Doctor Who: The Aztecs (10 page)

With the lit torch clamped between his teeth and protruding from his mouth, Ian made his way along the tunnel.

The Doctor watched as the light reflected off the walls faded, until it disappeared altogether. Having regained his courage now that Ian’s magic light had gone, Ixta watched the Doctor as he bent down to examine the stone. He tried to lift it but it was too heavy. Then he noticed the two handles hewn in the back and realised that it could be slid into place from the inside, convincing him that he had not sent Ian off on a wild goose chase.

Silently Ixta crept away towards the garden door which he opened and slammed shut. The Doctor heard the noise and re-arranged the bougainvillea, but part of the stone remained visible. Then he sauntered away along the path. Ixta selected one that would enable him to intercept the Doctor. He wandered along it, admiring the night sky. When he met the Doctor he smiled. ‘I greet the aged servant of Yetaxa.’ He bowed. ‘It is a pleasant night to walk abroad.’

‘Yes, I couldn’t sleep so I thought a stroll in the garden would be agreeable,’ the Doctor replied.

‘We are well met,’ Ixta said, ‘for I would talk to you about Ian, with whom I must soon dispute the command of our armies.’ He walked down the path the Doctor had come along, making sure that he was on the wall side.

‘Oh, yes’?’ the Doctor was obliged to turn back.

‘I do not believe I can defeat him,’ Ixta admitted, ‘for, as the servant of Yetaxa, he has powers of which I know nothing.’

‘True,’ the Doctor concurred, glancing at the partially visible stone out of the corner of his eye.

‘Thus we are unfairly matched in any contest,’ Ixta stated.

‘Inevitably, I suppose.’

‘Then what am Ito do? Of all Aztec warriors 1 am the most fit to command,’ he edged his may towards the stone, ‘I have proved myself again and again, but I am no match for the servant of a God.’

The Doctor took Ixta by the arm and tried to steer him away from the stone. ‘What you say is true.’ The Doctor tugged at him gently. ‘And I shall ask Yet.. to demand that Ian renounces his role as a Chosen Warrior.’

‘Would you do that for me?’ Ixta exclaimed and, breaking away from the Doctor’s grip, stepped backwards onto the stone. ‘Ouch!’ he cried.

‘What’s the matter?’ The Doctor tried to look startled. Ixta swept the bougainvillea aside revealing both the stone and the hole. ‘What negligence is this?’ he demanded. ‘The stone must be replaced.’

‘I’m sure whoever took it out did so for a very good reason,’ the Doctor said and suggested they left it where it was.

‘But this part of the garden will be ruined,’ Ixta protested.

‘Why should that be?’ the Doctor asked.

‘There is a tunnel which is used to irrigate the garden. My father’s father built it.’

‘I am aware of that,’ the Doctor remarked dryly.

‘This entrance was made so that the tunnel could be inspected and cleaned from time to time,’ Ixta explained, ‘but if the stone is not put back the next time the sluice-gate is opened the water will pour out and flood this area. No, it must be replaced’ Ixta picked it up, slid it back into the wall and then tapped all around the edges with the heel of his fist to ensure that the stone was firmly in. He stood up and smiled at the Doctor. ‘Pardon my insistence, but I am proud of all that my father’s father did.’

‘With good reason,’ the Doctor replied.

‘You will speak on my behalf to Yetaxa?’ the Chosen Warrior asked.

‘Of course, of course, I have given my word; the Doctor sounded sardonic.

‘Then I shall bid you a peaceful night’ Ixta said, bowed, and strode away towards the garden door.

The Doctor watched and waited until Ixta had gone outside, then he tried to prise out the stone but he didn’t have the strength. If I am wrong and it is only a tunnel, at least Ian can push the stone out from the inside, he thought, but Ixta’s sudden appearance troubled him nonetheless.

As soon as he was outside the garden, Ixta did not walk towards the pyramid but went in the opposite direction. He came to the hack wall which he followed until he reached the reservoir and the sluice-gate. He chuckled as he released it, letting the water cascade into the tunnel.

‘Now use your magic to save yourself, Ian,’ he said and walked away.

The sound the Doctor heard was a whispered gurgling, but he knew exactly what it was. ‘Chesterton? he cried out in horror, and ran towards the garden door, knowing full well that it was a futile gesture as no one would have the strength to close the sluice-gate against the water pressure until the reservoir was almost empty.

