'Eppur si Muove'
7. A Place as Dark as Night
"I hate this, you know," the Doctor said to Galileo Galilei as they heard the key twisting in the lock of the door that separated their small, cramped cell from the rest of the Archbishop's house's rather expansive and impressive wine cellar. "Being locked up. It gets old."
"I know," the old scientist said, his shoulders slumped. The cell was empty but for a few empty barrels piled in one corner, and with the Doctor's help he set two of them up as seats. "What will become of my children, Doctor?"
The Doctor smiled, and patted his new friend's arm. "They'll be fine, signor. They really will. We just need to get out of here before Alessandro gets to the Piazza del Campo."
"Why, though, Doctor?" Galileo asked. "While I prefer that weasel of a man not get the credit for bringing the killers to justice, it's better that then they be allowed to continue their dark works, is it not?"
"It'll get him killed," the Doctor said. Alessandro had had two of the Archbishop's guards take them at sword-point to the cellar, where they'd been locked up without a second thought. Galileo had demanded to be allowed to see the Archbishop, but he was still at church following the dawn Mass. The Doctor hadn't joined Galileo sitting on the barrels, and was instead examining the stone around the wall. "I wasn't exaggerating when I saw that there was a monster lurking down there."
"Alessandro is a useful hand with a blade," Galileo assured the Doctor.
"It won't matter," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "Unless we get out of here, he'll be as dead as all the others."
"You still want to save his life?" Galileo said, and the Doctor saw he was confused. "Despite all he threatened you with?"
The Doctor shrugged. "He threatened me because he is a scared little man with a small mind. He still doesn't deserve to die."
"You're a better man than I," the old man told him.
The Doctor laughed and shook his head. "I'm really not." A few moments later, he concluded that there was no way he would be able to shimmy either the door or its hinges free from the stone. Alessandro had confiscated his sonic screwdriver, and the Doctor realised there was absolutely no way they'd be able to get free without some help on the outside. "Damn it."
"What can we do?" Galileo asked.
The Doctor shrugged. "Wait."
"Where is your friend?"
"You wouldn't happen to know Luigi the Jew and his daughter Francesca would you?" the Doctor asked, but Galileo shook his head. "Francesca was attacked yesterday, and Sophie managed to rescue her. He spent last night at their house. She's keeping watch over them, making sure they're safe. I sent a man from the castle, Ferdinando, to join her."
"Ferdinando?" Galileo repeated. "He was the investigator in charge of tracking down the murderer before Alessandro arrived. A good man."
"Yes he is," the Doctor nodded. "Unfortunately, he's on the other side of the city now. What about Antonio, the priest in charge of the research?"
Galileo huffed. "Antonio? A more impious man I have never met!"
The Doctor was shocked. "I'm sorry?"
"I've read about him," Galileo explained. "He's mentioned several times in the city chronicles. Once he was brought up on charges of improper worship, though those charges were dropped."
"He seemed like a fairly unassuming fellow," the Doctor said, confused.
"I assure you he's not."
The Doctor remembered the man he'd seen the night before watching Luigi's house. He frowned. "Do you know if either Alessandro or Archbishop Piccolomini had a spy watching me last night?"
Galileo frowned. "I do not believe so."
The Doctor slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, silly Doctor! How did I not see it! There must have been something in the Archbishop's library about the discoveries in the catacombs, reports of odd behaviour down there. Antonio wasn't having a hard time finding information, he was covering it all up! It's not just a hand full of killers; it's a cult! It must be! And it makes sense, too. The cult has probably been influencing Siena for centuries, communing with the Vrigillian…"
"The what?" Galileo asked.
The Doctor ignored him, and stared around their cell one more time. There was nothing but a small, grate-like window near the top of the wall facing the cell door. There was no way they'd be able to get out through there, though, they were both much too large. The Doctor went over to it, and used a barrel to get a better view through it. He was staring out onto the courtyard through which the Archbishop had entered the house the day before.
