Doctor Who_ The Scarlet Empress Part 4

"That's where our objective is; said the Doctor, with a wry nod. 'See that hole there?'

'Who put her down there?' asked Sam.

'The dogs,' hissed Gila, with a nasty smile.

The Doctor could see it all now. Great brindled creatures, matted fur grown over the steel of their bodies, they had taken their orders and wouldn't be called off. Their commands had come straight from their master and, between them, they had carried the distraught, bleating Iris into this bleak stretch of desert. The rim of the dustbowl. In that graveyard they had rounded her up, snarling, and tossed her up in the air like a bundle of rags.

'They're yours, aren't they?' he said to Gila.'You set them on to her.'

Gila pulled a face, shrugged nonchalantly.

'Call off your hounds, Gila,' the Doctor's voice went hard. 'She's an old woman.' Even older than he was, he reflected. She called him 'my boy'.

'She held me at gunpoint!'

'She must have had her reasons.'

'I'd like to hear them.'

'If she's still alive, maybe she'll tell you.'

'All right.'

Gila ran down the slope to his dogs. He ploughed deep furrows in the sand as he hurried The half-mile.

'You know,'said Sam.'I wouldn't trust him the slightest bit.'Sometimes she thought the Doctor was just a bit too f.e.c.kless.

'He's all right,'said the Doctor.'Shall we follow?You just have to know how to handle these people...'

Gila was calling out to his hounds. They turned their vast, red eyes on him. 'You can leave off now - go home!' His pale body seemed tiny and spindly next to theirs. They weren't listening to him.

The Doctor shouted,'What's the matter? Why won't they -'

One of the three, the largest, broke away and came bounding across the sand towards him.

'Uh, Doctor...' said Sam. 'Get back.' Sam got back.

The dog let out a howl of rage as it came hurtling up towards him. He stood in its path and, at the last moment, flung himself to the ground.

The beast was too clumsy to turn and it pelted past. The other two came running to take its place. They set up a great noise, baiting him. They were playing a game, Sam thought, with the Doctor as their toy.

She ran to him and found that his head had connected with a large, flat rock when he fell. He was stunned, and there was a dribble of blood at his temple. His cravat had come undone. She shook him. They'll rip us to shreds!' she yelled.

'What's Gila doing?' asked the Doctor Wearily 'Nothing much,' she said, looking round.

All three dogs were advancing upon the pair from their separate directions.

'Down, boys,' the Doctor muttered feebly. Then he bellowed, 'Gila! Call them off! If I die you'll never know what Iris is up to.'

'Do I even care?' came Gila's mocking reply.

'Yes you do!' said the Doctor. 'And if I or Sam get the slightest scratch...

then you'll never know.'

'Hold,' said Gila to his dogs, and ran towards them. In the moonlight his scales gleamed.

'Iris is rich,' said the Doctor.

'How rich?'

'Rich as Croesus. Richer than you can imagine.'

'I don't know. I can imagine quite a bit.'

There was a pause.

The Doctor said to Sam,'He'll get his comeuppance. They always do, wretches like that.'

'Do they?'

'All right.' Gila bellowed some kind of command at his dogs. They growled in protest, in disappointment, but they listened to him. Their hackles went down, they stopped glaring and pacing the ground. They turned and fled, full pelt, back to Hyspero.

Sam brushed herself down. 'Well. Attacked by giant devil dogs. The days are just packed, aren't they? How's your head?'

'Oh, all right. My ankle still hurts, though.'

She tutted and turned on Gila. 'Why didn't you call them off sooner?'

He shrugged. She felt like spitting in his eye.

The Doctor didn't bother with recriminations. He always said there wasn't time.'Let's fetch Iris up; he said with a grin.

He ran back to the boot of the bus and hunted around in her tool chest.

Minutes later he was back with a long rope ladder. "The poor old thing will have to climb.'

They sent it down, unrolling it with a triumphant flourish. From deep down the well they heard a shout of pleasure. So it was long enough to reach its target.

'Iris?' the Doctor called, making his hands into a megaphone.

'Is that who I think it is?' Her voice came out distant and ghostly.

'I don't know - who do you think it is?'

And then she was silent for a full ten minutes, during which she concentrated her energies on strenuous handover-hand climbing. They peered into the darkness, holding their breaths. Her grunts and oaths were getting louder.

