Doctor Who_ Snakedance Part 5

'Certainly not! Whatever for?'

'Please, I just want to demonstrate something. Then I'll go and leave you in peace.'

'Oh, very well.' Awkwardly, Ambril perched the hat on top of his head.

The Doctor looked at Chela. 'Now, count the faces.'

Chela looked blank.

'Do as he says,' ordered Ambril.

Chela counted. There were the masks, of course. "One, two, three, four, five . . .' Chela saw the puzzled face of Ambril beneath the head-dress. Catching the Doctor's eye he gave an involuntary smile.

'Exactly,' said the Doctor. 'And one more makes six. The sixth Face of Delusion is the wearer's own. That was probably the idea, don't you think?'

Ambril was spluttering with rage. 'Out. Get out! Go on, get out!'

The Doctor moved hurriedly towards the door.

Struggling to keep his face straight, Chela hurried after him.

Nyssa stood in one of the market streets looking anxiously about her.

Although she hadn't managed to catch up with Tegan she'd managed to keep her in sight at least for a time. Now Tegan seemed to have vanished. Choosing a direction more or less at random, Nyssa went on with her search.

As soon as she was out of sight Tegan stepped out of her hiding place - which was in fact the entrance to Dugdale's Hall of Mirrors. The Hall had been temporarily deserted by its weary proprietor, who was consoling himself with a mug of wine at the local tavern. Tegan was about to move away, when suddenly she changed her mind. She turned and went into the Hall.

Retracing her steps, Nyssa found herself outside the abandoned fortune-teller's booth. She remembered that somehow Tegan had been concerned in whatever had happened there. She went up to the doorway. 'h.e.l.lo! Anyone there?' No answer. Nyssa slipped inside.

Peering round in the gloom she saw the fragments of the shattered crystal ball. And there, on the table, was the Doctor's anti-dreaming device. Nyssa picked it up.

Tegan pa.s.sed through the tiny vestibule and through a curtained door into the Hall itself. It wasn't really much of a hall, just a long tent-room.

It was lined with mirrors, ranged along the walls. Each mirror was framed with a crudely-drawn snake mouth, a kind of parody of the Cave of the Snake.

Tegan looked in the first mirror, and saw herself as a dumpy dwarf. She looked in the second, and saw an impossibly tall, elongated Tegan. She looked in the third mirror - and saw the Mara.

5.

The Sign of the Mara

The giant snake-skull filled the entire mirror. Tegan backed away in horror, trying not to look. 'No no,' she whispered. 'Please.'

The Mara said 'Face me!'

The voice was deep and harsh, the Mara voice, but it was coming from Tegan's lips.

Tegan shook her head. 'No, no... I mustn't. I can't.'

'Face me!'

'I'm so tired.'

''Then borrow my strength.'

Tegan struggled to regain control of her own mind. "How is it possible?

On the Kinda world the Mara was repelled by mirrors.'

'On the Kinda world, I was trapped in a circle of mirrors,' said the hateful voice. 'There is no circle here.'

Tegan rubbed a hand over her eyes. 'Why am I so confused?'

'You are divided against yourself. A stranger in your own mind. You are pathetic'

Tegan closed her eyes.

'Look at me!' commanded the Mara. 'I can make up your mind?

'No,' muttered Tegan weakly. 'No. . .'

' Why not? What are you afraid of? Just who do you think you are?'

In spite of herself, Tegan straightened up and stared full into the mirror. The Mara snake-skull seemed to glow brighter for a moment, then slowly faded away.

Tegan looked down at her left arm and saw the mark of the Mara. A snake design ran down her forearm, the head of the snake on the back of her hand.

Tegan - or rather the Mara inside her - smiled, a cold, triumphant smile.

The Mara was in command.

The Doctor walked back through the market, pushing his way abstractedly through the crowds.

He heard a voice calling out behind him. 'Doctor! Doctor, wait.'

He turned and saw Chela running after him.

The Doctor waited and Chela hurried up to him, glancing over his shoulder to see that he wasn't observed. 'Here, Doctor, take this.'

Chela thrust something into the Doctor's hands. It was a pendant, a blue crystal on a golden chain.

The Doctor examined it. 'What is it?'

'The Snakedancers use them in their rituals. They call them "Little Mind's Eye". In the Legend, the Great Crystal is called the "Great Mind's Eye" '.

'Indeed?' said the Doctor thoughtfully.

'Perhaps there's a connection,' said Chela. 'Perhaps they're even made of the same substance. I just don't know. I wanted to run tests on this one, but Ambril wouldn't let me.'

