Somewhere, Jack was screaming.
The scarecrows stopped their implacable advance, their arms falling limply at their sides. Trevor and Rebecca exchanged nervous glances as they backed away from the creatures.
'What's happened to them?' asked Rebecca as they made their way into a tunnel cut into the dark rock of the cavern.
Dunno, but, whatever it is, I don't fancy hanging around until it stops stops happening to them.' Trevor turned and broke into a run. 'Any idea where this tunnel goes?' happening to them.' Trevor turned and broke into a run. 'Any idea where this tunnel goes?'
'No,' said Rebecca, racing after him, 'but that's where I'm going.'
Moments later they emerged into the cellar of the Green Man. With scarcely a glance behind them, they scaled the ladder, and ran from the pub.
The village green was heaving like a storm-ravaged sea, dipping and climbing.
Come on, then,' said Trevor, running towards Phil Burridge's Land Rover, still parked in the undulating car park. We've got to find Hatch.'
Ace and Joanna hurled their final torches at the thrashing creature. The scarecrows guarding the edge of the stain were beginning to move in their direction, although their movements were even less co-ordinated than before.
'Let's go,' said Ace. 'We've done as much as we can here.'
Joanna needed very little encouragement, bolting across the field and away from the shambling stickmen. 'What next?' she asked between deep breaths as they ran.
'Back to the restaurant,' said Ace. 'Get some more torches.'
'And then?'
'We come back here, and we torch that thing again. And we keep doing it until we get a result!'
The ground reared up in front of them like a living thing. A smooth-skinned tentacle, as thick as a man's body, pushed through the soil. It twitched and flailed blindly.
As it scythed through the air towards them, Ace pushed Joanna away.
The huge grey limb slammed into Ace, throwing her to the ground.
Trevor hot-wired the Land Rover and they set off after Hatch.
They caught sight of his car less than a mile down the road.
The limousine was travelling slowly, like a hearse. Trevor stamped on the accelerator, drawing level with the car, then twisted the steering wheel savagely to one side and pulled on the hand brake.
The Land Rover cut in front of the Mercedes a few yards short of the cordon of scarecrows that was guarding the only way out of the village. Hatch was forced to stand on his brakes, and his car screeched to a halt.
'What now?' asked Rebecca, as her eyes met those of Hatch.
'His move,' noted Trevor, making sure that the Land Rover doors were locked.
Hatch left his car with the motor idling and strolled to the front of the Land Rover. The scarecrows angled their heads towards the vehicles, their expressionless cloth faces merely adding to the incongruity of the moment.
'Becky, Trev,' said Hatch in a catlike purr. 'Hi. What's been happening?'
Trevor revved the engine. 'Got a bone to pick with you, Matt,' he said. 'You've been hanging around with some very very bad company.' bad company.'
Hatch was ignoring him. Instead he was looking at Rebecca, staring deeply into her eyes. His own were glowing.
All Rebecca could see was light. Light as sharp as a pinprick, boring into her brain like a drill. A diamond-tipped drill that twisted through flesh and bone and skull and promised only death and burial in an open grave where worms and beetles would crawl over her putrefying skin, gnawing the flesh from rotting bones.
'No!' screamed Rebecca as the light became as bright as a thousand suns. 'Stop it!'
Trevor was trying to say something, but his voice was too distant for the words to make sense.
Suddenly she turned to him and smiled. Her hand found the handle. 'It's all right,' she said, pushing open the door.
'This is a safe place.'
Hatch threw himself at Rebecca, like an animal pouncing on its prey. He grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, throwing her to the ground. Hatch was astride her before Trevor could even move.
Scarecrow hands smashed through the window and held Trevor motionless in the seat. Forcing him to watch.
Saliva dripped from Hatch's lips. 'Kiss this,' he said, moving his mouth to Rebecca's, and pressing down.
CHAPTER 16.
WILDER.
The Doctor was dragged through a wooden door and into a room thick with shadows and whispering voices. Chaotic rows of peasants stood either side of him, their dirty faces etched with excitement and loathing.
A stooped figure with matted hair and a rose-red face staggered from the crowd. He opened his toothless mouth, a guttural cackle bubbling from his throat.
'Hang 'im!' he cried. 'Hang 'im up, and cut 'im down.'
The impatient arms of the Doctor's captors pushed him past the sniggering wretch as the rest of the crowd began to bray like hounds eager for the kill.
