But perhaps it's not true to say that the gateway had been completely completely closed, because one route to the other Kingdom still existed. As ever, accounts of Sabbath's activities in this period are sketchy, but thanks to the correspondence with Emily his location can at least be deduced. The closed, because one route to the other Kingdom still existed. As ever, accounts of Sabbath's activities in this period are sketchy, but thanks to the correspondence with Emily his location can at least be deduced. The Jonah Jonah was moored in the harbour of Port Royal, a noteworthy fact as Port Royal hadn't actually existed since the late 1600s. was moored in the harbour of Port Royal, a noteworthy fact as Port Royal hadn't actually existed since the late 1600s.

Back in the seventeenth century, Port Royal had been a city almost exclusively run by pirates, a harbour on the coast of Jamaica known for its ale-houses, its prost.i.tutes and its fights, and for very little else. Not that the settlement was lawless: it was simply run according to the laws which governed life on board the pirate ships, so both h.o.m.os.e.xuality and female emanc.i.p.ation were championed in the Port alongside the kind of brutal throat-slitting which left many tavern-goers dead in the gutters. In modern terms it's tempting to compare Port Royal to Las Vegas, a self-controlled community both built and run by organised crime, except that in the seventeenth century it was debatable whether piracy was actually a crime crime, as such. Piracy was a political act, the greatest pirates having been sponsored by the British government to loot and destroy the fleets of Catholic nations like Spain. It was only when the pirates had begun attacking British ships as well as well as Spanish that the pirate had been recla.s.sified as a terrorist. as Spanish that the pirate had been recla.s.sified as a terrorist.

Yet Port Royal had ultimately fallen. Appropriately enough, this Sodom of the modern world, this town built on plunder and excess, had been buried by an earthquake; drowned by the sea; hastily forgotten by the Europeans. Even so, Sabbath was using it as his base of operations at the beginning of 1783. How can anyone explain this? It's possible that part of Port Royal had somehow been claimed by the Kingdom of Beasts, that the old ways of the pirate-prost.i.tutes had attracted the apes' attention and that the harbours of the town had become attached to the edge of the grey city. Easy to imagine Sabbath's metal Leviathan waiting just off the sh.o.r.e, watching the struggle on the mainland. Or it could even be that Sabbath had equipped his vessel to travel underwater unlikely, technologically speaking, but who can say for sure? and that he chose to lurk in the sunken ruins of the drowned town. It's not hard to see how Port Royal would have appealed to him. Sabbath was, in a way, the ultimate pirate. A man prepared to strip down the techniques and devices of both establishment and elementals, taking whatever he needed whenever it was necessary... and of course, the skull and crossbones of the pirate ships had influenced so many occult rituals in the decades since the days of the buccaneers (it was pirates who'd originally settled Hispaniola, and who'd caused the followers of Mackandal to dress their rituals up in the bones of the dead). The capital of the pirates: the home of sponsored terrorists who'd turned their backs on their home nation. Such a fitting locale.

It can be said for sure that by the middle of January, both Sabbath and Juliette could be found on board the Jonah Jonah at the ghostly or drowned docks of Port Royal, halfway between one world and another. A letter from Sabbath, dated January 16/17, makes this obvious. In the letter, Sabbath explains to the unfortunate Emily that he can't directly help her with her financial troubles in London, and he subtly makes it clear that he's got bigger fish to fry. Noticeably; he goes to great lengths to tell Emily that Juliette is perfectly safe and well. at the ghostly or drowned docks of Port Royal, halfway between one world and another. A letter from Sabbath, dated January 16/17, makes this obvious. In the letter, Sabbath explains to the unfortunate Emily that he can't directly help her with her financial troubles in London, and he subtly makes it clear that he's got bigger fish to fry. Noticeably; he goes to great lengths to tell Emily that Juliette is perfectly safe and well.

Emily had reason for concern. Because six weeks earlier, on the day of the wedding if the word 'day' could be applied to the time of the Kingdom Juliette had been hanged in a noose, near to the point of death, off the side of the ship.

It all comes down to folklore, of course. After his conversation with the man on the hill, the Doctor supposedly spotted Juliette dangling from the rope down at the dock, swinging limply against the side of the Jonah Jonah. As he neared the harbour, with his body tearing itself apart from the effort, he saw that Juliette wasn't alone. There were shapes on the vessel, stinking apes who peered down over the deck and watched Juliette hang, and not those who'd been trained by Sabbath. The Doctor let out a 'great cry', by all accounts, waving his arms wildly on his way down the slope to the sea. But the apes just looked up at him lazily, hardly reacting and then turning their attention back down to the dying woman below them.

Juliette, say the tales, wasn't struggling as she hung from the rope. It can't have been a proper lynching, seeing as her neck hadn't been snapped. The suggestion seems to be that the apes had boarded the ship where was Sabbath? and found the rope lying around on the metal deck. Discovering Juliette, they'd tied the noose around her neck and lowered her over the railings as a kind of game, watching with bored faces while they let her slowly asphyxiate.

At least, that's one one interpretation. interpretation.

Evidently Juliette was hanging right next to the hard stone of the dock, because the Doctor could reach her dangling body from dry land. His body must have been suffering, pushed to his limits, when he reached out and dragged Juliette's limp form towards him. By the time the Doctor reached her Juliette's face was bleached and contorted, her eyes shut, her lips as dry as bone. The Doctor went into a flurry of activity, his (shaky) hands desperately untying the rope, cradling her close to his body as he worked. The apes only looked down, letting him go about his work as if it were the most unimportant thing in the world.

At least one version attests that once the rope had been loosened, the Doctor engaged her in 'the deepest of kisses', although in retrospect this was probably just an attempt to get air back into her lungs. Many hold that there were great red welts on Juliette's neck for some time afterwards, where the rope had cut into her skin. The kiss of life may well have been the last thing the Doctor did, before he lost consciousness after his sudden burst of activity. Did Juliette recover, even as he slipped away? Did she awake to find herself in his arms, and if so, then how must she have felt?