"You're friends with Piccolomini, aren't you?" the Doctor asked.
Galileo nodded.
"Well, I guess we have to wait until he gets back."
"Then we follow Alessandro?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No, we've got to get out to Luigi's house, and make sure Sophie's safe." Even as he spoke the words, he had a sinking feeling in his gut that he was already too late.
Sophie Freeman came awake slowly, in stages, but the first thing she realised for sure was that she was restrained by the wrists and ankles to a slab of cold, hard stone. She realised, too, that she was blindfolded. She could smell mould and dust, and had the distinct impression that she was underground. She tried to remember what had happened, but could remember little after she'd opened the door. She had faint recollections of the attack, but after that all she remembered were brief flashes of impression; her bare feet on the city streets, people staring at her as she passed.
"Francesca," she whispered automatically, wondering what had become of her new friend. Unbidden, images of Chihiro came to mind; she saw the young woman's broken body, slumped over.
"Sophie?" she heard a return whisper come from right beside her. "Are you there?"
"Oh, thank God," Sophie said, and tried to struggle against her bonds, but they remained tight against her wrists. "Are you all right?"
"I don't think I'm hurt," she said. "Did you see what happened to my father?"
"No," she said, honestly. "I'm so sorry, Francesca. It's my fault."
"It's not," Francesca whispered insistently.
"It really is," came a voice; it belonged to a woman, but it sounded old. Not just in human terms, in… Sophie could think of no other word than geological. It was a voice as old as stone.
Sophie's blindfold was removed, and she found herself looking into the craggy features of an older woman. She and Francesca were lashed to a stone table in the centre of an enormous cavern, lined with stalagmites and stalactites, lit by hundreds upon hundreds of candles and adorned with red fabric flags, each printed with the image of the brand that had been burnt into the victims' skin. If Sophie titled her neck, she could see a lit brazier, which illuminated a shining black outcropping of rock.
"The Vrigillian," she said under her breath.
The old woman smiled. "I'm glad that I won't have to introduce you to my Master, Sophie Freeman. I see that you're already acquainted."
"The what?" Francesca said, but even as her friend spoke Sophie saw movement in the strange, flickering shadows cast by the candles. Robed and hooded figures, dozens of them, were emerging from the darkness. Francesca saw them and fell silent.
"Perhaps you recognise some of my compatriots," the Priestess said, beckoning over two of the hooded figures. They stepped across and dropped the cowls of their robes, revealing their features.
"Father Antonio!" Sophie erupted. "How could you?"
The old man ignored her. "Your orders, Priestess?"
She, in turn, ignored him, and showed the other man, a wiry, though thoroughly unremarkable man, to the retrained women. "This is Guido. An effective abductor, it turns out, even though you scared him off yesterday, Ms. Freeman."
Sophie blinked. This was the second time this woman, the Priestess, had said her name. "How do you know who I am?"
"I know everything about you, Ms. Freeman," the woman said with a dark, huntress' smile. "After all these time, all these sacrifices, it is your blood that the Master wants. Your sweet, chronon-infused blood."
"My what-on-infused blood?" Sophie repeated.
The Priestess' expression grew cold. "Oh, the things you must have seen, Sophie Freeman. Tell me, what does this world look like in the future? Do you all speak the name of my Master as you do? Do you all speak of the Vrigillians?"
Sophie was about to answer when the Priestess suddenly looked up. To Antonio, she said "There's an intruder. Bring him to me."
Alessandro found the entrance to the catacombs easily enough; he descended from a chapel on the street level of the Piazza del Campo, through a stone chamber crisscrossed with spider webs and burnt out torches, and entered through a small crack in the wall. He held his dagger before him and wriggled his way through the dank, musty tunnels. It did not take him long to find the grand cavern beneath the catacombs.
