A confused babble broke out in the Hall. But only a few of the warrior monks followed Khrisong as he strode out. The rest, afraid to defy their Abbot, stayed with the lamas and Songtsen.
The Abbot’s voice cut through the noise. ‘Brothers, Khrisong has been led astray by the strangers. He has forgotten his vows of obedience. Follow him, and bring him back to the path of wisdom! I will pray for guidance.’ In a confused mass, monks and lamas poured excitedly from the Great Hall. Songtsen was left standing alone.
At once he closed his eyes, and went into a state of trance.
‘Advise me, Padmasambvha,’ he implored. ‘Khrisong turns his warriors from the path of obedience. Not all of them will obey your command to go…’
From all around him, he heard the ghostly voice of Padmasambvha. ‘If they will not be led from the Monastery – then they must be driven. This is what you must do…’
The Doctor and Jamie were waiting in the courtyard amidst a scene of utter confusion. A little crowd of monks and lamas milled about arguing and disputing. Some supported the Abbot, some were for following Khrisong. The Doctor looked round in amazement. ‘What’s going on?’ he said wonderingly.
‘Search me,’ said Jamie. ‘Seems they’ve all gone daft.’ Khrisong shouldered his way through the throng, a little knot of warriors around him. ‘We must act quickly, Doctor. The Abbot has ordered us to evacuate the Monastery…’
He was interrupted by a frantic knocking and scrabbling at the doors. A faint voice called, ‘Let me in. Please, let me in!’
Cautiously Khrisong opened the doors. A tattered, scarecrow figure staggered inside, and collapsed at their feet. It was Travers.
The Doctor and Jamie bent over him. He was in a terrible state, ragged, dirty and bleeding. He had tumbled down the mountain like a falling boulder, with no concern for his own safety. His lips were cracked, his eyes wide and staring, filled with the recollection of that horrible living mass that was bubbling and growing in the cave…
‘Pyramid,’ he muttered feverishly. ‘It was growing… growing… the noise…’ Travers’ head lolled back, and he fainted dead away.
Jamie was thoroughly confused. ‘What was all that about, Doctor?’
Before the Doctor could reply, there came a further shock. The Abbot Songtsen appeared. ‘Seize the strangers,’ he ordered. ‘They must all be locked up at once. The girl Victoria has escaped. She too must be taken and imprisoned.’
At once utter pandemonium broke out. Everyone started talking and shouting at once.
‘Victoria escaped?’ yelled Jamie furiously. ‘Escaped from where? Where is she? What’s been going on?’
‘Abbot Songtsen, please,’ called the Doctor. ‘You really must listen to me.’ The Doctor’s voice was drowned in the general babble. Khrisong shouldered him aside, and forced his way through the little crowd to the Abbot.
‘I cannot allow this!’ he protested fiercely.
The Abbot’s voice was stem. ‘You cannot allow? These are the orders of the Master. You must obey.’
‘These people can help us, Lord Abbot.’
‘The Master says there is no help against the Yeti. He orders us to leave or we will all die.’
A frightened murmuring from the monks and lamas showed the effect of his words. Songtsen saw that he had the upper hand. ‘Take the strangers and lock them up,’ he ordered.
A horde of panic-stricken monks descended upon the Doctor and Jamie, and bustled them away, ignoring their protests and those of Khrisong. The Doctor was almost carried off towards the cell, and Jamie, struggling furiously, was bundled along after him. Other monks picked up the unconscious Travers and carried him along, too.
The Abbot turned to Khrisong and the little group of rebellious warriors around him. ‘Khrisong! Defy me no further. Take your warriors and find the girl.’ For a moment it seemed that Khrisong would still refuse. Then, defeated, he bowed his head, and led his warriors away.
Except for the sentry at the doors, the Abbot was now alone in the great courtyard. He walked across to the doors and said to the sentry, ‘Go and join in the search, my son.’ He passed his hand lightly over the sentry’s face, and the young monk froze for a moment, then ran off after his fellows. Once he was out of sight, Songtsen unbarred the great doors and then opened them wide. The Monastery of Det-sen was defenceless. ‘It is done, Master,’ said the Abbot Songtsen. Then he walked slowly away.