However, that's perhaps not the real question. The legends as they're told imply that Juliette was lynched by the apes... but this particular Beast was hardly civilised. Claws were its usual method of attack, not the noose. Even given that the apes tended to parody human activity, even given that the hanging seems to reflect the 'symbolic' execution at Tyburn, it seems odd that the creatures should adopt this elaborate method and be so unconcerned about its outcome.

Maybe it's best to look at things from Juliette's point of view. She was a girl who'd had nothing, when she'd arrived in England. She'd been adopted by Scarlette, and introduced to a lifestyle in which she'd had no control over her own fate at all. She'd been betrothed, then forced to confront the fact that her husband-to*be was part of a plan no native of Earth could have fully understood and who (arguably) wasn't even a human being. She'd been taken away from this questionable destiny, but her new 'keeper' had made it clear that in order to go on she had to go through a symbolic death-rite designed to demonstrate that whatever ident.i.ty she'd had in the past, it was now well and truly gone. She was young, she was vulnerable, she was juggling several different ident.i.ties, and everything she'd been told in the last year had led her to the conclusion that death was no big thing.

It's fair to say that Sabbath wasn't on board the Jonah Jonah, when the apes crawled on to its decks that day. So n.o.body had been around to watch what Juliette did. It might be wise to dwell a little longer, then, on the question of who'd tied the knot in that noose.

Cannibalism In All Its Glory In Westminster the politicians of the two major parties were biting into each other's flanks, factions and counter-factions greedily consuming each other's flesh, storing up the energy they needed for the Corporation Age to come and the Industrial Revolution that was to follow. In Saint-Domingue the French did their best to suppress the uprisings of the Maroons, while simultaneously holding their breaths to see how the American War would be resolved. But even these events seem like nothing next to the grand, mythic stories of the Kingdom of Beasts.

The Masonic version is typically lurid, typically Old Testament in its vision of death and apocalypse.

The Emperor of Beasts did sit on his throne, wrought from the bones and skulls of victims. The other animals did dance around his seat, in a procession as grandiose as it was repulsive... standing, the Emperor did raise the crown of thorns from above his head as to display the sign of his strength to those about him. With that he did turn his back on them and look to the sky, where his blasphemous G.o.dhead stared down upon his triumph... and when the apes did bring him news in their senseless tongue of the men [and women) who had come to the. Empire to oppose them. Thus did the Emperor give his devotions to his G.o.d, and thus did they all prepare war against the men who had fought them and eaten of their flesh.

The 'men' were the guests at the wedding. To refer to them as guests somehow weakens them, though. These were representatives of some of the most powerful witch-lodges of the world, and in the weeks before their abduction into this realm they'd been trained to hunt the apes by Scarlette's Revels. Transported to the Kingdom, left to fight or die, they weren't likely to let the apes overwhelm them without a struggle.

It's impossible to establish a proper timeline for these events, but it evidently started with the Maroons. Finding themselves in the jungles of the Kingdom, emondeur and his men immediately fell back on their usual sneak-tactics. They stalked the apes in those wilderness areas, just as the apes stalked them, destroying the monuments of the King exactly as they had on St Belique. And they weren't alone. The Masonic guests, seeing the apes destroy (at least in shadow-play) their sacred library, at once began devising traps for the animals. The Servicemen did much the same, as did the few Russians. Soon these groups began to mix, coming together in the labyrinthine streets of the crumbling city and fighting a protracted guerrilla war against the apes. The apes may have formed themselves into a hierarchy, but with their hatred of all things knowledgeable knowledgeable they can hardly have had tactics to match those of the humans. they can hardly have had tactics to match those of the humans.

The above Masonic account mentions humans 'eating of the flesh' of the apes, and this is certainly true. The Maroons were probably the first to think of the more practical aspects of survival here. With harsh determination, they began to slaughter the animals for food. The beasts were skinned, their pelts taken as trophies; their bones were removed, to be used in rituals of thanksgiving to the black spirits who protected the Maroons in their struggle; and, most importantly, their flesh was eaten. The Maroons believed the creatures would taste of pork, and so, it seems, they did. The broken carca.s.ses of the animals would smoulder over campfires under the bright blue sky (there's no record of night ever falling in the Kingdom), filling the forests with the scent of bubbling fat.

Fitz and Anji, the twin elementals, were survivors just like the others. To begin with the two of them seem to have stumbled blindly through the backstreets of the city, avoiding rather than confronting the animals. Some time later, though, they found an encampment of other humans on the edge of the Hispaniola-style forest. The humans were mostly Maroons, Malpertuis among them, but some errant Englishmen had joined them. Mrs Gallacher was there as well, keeping order by jovially threatening to whip anyone who stepped out of line.

It was here that both Fitz and Anji realised what had truly happened, when the Doctor and Scarlette had bonded. The guests had been transferred into the Kingdom of Beasts, certainly, but more importantly they'd become a genuine army army. Here at the camp, even the softest and fattest of English gentlemen was forced to consider how he might use his own particular ritual skills to bring down the enemy. This was the frontline, where those who believed it was their duty to protect the planet were compelled to put their money where their mouths were.

Fitz wasted no time in establishing himself as the leader of this a.s.sembly. Much to the disdain of Anji, Fitz frequently gave speeches to the a.s.sembled ritualists which may have been cribbed from the great military addresses of the past. None of the others, Maroon or Mason, negro or Virginian, argued with him. They must have respected his status as an elemental, even though Fitz was quite cheerful in admitting that if they were to survive this then they'd have to locate the Doctor.

Or muttered some, to locate Scarlette. She at least might still be alive.

The location of the Doctor. Something that was on everyone's minds, and a question that can easily be answered thanks to a most unlikely source: Katya. Disciple of the Empress Catherine, most unexpected of soldiers, it was she who oversaw the survival of the Doctor in those fierce non-days of the Kingdom.

