Doctor Who: Lungbarrow (34 page)

The Doctor and Chris watched them from a distance.

Innocet heard the young man mutter, 'They can't get in, can they?'

'It's fallen door-side down,' said the Doctor. 'As long as you remembered to lock up.'

'Um,' said Chris.

She ran her hand across the ship's weathered blue surface. It was trembling slightly, betraying the enormous potential of the TT engines locked inside. Dust and grit had col ected on the ridges and panels. Strange colours.

Scratches and burns and something that looked like claw marks.

How dare he! Her Cousin, who brazenly challenged the House and got his own way too. Had these powers always been in him? Always kept in eclipse? Who was he, who kept company with aliens and forces from the Time of Chaos? Was Glospin right? Where had he been while they, his own Family, were condemned to the dark? Or was he the dark himself?

The chorus in her head was no longer unified. It had become a rabble of cries. She had striven to protect them all, but her strength was falling away. To what else would they now be reduced?

166

The weight of hair on her back threatened to crush her.

***

Innocet pulled him away. 'It's not your property, Rynde.'

'So what,' said Glospin. 'How do we get inside?'

Leela pushed in front of him. 'Stay away from the Doctor's ship, sly one.'

Glospin smiled and pul ed his knife.

Rynde followed suit.

'You have no honour, you and your tribe of scavengers,' she warned and produced her own knife.

Dorothée looked for Chris, but he was dawdling vaguely across the Hall, a look of complete puzzlement on his face.

Glospin sliced at Leela with his blade. She caught his wrist and swung him sideways. He twisted and caught her throat with his other arm.

As Rynde lunged his knife, Dorothée barrelled across from the side, slamming him against the TARDIS.

His knife clattered away and she snatched it up.

'Stop it!' shouted Innocet. 'Stop brawling!'

Leela kicked at Glospin and broke free. In a moment, she had her knife pressing his throat. 'I have thorns here that could kill you with one scratch,' she said.

'Alien she-cat,' he hissed.

'Stand away from him!'

Leela turned to see Redred with a raised gun. 'Thank you, Cousin,' she said and pushed Glospin away.

'Cousin?' mouthed the captain.

'Drudge!'

There was a crash.

'Drudge!' Satthralope was swinging her cane wildly. The Doctor was crouching on the tables, examining a panel at one end of the glass casket.

Badger, who had been standing idle, raised its claws and descended upon her.

'No, Badger!' shouted the Doctor, ducking a plate that she had thrown. 'I'm safe!'

The machine faltered and was overtaken by the approaching Cousins.

The Doctor stood and faced them, indicating the casket. 'This stasis unit is a trick,' he said quietly. 'You're terrified the House wil find out about Quences, so you've all been living a lie for the past six hundred and seventy-three years.'

'Don't listen,' said Glospin. 'He's playing with us!'

167

'Quences was murdered, but I didn't do it, whatever anyone says. So much for your Sleeping Beauty.'

'No!' yel ed Satthralope. 'Quences is alive!'

The Doctor yanked a circuit core from the panel. The peaceful image of the old man under the glass vanished.

A brown skeleton lay there, picked clean by vermin. Only a few shreds of material clung to it.

'Don't let it see!' Satthralope clutched at one of her hearts. 'Don't let the House see!'

Something squeaked. A tafelshrew ventured its snout through the ribcage, where it appeared to be nesting.

'Don't let it see!'

The Drudges stalked back into the Hal . They slowly approached the tables, scrutinizing each Cousin and companion in turn.

The Doctor, smiling calmly, slid back from the coffin and off the tables. Quences lay peacefully in his place again.

'Everything is acceptable,' said Satthralope. She was clutching the will, wary of any approach.

At a signal from the Drudges, the dinner tables shuffled away from the dais. The two guardians of the House, one with a head, one without, took up positions at either side of the Loom on which the coffin stood.

Everyone stood and waited.

'What's this about six hundred and seventy-three years?' demanded Redred.

Satthralope ignored him. 'Why does it not answer me?' she said, turning her keys. 'How much has it seen?'

Redred grabbed Rynde. 'How long was I in that transmat booth?'

'Get away,' muttered the Cousin. 'You don't know when you were better off.'

'Drudge.' Satthralope stood up. 'I am going to my room.'

The attendants did not respond.

168

'I require your service!'

She was ignored. Trembling, she leant on her cane. A tiny figure, vital with anger, hobbling alone from the great Hall.

***

She maintained her composure. 'You have a dispatch that you were given to take to the Capitol.'

'How long was I in the transmat booth?'

'I couldn't say. I think you should hand the dispatch over to me.'

'This is some elaborate Otherstide masquerade. It's too late for your appeal to go through now.'

She pulled away from him. She had a clear path out, and then the Doctor was at her elbow.

'Innocet, thank you for sabotaging the transmat booth.'

'I did nothing of the sort.'

'Yes, you did. Chris saw you steal Glospin's original document. You deliberately prevented the delivery of some rather damning material.'

'Damning for whom? I didn't even consider the captain.'

'Dear Innocet,' he said humbly. 'You always put other people first.'

She almost laughed. 'I destroyed the document. I thought Glospin had gone mad.'

'Or had been driven to madness. I'm not easy to live with, you know.'

She held his eye again. Deep in the blue, there were flecks of green and brown, until it fell into a pool of black. She could see nothing beyond. She knew that was forbidden.

Who are you? she thought.

'I don't know. It frightens me.' He chewed on his bottom lip. 'The main problem is how to get you all out of here before the House finds out.'

