Doctor Who: The Aztecs (13 page)

Susan picked up the medallion. ‘We must take this back to Autloc.’

‘Leave it,’ said Cameca, ‘Autloc has gone.’

The Doctor had placed his pulley-wheel beside the strip of silk behind the curtain and made Barbara stand on the throne, her arms stretched up above her head with the coiled snake bracelet held between her hands. He made a few mental calculations.

‘Exemplary, my dear,’ he said. ‘You may come down now’

Barbara, with less than God-like grace, clambered off the throne, though in the final stages the Doctor did offer her his hand. ‘As soon as Susan and Ian are here’ he said,’you must insist that Autloc has them released.’ ‘Doctor, this temple will soon be lined with warriors and Tlotoxl will be present,’ Barbara replied. ‘Do you believe Autloc will be on our side?’

‘I’m not a bad judge of character,’ the Doctor said haughtily, ‘and Autloc will do all he can to help us. I shall do the rest.’

‘But your plan can’t work,’ Barbara protested, ‘we won’t escape. They’ll stop us.’

The Doctor was aggrieved. ‘My dear Miss Wright, the Aztecs will be preoccupied with their God, their human sacrifice, and an eclipse; he said. ‘What we do will be of no consequence to them.’

‘I’ll keep my fingers crossed,’ Barbara replied without conviction.

They heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Hide said Barbara and the Doctor ducked behind the brocade curtain of the alcove.

Tlotoxl limped into the temple. a razor-sharp obsidian knife in his hand. Behind him came twenty warriors armed with javelins. Barbara watched them from the throne as they took up their positions along the walls. Tlotoxl sidled over to her.

‘The procession has begun,’ he snarled, ‘the sacrifice awaits you

‘Where is the High Priest of Knowledge?’ Barbara asked.

‘Gone,’ Tlotoxl spat out the word.

‘Where?’ Barbara snapped back.

‘Who knows?’ Tlotoxl waved his arms. ‘Into the wilderness, perhaps.’

You have killed him.’ Barbara’s voice was cold, accusing.

Tlotoxl shook his head. ‘No,’ he hissed, ‘you destroyed his faith in Huitzilipochtli. Autloc will never return’

They made their way along the route Tonila had prescribed. The streets were deserted and the houses empty. As the Perfect Victim and Tonila mounted the stairs to the temple. the crowd moved to the square in front of the pyramid. Beyond an occasional ‘Turn here’ or ‘That way; the three of them did not speak, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts.

Ian knew that a final reckoning with Ixta was inevitable and, remembering all the warriors in the temple for the sacrifice to Tlaloc, realised he would be hopelessly outnumbered. But he also knew that Ixta would insist on single-handed combat, having made sure it would be a one-sided affair. Somehow, psychologically, he had to defeat Ixta.

Susan mentally had her fingers crossed and all her hopes were pinned on the possibility that her grandfather had dreamed up yet another near-miracle to see them out of trouble.

Camera thought only of her beloved Doctor, whom she knew she would lose when she delivered Susan and Ian to the temple.

They came to the side of the pyramid and went towards the entrance where Ixta stood.

‘I shall see us past,’ Cameca said and when they reached Ixta she congratulated him on his appointment and added that she had been charged with delivering Susan to the temple. Ixta put his hand on Ian’s shoulder. ‘Where is Ian?’ he asked.

‘He follows with two other warriors,’ Ian replied, disguising his voice as heavily as he could and pointing vaguely behind him.

‘Escort them to the temple,’ Ixta said.

The first victory, though a minor one, Ian thought as he followed Susan and Cameca up the stairs — nonetheless a victory.

The Perfect Victim and Tonila came into the temple. Tlotoxl, ignoring Barbara on the throne, led them ceremoniously out onto the terrace so that all the people in the square below could see them. The Perfect Victim spread out his arms as if to embrace them all. Tlotoxl drew Tonila to one side.

‘First, as the sun is overshadowed, the handmaiden will be tortured and rendered blind,’ he hissed, ‘then Ixta will despatch Ian with his club and cast him off. And as total darkness comes I shall honour Huitzitipochtli with the perfect sacrifice. After which I shall deal with her,’ Tlotoxl jerked his head back towards Barbara, then took Tonila by the arm. ‘Autloc has gone,’ he whispered, ‘so you are now the High Priest of Knowledge’

‘I shall stand forever at your side,’ Tonila replied with a bow.

Ixta waited for the two warriors to bring Ian, but they didn’t appear and already the moon was edging its way in front of the sun. Suddenly, the truth dawned on him. The masked warrior who had taken Cameca and Susan to the temple was Ian. With a shout of rage, Ixta raced up the stairs.

Cameca and Susan entered the temple with Ian, who silently mouthed the words ‘the Doctor’ to Barbara. She glanced at the second brocade curtain. At least the four of them were in the temple, Ian thought, but so were the Perfect Victim, Tonila, Tlotoxl and twenty warriors with javelins. He turned to Cameca.

‘For your own safety, go now, Cameca,’ he said gently, ‘and thank you.’

Cameca smiled bravely. ‘Say farewell to the Doctor for me,’ she said and he stepped from behind the curtain to take her hand in his.

‘Goodbye, Cameca,’ he said.

She touched his face with her hand and left the temple.

Tlotoxl stood on the terrace, looking up at the sun. A quarter was covered by the moon. Thorns lay on the altar.

‘Seize the handmaiden so that she may be punished; he ordered.

Two warriors grabbed Susan by her arms. ‘Grandfather,’ she called out.

The Doctor took a step towards her, but Ian stopped him with his hand as Barbara stood up.

‘I, the Great Spirit of Yetaxa, forbid this punishment,’ she commanded.