Though most of those transported to the city found themselves in bleak reflections of their own homelands, Katya's story, as she later related it to her colleagues, was quite different. She arrived at the entrance to a vast grey palace, which at first she took to be like the palace of Catherine herself. It was a truly enormous building, surrounded on all sides by the broken city streets, as if the whole construction had been dropped into the landscape from a great height. Indeed, there were certainty enough huge, jagged cracks in the cobbles. The gateway to the palace was wide, like a mouth into the underworld, although there were no sentries to guard it: and the other buildings in the vicinity seemed to collapse towards the site, as if their walls were falling before it, bowing in reverence. The palace had a tower constructed at each corner, spires which later witnesses felt sure were supposed to be silver, but which (like everything else in the realm) had come to blank greyness. Against the blue sky the towers looked as black as soot, and the most central part of the building had fallen into such disrepair that the elaborate carvings had been sc.r.a.ped away so that none of the faces could be seen. There were no apes when Katya arrived there, no sounds of hooting from the streets. This was a part of the Kingdom which the animals had yet to deface.

As it's described in Scarlette's journal, it was almost like one of the ruined temples of the Mayakai Mayakai. But Katya herself maintained that as alien as it was, the building somehow reminded her of the House on Henrietta Street... or at least, the House as it had been after the arrival of the Doctor. Not in its appearance, perhaps, yet she felt they somehow 'shared the same blood'.

Katya seems to have spent some time at the gateway of the palace, reluctant to enter but equally reluctant to explore the rest of the fetid city. It was some time after her arrival, though n.o.body can say exactly how long, that she became aware of a noise from one of the ruined streets nearby. At first. Katya panicked, concealing herself behind one of the palace's ma.s.sive stone towers, before she realised that the figure approaching her was quite human.

Juliette had arrived at the palace. Juliette, with the red hangman's marks around her neck, dressed in the same ceremonial black gown in which her failed execution had taken place. Surely, though, Katya must have been as alarmed by the girl as by any ape. She came dragging a body over the broken cobbles, a p.r.o.ne form 'nearly twice her size and weight'. Katya soon realised that it was the body of the Doctor.

Finally, with her face covered in sweat and her black dress clinging to her body Juliette looked up and noticed that she wasn't alone. The tension in the air must have been appalling, as Juliette and Katya faced each other across the ruins. They had never really seen eye to eye, but now... Katya must have eyed up the body of the Doctor, and wondered what Juliette had done to him.

Juliette uttered a single sentence, to break the silence which followed. She said: 'This is where he belongs, I'm sure.'

Katya said nothing, according to her later testimony. If Juliette was unnerved by this then she had no opportunity to say so, because at that point the Doctor attempted to speak. Flat on his back in the middle of the palace's 'courtyard', he said something Katya couldn't identify. Both Katya and Juliette moved in closer to him as his lips moved again.

The Doctor slowly opened his eyes, though he looked straight through the two women who anxiously hovered above him. He looked up at the looming, darkened ma.s.s of the curious palace, at its black towers set against the bright sky. The only word he managed to say, as he looked up at the haunted palace, was: 'Home.'

During his time at Henrietta Street, the Doctor had often spoken of other worlds and other elemental realms. There was a definite similarity between this palace and the otherworldly spires he described in some of his more distracted, absent-minded moments. It was always Scarlette's belief that the home of the elementals had long since been destroyed, but perhaps this was the one part of that realm he'd carried with him into the Kingdom... or perhaps the apes themselves had brought it here, making it clear that they were bound to no world and no time, that they could infest all of history if such a thing pleased them. Whatever the nature of the palace, both Juliette and Katya seemed to understand that it was significant. This is why they lifted his body between them, and helped him to stagger through the gigantic entrance to the palace. There must have been a feeling, too, that they were escorting him into his final resting place: his deathbed, rather than his salvation.

The palace isn't a mere incidental detail. Everyone on the island, once they'd learned of its existence, would somehow realise that all roads led there. In the days (or hours, or weeks?) that followed, the lodges which had been transported to this Kingdom would all find themselves converging on the building. And so, too, would the apes.

Some time after Katya's arrival, the King of Beasts conducted the 'ceremony' described in the Masonic stories. The King was declaring war on the humans, in his own grunting language, letting his followers know that the humans and their protectors would be torn limb from limb. This animal rite was witnessed by none other than Lucien Malpertuis, who acted as a spy for the Maroon-Mason army by concealing himself in the wreckage of a great Venetian cathedral overlooking the King's square. But no square in Europe could have been so caked with dung, so full of creatures so repulsive, so thick-skinned, so eager to tear into each other's skins to achieve the approval of their leader. Lucien reported that several apes in robes, tattered and torn pieces of leather which looked as though they'd been flayed from the backs of men, came forward then to 'anoint' the King in the blood and dung of his followers. If everything the apes did was a reflection of humanity, then this unpleasant ritual was like nothing so much as a parody of the formal blessings of the Church.

It was only after this that the apes began to pour out of the square, swarming in a horde that numbered hundreds, climbing over each other with razor-sharp nails as they headed through the narrow, disintegrating streets. Lucien mentions their great cry of war of sheer animal malice. They would rend all intruders. They would slay the elemental and his cohorts. Lucien ran ahead of them, in the hope of joining up with the other humans before the wave of flesh and hair could reach them.

At around the same time the Maroon-Mason*elemental alliance arrived at the 'courtyard' of the grand palace, having finally found their way from the forest. Fitz and Anji were there, and when he saw the shape of the palace it's said that Fitz 'recognised the place for what it was... as he'd seen this world before'. There was no sign of Katya, or the Doctor, or Juliette: by that point Katya and the Doctor were deep inside the building, while Juliette (who, despite bringing the Doctor to this place, had not not been made to feel welcome by Katya) had once again disappeared. Fitz announced that he felt this was a site of great import, and when asked why he simply said it was an 'elemental kind of feeling'. Most of his new followers nodded sagely. Anji just clacked her tongue. been made to feel welcome by Katya) had once again disappeared. Fitz announced that he felt this was a site of great import, and when asked why he simply said it was an 'elemental kind of feeling'. Most of his new followers nodded sagely. Anji just clacked her tongue.

It was only after this that Lucien arrived, with his Paul Revere-style warning. Within moments the a.s.sembled humans, no more than two-dozen in number, could hear the sounds of the ape-horde tearing its way through the city towards them.