Dozens of dark-cloaked individuals crowded the chamber, and through the flickering candlelight the Vatican priest saw the two girls tied down on the stone table, saw the old woman stand above them. He saw the woman whisper something to one of her attendants, who slipped away from the unholy congregation. Alessandro considered his options. Perhaps he should escape the catacombs, gather together a force composed of city soldiers and the Archbishop's personal guard, and return en masse. Yes, he had his knife, and he was skilled in its use, but all those people would easily overwhelm him, and he decided he could not wait much longer to rid the world of their satanic evil.
He was about to get up and retrace his steps when he heard movement behind him. He whipped about, but too late; Antonio stepped from the darkness and cold-cocked him, knocking him to the ground.
Archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini was fuming when his carriage returned him to his residence. One of his guards had rushed to inform him that Alessandro had ordered the imprisonment of his guest, Signor Galileo Galilei and an agent of His Holiness, whom Piccolomini had guessed to be the Doctor. He had been unable to escape his ecclesiastical duties for several more hours, and had finally made his way back home. He stalked across the courtyard, wondering where Alessandro would have stashed his old friend, when he heard a voice coming from a narrow grate in the courtyard's pavers.
"Ascanio, my friend!"
Piccolomini froze, and went to the grate. Peering in, he saw his friend Galileo looking up at him, the old man clearly balancing on the shoulders of someone else.
"What has happened to you?" Ascanio demanded, not bothering to whisper. The guards that had accompanied him stared openly, but he didn't care.
"It was Alessandro," Galileo explained. "He locked me down here."
"He has gone too far!" Piccolomini said. "Wait a few moments, my friend, you shall be free."
Piccolomini beckoned his guards to follow him, and went into his house. He made haste for the wine cellar, which he knew had a cell built into it, a remnant of his predecessor's more active support for the inquisition. He found the door to the cellar guarded by two men, who moved to block his way.
"Step aside," he growled.
The men shared concerned looks. "We cannot, sir. Father Alessandro ordered us not to, and he speaks with the authority of His Holiness."
"I give not a damn for Alessandro's orders or his authority!" Piccolomini thundered; it was a long time since he had delivered his fire and brimstone sermons in the pulpit, but today he found that that flame was returning to him at the thought of Alessandro's disrespect for his authority as Archbishop of Siena. "Step aside, gentlemen. Do not make me ask you again."
The men hesitated. Alessandro signalled to the guards at his back, who drew their blades.
"Step aside, gentlemen," he repeated, "or I will have no compunction ordering these men to run you through."
The guards shared one more look, before nodding and stepping aside. Piccolomini brushed past them, but paused before he entered the cellar. "Give me the key to the cell," he demanded.
One of the guards handed him a key, and he nodded graciously. "Arrest them," he ordered his men.
The Archbishop hurried down the stairs, into the cellar, and over to the cells. He slid the key into the lock and wasted no time pulling it open. Galileo and the other prisoner, whom the Archbishop now saw was the Doctor, piled out immediately.
"Thank you, Archbishop," said the Doctor as he exited, "but I'm afraid I need one more favour."
"I agreed to free Galileo," the Archbishop said, "not you."
"And that would be a fine distinction to make ordinarily," the Doctor nodded in agreement, "but not today. I need Galileo and some men. Two or three of your guards."
"Galileo cannot leave my house," the Archbishop insisted, "and I'm not sure it would be wise to allow you freedom either, Doctor."
The Doctor sighed. "Archbishop, I don't have time to explain this to you, but I know who killed those girls. I know what they're going to do next, and I know how to stop them. I also have reason to believe that my companion may already have been captured. Now, please, get out of my way, let Galileo come with me, and lend me two of your guards."
The Archbishop shook your head. "Galileo is cannot leave this house."
"Oh, of course he can!" the Doctor cried in exasperation. "He's just not allowed to!"
Grabbing Galileo's hand, he pulled him towards the exit, not bothering to waste any more time. As they exited, they passed two of the Archbishop's guards, standing over the bloodied, unconscious form of the guards the Doctor recognised as having thrown him in the cell to begin with.