Ian still could not see the end of the tunnel when he had the first indication of trouble. It was a breeze coming from behind him which built quickly into a gust of wind and then he heard the water hissing and gurgling as it rushed towards him. Suddenly the water hit him and threw him of balance. ‘Go with it; he shouted to himself, ‘while there’s air; and straightening out he began swimming desperately with the building wall of water.

It had reached the height of the sides and had begun to fill the vaulted top before Ian saw the wall at the end. It was solid. Lifting his head he shone the torch on the top looking for a trapdoor or a vertical shaft that would give him a chance to escape. There was none. The water level was about two inches from the highest point of the vault and still rising when Ian touched the wall. He took the torch from his mouth, put his head back and gulped in two deep breaths of air, the last, he believed, of his life. He put his feet down to touch the bottom of the tunnel and found that he could stand upright. Though the tunnel was full, water still swirled past his feet. Completely underwater he reached down and touched the opening of a second lower tunnel. If I’m to die, I’ll die finding out, Ian thought and crouched down to force himself into it.

He clawed his way along. His lungs were bursting as he reached the end and shot up to the surface in a small chamber with plenty of airspace. Just beneath the surface of the water there was a ledge against one wall. Ian grabbed hold of it, gasping for air, then hauled himself up onto it. He shone the light onto the water. it had stopped rising. He played the torch on the ceiling and saw a three-foot square shaft directly above his head. On two opposing walls were nine-inch oblong stones projecting into the shaft and staggered at three-foot intervals. Ian estimated that there most be eighty of them to climb to reach the temple. He decided to give himself a few moments more to catch his breath and shone the torch along the ledge. In one corner was a white circular object. Ian reached out and picked it up. It was a human skull. With a shudder he put it back on the ledge and shone the light onto the water in the chamber. On the bottom he could see bits and pieces of a disintegrated human skeleton. I know who you are, Ian thought. Ixta’s father and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if your son had tried to drown me by opening the sluice-gate. But what happened to you?, Ian wondered as he stood up. Putting the torch back between his teeth, he placed one foot on the first stone in the wall and reached up to haul himself into the shaft. Straddling the sides, Ian began to climb, testing each stone before using it, first as a handhold and subsequently as a foothold. At the same time he mentally ticked them off.

It was slow, arduous work and he had counted to fifty-seven when he saw the reason for Ixta’s father’s death. A stone had broken away from the wall. Ian paused. So far during the climb his weight had always been taken on two stones and most of the time on three. With a stone missing there was a twelve-foot gap between the foothold and the next handhold on one side. To negotiate it meant that there would be a moment when all his weight rested on one stone on the opposite side and if it snapped, he would join Ixta’s father one hundred and seventy feet below. It was too dangerous, so he backed down until he had a handhold and a double foothold, then he lifted one leg off its stone perch and put it against the wall in front of him. At the same time he leaned his back against the wall behind him and stiffened his leg to wedge himself between the two sides. Then he released his handhold and placed his palms on either side of his back. Gingerly he brought his other leg up to the front wall. Maintaining the pressure against both sides with his legs, back and hands, he inched his way up the shaft, past the broken stone until he could safely resume two footholds and a handhold again. Only then did it occur to him that when Ixta’s father fell, the stones must have torn him to shreds. Ian swallowed and started on up again.

Sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two... until seventy-eight, when the torch lit another small chamber. Ian hauled himself into h. He took the torch from his mouth and looked around. Against one wall were some proper steps which led to the ceiling. Ian mounted them, put his hands on the stone immediately above his head, pushed it up and slid it to one side. He took the two remaining stairs in a stride, and shone the torch on Yetaxa’s skeleton on the slab. Then he turned to the TARDIS and smiled.

‘Mid temples and barrackses though we may roam,’ he sang quietly, ‘be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.’ And he went inside.

Barbara was in the antechamber trying to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes she had nightmarish visions of Susan’s punishment, Ian’s death in a fight with Ixta, her own public denouncement as a false God, with Tlotoxl cutting out her heart, and the Doctor driven insane meandering in the garden babbling inanities to himself. With her eyes open, there wasn’t much of an improvement. Both the Doctor and Ian had impressed upon her the importance of her role as Yetaxa, but the tension of playing the part was bringing her close to breaking-point. She needed to do something, not just be something, to help them out of their plight. She sat upon the couch, put her elbows on her knees and held her head in her hands.