Fitz ordered the humans to stand their ground and prepared to fight. Though all of them were dressed in their wedding-clothes, they were at least unmasked and prepared for war. The Maroons had fashioned spears from the raw material of the forest, while several of the Masons and Servicemen carried firearms, though n.o.body was tactless enough to ask why they'd brought weapons like that to the wedding ceremony. All weapons were now welcome, and all of them were drawn, trained on the streets around the palace as the humans lined themselves up inside the gaping maw of the building's gateway.

While they waited for the first wave of animals to arrive, none of them could have guessed that help was on its way in three very different forms. For one thing, there was Sabbath. Juliette seems to have made her report to him as soon as she'd returned to the Jonah Jonah. She must have described the condition of the Doctor, the utter helplessness of him when he'd been carried into the palace. Famously Sabbath made one observation on hearing this. He noted that the siege had begun, and that his own private quest was nearly at an end. With that, he readied himself to join the battle.

There was other, more familiar, aid for Fitz and his comrades. Mere seconds before the first of the apes arrived at the alien palace, a single figure was seen striding towards the fortress along one of the crumbling streets. The ritualists were expecting to see a wave of apes tumbling along that road, so Anji had to tell them not to open fire when she saw the stately, red-clad silhouette which approached. Rumour has it that when he realised who it was, the Virginian seriously considered firing anyway.

So it came to pa.s.s that Scarlette arrived, even as the apes their claws sc.r.a.ping on the nearby cobblestones, and their stink clogging up the atmosphere even if they weren't yet visible drew closer. Standing before the crowd of men and (few) women, Scarlette casually drew two muskets from her belt, never explaining where the weapons had come from or even where she'd been. At that moment, it was clear that Fitz would no longer be giving the orders.

Scarlette calmly but firmly told her army that it was their duty to hold off the apes for as long as possible. This palace was the last stronghold of the elementals, she said, and its defence was the duty of all those who held the elementals' legacy. With that she joined the other armed ritualists, turning to face the surrounding streets, ready for the babewyns babewyns as they came into view. as they came into view.

n.o.body even considered arguing with her, not even the Virginian, as the opening shots were fired.

Earthbound The third source of help was, literally, a world away.

In late January, both Lisa-Beth and Rebecca arrived back at Henrietta Street. Arrived Arrived makes the process sound like a conscious decision, but apparently things were somewhat more coincidental. Lisa-Beth pa.s.sed the old House, or so she claims in her journal, simply because she happened to be in the Covent Garden region. But when she arrived at the building which had been her home for much of the past year, she found Rebecca there. makes the process sound like a conscious decision, but apparently things were somewhat more coincidental. Lisa-Beth pa.s.sed the old House, or so she claims in her journal, simply because she happened to be in the Covent Garden region. But when she arrived at the building which had been her home for much of the past year, she found Rebecca there.

The women hadn't met since their return to London, when they'd gone their separate ways. Yet here was Rebecca, back turned to the narrow, bustling street on a Tuesday afternoon, staring through the windows into the stripped salon. Several of the panes had been shattered, and it was clear that n.o.body had set foot inside the place in nearly two months.

Rebecca merely nodded to her, and Lisa-Beth nodded back. She confessed to Rebecca that the Doctor, while he'd been delirious in the white room, had asked her to take over the running of the House. He'd been hopeful, even to the end, that the building would keep its doors open in spite of the storm. Rebecca 'only shrugged' on hearing this. Did Lisa-Beth hope that Rebecca would give her some kind of rea.s.surance, and say it couldn't be helped? If so, it was too much to hope for.

For some time after that they stood in silence, while people bustled past them in the street. Then, after a while, Lisa-Beth became aware that somebody else was standing before the front of the building. She saw him first as a reflection, a shadow in the broken gla.s.s at the front of the House. When she and Rebecca turned, they saw the man standing just behind them on the pavement, a man they'd both seen before but never been introduced to. He was dark-haired and clean-shaven, and on his smart black shirt he still wore a rosette of blue and white. His hands were folded nonchalantly behind his back, as if he too were contemplating the sad fall of the House.

Lisa-Beth was eager to confront him, perhaps frustrated at her own lack of action, and demanded to know what he was doing here. The man hardly reacted. He simply informed her that he was preparing to leave. His little visit was over, he said. He went on to speculate that he might well just go back to sleep, if he couldn't find something to alleviate the terrible boredom, and only wake up when the universe was once more in a fit state for somebody of his calibre... even if it took a million years.

A cryptic message, indeed. And with that the man turned his back on them, to walk away from the House. Lisa-Beth shouted after him as he went, demanding to know who he thought he was, but without turning to face her the man simply said that he'd be most disappointed most disappointed if the women failed in their task at this stage. if the women failed in their task at this stage.

Rebecca stepped forward then, and held Lisa-Beth's arm, though it was hardly necessary. Lisa-Beth admits that the man had stung something in her, perhaps reminding her of the duty she still felt she owed the Doctor. So the two of them watched the gentleman vanish into the crowd, before turning their attention back to the front of the House.

It was, says Lisa-Beth, Rebecca who forced the lock and allowed them both to enter.

Can a word like 'meanwhile' be used, to bridge the gap between the Earth and the Kingdom of Beasts? If it can, then meanwhile meanwhile the battle for the palace was already under way. Of all the bloodthirsty images of the other realm, none are worse than this. Scarlette, both pistols drawn, letting loose the first shots as the apes come into view along a road which 'seemed to have been torn from the architecture of Vienna itself (Masonic archive). The armed members of the Conclave following suit, pistols at the ready, blowing b.l.o.o.d.y chunks out of the animals' bodies. The remaining beasts barely even noticing, ripping their colleagues to shreds as they vault over the corpses. The apes would keep pouring through the streets from the King's Square, and really it's a miracle that the humans held them off for as long as they did. As Scarlette herself describes it, it was like one of the the battle for the palace was already under way. Of all the bloodthirsty images of the other realm, none are worse than this. Scarlette, both pistols drawn, letting loose the first shots as the apes come into view along a road which 'seemed to have been torn from the architecture of Vienna itself (Masonic archive). The armed members of the Conclave following suit, pistols at the ready, blowing b.l.o.o.d.y chunks out of the animals' bodies. The remaining beasts barely even noticing, ripping their colleagues to shreds as they vault over the corpses. The apes would keep pouring through the streets from the King's Square, and really it's a miracle that the humans held them off for as long as they did. As Scarlette herself describes it, it was like one of the bull-runs bull-runs of Spain, hundreds upon hundreds of sweating, hairy, shrieking bodies crowding the streets and pushing each other aside. The humans stood firm in the gateway of the palace, those with firearms at the front, those without like Fitz, or Anji, or the by now hysterical Mrs Gallacher standing at the rear, clutching whatever makeshift weapons they could gather. of Spain, hundreds upon hundreds of sweating, hairy, shrieking bodies crowding the streets and pushing each other aside. The humans stood firm in the gateway of the palace, those with firearms at the front, those without like Fitz, or Anji, or the by now hysterical Mrs Gallacher standing at the rear, clutching whatever makeshift weapons they could gather.

