The castle ruins were impressive. Four large circular towers, two of which were mostly still standing. The path towards it was clear cut through grass and Jenny and Vastra passed through a gap in the walls to enter the main courtyard. They looked out across a marshy area, where children were fishing and playing.
"They look like mudlarks." Jenny commented, smiling nostalgically as she remembered her own days messing about on the edge of the Thames.
"The river must come right up to the edge of the castle at high tide, or during a flood." Vastra observed. They stood, leaning against the wall, watching the boats sailing on the river further out. "But there does not seem to be anything fantastical or otherworldly here. If there was, it would've affected the other children too." She pointed to where the children were stood, now looking up at them suspiciously.
"Wonder if there's any places around here that are." Jenny mused.
"What are you thinking?"
"Of Jenny Greenteeth. Stories. All the ones with enchanted sleeping people."
"I doubt Mr Jenkins would be very happy if his daughter stayed asleep for a hundred years."
"Time to get back to investigatin' then?" Jenny stood away from the wall.
On their way back to the farm they were waylaid by a middle-aged woman who darted out of her cottage when she saw them walking past.
"Hear you're lookin' into what happened. To Mari." She said in hushed tones, grabbing at Jenny's cloak. "I must tell you. Someone died before. You might too if you're not careful. They're dangerous."
"What are?" Jenny stepped closer to her.
"The Ellyllon. The Ellyllon got her. Put a spell on her. Made her go to sleep."
"What's the Ellyllon?"
"They're the fairies that live up on Flint Mountain. The Pwll y Wrach. They killed someone some years back. Put a curse on him for seeing them and he died a year to the day later. Not a mark on him mind. And a cuckoo hopped from tree to tree as they buried him. The Ellyllon did it."
"Did he fall asleep too?" Vastra asked.
"No, he walked about merry the whole year."
"Don't seem like a repeat episode. Surely she should still be up and about, not snoring." Jenny said sceptically.
"It was them! I saw her. She goes up there, sneaks off. Up Flint Mountain." Jenny elbowed Vastra before she could comment on Jenny having a mountain now too. "Likes the fairies she does. Thinks it's all wonderful and enchanting. Well they got her now." The woman shook her head. "They curse people with all sorts, the Ellyllon. You should know." She pointed at Vastra. "Almost thought you was one, when I first saw you." She spat and turned round widdershins. "Don't know what you are though. But I don't reckon you'd be investigating their work if you was one. Or is it a case of to catch a thief?" she grinned at them suddenly, then as abruptly the grin fell away. "Go up Flint Mountain if you wants to get 'em. They're up there."
"Would you show us the way?" Vastra asked.
The woman shook her head vigorously. "I see what they did to John Roberts. I don't bother them none, and they don't hassle me. Stupid girl, goin' up there." She turned and practically fled back into her house.
"Well…" Vastra said after a while, stunned.
"You're a hallion sometimes, dunno about an Ellyllon." Jenny smirked.
"They're on your mountain." Vastra bit back.
"Oh thanks! Don't make me responsible does it. More likely, they put a curse on me. That would explain my life somewhat." Jenny grumbled, coughing as they continued walking back to the Jenkins' house.
"We should go up there tonight." Vastra eyed the coughing Jenny. "If you're feeling well enough."
Jenny shot her an angry glare. "'Course. Why tonight?"
"Is that not the traditional fairy time? Stealth might be necessary." Vastra observed over another fine fit of coughing.
"S'not the cough that carries you off it's the coffin they carry you off in." Jenny shrugged.
"Jenny." The concern in Vastra's voice stopped Jenny.
"I'm fine ma'am."
"Hmm. Well, rest up for the evening. We'll set off around eleven."
"We gotta find out where it is first." Jenny pointed out.
The Jenkins were rather horrified at the idea that Jenny and Vastra were to be going up Flint Mountain in the dark and almost refused to tell them where it was. But Vastra persuaded them by telling them that engaging with the Ellyllon directly might be the only way to save their daughter. They told Jenny and Vastra the way, hesitantly offering their horse and cart, for they had seen that Jenny was unwell and it was an hour's walk in the dark and across mountains on the Northrop road. Vastra declined, feeling a horse might spook and be lost, and without Parker she wasn't confident on being able to handle driving one across mountains.
