MA16_ _The_Empire_of

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we have company."
Shakespeare and the Doctor both turned to face Galileo. The bearded
Venetian was pointing off to one side, to where a patch of mist had been
cleaved by the bows of another boat. And beside it, another. And beyond
that, a third. Figures moved on their decks, clad in stark black cloth.
Shakespeare strained his eyes. Perhaps it was the mist, but they looked
like corpses, freshly animated, staring blindly ahead. The wind whipped the
sea-spray into their faces, but they didn't blink, or wipe their eyes. And
as the wind carried their boats closer, Shakespeare was unsurprised to see
the weeping sores that covered their exposed skin.
The bell tower was set on the edge of the crowded market-place that was St
Mark's Square, a few hundred yards from the edge of the lagoon. Stalls
selling foods, sweets, trinkets and pets were gathered around its base like
ducklings around their mother. As he emerged from the Doge's palace, Steven
breathed in the scented air, and the mingled scents of wood smoke, incense,
cooked meat made him dizzy for a moment. Past the edge of the quay, the
surface of the water was bright with momentary flickers of light as the sun
caught the tops of the waves. The ornate prows of the gondolas that were
tied to the wooden piers nodded one by one as the waves lifted them, like a
row of penitent priests.
Steven sighed as he remembered arriving at one of those piers. How long ago
had it been? One day? Two? It seemed that when you were a time traveller,
time lost all meaning to you. Events seemed to crowd together until your
life was a succession of freeze-frames: run, hide, fight, run, hide, fight.
He was tired. He wanted to stop, just for a while. Just for a rest.
The Doge's guards pushed past him and began clearing a path through the
crowds of Venetians and foreign travellers. Two of them appeared to have
acquired a horse from somewhere, and were leading it over. Steven gazed up
the crumbling red brick of the bell tower. This was it. Make or break.
"Please, lead the way," the Doge's dry voice murmured behind him. Steven
took a deep breath, and walked across the flagstones towards the portico.
He could feel the eyes of the crowd on him as he walked. No doubt they were
wondering what he was doing there. He was beginning to wonder the same
thing himself.
At the portico he turned to see the Doge and his advisers following like a
row of chicks. The black-clad advisers were bent over as they walked, and
their little nodding heads reminded him of the gondolas. He sniggered, and
the Doge shot him a dark glance.
"My apologies," Steven muttered, coughing into his handkerchief.
"The belfry is small," the Doge said. "You will demonstrate your spyglass
to us one at a time." He gestured to one of the guards. "Starting with me."
After an uncomfortable moment while Steven waited for someone to go first,
he realized that he should be leading the way. The shadowed portico led
immediately onto a narrow ramp that spiralled around the inside of the
tower. Bell ropes hung down its centre. Steven began to climb. Within ten
steps his calf muscles were beginning to ache and within twenty his breath
was hissing in his ears. By the time he got to thirty steps he could feel
the thudding of his pulse in his ears and he had lost track of how many
revolutions around the tower he had made.
By the time he got to the top of the bell tower, sweat was running down his
face. He stood in the cold breeze for a moment, his eyes closed, the sound
of the crowd far below just a murmur in his ears. When he opened his eyes,
he found himself on a square wooden platform surrounded by stone pillars
and topped with a pointed roof in which bells gleamed. Through the pillars
Steven could see all the way across Venice. Gilded domes and roofs glowed
in the sunlight while whitewashed walls were tinted a rosy pink. Flocks of
pigeons wheeled and swooped in a pattern too large to appreciate from any
aspect except above. Beyond the city, beyond the island, the view reached
to the distant white-capped mountains in one direction and the mist that
hid the far reaches of the lagoon in the other.
Steven's heart was still thudding in his ears, and he took a deep breath to
calm it down. It didn't help: the pounding just got louder. For a moment he
started to panic, until he realized that the wooden platform of the bell
tower was vibrating in time to the thudding. He turned towards the source
of the noise when, from the dark hole in the floor that led to the ramp,
the Doge appeared. On a horse, led by one of his guards.
"Have you been up here before?" he murmured, not making any effort to
dismount.
"Er... no, your most Serene Highness," Steven stammered.
The Doge raised his eyes and gazed upward, into the pointed roof. "But you
must have heard these bells ring out across Venice, tolling sunrise, noon
and sundown, calling councillors to Council and senators to Senate?"
"Of course, your most Sere-"
"That one, over there," he continued, cutting across Steven's words and
indicating the smallest bell, "is called the Maleficent. It's the one we
use to signal executions." He smiled. "Please - your demonstration."
Steven's hands shook as he took the telescope from inside his jacket. "If
you place the spyglass against your eye, your most Serene Excellency, and
look out across the lagoon..."
The Doge took the telescope from Steven's outstretched hand and raised it
to his eye. For a moment he gazed out of the bell tower and across the
water. Steven turned to follow the line of the telescope. Far, far away,
mere specks against the background of the sea mist, he could just make out
the sail of a small ship. With Galileo's telescope, the Doge should have
been able to recognize the faces of the crew, and Steven's heart missed a
beat as he suddenly realized that the ship might be the one that the Doctor
was sailing on, and the Doge might be staring straight into the
unmistakable features of Galileo Galilei. That would sink his plans for
good.
The Doge lowered the spyglass from his eye. His face was thunderous.
Steven prepared to sprint down the ramp as fast as he could, and hoped to
God that he could outpace the Doge's guard.
"This device is worse than the one demonstrated to us by the Flemish
merchant," the Doge said. "It is a toy fit only for children. Friar Sarpi
has misled us, and both you, and he, will pay for wasting my time."
The guard rested a hand on his sword. Through his helmet, Steven could see
a smile of anticipation on his face. "Ah - your most Serene and... and
Munificent Highness . .." he stammered, dredging up all of the flattery and
flannel that he had ever heard, "I beg you to-"
Something about the telescope that the Doge was holding caught his eye.
Something about its shape. Surely... surely when Galileo had demonstrated
it to Steven, he had held the narrower lens against his eye and pointed the
wider lens at the sky. The Doge appeared to have been holding it the other
way around.
"Perhaps," he said hesitantly, "we could try it one more time...?"
When Braxiatel had gone, and Vicki could see him on the viewscreen, walking
across the white surface of the Laputan landing pad towards the nearest
tower, Vicki wiped a hand across her eyes. It came away wet, and her cheeks
were suddenly cool as the thin film of tears began to evaporate. Memories
were like minefields, she decided - you had to pick your way carefully
across them, and sometimes you stepped on something unexpected and it
exploded beneath you. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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