In less than a minute, the first humans had fallen. Unsurprisingly, it was the Maroons who suffered: they were always better prepared to lay their lives on the line than the others. Scarlette gave the order, in bellowing tones which must have surprised all those present, to fall back slowly slowly. As far as she was concerned, they were buying time for those concealed deeper in the palace. She must have been prepared to see herself and all her comrades die, if it would give the Doctor more time. Inch by inch, yard by yard, the apes made their way into the palace.

Some fell back faster than others. Fitz and Anji realised early on that they were virtually useless in close combat, and that they'd do more good attending to the Doctor. At this stage, of course, n.o.body knew for certain for certain that the Doctor was inside the palace... but somehow everyone a.s.sumed he'd be there. Fitz was certainly convinced that the Doctor would be found at the heart of the stonework, even if Anji was more cynical. So it was that the two of them left the frontline, and made their way through the crumbling vaults of the fortress, heading for what they estimated to be its centre. that the Doctor was inside the palace... but somehow everyone a.s.sumed he'd be there. Fitz was certainly convinced that the Doctor would be found at the heart of the stonework, even if Anji was more cynical. So it was that the two of them left the frontline, and made their way through the crumbling vaults of the fortress, heading for what they estimated to be its centre.

Descriptions of the palace interior are manifold, but all of them describe something approaching one of the ancient, Sultan-ruled palaces of the Arabian Nights Arabian Nights (it may or may not be coincidental that a new English version of the (it may or may not be coincidental that a new English version of the Nights Nights was to be published in 1783, to much public interest). There was a labyrinth of great hallways beyond the huge gate, and all of them displayed an angular, hard-edged architecture which reminded many of the unusual buildings of the Far East. But the decor within the halls had all the pomposity of Westminster. There were statues, enormous figures in stained black stone, of Presidents or Prime Ministers forty feet from head to toe. Though the apes hadn't infested the palace, a few had evidently visited it, as the statues' faces had been torn away while their hands had been cleanly snapped off. Then again, that could have been simple entropy. The statues were dressed in colourless stone robes, their empty necks hung with huge chains of office, wide collars at their necks and books of law in their hands. There were ma.s.sive inscriptions at the base of each idol, written in an archaic alien language which even the Doctor's confidantes couldn't decipher. Nonetheless, Fitz claimed to recognise the style. As he and Anji made their way through the citadel, their footsteps must have echoed through the halls like the pounding of hammers. was to be published in 1783, to much public interest). There was a labyrinth of great hallways beyond the huge gate, and all of them displayed an angular, hard-edged architecture which reminded many of the unusual buildings of the Far East. But the decor within the halls had all the pomposity of Westminster. There were statues, enormous figures in stained black stone, of Presidents or Prime Ministers forty feet from head to toe. Though the apes hadn't infested the palace, a few had evidently visited it, as the statues' faces had been torn away while their hands had been cleanly snapped off. Then again, that could have been simple entropy. The statues were dressed in colourless stone robes, their empty necks hung with huge chains of office, wide collars at their necks and books of law in their hands. There were ma.s.sive inscriptions at the base of each idol, written in an archaic alien language which even the Doctor's confidantes couldn't decipher. Nonetheless, Fitz claimed to recognise the style. As he and Anji made their way through the citadel, their footsteps must have echoed through the halls like the pounding of hammers.

It's not known what they expected to find in the central chamber. It's possible that they were hoping for some machine of elemental manufacture, which could solve their problems once and for all. If so, then they were to be disappointed. The chamber was as bleak as the rest of the building. The area was immense, by all accounts, like an amphitheatre rather than a hall. There were five walls, the floor a perfect pentagon (or at least it would would have been perfect, if the flagstones hadn't been dislodged and stained by age and dirt). Surrounding the vast floor were five stone barriers, behind which an uncertain number of calcified grey seats had been positioned. The rows of seats seemed to go on forever the hall 'was so high that no ceiling were visible, save for a blackness o'erhead which might as well have been the night sky' but the general feeling was that this was some form of debating chamber, a forgotten Parliament of a fallen civilisation. have been perfect, if the flagstones hadn't been dislodged and stained by age and dirt). Surrounding the vast floor were five stone barriers, behind which an uncertain number of calcified grey seats had been positioned. The rows of seats seemed to go on forever the hall 'was so high that no ceiling were visible, save for a blackness o'erhead which might as well have been the night sky' but the general feeling was that this was some form of debating chamber, a forgotten Parliament of a fallen civilisation.

A senatorial arena to defy even that of ancient Rome. A single symbol painted in faded colours on the black floor of the huge chamber, a closed eye, suggesting the eye of Shiva (one of the favourite G.o.ds of the tantrists tantrists) which, Indian legend held, would destroy the world if ever it opened. And in the dead centre of the chamber, in the dead centre of the eye, lay the Doctor.

Lore claims that it took Fitz and Anji a whole minute to reach him from the hallway, which might indicate the size of the area. The Doctor lay flat out on the stone slabs, and crouching at his head was Katya. Even before they were anywhere near him, it was clear to Fitz and Anji that the Doctor's condition had worsened. He was still, apart from his chest, which rose and fell so rapidly that his lungs seemed fit to burst. Still dressed in her gown of red and black, breast heaving under the silk, Katya's face was set in steel and yet quite pale while she attended the alien Doctor.