"Come with us," he told them, his tone making it clear that there was no room for argument. The Archbishop followed them, and the Doctor made a beeline, with the guards and Galileo in tow, for the Archbishop's stables, where he knew the man's carriage would be waiting.
"We found this on him," Antonio reported to the Priestess as two of his fellow robed cult members threw the unconscious Alessandro at her feet. He handed her a long, thin metal device, with a sculpted grip. Sophie recognised it immediately, but stayed silent.
The Priestess examined it. "Sonic technology," she said at length. "Most impressive."
The Doctor's sonic screwdriver, Sophie thought, and she looked down at Alessandro's body, which her other attacker was standing over, nudging with his foot. Finally, the Vatican priest came to and Guido hauled him to his feet.
"Where did you get this?" the Priestess demanded of him.
Alessandro didn't answer, and Sophie could see the fire in his eyes. "How dare you speak to me, you crone? Release me!"
The woman rolled her eyes. "Did you find a weapon on him?" she asked Antonio, who dutifully passed over the knife he'd collected from Alessandro.
"And you!" Alessandro barked at him. "You will not be spared the eternal damnation of hell, Antonio!"
"Oh, shut up, you fool," Antonio responded, voice dripping with disdain.
Alessandro was enraged, but he was restrained easily by Guido. The priest fought to get free, and it was now that Sophie decided to join the conversation. "What did you do with the Doctor, you bastard?" she demanded of him.
"What?" the Priestess asked Sophie. "Who is the Doctor?"
"My friend," Sophie said, and blinked. "How do you know who I am and not who the Doctor is?"
"So the Doctor is the owner of this device," the Priestess surmised, displaying the sonic screwdriver. "Who is he?"
Sophie remained stolidly silent, hoping against hope that the Doctor was already on his way. She didn't want to give him away, to ruin the element of surprise that may be the only hope of survival she and Francesca had left.
"You don't need to answer," the Priestess said, and handed the screwdriver back to Antonio. She stepped towards Sophie and pressed her hand on the woman's forehead. Sophie felt a pressure in her temples, like tendrils digging into her brain, pulling it apart, searching for something.
"What are you doing to her?" Francesca screeched; Sophie's eyes had rolled backwards, and she began to seize, pulling against her bondage. The Priestess ignored her, the cult and Alessandro watching the proceedings in stunned silence. Finally, the Priestess released her, and she stopped seizing with a gasp.
"A Time Lord…" the Priestess said under her breath, and then to Sophie: "My Master thought you would be enough to awaken him, time travelling Sophie Freeman, but it's nice to know that we have a Time Lord and all that delicious, chronon-drenched blood to feast upon!"
"Feast?" Sophie repeated, somewhat groggy from the telepathic probing she'd just undergone.
"Like this," the Priestess said, and her hand snaked outwards like a darting cobra. She still carried Alessandro's knife, and with an easy, fluid gesture, she cut his throat. Francesca screamed and Sophie winced, her stomach disappearing into her feet, as Guido released his twitching body, blood gushing from the wound. It splashed against the black outcropping of rock.
The ground shook, almost imperceptibly, and the rock seemed to pulsate, though only for a moment.
The Priestess grinned. "My Master's appetite has been whetted." Then, to Guido, she said "Prepare the brand."
They found Luigi out cold on the floor of his house, with no sign of Sophie or Francesca. The trip from the Archbishop's home to Luigi's had only taken a matter of minutes, the Doctor driving two galloping horses through the streets of Siena; the denizens, now awoken and going about their daily business, had flattened themselves against the sides of the buildings they passed.
The Doctor ordered the Archbishop's guards to help Luigi back to the Archbishop's house, and if either one of them felt uncomfortable associating with a Jew, neither of them spoke up. He quickly moved through the house, looking for any sign of Sophie, Ferdinando or Francesca.
