Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow Part 21

'What does it want?' whispered Chris.

'Well, it hasn't brought the cheese and biscuits, that's for certain,' said the Doctor.

Innocet drew them inside and shut the door quickly. 'Owis was meant to warn us. Wait until I find him.'

The door opened itself again and the silent Drudge stared in.

Owis stood on the landing listening to the skinless skulls. The skulls that lived under the House. They were noisy tonight, whispering through the pa.s.sages and corridors. Always just out of sight. In the shadows. Behind the curtains. When they wanted you, they cal ed your name. Tonight, they were calling Maljamin.

Owis chewed nervously on a dried feathergil . He must tell Glospin about the intruders. He had to know what it meant. He hadn't seen real people since the start of the dark. He'd forgotten what they looked like. And he had to know where they got in.

He headed for the transmat booth in the Hal of the South wing. It was untouched, its control console blackened with centuries-old carbon residue. The door was covered in web. Inside, shimmering slightly, was the intangible ghost, a uniformed figure that had stood there since the dark started.

Owis was sure it should be candleday by now, but the pa.s.sages stayed resolutely dark. He held out his arm and a fledershrew flittered in and hung on the underside. The little animal squeaked and took a morsel of mushroom.

'Where are the others?' said Owis, stroking its leathery wings.

It flew away.

91.As he hurried to tell Glospin, he was touched by memories that dwelt in every shadow of the House. Places he had watched from; places he had stolen food from; places he had been caught stealing food. He might be seeing all of them for the last time. He wasn't sure how he felt. The fizzing feeling inside might be excitement, or it could be indigestion.

Glospin's stove was empty. The metal door hung open as if the dejected stove had despaired at its loss of prisoner.

Owis ran along the pa.s.sage to the funguretum. The wall of the fungi pen was broken. Boot marks had trudged mushrooms across the tiles. The crop was slithering its way out of the gap over the floor and up the wal s. The pen was almost empty. Arkhew's body had gone.

Relieved, Owis scooped up some of the fattest fungi and pocketed them. The skinless skulls had gone quiet. The whole House was silent. Unnervingly silent. No creaking or squeaking or shuffling. No one crying.

In the sudden chill, he knew why Innocet had sent him away. It was deliberate. They were al going without him leaving him behind. Innocet and Glospin and Arkhew. The fledershrews. Even the skulls had gone. It was revenge.

They'd al gone without calling him.

The Drudge hadn't moved. The wooden sentinel glared through the doorway into Innocet's room, its attention focussed entirely on the Doctor. Chris guessed that it could probably wait for ever.

The semblance of accord in which the Doctor and Innocet slowly took a turn around the huge room, might well have been for the Drudge's benefit. They ignored its the presence at the door. The air, thick enough with silent accusation to carve, told a different story.

Jobiska had fallen asleep in her chair. A tiny bundle of bones in a filthy and ragged doll's dress. Chris wondered how anything so frail could stil be alive. He could see the thin blood moving under her gauze-like skin.

The voices in his head had cut short as soon as Maljamin left the room. But he was certain that Innocet had heard them too. As for the Doctor, well, the Doctor was the Doctor. Impossible to tell what he was thinking - never fewer than three things at once, Chris was sure. And that was when he was asleep.

Chris picked up some old, scratched counters that were scattered over what looked like a mountainous relief map set on a pedestal. There were miniature models of strangely organic houses set on the mountainsides, which were linked by a faded path divided into tiny coloured squares. He found an eight-sided die among the counters and let it tumble across the board.

The clatter made the Doctor and Innocet turn and shush him irritably. On the board, the counters shifted themselves and settled by the houses according to colour. The old lady had woken too. As soon as she saw what Chris was doing, she leant forward eagerly.

'I don't know the rules,' Chris said quietly.

'Then play solo, dear. That's the only way to learn Sepulchasm.'

Chris threw the die again. It showed a spiral ed glyph, which somehow he knew to be the Gal ifreyan equivalent of a 7.

One once-green counter shuffled along the requisite number of places.

Chris threw again and a brown counter moved along four squares. 'Is this al ?' Chris asked. 'What's the objective?'

'You'l see,' she said, so he threw again and again. As he watched the counters tussling round the board, he listened to Innocet and the Doctor, who had reached the fireplace at the distant end of the room.

'But Maljamin was the second to go today,' she protested.

92.'That's a very emotive a.n.a.lysis of events,' the Doctor said. 'And very unlike you, Innocet.' He lowered his voice, but Chris could still hear clearly. 'Arkhew was murdered. He's not going anywhere. But that's a separate problem for us to deal with. So where's Maljamin gone?'

Innocet paused. 'He's taken the path into oblivion. They all take it when they can't endure the dark any longer.'

'What dark? The dark that Satthralope's inflicted on you al and blamed on me?' Irritation was needling into the Doctor's tone. 'Where are all the rest of my Cousins? Do you mean they've left the House?' She was silent. 'Were they all here when this nonsense started?'

'They were,' she said.

'All forty-four? Then how many are left?'

'Six.'

The Doctor pulled off his hat. 'Six? Which six? How can it be only six?'

'Owis, Jobiska, Rynde and myself,' she listed. 'Glospin and Satthralope.'

'And Quences,' said the Doctor.

'Yes, Quences of course,' she said quickly, turning to glance at the door.