What state must he have been in, by this point? It had gone beyond simply coughing up bile. Breathing was now the only thing he could do. Indeed, one version of the story claims that 'his eyes clouded over with the bile... making them orbs of black set into his countenance'. When Fitz and Anji arrived at his side, panting and out of breath, he wasn't even able to gaze up at them. Anji barely knew where to look, having understood that death was coming and that there was surely no escape, while Fitz could only murmur something about his mother. And Katya? Katya looked up at them, and shrugged. Fitz tried to give her a rea.s.suring look. She'd done everything she could.

Then, quite unexpectedly, the Doctor raised his hand. His eyes were still fixed on the ceiling, or possibly so full of jet black that they couldn't see at all. But with unerring accuracy, his fist clamped itself around Anji's arm, something which made not only her but all those a.s.sembled jump out of their skins.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'You should never have come this far.' It sounded like nothing so much as his final statement.

And this from someone with an illness that n.o.body could identify, let alone cure. It had been widely believed in the House that it would be cured upon the arrival of the TARDIS, and when that that had failed everyone had immediately a.s.sumed that the wedding ceremony would do the job instead. The feeling was that the Doctor was sick due to the absence of a 'place of power', as was the way of the elemental. Yet he'd now been officially, even legally, bound to the Earth... and it had done no good. Something in his body continued to poison him. had failed everyone had immediately a.s.sumed that the wedding ceremony would do the job instead. The feeling was that the Doctor was sick due to the absence of a 'place of power', as was the way of the elemental. Yet he'd now been officially, even legally, bound to the Earth... and it had done no good. Something in his body continued to poison him.

This deathbed of the Doctor, in the old and echoing debating chamber of the palace, is described as being one of the great tableaux of the age. It's reminiscent of West's Death of General Wolfe Death of General Wolfe, or the later Death of Nelson Death of Nelson, even though there was nothing heroic about the Doctor's stance as he wasted away on his back. But the battle was still being fought outside, a fitting backdrop to such an event. No doubt the Doctor would have approved of a death in the middle of such a n.o.ble stand, as befitted a champion of Earth. As his very existence hung by a thread, perhaps he clung on to his life just to give his a.s.sociates time to fight the enemy and prevent the Earth being overrun.

Perhaps it's the way he would have wanted it.

Black It's so easy to see Sabbath as one thing or another, to perceive him as just just a fanatic or a fanatic or just just a freethinker or a freethinker or just just a pirate or a pirate or just just the villain of the piece. He was so adept at playing roles that it's sometimes hard to see where the character ends and his mission begins. He was a dangerous man, that much is unarguable. Yet although he may have seemed zealous, or arrogant, or even on occasion psychotic (c.f. his determination, some time after 1783, to have the Doctor killed at all costs), he was also both intelligent and driven. The infamous 'Sabbath Book' is often too oblique to render any clues, but in this collection of papers, doc.u.ments and letters, Sabbath himself sets out his goals. the villain of the piece. He was so adept at playing roles that it's sometimes hard to see where the character ends and his mission begins. He was a dangerous man, that much is unarguable. Yet although he may have seemed zealous, or arrogant, or even on occasion psychotic (c.f. his determination, some time after 1783, to have the Doctor killed at all costs), he was also both intelligent and driven. The infamous 'Sabbath Book' is often too oblique to render any clues, but in this collection of papers, doc.u.ments and letters, Sabbath himself sets out his goals.

The Service trained me to protect 'the interests of the State'. Very well. I shall do exactly as they say. Though how could I, one who has been declared a criminal by his own nation and certified a danger to all mankind, believe that by 'my State' I mean the Kingdom of Britain? I have become a citizen of the world, for better or worse. The world is my estate. It is part of my given duty to protect that estate, however hostile its tenants are to that purpose... as only I, and Leviathan, have understood what is to become of it. I am a servant of the territory, then. It is not to be left in the hand of amateurs, certainly not to be left to the discretion of failed elementals. This is, as my a.s.sociates in their Whig circles have told me, a new era. Then so be it. It is for humanity to protect its 'state'. I offer myself, as humbly as might be necessary as the spokesman for humanity in this matter.

For the modern reader, this eloquent speech can be summed up in one simple phrase. I do what creatures like the Doctor used to do, because his kind have proved themselves inadequate. I do what creatures like the Doctor used to do, because his kind have proved themselves inadequate.

A harsh judgement, perhaps, but while the Doctor lay dying in the wrecked palace Sabbath had not been idle. He had for some time been researching the known texts on elementals and their kind. He'd been receiving messages from his contacts, following up the most obscure leads, obtaining the most unlikely tracts from as far afield as the Americas and the Vatican. While the lodges fought the beasts on the enemy's own home ground, Sabbath had been reaching his own conclusions as to how things would, how things must must, proceed.

So, on the 'day' that appeared to be the Doctor's last, Sabbath set out from the Jonah Jonah in its harbour and headed for the heart of the Kingdom. Juliette was at his side, dressed in her usual black and bearing the red marks around her neck, but no longer a cowed and obsequious young girl. She walked as though she were Sabbath's in its harbour and headed for the heart of the Kingdom. Juliette was at his side, dressed in her usual black and bearing the red marks around her neck, but no longer a cowed and obsequious young girl. She walked as though she were Sabbath's aide de camp aide de camp, rather than an apprentice.

At the palace itself, things were not proceeding well for Scarlette and her army. It might have been a folly which drove her anyway, the belief that if she held the apes off for long enough then the Doctor would find some miracle solution. By the time Fitz and Anji reached the central chamber, the humans had been driven back into the grand hallways of the palace. They continued to fire on the horde, although ammunition was obviously scarce, and despite thinning the enemy out there was no end in sight. An increasingly large number of human bodies was starting to litter the black stone floors.