'Ignore that buffoon,' said a voice to the Doctor's left. ''Tis just Henry, the village idiot.'
The Doctor turned to find himself facing a man in black robes, holding a Bible in his hands.
'And you are...?'
'Forgive me,' said the man. 'I am Silas Baber, of Master Blackwell's chambers.'
'You're a solicitor?'
'A barrister,' said Baber brightly. 'Thy barrister.'
'Then this is a courtroom?' asked the Doctor. Another shove propelled him towards what appeared to be a dock.
'Or, at least, someone's subconscious representation of a seventeenth-century assizes. I take it this is Jeffreys's courtroom?'
Baber nodded. 'Take my advice. Plead guilty. Throw thyself upon the mercy of the court.'
'I'll certainly consider it,' said the Doctor as a gathering hush settled upon the room. 'Fee fie foe fat, I smell the blood of an autocrat,' he said under his breath as an usher entered grandly.
'Please be upstanding for the honourable judge,' said the usher, grasping both lapels and puffing out his chest.
Jeffreys appeared behind him, with his retinue guard, who stationed themselves menacingly around the room. A well-dressed man strode towards the dock.
'This court is now in session,' announced Jeffreys. He sat, and watched keenly as the court settled. 'Be this the prisoner, Master Jowett?'
'Aye, Your Honour,' said the man, his lip curling with disdain. 'A travelling man, not o' these parts.'
'Master prisoner,' said Jeffreys. 'Dost thou know the charges thou facest?'
The Doctor shrugged. 'Insurrection? Treason? Libel and slander? That kind of thing?'
'And more,' said Jeffreys. 'How dost thou plead? Guilty?' He paused, licking his fat lips. 'Or not guilty?'
'I'm sorry,' said the Doctor. 'I don't understand the question. Don't I get a third option?'
'Silence!' screamed Jeffreys, as a murmur spread through the courtroom.
'Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick,' said the Doctor, glancing towards Baber, who was shaking his head. 'May I address the court?'
'Contempt!' said Jeffreys, hammering his gavel against the ornate desk.
'I have contempt for no one in this court,' said the Doctor, catching the blazing alien eyes of the judge. 'Except for Jack.'
'Who be this Jack?' said Jeffreys slowly. 'What right dost thou have to make charges against him?'
'J'accuse,' said the Doctor simply, and plucked the Bible from Baber's hand. 'I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Can you handle the truth, Jack?' said the Doctor simply, and plucked the Bible from Baber's hand. 'I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Can you handle the truth, Jack?'
'Master prisoner, thou speakest words that have no meaning,' noted Jeffreys, amused. 'Art thou a simpleton?'
'I have been accused of that often enough,' said the Doctor.
'However, I do not recognise the authority of this court to pass judgement on one man. I put it to you that it is not me that is on trial here, but all of us.'
A gasp came from the assembled crowd.
Baber crossed the floor towards the judge. 'My Lord, I humbly apologise for the conduct of my client.'
Jeffreys nodded. 'He wastes the court's time with his dribbling nonsense.'
'Time is relative and abstract,' noted the Doctor, stepping down from the dock. Neither Jowett, nor any of the other men, moved to stop him. 'This charade is an insult to my intelligence, Jack,' continued the Doctor. 'I want to see you, and I want to see you now!' now!'
'Thou art as mad as the moon, prisoner,' said Jeffreys.
'And thou art a coward,' added the Doctor. 'Show yourself, Jack.'
Jeffreys said nothing.
The Doctor turned to the jury, twelve men dressed in peasants' rags. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'you have all, in your time, committed crimes. Terrible crimes. Who among you will cast the first stone?'
'I shall,' said the foreman, the huge figure of Long John.
'You?' asked the Doctor. 'A child molester and rapist... I've read the old chronicles of your deeds, John Ballam. Your, heart is black and evil. But it's Jack that makes you as bad as you are. All of you.' He stopped and addressed the crowd.
'All of your lives, throughout the centuries, you have lived like rats in a hole, blinking, terrified at the outside world.
Hexen Bridge is your prison, and Jack i' the Green your jailer. He won't even show himself to you because he knows the moment that he does, he will lose you. Somewhere within each of you there is a remnant of humanity struggling to get out. Help it fly free. Help me.' me.'
'Be there blackness in my heart, also?' The Doctor was surprised to hear the question coming from the judge.
'Yes,' he replied sadly. 'You more than anyone should know that.'