Since her escape from the cell, Victoria had been hiding in the empty guest quarters, uncertain what to do with herself once she was free. She wondered where everyone was, not realising that Travers, the Doctor and Jamie had just returned to the Monastery.
Eventually, she crept cautiously out into the corridor and moved towards the courtyard. Soon she began to hear the noise and shouting of the excited monks. Afraid to venture further, she waited. Suddenly the noise started coming nearer. She could hear yells and shouts. ‘Find her. Find the devil girl!’ With a shock, Victoria realised that they were hunting her. Terrified, she turned and fled, the sounds of pursuit echoing behind her.
For what seemed an endless time she was hunted up and down the gloomy corridors. More than once she eluded her pursuers by hiding in some dark corner, while they all raced by. But they always seemed to pick up her trail again.
By the time she managed to shake them off, Victoria was in a part of the Monastery that she had never visited before. She found herself in a little windowless room, lit only by flickering prayer lamps. On the walls were rich hangings and tapestries. All around were carved statues, devil masks, rare ornaments. Victoria knew enough about antiques to realise that the contents of the little room were virtually priceless.
At the far end of the room, she saw a pair of ornately carved double doors, Victoria looked at them curiously, wondering what was beyond them. She decided not to try and find out. This place was quiet enough, but it was far too spooky to be comfortable. She turned to leave, and found that she couldn’t move. Something, some force, held her unmoving.
‘Enter, my child,’ said a voice. It came from nowhere and yet from everywhere. It was quiet and gentle, yet it filled the room. The doors opened before her of their own accord. ‘Come in,’ said the voice again. ‘You must come in, you have no alternative.’
Victoria tried to hang back, but the invisible force made her walk slowly into the Inner Sanctum. Ahead of her she could see the raised dais, the golden throne with its seated figure. She was drawn closer and closer. The canopy round the throne had been pulled back. The seated figure raised its head and looked at her. Victoria was the first in many hundred years to look upon the face of Padmasambvha. She opened her mouth in a gasp of pure terror, too frightened even to scream…
9
Attack of the Yeti
Victoria’s first thought was that the man before her was incredibly old. Older than Sapan or Rinchen, or any of the other venerable old men at the Monastery. Older than anyone she had ever seen or imagined. So old that the shrunken body seemed like that of a child, swaddled inside the long, flowing robes.
The face was quite incredible. Completely hairless, with huge forehead, sunken cheeks and bony jaw. In contrast to the wizened face and shrunken body, the eyes were huge and dark and alive, shining with the blaze of an almost superhuman intelligence. The Master Padmasambvha had indeed gone beyond the flesh. His body was merely the worn-out husk which barely contained his soul and spirit.
He looked up at Victoria, and smiled with a curious gentleness. ‘Do not be afraid, my child. Why do you come here?’
Victoria tried to babble some explanation. ‘I’m sorry, I was lost, and I was afraid. They were chasing me, you see, and…’
Gently, Padmasambvha interrupted her. ‘You need help, do you not?’
‘Yes, I’m afraid I do,’ said Victoria thankfully. ‘You see, I can’t find the Doctor and…’
Padmasambvha held up his hand, cutting her off. ‘One moment, child.’
He leaned forward, brooding over the boa
rd in front of him. ‘The courtyard is empty, and the gates are open,’ he said mysteriously. Victoria leaned forward, peering at the model landscape with its tiny figures.
‘I must do what I am compelled to do,’ said Padmasambvha sadly. He picked up one of the little figures from the board.
‘What is it?’ asked Victoria curiously. She was getting over her fear now.
There was something pathetic about the old man. Yet, at the same time, something frightening, and unpredictable too.
‘Come and see,’ invited the Master, holding up the little figure.
Victoria came closer and looked at it. ‘It’s one of those horrible creatures – a Yeti.’
Again Padmasambvha gave that curiously sad smile. ‘That is so, my child. But you have not seen it.’ He passed his hand gently in front of her eyes. Immediately Victoria went into a trance, her eyes wide open and staring. Padmasambvha placed the Yeti model down in the courtyard of the miniature Monastery.
He reached out for another model. ‘I must do what I am compelled to do,’ whispered Padmasambvha again.