The Doctor weighed the pendant in his hand. 'Why-are you telling me all this?'

T must go.'

'Wait,' said the Doctor. 'Tell me, Chela, do you believe in the Legend of the Return?'

'No, of course not.'

Chela turned and hurried away.

The Doctor called after him. 'One more question - who are the Snakedancers?'

But Chela had disappeared into the crowd.

The Doctor stood gazing after him, the crystal pendant in his hand.

He held it up to the light, looking into the blue depths of the stone.

Tegan stood looking into the mirror, unaware that she was being watched.

Dugdale had returned to his Hall of Mirrors some little time ago, and found, to his astonishment, a girl standing before one of his mirrors talking to herself in two completely different voices. Born showman that he was, Dugdale's first reaction, once he was over his astonishment, was to think that here was a talent that could be put to good commercial use.

He stepped forward, applauding ironically. 'Highly convincing, young lady. A trick of course, voice projection, the art of the ventriloquist, perhaps. Two voices in different registers. Very original, all in all!'

Tegan stood staring at her reflection, ignoring him completely.

Dugdale walked around her, studying her thoughtfully. 'Now, various possibilities present themselves immediately. Should you be interested in something along the lines of . .. A partnership, perhaps? Me outside enticing the pa.s.sers-by, talking 'em in, relieving them at the door of some small token of their sincere interest. You inside in the half-dark talking away to yourself in two voices - and scaring them half to death.

Highly satisfactory all round. What do you think?'

Still no reply.

Dugdale was getting impatient. 'All right, my girl, enough's enough. I said I was impressed ... as impressed as I need to be. I'm not a curious man -though I was once.' He gave a self-mocking laugh. 'I was once a long time ago, a Humble Student of Life's Mysteries, a Treader of the Secret Pathways, a Delver into the Darker Corners, and so forth. At the end of the day, when the lights come up - as they always do come up in one form or another - there's always someone standing with their hand out waiting to be paid. I decided long ago that person might as well be me. Or, in present circ.u.mstances - us!'

Suddenly Tegan swung round to face him. She spoke in the harsh, compelling Mara voice. 'Who exactly are you?' She studied him. 'You are not important. There is only one who is important. Only he matters in what is to be done here.''

Dugdale shrunk back, transfixed by her hypnotic glare.

Swinging the pendant thoughtfully, the Doctor walked on. Once again he heard running footsteps behind him, and turned. This time he saw Nyssa.

'Doctor,' she gasped. 'I saw Tegan. I spoke to her.'

'Where is she?'

'I don't know. She ran away from me. I lost her in the crowd. Doctor, look!'

Nyssa held out the anti-dreaming device. 'She wasn't wearing this when I found her - and she was acting very; oddly.'

She told the Doctor of Tegan's strange manner, and of finding the device in the fortune-teller's booth.

The Doctor listened keenly. 'When you saw Tegan was she marked?'

'What?'

'On her arm - the mark of a snake.' 'I didn't see . . .'

'It's the Mara,' said the Doctor fiercely. 'It must be.' Tucking the device in his pocket he strode away, Nyssa hurrying after him.

Lon had resumed his usual supine position, stretched out on the couch, gazing vaguely into s.p.a.ce.

His mother appeared, sumptuously robed in blue and gold, and wearing a jewelled head-dress. 'Isn't it time you were changed, Lon? Lon? We're having dinner with Ambril, remember?'

'I'm not coming.'

'Good,' said Tanha briskly.

Lon didn't like having his sulks ignored. 'I beg your pardon?'

'Good,' repeated Tanha. 'It's probably just as well, you'd only spoil things anyway. Your behaviour in the caves this morning was unforgivable. Poor Ambril was quite disconcerted. You were taking advantage of your position.'

Lon yawned, and turned away. 'Oh please, if you're going to be dreary.'

'I am not going to be anything. We are invited to dinner, and I am going.

Are you just going to lie there being bored?'

Lon stretched and smiled lazily at her. 'Yes, do you know I rather suspect I am. After all, what else is there to do?'

Tanha walked majestically to the doorway. She paused on the threshold. 'Oh, Lon, do come to dinner.'

Lon turned ostentatiously away.

Tanha sighed, and swept out of the room.

The Doctor marched Nyssa swiftly through the market and down the long narrow road that led to the Cave of the Snake.

Running up the steps he paused by the entrance, waiting for Nyssa to catch up. 'Come on!'

'What are we doing here?'

'I need facts, Nyssa, more facts. There's something I noticed here earlier. I need to take a closer look.'

They plunged through the snake-mouth and into the darkness of the tunnel.