As one, they descended towards the shrine.

'Oh dear,' said Chris and the Doctor.

After that, things really started to get interesting.

64.

7.Coffin cure

Joel wriggled his shoulders again, wishing he could get the crick out of his neck.

Penelope was getting very antsy. Either that or she had a cramp in her leg.

Joel hoped she didn't have claustrophobia. There hadn't been time for her to protest when the villagers had pushed the pair of them into the box.

He remembered the first time he'd seen her, a dishevelled madwoman in a police lockup in Swindon. She had summoned what was left of her resolve, looked him in the eye and told him that she came from the year 1883. When he had believed her, she'd nearly fallen over.

She was all determination and no experience. They had a lot of people like that in the railroad these days. After thirteen years Joel was familiar with five local alien races and had met two dozen, maybe three dozen more. Whenever they got someone new on staff a ufologist or psychic who'd tracked them down, more often than not Joel loved introducing them to whatever aliens were being harboured in Little Caldwell, and watching their brains shut down with amazement.

He'd never seen Penelope achieve that deer-in-headlights state. She was too curious to let anything really bamboozle her. He could imagine her up a tree in the Amazon, ruthlessly tweezering new species of scorpion into labelled boxes. Or in the appliances section of a big department store, going berserk with a magnifying gla.s.s and a bunch of screwdrivers.

He stuck his eye up against the hole again. No one. The villagers had left when the commotion had started outside. It had been, what, fifteen minutes?

Twenty minutes?

Penelope risked a whisper. 'Did you hear something?'

'No,' said Joel. 'It's gone much too quiet.'

'Maybe we should get out of this box.'

They both looked up at the lid. Joel said, 'Let's give it another few minutes.'

The shouting started again.

65.The heads had spent about three minutes inside the shrine. They must have been jammed in there earlobe to earlobe. At last they came floating out in single file, twittering, rose above the village, and drifted away like neglected balloons.

Chris murmured, 'Maybe the samurai will be too freaked out to check out the shrine.'

Captain Hadankyou was standing in the square, his katana katana still drawn after the sudden invasion. He shouted orders to his scattered warriors and stomped across to the shrine. still drawn after the sudden invasion. He shouted orders to his scattered warriors and stomped across to the shrine.

'Maybe,' said Chris, 'they won't notice anything unusual.'

There was a brilliant flash of light inside the shrine. Captain Hadankyou came flying out, backwards, landing in an undignified position in the dirt.

One of their guards jumped down and ran towards his fallen commander.

The Doctor tried to head towards the shrine, but the other guard shouted, 'Stand still!' The Time Lord fidgeted, trying to see what was going on.

'Power discharge?' said Chris. 'If that thing is a satellite. . . '

Captain Hadankyou had obviously decided that a full-scale a.s.sault on the shrine was the only honourable step to be taken. He shrilled orders to his men, who surrounded him, weapons drawn.

'Five credits on the pod,' said Chris.

'No bet,' said the Doctor.

The ma.s.s a.s.sault on the shrine was hampered by the fact that only one person could get through the door at a time. Undaunted, the samurai pushed their way into the small building, all trying to be first.

Chris realized his hair was blowing around. He pushed it out of his face.

'Looks like we're in for nasty weather,' he said.

'Hmm,' said the Doctor. 'I think the pod has finally noticed all the attention it's getting.'

'You know what?' said Chris. 'I bet it's a sentient machine.'

'Now that that I'll take you up on,' said the Doctor. 'I'm leaning towards a cun-ningly disguised super-weapon myself.' I'll take you up on,' said the Doctor. 'I'm leaning towards a cun-ningly disguised super-weapon myself.'

'Could be a sentient super-weapon,' said Chris.

Outside the shrine, one of the samurai yelled as he was lifted into the air by an invisible hand. A group of the warriors found themselves being pushed back from the shrine by a force they couldn't see.

The Doctor said, 'All those with psychokinesis, raise my hand.'

Chris asked, 'Projected energy fields?'

'Perhaps,' said the Doctor.

Lightning jumped out of nowhere and struck a nearby tree. A tree jumped out of the ground and struck a nearby samurai. Chris realized that the vil-66 lagers were watching the proceedings from a safe distance, the little crowd forming a semicircle. Confident in their G.o.d's powers.

The warriors who had gone into the shrine emerged at a run. One was afire, his banner burning. He rolled hard across the ground, putting out the flames.

Captain Hadankyou shouted more orders, and his samurai formed a line opposite the shrine.

'Standoff,' said Chris.

'Mmm.' The Doctor saw his companion's frown and sheepishly put his crossword back in his pocket. 'They'll probably strut about briefly to re-establish their credentials, and then make a very rapid tactical withdrawal. I don't expect anything else of interest will happen.'

Penelope and Joel heard the noise at the same moment. They froze in their awkward positions.

Someone, thought Penelope, must have come into the hut without their realizing. Someone was moving around out there. Up there. Perhaps hopefully someone had come to take Kame's body away.

Mr Mintz reached out and grasped her arm. Penelope froze in place, surprised by the gesture.

She stayed perfectly still as someone removed the body from the trunk's lid.