*
The courtyard of the Monastery still stood empty. The doors were open wide. One after another, four of the Yeti lumbered into the courtyard. Once inside, they split up, each making for a different part of the Monastery, as if by some prearranged plan.
Things were uncomfortably crowded in the little cell. Travers lay on the bed. He had fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep, broken by occasional muttering and twitching.
The Doctor perched on the wooden stool by the bed, watching Travers thoughtfully. Thomni sat cross-legged by the wall in his meditation position. Jamie was pacing up and down the cell, pausing now and again to bang on the door, or yell through the grille.
‘So that’s why they locked up poor Victoria,’ he was saying to Thomni. ‘She was telling the truth, you know. Those wee balls can make you put them back in the Yeti. One of them nearly did it to me, didn’t it, Doctor?’
The Doctor nodded absently, his eyes still fixed on the face of the sleeper.
Suddenly Travers opened his eyes, and stared in amazement at the Doctor. ‘Where am I? What happened to me?’
‘We were rather hoping you could tell us that,’ said the Doctor gently.
Travers shook his head vaguely. ‘I left the Monastery then… it’s no use… it’s all a blank… there’s just a feeling of evil… I felt a shadow on my mind. I felt as if I might drown…’
‘Aye, man, but what did you see?’ asked Jamie impatiently. ‘Where did all this happen?’
Travers closed his eyes again. ‘I don’t know… I can’t… I’m so tired…’ His eyes closed and sank back into sleep.
‘What do you think?’ asked Jamie.
The Doctor sighed, and scratched his head. ‘He must have seen something very nasty indeed, I fear. Perhaps whatever’s behind all this trouble we’re having. If only he could tell us.’
There came a tremendous crash from somewhere inside the Monastery. It was followed by shouts of alarm, cries of fear, and the sound of running feet. ‘The Yeti are coming,’ yelled a panic-stricken voice. ‘Flee, my brothers, flee!’
Jamie rattled at the door. ‘What’s going on? Let us out of here.’
But the Doctor, with a pleased expression, had pulled his detection device from under the bed and was carefully noting the readings.
Khrisong’s face appeared briefly at the grille. ‘The Yeti have broken into the Monastery. Stay where you are, you are safe there.’
‘What about Victoria,’ yelled Jamie frantically. ‘Where is she? Have you found her?’ But Khrisong had gone. Jamie turned back to the Doctor. ‘Isn’t there something we can…’
The Doctor hushed him with an upheld hand. Jamie saw that he was bent intently over the detection device, studying every little flicker of the dials.
The Abbot Songtsen, Khrisong and most of the monks and lamas, were gathered together in the Great Hall. From throughout the Monastery came the sound of destruction, as the Yeti carried on their rampage. Occasionally there was a scream, as some unfortunate monk was caught in their path. Khrisong tried to organise his warriors into a defensive force, but they were all too panic-stricken.
He said bitterly to Songtsen, ‘Forgive me, my Abbot. I have failed you.’
The Abbot looked at him pityingly. ‘You have not failed, my son. This disaster was written. Man cannot alter his destiny.’
Meanwhile, the Yeti raged unhindered through the Monastery. Dormitories were wrecked, statues cast down, priceless treasures mutilated and destroyed. Yet they did not seem intent on taking life. They attacked only those who attacked them, or sought to hinder their work of methodical destruction. It was in the storage cellars that most terrible havoc was wreaked. The Yeti smashed open food barrels, burst water tanks so that the food cellars were flooded, and mixed fuel, food, clothing and medicines into one unusable pile.
Then, as if their work were done, they began to withdraw from the Monastery.
A terrified monk rushed into the Great Hall to give the news to the Abbot. ‘The Yeti are falling back,’ he cried.
‘Come, brethren, do not be afraid,’ said the Abbot. He led his little band from the Great Hall into the courtyard.
All but two of the Yeti were gone. These two stood waiting by a great golden statue of Buddha that dominated the courtyard, the Buddha that was the very spirit and symbol of Det-sen Monastery. The appearance of the Abbot and his followers seemed to serve as a signal. The remaining two Yeti lumbered forward, seized the statue in their mighty paws, and began to tilt it forward. The old lama, Rinchen, ran forward from the crowd in horror. ‘No! No!’ he cried. ‘You shall not.’ Stretching out his feeble hands, he made a vain attempt to prevent the great golden figure from falling. Slowly the Buddha crashed to the stones of the courtyard, crushing the life from old Rinchen in the process. The head of the Buddha was smashed from the body. It rolled slowly across the courtyard. The two Yeti turned and left.