She emerged looking filthy, frail, battered and deliriously happy. Her wide-brimmed hat hung at a jaunty angle. She fell into the Doctor's arms without even looking at his face.

'It's me!'she cried.

The first thing they had to do, once Iris got her breath back, was to prevent her and Gila going for each other's throat.

'They wereyour hounds!'

'You put me in chains!'

'You wouldn't co-operate peacefully!'

'You tricked me,you hag!'

The Doctor wedged himself between them. 'Can't we sort this out nicely?'

'Honestly, Doctor,' she said, 'I thought I was done for. I thought they were going to drag me to the Underworld.'

'Good riddance,' snarled Gila. 'Just ask her, ask her why she was taking me prisoner.'

Iris pursed her lips.

'Why, Iris?' asked the Doctor solemnly.

'I'm on a mission,' she said airily. 'And I needed his help.'

The Doctor shook his head.'There's something funny here.'

Both Iris and Gila were quiet.

'Look,' said the Doctor.'Can we agree on a truce, and sort this out? We all look as if we could do with a sit down. I know Sam and I could.'

For a moment Gila looked as if he was just going to turn and run into the night. Evidently, though, he remembered what he had been told about Iris's wealth, and stayed put.

'I'm entirely reasonable,' said Iris huffily. Then, instantly, her mood changed and she beamed. 'Let's all have a nice drinky and a chin-wag.'

She eyed the Doctor.'Which regeneration?'

'Seventh,' he said.'This is my eighth self.'

'You're bolting through incarnations, aren't you? As you see, I'm still in the same delectable, comfy old bod.' It was true. She hadn't altered in the slightest since whenever their last do was. When she whipped off her hat, though, he saw that she'd given herself a home perm.

'I've had a hair-raising few years,' the Doctor said.'And my last body I kept for ages. I was the same one for what seemed like decades.' Why am I making excuses to her? he thought crossly. Then he stumped off to build a fire.

'I'll fetch the drinks!' Iris called after him.'And the nibbles.'

'Whatever,' he said.

'Why are you building a fire?' Sam asked.'It's roasting hot!'

'It's not for us,' he said, as he built up a pyramid of old sticks. 'It's protection. Keeping things away.'

'Oh.'

The Doctor couldn't get his fire to take. 'Stand back,' Gila told them, and stood himself in front of the kindling and started to whistle. A rush of blue flame issued from his mouth and, in seconds, a gorgeous, sapphire blaze illuminated their small camp beside the double-decker bus.'A nice cool flame,' Gila said modestly.

'That's quite a talent,' Sam said grudgingly. He shrugged.

There came a scream from the bus.

'That'll be Iris,' said the Doctor.'She's forever overreacting.'

He ran back to her snip, to find her hunched over the opened c.o.c.ktail cabinet, clutching bottles of spirits to her chest and wailing.

'What's the matter?' asked the Doctor.'Have we run out of tonic?'

She ignored this and pointed to the bed settee. From amongst the clutter there arose a gleaming, lumpen ma.s.s.

'It must have sneaked aboard in the graveyard,' said the Doctor softly.

The ifrit turned its ghastly head to stare at them. Its amorphous body quivered with pleasure. 'The fellowship is gathering,' it whispered sarcastically.'You must be almost ready to start out on your quest.'

Iris bridled. 'If it's any of your business, this quest is already officially begun.'

'You can't succeed, you know,' said the ifrit.

The old woman's eyes narrowed.'What's it got to do with you?'

'You can't hold back death, Iris.' The spirit floated into the air and circled their heads.'And when you die, I'll be there. To gorge myself on your ample flesh.'

She was furious, and flung a bottle of gin straight at the apparition. It had already gone, and the Doctor had to duck to avoid getting hit. The bottle smashed through one of the windows.

There was a moment of silence.'What are you mixed up in, Iris?' asked the Doctor, not unkindly.

'You don't want to know.'

'Yes I do.You've involved Sam and me in this now.'

'You're free to go.'

'What's happened to you, Iris? You never used to go round holding people at gunpoint.'

She flung herself down on the squashy sofa and sighed. 'Oh, yes I did, Doctor. I did all sorts of dubious things you knew nothing about.' She sighed, staring out into the dark, at the blue campflre, where Gila and Sam were talking.'You were the virtuous one, remember?'

He looked at her. 'I think you're in trouble. Aren't you?'

'Don't even ask.' She heaved herself up to her feet. 'I hope I've got some more gin somewhere.'