'And the Doctor,' cal ed Chris. 'That makes eight.'

The die came up forty-five.

'So where are the others, Innocet?'

'I don't know.'

'I think you do. What have they been saying about me? Worst of all, what's Satthralope been saying?'

Chris turned to see the Doctor fix her with that stare again. But after a few seconds, he scowled and looked away.

'Innocet, you have a mind of adamantine marble. It's like taking tea with a monument.'

'Play,' insisted Jobiska and poked Chris with a finger.

'Just a second,' he said.

The Doctor was making his way back across the room. He straightened his tie and waistcoat. 'I'm going to see Satthralope. On my terms, not hers.'

Innocet was following. 'You can't go. She'l set the Drudges on you the first opportunity she gets.'

'And break her own rules? Thanks to you I'm an honoured guest, Cousin. Besides which, Chris will keep an eye on me.'

Thanks, thought Chris. I feel fine now.

'Sepulchasm!' called Jobiska and started to laugh. The mountainous game board had cracked across and yawned. Chris's counters hovered mockingly in the air over the wide crack. Then they slowly tumbled into the depths. The board snapped shut.

'You're supposed to hover them,' complained Jobiska.

'All consigned to the pit,' said the Doctor. 'How apt.' He went to the door and scrutinized the Drudge outside. 'Let's see how far the sacred rules of Housepitality will stretch.'

93.He stepped out into the pa.s.sage and up to the waiting servant.

His nose was just below the level of the Drudge's carved c.u.mmerbund. The only movement from the creature came from two curving images of the Doctor reflected in its mirrored eyes.

'Ah, there you are,' he said. 'My friend and I would like some breakfast, please. I'm a vegetarian and my friend is allergic to dead rodents. Since the reputation of the kitchens at Lungbarrow is justly fabled, I leave the choice of delicacy up to you. But please, no mushrooms.'

The servant never moved.

'And when you've done that, I noticed a nasty mess in the North annexe. You'l need a mop, I expect.'

The Drudge remained indifferent.

'Run along now,' instructed the Doctor. 'Chop, chop.'

That, thought Chris, is surely the last thing you say to anything made of wood.

The Doctor, having elicited no response, turned to Chris. 'Come on.' He began to saunter along the pa.s.sage, puffing Chris behind him. Immediately, the Drudge turned to follow.

Chris, looking back, saw Innocet step into the Drudge's path. She pushed the large gruel pot into its arms.

'This is finished with,' she said. 'Please remove it.'

Chris didn't see any more, because the Doctor's hand gripped his shoulder and, he wasn't sure how, he found himself in an alcove behind a curtain.

The Doctor peered through the dark at a small chair that was ensconced with them. 'One squeak from you. . .' he threatened.

Owis ran as fast as he could. Clamber up the giant steps. Pelt through the deserted rooms. Don't go. Don't leave me!

He stopped at a landing on the fourth floor, wheezing to catch his breath. Misery wel ed up inside. He was on his own. Who was going to feed him if they'd all gone? Soon he'd shrivel away and the House would feed on him.

He felt a sharp sting on his stomach. He pulled open his tunic in disgust. One of the fat feathergills he had scooped up had worked its way through the material and clamped on to his skin. He eased the fungus off and watched it do a slow squirm between his fingers. There was a red circle on his stomach where the feathergill had tried to ingest him. Fear had ruined his own appet.i.te, so he trod on the little vermin instead.

Over his own gasps for breath, he heard the sound of footsteps. Someone was still here. Someone lumbering towards him. A dark shape rounded the corner.

Owis recognized Maljamin, his head lopsided and his eyes dead. The Cousin pushed Owis roughly out of his path and disappeared into the gloom.

So Owis had been wrong. They were still here. He wasn't too late. And someone else was coming up the stairs, dragging a large sack behind him.

'Rynde,' he called. 'Have you seen them?'

'Clear off,' he growled. 'Innocet's looking for you.'

'They're here!'

94.'Who're here?'

'They've come to get us out!'

Rynde grabbed Owis by the pudgy neck. 'I know about you and Glospin's games. Getting dangerous, aren't they?'

'But it's true. Go and see for yourself. They're here.'

Rynde shoved Owis away. 'And I'm the Emperor Morbius. Play your games elsewhere.'

'Innocet's with them now.' Owis was fighting back huge sobs. He grabbed Rynde's arm. 'Don't let them do it.

They'll make us leave the House. I don't want to leave. Make them go away!'

There was a swish as something large pa.s.sed by the curtain.

After a moment, the Doctor put his nose out into the corridor. 'It's gone,' he said.

Chris was ready to move, but the Doctor closed the curtain again. 'Sit down, Chris,' he whispered and pushed the Adjudicator gently on to the chair.

With a high degree of foreboding, Chris waited for the pyrotechnics.

The Doctor's voice was surprisingly gentle. The dark seemed to help. 'Tell me about Arkhew.'

'I didn't. . . I mean, it was difficult. You were so. . . Look, I'm real y sorry.'

The Doctor sighed. 'One day, Chris, you must teach me about that word. It doesn't come easily, does it?'

'Not always. Look, about Arkhew. It was another dream. It's not substantial evidence.'

'But you saw him?'

'I dreamed about him. Yes. Sorry.'

'There's that word again.'

'He was your Cousin.'

'Yes, I have a lot of Cousins. Or I did have.., once. So what happened?'