She even stayed still when she heard them leaving, and was possessed by a violent urge to push open the lid of the trunk and emerge, raving, back into the light.

When Kame came roaring back out of the hut, sword flashing in the light, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. The Plum samurai broke ranks and scattered, shouting.

The villagers watched in awed silence as their recently deceased protector stormed across the square. 'Come on, you cowards!' he yelled. 'Who's for a fight?'

The two samurai jumped down from the veranda, forgetting about Chris and the Doctor. Their courage thinned out when they got closer to the enemy and saw it was the man their captain had cut down that morning.

Captain Hadankyou made a half-hearted foray towards Kame, as though to get a better look. Even from the veranda, Chris could see the great splash of blood on the front of the samurai's armour, the flecks of red across his cheek and jaw.

Chris turned to the Doctor. The Time Lord was transfixed, watching Kame's progress with his mouth hanging open, the pencil hanging down from his bottom lip.

67.Two of the villagers had broken from their reverie, and were pulling open the gate. The Plum samurai backed towards it, keeping their eyes on Kame.

One by one, they went outside the village wall, the captain last. The two villagers closed the gate behind them without a word.

Kame struck the gate with the hilt of his sword and bellowed, 'Good riddance! We don't need noisy fellows like you here!'

He turned back to look around the astonished village, and let out a great laugh.

The Doctor made a beeline for the shrine. Kame was wandering through the square, surrounded by villagers touching his armour and hair to see if he was real.

'Kuriisu-san!' roared the samurai, spotting the Adjudicator. Chris stepped down and walked towards him.

The deep wound in Kame's throat was gone, except for a ragged red line.

'You look great for a dead man,' said Chris.

Kame laughed. 'It is Kannon's blessing,' he said. 'When those barbarians tried to desecrate her shrine, I heard her calling me back from the land of the dead.' He clasped Chris's shoulder. 'At first I was reluctant, having died so well, but then I realized this would be an opportunity to die again for her honour!'

Chris turned. The Doctor had emerged unscathed from the shrine. 'Things have quietened down again,' he said, 'but who knows how long it will last?

Where are Penelope and Joel?'

An elderly couple glanced at each other. 'We must go and let them out!'

said the woman, and the pair scurried back to their hut.

' Kaimon! Kaimon! ' '

Everyone turned to look at the gate. 'Open up!' shouted the voice again.

Chris sighed. Kame's hand went to the hilt of his sword. The Doctor tucked his pencil behind his ear.

68.

8.Waiting for the demons

Aoi looked up at the crude gate of Hekison village. He stroked his horse's mane, and the animal quietened. He wished he could soothe away his own apprehension as easily.

They'd taken shelter in the forest, once Aoi's father was sure the demons were not following. They'd taken turns on watch, but Aoi found himself half asleep almost until dawn, every chittering bird and snapping twig the sound of an approaching demon. When he did sleep, he dreamt of the foreigner's eyes.

After that mad ride through the blackness it had been impossible to trace their steps. Kiiro had snorted, 'We won't find the foreigners again. The demons rescued them or the demons ate them. Forget them.'

'Then we will proceed to Hekison.' Father took out his map. 'First we'll stop in the town of Toshi for supplies. It's not far out of the way. We can still reach Hekison by midday.'

It was in Toshi that the messenger had found them. Aoi remembered him from Gufuu's palace, one of the daimyo's pages. The young man had jumped down from his horse as they stood outside an inn. He had bowed to Aoi's father. 'I was sent to find you,' he panted. 'There's a message from the daimyo.'

' Kaimon! Kaimon! ' shouted Aoi's father again, bringing the young samurai back to the present. ' shouted Aoi's father again, bringing the young samurai back to the present.

The gate opened an inch. The little man who called himself Isha put his head around the great wooden door.

'h.e.l.lo again,' he said. He slipped out, and the gate thumped shut behind him.

Aoi's father dismounted and bowed low. The Doctor returned the bow.

'I have an invitation from Gufuu Kocho, daimyo of Han, Daini and Sanban Districts,' said Aoi's father. He presented the scroll with both hands. The Doctor took it in both hands and bowed. He opened the message and read.

69.Aoi watched the strange little man. He remembered those odd eyes, changing colour as they lulled him. If there was devilry anywhere here, it was in those eyes.

'Can I bring a friend?' said the Doctor.

Penelope had been out of the trunk for half an hour now. She didn't feel as if she was free. She felt walled in, trapped in the dark.

Perhaps part of it came from the events that had taken place during their confinement: Mr Cwej had given them a quick precis. She was surrounded on all sides by the bewildering, with no way back to her own ordinary world.

Now she, a stiff-necked Mr Mintz and a frowning Mr Cwej were waiting outside the shrine, eyes on the gate, while the Doctor concluded his negotiations.

Kame the samurai was practising sword strokes in the village square, watched by an a.s.sortment of small children and young men. He seemed filled with vigour, even electricity. With new life.

Penelope shook her head. 'He cannot have been resurrected,' she said aloud.

'It is impossible. He must not have been as badly injured as you thought.'

Mr Cwej shrugged. 'He was very dead. And now he's alive.'

'Psychic healing?' said Mr Mintz. 'Possession? Alien symbiotes?'