Khrisong looked from the broken statue to the broken body of Rinchen. ‘The Monastery of Det-sen is accursed,’ he said bitterly. ‘It is time for us to leave.’
Padmasambvha was communing with the Great Intelligence. Beside him stood Victoria, unseeing and unhearing in her trance.
‘Now it is complete,’ whispered Padmasambvha. ‘Now the monks will leave. By nightfall the Monastery will be deserted, the entire mountain yours.’ He turned his attention to Victoria. ‘And what of you and your friends, my poor child? The Doctor is not so easily frightened as my poor monks. Therefore you must help me. Together we will make sure that he leaves. Come closer.’
Unable to resist, Victoria stepped forward.
Jamie watched impatiently as Thomni finished scratching a plan of the Monastery on the cell wall with a piece of chalk fished from the Doctor’s capacious pocket.
‘This is the courtyard,’ said Thomni, pointing. ‘We are here – to the south. The north lies – here.’ And he chalked an ‘N’ on the map.
The Doctor took the chalk from him and drew a line across the map.
‘Does your science provide an answer, Doctor?’ asked Thomni.
‘Only half an answer, I’m afraid. We know that the transmissions come from somewhere on this line. But we need a second reading, a cross reference to give us the actual place. That could give us the where.’ Absent-mindedly, the Doctor scratched his head with the piece of chalk. ‘Of course we still won’t have the most important thing.’
‘Oh aye, and what’s that?’ said Jamie impatiently.
The Doctor looked at him in surprise. ‘The why of course. That’s what we really need to know.’
Travers came to life with a sudden start. He sat up, looked round, and said cheerily, ‘Hullo, Doctor, Jamie. How are you all?’
‘Oh, fine, just fine,’ said Jamie dryly.
‘What’s going on?’ said Travers. ‘What are we doing here?’
‘There’s been a spot of trouble,’ said the Doctor gently.
&n
bsp; ‘With the Yeti,’ added Jamie,
‘Oh, really,’ said Travers. ‘Must have missed it all while I was sleeping.’
‘You had a spot of trouble yourself,’ prompted the Doctor. ‘On the mountainside. You saw something pretty nasty. Do you remember?’
‘Not a thing,’ said Travers. ‘Got a bit of a headache, actually. Think I’ll get a breath of fresh air.’ He got up, went to the door and tried to open it. ‘I say,’ he said indignantly, ‘do you chaps realise we’re locked in?’
In the courtyard, the monks had managed to move the heavy statue. Some of them were lifting Rinchen’s body on to a stretcher. Khrisong’s head was bowed in grief.
‘Do not blame yourself,’ said the Abbot Songtsen. ‘Death is inevitable.’ He turned to the monks with the stretcher. ‘Rinchen will accompany us on our journey. There will be time to mourn our brother. The rest of you gather what is needed. Save what provisions you can. Soon it will be the hour for meditation. Then we must depart.’
‘What of the strangers?’ asked Sapan.
‘They will be taken with us to a place of safety.’
‘And the Master Padmasambvha?’
‘His powers are great,’ said the Abbot. ‘He will remain.’
There was a sudden stir amongst the crowd. Many of the monks fell to their knees. Turning, Songtsen saw that Victoria had come into the courtyard. In her hands was the holy ghanta. A murmur of awe swept through the crowd.
For a moment Victoria stood immobile, eyes wide and staring hands outstretched. Then she spoke. But the voice that came from her lips was that of Padmasambvha. ‘I have chosen to speak to you through the lips of this maiden,’ said the low, compelling voice that seemed to come from all around them. ‘She holds the holy ghanta. Bear it away with you for safe keeping. Treat her with kindness – she and the other strangers are innocent of malice. They wish to help you against the Yeti but I tell you there is no help. Det-sen must be abandoned. When the wind destroys its nest, the bird will build another.’
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen Page 9