balance.

'Less force,' said Kame. 'Your balance is an advantage, but your weight is not.

We will try again later.'

Chris let out a snort of frustration as Kame sheathed his katana katana. 'You know,'

he said, 'I'm a crack shot with a blaster. And you can even set them to knock people out instead of killing them. These things ' he jiggled his sword '

they're so clumsy, they just chop through people as though they were sides of meat.'

'The real art,' said the ronin, taking out his fan, 'is not the life-giving sword, nor the death-giving sword, but never having to draw your sword at all.' He opened the fan.

'Whatever you say,' said Chris.

In an instant Kame had flipped the fan shut and knocked Chris's weapon out of his hand with the metal edge. The Adjudicator looked at his fallen sword, and back at the samurai, who was innocently fanning himself.