‘Come on, Barbara Wright,’ she said aloud, ‘you must not crack.’ She stood up and clutched her arms across her chest Then she heard the Doctor arguing with the temple guard outside.

‘But I must speak to Yetaxa,’ the Doctor snapped. ‘It is forbidden.’ The guard was adamant.

‘A damnation on being forbidden,’ the Doctor exploded. ‘Out of my way.’

Quickly Barbara opened the door. ‘Let my aged servant pass,’ she commanded.

In obedience the guard stood to one side, but said that the Doctor’s presence would be reported.

‘So be it,’ Barbara slammed the door in the guard’s face. Then she looked at the Doctor. His face was ashen. ‘Doctor, those stairs.. ‘ she began.

The Doctor shook his head. ‘It’s young Chesterton,’ he said.

‘What about Ian?’ Barbara asked in alarm.

‘I think he’s dead,’ the Doctor replied in remorse, ‘drowned by Ixta. And it was all my fault’

For a moment Barbara was stunned, incapable of grasping the enormity of the Doctor’s statement Then, as it sunk in, one word came through to the forefront of her mind. ‘You said "think", Doctor. Does that mean you don’t know, that you are not sure?’ she asked, clutching at a straw.

The Doctor told her everything that had happened in the garden.

‘Then there’s still hope,’ Barbara said, taking the Doctor’s hand, ‘but this is not the place to be,’ she added and led him up to the temple.

Inside the TARDIS Ian looked for some cord, string, even a length of flex would do, but no, there were only printed circuits. Enough of sophisticated electronics that keep going wrong, he thought. Wherever we land next, lets get back to Boy Scout basics’ a length of string and a knife with a thing for taking stones out of horses’ hooves. He went out into the tomb and shone the torch around. Under Yetaxa’s skeleton was a cotton sheet with a narrow silk border sewn onto it. Ian found the join, unpicked it and then carefully ripped the silk away from the cotton which had rotted over the decades. He carried the strip of silk over to the fresco and looked for a place to attach it. The eagle’s neck stood proud from the wall, like the eye of a needle, so Ian threaded one end of the silk through it and tied a knot. He tugged the silk several times to make sure it would hold. Then he pushed outwards on the wall and stepped into the temple.

‘Chesterton, my dear chap, you’re alive,’ the Doctor exclaimed and embraced him. ‘I was afraid you were drowned.’

‘I very nearly was,’ Ian replied and began to recount his adventure in the tunnel.

Suddenly, Barbara interrupted him. ‘The wall’s closing,’ she cried in alarm.

Ian held up the end of the strip of silk.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said, ‘the other end is attached to the fresco on the inside and, as the wall is counterbalanced, all we need to do is tug on this end and we’re home and away.’

The Doctor thought this was an over-simplification but he said nothing as he still felt guilty about the tunnel. ‘Why don’t you two go through to the TARDIS whilst I go to the seminary and fetch Susan?’ Ian suggested.

‘No.’ The Doctor was firm.’ When we go to the other side of that wall we all go together. Splitting up is not a good idea.’

Barbara agreed and added that fetching Susan might not be as simple a task as Ian imagined.

‘Why not? Ian asked.

Barbara explained about Susan’s refusal to many the Perfect Victim and described her punishment for denying his wish. ‘Knowing Tlotoxt, she’s bound to be guarded,’ Barbara concluded.

‘And knowing Ixta, she won’t be in the seminary; Ian added, ‘he’ll keep her a prisoner in his quarters. So, wait for us in the antechamber, it’s more comfortable than up here.’ He winked at them and started towards the brocade curtain.

‘Watch out for Ixta, Chesterton,’ the Doctor felt obliged to warn him, ‘he’s a wily devil.’

Ian stopped used grinned.

‘But I’ll have the psychological advantage, Doctor. He thinks I’m dead,’ he replied and hurried away.

Barbara and the Doctor hid the silk strip behind the curtain in praise of Tloloc, the God of Water, which still covered the entrance to the tomb.

Barbara and Ian were right on all counts. Tlotoxl had two guards accompany him and Susan from the seminary to the barracks and Ixta’s quarters, where he told the warriors to remain outside with Susan until he commanded them to enter. He went inside and Ixta, after paying his respects, told the High Priest of the events in the garden. Tlotoxl congratulated him on his success and added that, with Ian dead, the others were at their mercy.