Innocet looked around the Hall. Leela, eating yet more bread, was sitting on the side of the TARDIS with Dorothée.

Glospin and Rynde were plotting at the far end of the Hall. Nearby, Redred was studying his wrist-link and Owis was hunched in a chair, looking distinctly ill. The Drudges, immovable and obdurate, flanked Quences's coffin.

'Where is Chris?' she said.

He scanned the Hall. 'And where's Jobiska?'

No, she thought. Not
another
one. Not now.

***

The black water started about halfway down the slanting passage. A flotsam of old drowned furniture had collected at its edge.

169

She tried to tug at one of the overturned coracles, but it was too heavy for her frail little arms.

'Come on, granny,' said Chris, pounding up behind her. 'I'll do that.'

He lifted her in and climbed aboard after her.

'Are you coming as well, dear?' she asked.

'That's right,' he said, testing the paddle. 'I'm off home too.'

***

The Doctor was all urgent hands and darting looks. 'He's following Jobiska. She's gone to join the missing Cousins.'

'We shall find him,' said Leela.

'No, stay here, both of you. Keep an eye on things. And don't let anything disturb the House.' He squinted at Leela.

'What?' she said.

'Crumbs.' He dabbed her mouth with his hanky. 'If you need help, speak to her.' He waved a vague hand.

Dorothée glanced round the Hal . 'Who? Battleaxe Galactica's gone to her room.'

'Not Satthralope. Innocet.'

'She just went out.'

'What?'

They pointed. 'That way.'

The Doctor set off at a pace.

'Your bread is good,' said Leela.

'You ate the lot,' said Dorothée.

'I was hungry.'

'At this rate you can't go on wearing that bikini much longer.'

'Captain,' said Glospin. 'That dispatch you were given. You'd better hand it over.'

Redred flicked off his wrist-link. 'It stays with me until I get out.' He pointed to the TARDIS. 'This TT machine was stolen last night from the dry dimension docks at the Capitol.'

'Last night,' said Glospin, amused.

'By your Cousin.'

'You'l find the Doctor's behind most of this.' Glospin flourished his coded Agency badge. 'You see, I discovered anomalies on his Loom certificate. He may be a pretender. Or a changeling.'

Redred smiled. 'Another imposter?'

'This is his revenge for being disinherited and expelled from the Family. It was he who murdered the Kithriarch.'

170

'Serious allegations.' Redred consulted his wrist-link.

'And he's regenerated since he last came here,' Glospin added. 'I'm sure we'd find more evidence if we could get into his ship.'

171

Consequences

Innocet struggled to steady her coracle - half a hewn-out stixxi pod, grown in the atrium before it flooded. The pole she was using to steer slithered in her hands.

She was halfway across. The black water reflected the lamplight in serpentine patterns on the branches of the atrium's ceiling. Around the walls, half-submerged portraits of former Cousins glowered out disapprovingly.

Ahead, on the far side of the lagoon, were the coracles that Maljamin and Jobiska had used. The Drudges always brought the boats back.

The House knew.

It was all a game.

Innocet!
In the turmoil of voices in her head, she heard her own name called. And again.

She looked back. The Doctor was at the water's edge. When she ignored his calls, he climbed into another boat.

Something swished past in the water.

A skinny reptilian shape was circling the coracle. Its long white head lifted above the surface and opened out like a vicious flower. Stalky eyes like stamens waved over a ruff of purple-blotched petals. It hissed. Its glistening tongue uncurled from a central ring of teeth. The monstrous progeny of both cavepool lizard and meadow orchid, hybridized in one of the Doctor's most repulsive experiments.

'You were told not to bring those things indoors,' Satthralope had complained.

Something grabbed at the pole. A second creature was writhing in the water behind the boat. Innocet tried to beat it away. The coracle lurched wildly. She struggled to stay upright.

The first creature rammed the boat.

Innocet grabbed at the pole, lost her grip and fell into the water. The weight of her hair pulled her down. She saw the huge petal mouth open to encircle her. Its tongue gleamed in a sudden flash of fire.

The Doctor, standing in a second boat, was yelling and brandishing a flaming brand into the heart of the petals.

The creature gave a bubbling hiss of rage and dived away.

Innocet reached for the Doctor's hand. He was hauling her in when his boat lurched and tipped him in beside her.

The torch spluttered out in the water.

Round the prow of his coracle came the second creature, eyes waving in its beautiful open head.

It suddenly rolled in the water, thrashing angrily as something gradually dragged it down under the surface.

The Doctor pushed Innocet into his boat and clambered in after her.

There was no sign of the creatures. He set his weight to the pole, heading the coracle towards the far side.

Satthralope sat tightly in her chair. She turned her keys, but the House was not listening. Her mirrors had gone blank.

'Not dead yet?' said Quences, his cloak of shadows billowing. She stared at the dripping dagger in his chest. He came closer, closer. 'Don't imagine your stranglehold on the House will stop me.'

'You're not dead,' she mouthed. 'You're not dead!'

172

'Does the House know that?' wheezed the old Ghost.

The House, she thought.
I
am the House!

And she forgot herself completely.

***

They were sitting on the overturned TARDIS, watching Redred and Glospin spread a document on one of the Hall tables.

'Don't know,' Dorothée said. 'Something to do with the Doctor's ancestry. They reckon he's not who he says he is.'

Leela's hand went to her knife. 'Then we must protect him.'

'Comes as no surprise to me. People are always saying that about him.'

'Which people?'

Dorothée shrugged. 'People all over. When you travel with someone, you can't help finding out a few dark secrets.

Don't tell me you've never wanted to know who he really is.'