Tlotoxl limped into the temple from the terrace. ‘You forbid it?’ he snarled. ‘Must I then order warriors to restrain you as you witness the thorns being thrust in and her eyes being gouged out?’

‘I shall bring the thorns to you,’ Ian said.

‘Do so,’ Tlotoxl replied, staring at Barbara.

Ian went to the altar and picked up the thorns one by one. Then he glanced up at the sun which was now one-third covered. Both Barbara and the Doctor wondered what Ian was up to.

‘Make haste, the darkness descends,’ Tlotoxl hissed. ‘In obedience, High Priest,’ Ian replied calmly, and threw the thorns over the parapet.

For an instant Tlotoxl gaped at the masked face. ‘You, he snarled. As Ian took off his mask, he turned to the warriors. ‘Strike him down; he ordered.

‘No,’ Ixta roared as he entered the temple. ‘He is mine,’ and he advanced menacingly towards Ian. ‘I was worried it would be dark before you got here,’ Ian said. backing round the sacrificial altar, making sure he kept it between himself and Ixta.

‘Despatch him.’ the High Priest of Sacrifice barked. ‘The darkness comes.’

Susan, Barbara and the Doctor held their breath. ‘Does it?’ Ian asked as he took the biggest gamble of his life. He unclipped the pencil-torch from the inside of his loincloth and shone it on Ixta’s face. ‘Then let there be light’

The Chosen Warrior’s advance faltered. Ian flicked off the torch then put it back on again. Ixta’s eyes dilated with fear as Ian aimed the beam of light at the cudgel and reflected rays bounced of the gold studs. With a horrified gasp, Ixta dropped it and Ian walked towards him flicking the torch on and off. Ixta backed away.

‘The darkness comes, perfect sacrifice mast be made,’ Tlotoxl screamed so Ian shone the torch on the High Priest’s face who cowered back against the wall. With the beam of light off him, Ixta made a dash along the parapet edge towards Ian.

‘Chesterton!’ the Doctor shouted his warning, and Ian swept the light back onto Ixta’s face.

The Chosen Warrior checked himself, tried to turn away, over-balanced and hurtled screaming to his death two hundred and fifty feet below.

‘Now, Barbara,’ the Doctor murmured. She pulled off the bracelet while the Doctor took his pulley-wheel and the silk strip from behind the curtain. Ian came in from the terrace shining the torch on the Aztec faces. When Tonila’s was lit up, he sank babbling to his knees. Tlotoxl shielded his eyes but didn’t move. Barbara threaded the bracelet through the hole in the middle of the pulley-wheel. The Doctor passed the silk over the groove and Barbara stood on the throne, holding the bracelet at arm’s-length above her head. Susan ducked behin the brocaded curtain, gathered up the two bundles of clothes and dashed to the wall.

‘Get your fingers under the wall as soon as you can, Susan,’ the Doctor said as he tugged gently on the silk. The wall began to move.

‘It’s working, Grandfather; Susan said as she dug her fingers under the base of the wall and helped to lift it up.

‘Had to,’ the Doctor replied, ‘motion, dynamics, thrust. Everybody ready?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Then off we go’

Barbara clambered down from the throne, Susan grabbed their clothes, and with Ian last, still keeping the light shining on frightened faces, they went into Yetaxa’s tomb pulling in the silk strip with them. The wall closed behind them as Tlotoxl scrambled to his feet.

‘Sacrifice, sacrifice,’ he screamed and two warriors went with him onto the terrace to lay out the Perfect Victim on the altar. Tlotoxl looked up at the dark sky, the sun now totally eclipsed, and raised the obsidian knife above his head.

‘Huitzilipochtli, great God of the Sun,’ he chanted, ‘give us hack your light as we, in your honour, make you perfect sacrifice.’ He plunged the knife into the Perfect Victim’s chest...

Inside the tomb everyone took a moment to catch their breath. Ian switched off the torch as the light from inside the TARDIS seemed sufficient. The Doctor took Yetaxa’s bracelet from Barbara and began unthreading his pulley-wheel.

‘Mustn’t leave them something they haven’t got,’ he observed, ‘it would confuse Cortez and his conquistadores no end.’ He snagged the snake’s head on the edge of the central hole. ‘Chesterton, some light, please.’ Ian pressed the button but nothing happened. ‘Light, dear chap,’ the Doctor insisted.

‘Sorry, Doctor,’ Ian replied, shaking the pencil-torch a couple of times, ‘I think the battery’s dead.’

Barbara ran her fingers around Yetaxa’s mask. ‘I failed, Doctor,’ she said.

‘It was inevitable, my dear,’ he replied, overcoming the problem with the pulley-wheel.

‘Then what’s the point of us wandering through time and space?’ she asked. ‘We can’t change anything. We’re observers. Nothing more. Tlotoxl had already won the moment he first set eyes on us’

‘Yes, my dear,’ the Doctor replied philosophically as he laid the bracelet on the slab beside the skeleton. ‘And the one man I had respect for, I deceived,’ Barbara said in self-accusation. ‘I lied to Auttoc, I gave him false hope and in the end he lost his faith.’

‘The last time I spoke to him, he said he would pray to Quetzecoatl for us. Not Huitzilipochtli, my dear,’ the Doctor replied.’No, through you he found another faith, a better one. You couldn’t save a civilisation, Barbara, but you helped one man.’

‘I hope so,’ she said and went into the TARDIS.

The Doctor put the pulley-wheel into his pocket and felt something else. He took it out and even in the dim light of the tomb he knew it was the brooch Camera had given to him in the garden. It came from the tomb therefore it should be left in the tomb, he thought, but then again Cameca had given it to him as a present, so he slipped it back into his pocket, went into the TARDIS and closed the door.

Revision Notes:

Initial Scan by samscud
Ver 1.0: Converted to html and proofread by ST7