Jenny rested all evening and felt sufficiently recovered from the day to accompany Vastra, confident she would be able to manage the walk. As she told Vastra, it wasn't as if they hadn't walked long distances in London. Peggy returned just before dinner and told them that the children confirmed what the woman had said, Mari had indeed frequently gone up Flint Mountain. They had never accompanied her, being more wary of the Ellyllon and, after John Roberts' death, forbidden to go up there by their grandparents and parents who had been children at the time.
"She reckons she can talk to them, according to the kids, and that they talk to her. In strange languages." Peggy told them, looking fearful when Jenny told her of their quest to Flint Mountain. Jenny reassured her that she was not accompanying them and despite Peggy being reluctant to leave Jenny's side, she was relieved and didn't argue. On Jenny's part, she suspected Peggy would only flee at the first sign of trouble and she didn't fancy traipsing the Welsh countryside trying to track Peggy down if she did.
When the small mantelpiece clock chimed the eleventh hour, Jenny and Vastra set off. The road was rough at times and lit only by an oil lamp it was not an easy journey. Jenny was coughing again by the time they had reached the main town of Flint and Vastra began to regret her decision not to take a horse and cart. She suggested turning around but Jenny brushed her off.
They reached the Mountain around midnight, a traditional witching hour as Vastra had pointed out. They found the pool almost by stumbling into it, it was so overgrown and half hidden by trees.
Jenny was unnerved, the darkness and the trees brought back memories of the forest in Japan and cybermen, the pool making her think of Jenny Greenteeth. What other strange things from folklore might come to life? She could recall a few other tales that would be terrifying, if they'd been based off reality.
She walked into Vastra's back when the Silurian stopped suddenly.
"Well that is certainly nothing to do with witches." Vastra pointed at an object, half buried in the undergrowth on the other side of the pool. Jenny looked across, straining her eyes in the half-darkness until she could make out something that looked like an enormous almond. A small flash of light illuminated a round porthole. Metal. Glass. A ship.
"Aliens?" Jenny suppressed a cough.
"It would be the most likely explanation, combined with the tales around this place." Vastra fought her way round the pool until she was standing beside it. It was large enough by itself but looking at it, it seemed only the tail end of a far vaster ship.
"You recognise it?" Jenny whispered, peering around Vastra.
"Beyond the basics? No. Undoubtedly the Doctor would know. It appears to have crash landed. But I can see engines for interstellar travel." Vastra moved cautiously round, not wanting to fall in the pool, running her hand over one of the fins that jutted out from the side. "They've tried to repair it by the looks."
A series of clacks and trills made Jenny whip round.
"You seem to know a lot about our ship." The alien addressing Vastra was a small figure, shorter than Peggy, if they'd stood side by side. The limbs that were not covered by a hard, green, shell casing looked brittle, full of holes as if someone had taken several bites out of them, leaving sharp edges and points. Red horns grew from bald heads. "But then again you are not human."
"Certainly not." Despite her surprise at the creatures, Vastra still managed to sound affronted.
A large white owl landed on the alien's shoulder, hooting softly. Jenny remembered the woman saying about a cuckoo and eyed it warily.
"Is that the bird you use to kill people now? Rather than a cuckoo? Or is it cos it's night and you need a different bird for night?" Jenny asked.
The alien laughed. "You have heard the story then. It is so useful to keep people away whilst we repair our ship."
"You killed him just for that?" Jenny was horrified.
"And the girl?" Vastra asked. "Why was she spared with sleep?"
"She thought we were fairies. Isn't that what bad fairies do? Put little girls to sleep?"
"You seem to know a lot about earth tales." Vastra pointed out.
"We?" Jenny asked simultaneously.
The alien grinned. Rustling noises all around them alerted Jenny and Vastra to the fact they were surrounded. Jenny silently calculated the probability of weapons. It was high.
"How did you do it? How did you get a bird to kill him?" The question burst out of her, despite their predicament.
"Well it's not really a bird. It's a quantum shade." The alien sent the owl soaring around the ring of trees. "It can kill anyone, anywhere in time and space."
Jenny ducked instinctively as it flew over her.
"And you can control it."
"More, we have a pact with it."
"So how is it keeping the girl asleep?"
The alien laughed. "That isn't the Shade. The Shade will kill anyone who we mark with the Chronolock. The girl we keep asleep by mere herbs alone. We don't kill children. Particularly not when they're just so charming and interested."