Ultimately, Scarlette gave one final order to her 'followers'. She told the remaining Masons, Servicemen and Maroons to fend off the apes for as long as they had ammunition. When their weapons were exhausted, they were to scatter in different directions and attempt to find some some way back home to Earth. They'd done all they could, and only the Doctor could possibly help them now. With that, Scarlette re-holstered her own empty guns and began the march through the echoing hallways of the palace, perhaps in the hope that she could a.s.sist whatever ritual the Doctor had devised to end this nightmare. way back home to Earth. They'd done all they could, and only the Doctor could possibly help them now. With that, Scarlette re-holstered her own empty guns and began the march through the echoing hallways of the palace, perhaps in the hope that she could a.s.sist whatever ritual the Doctor had devised to end this nightmare.

So it was that Scarlette, too, arrived in the central chamber and saw the Doctor dying in the centre of the Great Eye. So it was that she joined Fitz, and Anji, and Katya, and Mrs Gallacher, and a handful of the other ritualists who'd retreated to this place, all of them hovering at the Doctor's side. Those a.s.sembled cleared the way when they saw her hurrying across the great floor of the chamber in her riding-boots, and made s.p.a.ce for her at his head. The Doctor was still staring up at the ceiling, eyes dark, ribcage rising and falling far more slowly now. Anyone could see that his death was mere minutes away.

Then Scarlette, under the gaze of Fitz and Anji, put her hand under his neck and slowly lifted his head. He didn't respond, and there wasn't even any change to the rate of his breathing. All present watched as Scarlette lowered her face to his ear, and began to whisper.

The myth myth claims that she spoke of all the worlds she'd seen, while she'd been here in the Kingdom of Beasts. She allegedly told him that she'd seen untold alien cities, like 'dwellings on the Moon' (the notion of life on Mars hadn't occurred to anyone of importance other than Voltaire). She told him that if he should die then it wasn't just Earth which would be in peril. Hadn't the apes taken this place, this once-magnificent palace, from the Doctor's own world? Weren't they prepared to ravage claims that she spoke of all the worlds she'd seen, while she'd been here in the Kingdom of Beasts. She allegedly told him that she'd seen untold alien cities, like 'dwellings on the Moon' (the notion of life on Mars hadn't occurred to anyone of importance other than Voltaire). She told him that if he should die then it wasn't just Earth which would be in peril. Hadn't the apes taken this place, this once-magnificent palace, from the Doctor's own world? Weren't they prepared to ravage any any world, in the form of apes or reptiles or bats or whatever else? Wasn't the universe itself at stake here? world, in the form of apes or reptiles or bats or whatever else? Wasn't the universe itself at stake here?

How anyone else heard her words remains untold. The effect of them, however, is clear. The effect was absolutely nil. Once she'd finished her speech, Scarlette ...looked into his eyes, and saw that nothing was there.

Finally, she had to concede defeat. Slowly, very slowly, she lowered his head again. She looked up at Fitz then, and Fitz could only shake his head, though Anji glanced at him as if to say: 'so, what do we do now?'

There was a noise from outside the chamber, at that point. The humans in the halls of the palace were falling back, crying out, some of them screaming as if the animals had already fallen on them. Those gathered around the Doctor became more anxious still, as news reached the chamber that the apes had ceased their random a.s.saults on the human defenders. Instead, the animals seemed to have adopted fire fire as their weapon of choice. The front of the building, said the cries, had been set aflame. The robed apes, the 'shamans' of the ape-race who'd given their blessing to the King himself, had approached the palace bearing lighted sticks and branches. The hall beyond the gateway had been torched, and now the blaze was spreading inwards, helped by the dry breeze from outside. The floor may have been stone, but there were untold 'pipes and conduits' possibly rubber beneath those flagstones, which were all too ready to burn. The humans had fallen back, and some of the apes had advanced, too mindless to understand the threat of fire to their own persons. Even now it was burning the apes as well, a handful of the creatures already rolling over and over in the hallways in an attempt to put out their pelts. as their weapon of choice. The front of the building, said the cries, had been set aflame. The robed apes, the 'shamans' of the ape-race who'd given their blessing to the King himself, had approached the palace bearing lighted sticks and branches. The hall beyond the gateway had been torched, and now the blaze was spreading inwards, helped by the dry breeze from outside. The floor may have been stone, but there were untold 'pipes and conduits' possibly rubber beneath those flagstones, which were all too ready to burn. The humans had fallen back, and some of the apes had advanced, too mindless to understand the threat of fire to their own persons. Even now it was burning the apes as well, a handful of the creatures already rolling over and over in the hallways in an attempt to put out their pelts.

When she heard this, Scarlette is said to have glanced once more at the fallen Doctor. Once more, and for the last time, she seems to have been looking to him for guidance. Hoping against hope that he'd supply an escape route, even now.

Of course, the Doctor said nothing. So Scarlette stood, taking a deep breath, and turned to face those warriors who'd a.s.sembled here in the chamber. She opened her mouth, ready to deliver what she must have intended to be her last and most impressive speech. It had had to be. It could only have been a ma.s.s for the dead and dying. to be. It could only have been a ma.s.s for the dead and dying.

It's impossible to guess what Scarlette might have told her audience. Because as things turned out, her jaw froze as soon as it had opened, and her attention strayed to one of the many great archways which ringed this most magnificent (if broken) of chambers. The attention of the others soon followed.

It's not known how Sabbath entered the palace. The memoirs suggest that he didn't enter the chamber by the same route as the others, so possibly he'd worked out some path into the heart of the palace which circ.u.mvented the gateway, the apes and the flames. He stood there in the high archway, his greatcoat flapping around him in the hot breeze from the entrance, his shaven head lowered so that he faced the chamber like a bull about to charge. Juliette stood at his shoulder, attentive and alert, so neatly turned out in her black dress (and with her long hair sc.r.a.ped back across her head, a tidiness unknown during her stay at the House) that she might have been mistaken for a soldier.

It was the first time Scarlette and Sabbath had come face to face since the horrors of 1780. They regarded each other for a while, it's said, Scarlette with her head held high and her jaw set firm. According to one source, she actually hissed hissed when she saw him, like a feral animal protecting its territory. It's possible that the territory in question was the Doctor. As for Juliette... Scarlette refused to even acknowledge her. when she saw him, like a feral animal protecting its territory. It's possible that the territory in question was the Doctor. As for Juliette... Scarlette refused to even acknowledge her.