"They're gone," he told Galileo, who remained waiting near the front door, which they had found open. "This is worse than I thought."
"Your friend is in danger," Galileo said, but the Doctor shook his head.
"It's worse than that," the Doctor said, and even as he spoke, he took Galileo by the arm and took him back towards the carriage they'd left outside the house, watched over by a group of young boys that had been standing nearby, perhaps gossiping about what had happened earlier that morning. "If they have Sophie, the whole city is in danger."
"But how?"
The Doctor explained to Galileo, in the simplest terms he could, about the Vrigillian. "It feeds off of the energies in blood. The psychic remnants of human lives in the fluid that makes it all possible. Sophie's blood is, well, special. She's not from around here. Chronon energy will have infused every single cell. It's exactly what that creature needs to wake up."
"Then we must waste no time, Doctor!" Galileo said, and the two dashed towards the carriage as fast as their legs could carry them.
The cult had gathered around Sophie and Francesca, lashed to the stone table, as the Priestess began to rant in tongues. The members, including Antonio and Guido, knelt, were slowly bowing in rhythm with the Priestesses prayers. The black stone was still bathed in the blood of Alessandro, whose prone body lay on the floor, and every now and then it seemed to pulsate. Two cult members placed urns on either side of the table, and Sophie realised that they were at the right position to catch blood that would pour from their slit throats.
Those same cult members moved to the brazier left beside the stone. The Priestess had left the sonic screwdriver lying on top of the stone, and went to the brazier as the cult members took over the chanting. She grasped the handle brand and pulled it free; Sophie was desperately terrified, but she fought the urge to cry, while Francesca had broken down into heartrending sobs.
"And now we will sacrifice you," the Priestess said, bearing down upon the prone young women with the brand held before her. Sophie saw the death's head, the ram's horns, the distended jaw, all lit in molten red and orange. "Your blood will feed the Master, and he in turn will feed on this city and the whole of this world!"
"I don't think so!" roared a voice from the entrance to the catacombs.
Sophie twisted about, trying to see who had shouted, but the cult was already on its feet, staring at the intruder. Galileo Galilei stood in the entryway, as bold as brass, his thickly bearded chin cocked at a haughty angle.
The Priestess, horrified at having her ritual interrupted, seemed at a loss for words. The cult just stared at the old scientist, and she moved her arms in a gesture of impotence before shouting "Get him!"
"I wouldn't," came a voice from behind her.
She and the cult spun about to find the Doctor leaning on the Vrigillian rock. He grinned at her, as she growled in rage.
"I'm the Doctor," he said, and he nodded towards Sophie. "You've got two of my friends here. Now, I don't want to hurt you. I do, however, want to stop you from hurting them, or anyone else, so the choice is yours. Put down the brand. Leave this chamber. Or be destroyed."
The Priestess laughed. "You think you can stop us all?"
"I don't need to stop all of you," the Doctor said, "I just need to destroy this rock."
"And how do you propose to destroy a rock?"
"There's a crystalline matrix in here," the Doctor said, smiling, and plucked his sonic screwdriver from on top of the rock. "The bioprint of your Master is stored in it. And you've left me my screwdriver, which, I assume you know, is sonic. All I need to do is find the right frequency and I can shatter the matrix, destroying your Master."
The Priestess roared and ran at the Doctor, wielding the brand like a sword. He lifted his hand to block the attack, but the sharp metal rod cut his skin. He grimaced from the pain, but easily pushed the woman aside. The brand went skittering across the rocky floor of the cavern, but the Doctor lost his footing and threw out his hand, pressing it against the cold stone of the Vrigillian pod. His blood began to sizzle as it made contact with the pod.
"Oh, no," he said, as he righted himself.
"Oh, yes," the Priestess said, pulling herself up. "A Time Lord's blood, so rich in the energies of the Vortex. A few drops is all my Master needs!"