"The other children said you talked to her."
"Yes. She heard about the man dying from her elders and she wanted to see the fairies. When she saw us, she was not afraid. She told us such stories. We liked her."
"Then why put her to sleep?"
"She said they were taunting her for believing in fairies, even as they were too afraid to come here themselves. Fear is a form of belief, don't you know. She wanted to bring them up here, to prove she wasn't lying. Well, we killed the man to keep people away. Another legend, another tale. But we don't kill children."
"How moral." Jenny spat.
"She will wake, when we leave."
"If you leave. There is significant damage to your ship." Vastra pointed out.
The alien scowled. "The technology of this time is not sufficient. We are having to make do."
"So what? You just keep her asleep forever then? For a hundred years? They'll come here eventually. When they know. Or even in a hundred years. They'll stop believing. They'll stop being afraid."
"And how would they know?" the alien smirked.
"And who would dare venture up here when even the brave detectives hired to investigate…mysteriously drop dead." Another piped up.
"The man we had to keep alive for a while, to spread the story. And killing him a year to the day was poetical, enhances the myth."
"You, we might as well kill in seconds."
"What if we helped you? Fix your ship like." Jenny grasped at the idea.
"You?" The alien looked at her sceptically.
"I might be able to help." Vastra interjected. "There are other technologies the apes have devised that could be adapted."
"Or Torchwood might have something." The suggestion caused Vastra to raise her eyeridges at Jenny. "Well they might." She muttered. "Surprised they ain't picked these lot up yet."
"They might." Vastra conceded. "Whether we would be able to gain their assistance would be a different matter."
There was a brief interchange of nods and trills around them.
"Very well." The first alien agreed. "You will help us."
Jenny's hope at a resolution was dashed when she saw the blade at Vastra's throat.
"Move, please." The alien who was holding it edged Vastra away.
Jenny took a long breath and drew her sword. "Let her go."
"Oh, I don't think so. If she can't help us, we'll kill her anyway. You, being a human, I doubt we have any use for." The first alien pointed at Jenny and a dark twisting shape writhed off her hand, snaking through the air. Jenny slashed at it but it dodged her blade and wrapped itself around her wrist, shooting up her arm underneath her dress. She froze but could feel nothing.
The first alien turned to Vastra. "The chronolock is counting down. A much shorter time than a year. Can you help us? Or not?" Jenny's mouth went dry. "You might as well stop waving that thing around. Only the master of a quantum shade can lift the chronolock. If you killed me, it would not stop your fate."
"Vastra…" Jenny looked at the Silurian who looked a little stunned.
"How much time? Your ship is heavily damaged." She stalked over to it once more, eyeing it shrewdly. "You think pressuring me by threatening her is going to increase my efficiency?"
"It is amazing what focuses the mind." The alien shrugged. "And we would have killed her anyway. Why not make it a meaningful death?"
"There is nothing meaningful about it!" Vastra snapped.
"If you work, and succeed, we might let you both go. There is no reason after all, if we can flee, to kill anyone more. The girl will come back round without the herb to keep her unconscious. How much more motivation do you need?"
Vastra looked at the ship. From what she could see, there was no way to repair it fully. Not to do what they would want it to do, return to space. There was no time to fetch Torchwood, no time to do anything. And whatever a quantum shade was, she doubted it could be bested in a sword fight.
The hull seemed fine, was already repaired extensively. Even the engines, the rotors had been patched. Flint made chemicals and steel, it was almost an ideal place. But she had seen nothing in the Victorian era that would replace the burnt-out computer chips. Nothing that even came close. Even to construct the components would be immensely tricky. And without the computer, the ship would be impossible to fly accurately. They'd barely lift off the ground. Even if they got into space, they would be blind and probably without enough fuel.
She wondered how long they'd been here. Well over thirty years. What was their plan? Wait long enough for humanity to evolve? Keep everyone away through fear of the fairies? That wouldn't work forever. As the apes evolved scientifically, so surely their irrational fears would overcome. Fairy tales would not be enough.
But Jenny's life was at stake, as was her own, if she failed to come up with something. Anything. She wracked her brains, becoming desperate.
Suddenly a voice rang out around the clearing. "Oh, come on. Everyone here knows that ship will never fly."