Without a word, Sabbath stepped forward. Even the most hardened warriors in the chamber, even elementals like Fitz and Anji, couldn't help but take a step back. Only Scarlette stood her ground, especially when it became clear that Sabbath was walking towards the Doctor. Yet all he said, when he was a mere three yards away from the p.r.o.ne body, was: 'I know what's wrong.'

If he'd said anything else, if he'd greeted her or called her by her name or made any attempt to talk himself into her favour, then things might have been different. But when he spoke those words, Scarlette paused for only 'the briefest of moments' before she stood aside. Surely Fitz and Anji must have tensed their muscles, or felt like crying out, when Sabbath moved to stand over the Doctor's body?

In the silence which followed, Scarlette glanced at Juliette still standing in the archway just the once. If anything pa.s.sed between them, then it isn't recorded.

And what Sabbath did next isn't recorded either, at least not accurately. It's unthinkable that those present might have left the room at this point, with the fire and the apes bearing down on them. So there's no real explanation for the fact that n.o.body, not even Scarlette herself, ever wrote of Sabbath's actions in full. The only account which can be called called an account came from Lucien Malpertuis, who'd been one of the last Maroons to enter the chamber. an account came from Lucien Malpertuis, who'd been one of the last Maroons to enter the chamber.

Lucien had a penchant for exaggeration and metaphysical imagery. What follows is his testimony, but it must not not be taken literally. Though it's unquestionably based on real events, it's a fairy-tale version of the story, drenched in symbolism. That Sabbath performed some form of operation is clear, but even Sabbath himself wouldn't have claimed the supernatural powers invested in him by this account. The reader should make his or her own mind up about the true nature of the procedure. be taken literally. Though it's unquestionably based on real events, it's a fairy-tale version of the story, drenched in symbolism. That Sabbath performed some form of operation is clear, but even Sabbath himself wouldn't have claimed the supernatural powers invested in him by this account. The reader should make his or her own mind up about the true nature of the procedure.

The Man Sabbath stepped to the fore so that his shadow fell across the body of this Doctor... the Doctor was so sick by this time [that] his eyes were black as pitch, and all knew that soon he would be dead. The Man Sabbath had no feeling or sentiment on this. He knelt to one side of the Doctor's body, without hesitating, and he lifted his arm which we saw was sheathed in a glove of black [rubber?] up to his elbow...What I saw next was an act of which the spirits themselves would be proud. He had no charm to protect him, but the Man Sabbath plunged his arm into the chest of the Doctor until his hand had all but gone. Whether he cut the flesh first I cannot say, although the women there [not Scarlette, we can a.s.sume] were struck by horror. While he worked in the unfortunate's chest he spoke, and I was put in mind of those lessons taught here [in Scotland, where Lucien wrote this account] when a doctor will instruct his students as he cuts into a body. The matters he spoke of were matters of the Doctor, his patient, and also the ways of the Doctor's lodge.

Lucien's account is garbled here, full of West Indian mysticism, so it's best to precis precis it. Sabbath explained to all those present that each elemental, when it left its own world to visit places such as the Earth, had to be it. Sabbath explained to all those present that each elemental, when it left its own world to visit places such as the Earth, had to be rooted rooted in its native soil (the Doctor's in its native soil (the Doctor's Ruminations Ruminations suggest as much, and the implication is that this 'rooting' was in some way related to the processes of the TARDIS). Yet this faculty was so taken for granted by the Doctor's kind that they never even considered its exact workings. Buried deep in the body of each elemental, said Sabbath, was a link a blood-tie, the women of Henrietta Street might have called it which anch.o.r.ed the elemental to his own realm, which ensured his survival and 'integrity' when he left his world of origin. Sabbath, perhaps inspired by his Serviceman's training, called this link 'the Great Eye'. suggest as much, and the implication is that this 'rooting' was in some way related to the processes of the TARDIS). Yet this faculty was so taken for granted by the Doctor's kind that they never even considered its exact workings. Buried deep in the body of each elemental, said Sabbath, was a link a blood-tie, the women of Henrietta Street might have called it which anch.o.r.ed the elemental to his own realm, which ensured his survival and 'integrity' when he left his world of origin. Sabbath, perhaps inspired by his Serviceman's training, called this link 'the Great Eye'.

But in the Doctor's case, there was a problem. Legend had it that the Doctor's home had been lost many years previously. As a result: That part of this Doctor which rooted him to his home had become poison to him... the organ through which he was watched by the Great Eye, by which the powers of the elemental world were pa.s.sed to him, had grown sick and corrupt. It tried to grant him the privileges of a world long since dead... and so had pumped into his body all the disease and darkness of a kingdom reduced to black nothingness.

n.o.body could seriously be asked to believe that Sabbath literally opened up the right-hand side of Doctor's chest, at least not without some instruments of cutting. Yet when they allude to the event at all, the other witnesses acknowledge that some some operation was performed, even if it was far more complex than Lucien suggests. operation was performed, even if it was far more complex than Lucien suggests.

But at the end of it all, his hand removed from the Doctor's chest, Sabbath turned around to face all those gathered in the chamber. There must have been looks of horror on the faces of everyone there, from Juliette to Fitz, from Scarlette to Anji, from the Maroons to the Masons, if Lucien's tale is in the least bit true. If Sabbath really did face them, with his gloved hand held out before him, a still-beating heart in its palm. A heart which was as cancerous and as sick as the Doctor himself had been, a heart as black as pitch and pulsing with the same bile which had, apparently, often been seen flecking the Doctor's beard. Or, as Emily put it in a letter to one of her acquaintances: Mr. S had at last acqired that devise which he believ'd rooted the elemental to his home and allowed him safe pa.s.sage between worlds... finally he had found the Black Hart.

It was then, notes Lucien, that the Doctor's eyes cleared of their black vapour. It was then that he opened his mouth and began the longest of all screams.

12.

The House The Doctor, as Himself February 1783. A whole year, to the week, since Scarlette had returned home from an afternoon in Marylebone alongside a curious man in a velvet coat who'd claimed to have something of a heritage.