It was the last thing she ever said. The cavern began to shake, and she lost her footing; the cult members sprawled across the stone floor, and Galileo, too, fell, but the Doctor managed to maintain his upright position as the black stone split in half, a deep red glow emerging from the interior. The Priestess' Basin fell and split open, its liquid flowing towards the red glow. The brazier shattered open, spilling hot coals across the floor of the chamber.
Sophie and Francesca screamed, but the Doctor couldn't move as the death's head cranium of the Vrigillian rose from the interior of its pod, a great beast given form by the Doctor's own blood. It was enormous, barely fitting into the chamber, its arms bulging with muscles, its flesh raw pink. It opened its distended jaws and gave another might howl, which filled the chamber. Loose rocks and dust fell from the ceiling, and the Doctor realised that the cavern was probably about to collapse. The Priestess was staring up at the creature in abject wonder, but with a bat of its hand it slapped her into the rock. She was killed instantly.
The monster advanced on the Doctor, but Sophie's scream pulled him from his shock. He turned on his heel and dashed towards the stone table, where Sophie and Francesca had been restrained. Galileo was already there, using the ritual knife to cut away their bonds. Guido was trying to pull him free, but with the preternatural strength of a man trying to help his friends, the old Pisan shoved him away.
Guido fell, right into the rampaging jaws and claws of the Vrigillian, which was chasing the Doctor. The Doctor reached Sophie, and used his sonic screwdriver to loosen the ropes. They came free, and he helped her up, just as Galileo freed Francesca.
"Run!" the Doctor cried, and turned back as the Vrigillian rose over him.
"But what about you?" Sophie asked desperately, as Galileo pulled on her hand. Francesca was already fleeing, but most of the cult was still standing, watching the creature in awe.
"Come on, girl!" Galileo told her.
"Go," the Doctor whispered, nodding. "I'll be with you soon."
Sophie nodded and ran, Galileo right behind her. Francesca reached the exit first, and they were hot on her heels. The Vrigillian had begun to attack the cult, consuming them and the energies in their blood. It was growing stronger, the Doctor knew, but the tremors running through the cavern were growing stronger too.
"You have to stop!" the Doctor cried. "If you keep doing this, the cavern will collapse! You'll be killed!"
The creature didn't care to listen, apparently. It continued to feast, and as the cult members tried to flee it easily caught them, cramming them into its already full gullet. The tremors only grew worse; the cavern was just seconds from collapsing. The Doctor could feel it in his bones. "Run!" he called to the cult members that remained. "All of you!"
With that, he bolted for the entrance to the cavern, and was gratified to see that most of the cult members were following him, led by Father Antonio. The man was clearly terrified, utterly panicked. The Doctor reached the entryway, and began to run upwards back into the catacombs, but the Vrigillian was close behind, carving through the cult members.
The tunnel was shaking hard enough to throw the Doctor to the ground now, and Antonio fell directly behind him. The Doctor turned back; rocks and dust were falling from the roof in showers now. The Vrigillian was getting closer.
"Give me your hand!" he cried to Antonio, but too late; the monster had already devoured him. The man screamed as the long, dagger-like teeth tore his flesh apart. The Doctor pushed himself up and ran, fast and hard, as the tunnel continued its collapse. As he ran, he thought of Sophie.
Rocks fell, and the Vrigillian gave one last cry of triumph and sated hunger as it was crushed.
At street level, Sophie, Galileo and Francesca burst into the sunny Siena day. Hundreds of people were in the Piazza del Campo, the largest open space in the city, though none of them looked fazed; Sophie realised that the tremors, however hard they must have felt underground, hadn't disturbed the surface. Francesca was still sobbing, clearly traumatised, and Galileo comforted her. Sophie turned back to the chapel leading from the catacombs.
Seconds seemed to drag by, before a figure emerged from the chapel; a long, dark coat covered in dust, and a tired, victorious smile.
"Doctor!" she cried, flinging herself into his arms.
He hugged her tight and said "Welcome to history, Sophie Freeman."