Trial Of A Time Lord _ Mindwarp Part 8

Peri turned and came face to face with a tall confident woman.

The Matrona no longer wore the cool white of the laboratory coat but a vivid crimson gown. At her throat a circular gold collar highlighted the tones of her rich brown skin.

'You're from the Induction Centre? Rejected, running away?'

'What?' Peri did not understand about the Induction Centre but after the Doctor's betrayal the rejected part sure made sense. The Matrona looked Peri up and down approving of what she saw. Her manner softened. 'I should inform the guards have you returned to Thoros-Alpha.'

'Should you?' Peri's manner was polite but she realiy had little idea what the imposing woman was implying.

'There's an alternative?' A slow smile hovered on the Matrona's wide handsome lips. 'You were brought to serve the Mentors and their favoured creatures. I control the woman servants. I need help to do that. Loyal help.'

'I'd serve you. Why?'

'I prefer some individuality in my household. I like a small number of my personal maids to be unprocessed, you understand?' Peri didn't but nodded anyway. The Matrona took this to be a sign of agreement. 'Should you be discovered as an escaped reject, I will deny ali knowledge of this meeting. What is your name?'

'Peri.' She should have offered an alias but it was already too late.

'Do you wish to serve me, Peri?'

The clatter of returning guards outside the door decided her. 'OK. What have I got to lose?'

'You must address me as Matrona.'

'Matrona.'

'Good. Now quickly, hide. The guards may come in to search for you.'

Peri followed her new mistress to a wardrobe that filled an alcove by the entrance to an inner chamber. She caught a glirnpse of hanging silks, scattered cushions and low wooden tables.

'Quickly!' the Matrona urged Peri to step inside the wardrobe where a false back panel had opened. Peri stepped inside through the many hanging dresses that she a.s.sumed must belong to the Matrona. A heavy musk perfume still clung to the gowns, making Peri feel that even when the outer wardrobe door was closed the Matrona was still with her. The s.p.a.ce between the false panel and the cold wall of rock was cramped. How many other frightened girls had stood here wondering what lay ahead, and what had happened to them? Peri heard m.u.f.fled voices and decided there was little she could do.

The Doctor and his betrayal gnawed at her mind. Why had he called out? Why hazard their lives?

Hidden within the Matrona's chamber Peri felt more isolated and alone than at any other time in her life.

Nine.

Yrcanos and the Lukoser had soon put distance between themselves and the chasing guards.

'Wait!' Yrcanos commanded. Obediently the half-man, half-wolf slowed and crouched down on to his haunches.

The great s.h.a.ggy head sank down in misery. 'K... kill me...'

the jaw and great teeth finally allowed the plea to emerge.

With a roar of anger Yrcanos pulled his equerry to his feet and shook him violently. 'You are Dorf of Kanval!

Whatever has been done to your body, your spirit must remain intact. Die if you must but achieve that n.o.ble end in battle!'

The head of the Wolfman nodded miserably. His yellowed eyes glared at the fur-covered hands he held up before him. Yrcanos saw the fire of revenge glint within the Lukoser's gaze. 'Keep that hatred burning for when you find the man who has done this to you. There is one who betrayed me and a young girl. I have a special death reserved for him.'

'Wh... who?' the Lukoser asked.

Yrcanos scowled, 'He is a traitor known as the Doctor.'

Serving girls hurried in and out of Kiv's home chamber.

Peri waited outside, expecting the Matrona to call her when Lord Kiv demanded his medication. Peri, lightly veiled, as were the other servants, wore a plain smock that she hoped would give her anonymity should Sil or Frax happen to be present.

'Peri...!' the Matrona's voice summoned her.

'Matrona?' Peri entered the doorway of the chamber.

'Take this.' The Matrona handed her a bowl with a grey coloured fluid inside. 'You will enter when I call. Not before. Wait outside.'

'I understand, Matrona,' Peri said.

The Matrona returned to the centre of the chamber swirling through the hanging silks. Peri saw greenskinned Mentors in a group around the broad pedestal that supported Lord Kiv. Then the multicoloured swathes of silk drifted back and her view was once again obscured.

Seated near to the Mentors, Crozier watched their leader intently. He recognised the puckers of pain that creased Kiv's mottled face. He noted also the slight slurred speech and the increasingly irrational slips of speech to which the Mentor's leader was becoming p.r.o.ne.

'Aah.' Kiv began to shrink away as if trying to escape from the onset of pain that was building inside his head.

'Matrona!' Crozier called and made an urgent gesture to indicate Kiv's predicament. 'Bring Lord Kiv's ambiotic fluid quickly!'

The Matrona hurried to the door and beckoned Peri to bring the bowl of medication. Just as Peri was about to enter, the silk pennants disturbed by the Matrona shifted and allowed Peri a view of those seated near to Kiv. With a tingle of shock she saw sitting chatting amicably with Sil, the Doctor.

'I... I can't go in...' Peri stammered.

'Do you wish me to denounce you?'

Peri shook her head. How stupid, she thought, to be frightened of the Time Lord who had brought her to this benighted planet.

'Obey my order.' The furious tone of the Matrona cut through her thoughts. 'Come, I will go first, there is nothing to fear. Come!'

Perhaps the veil would hide her ident.i.ty. Peri decided there was no option. She followed in the wake of the Matrona through the hanging silks towards the mentors.

Features twisted by the pain inside his head, the Lord Kiv fumbled for a drinking tube and thrust it into the bowl of fluid held by Peri. The grey liquid diminished rapidly.

Kiv did not cease drinking until the bowl was quite empty.

Satisfied and with the savage ache already beginning to ease he sank back on to his pedestal.

Peri bowed her head and began to withdraw. Just as she started to relax a voice rang out behind her. The voice of the Doctor.

'You! Bring me another drink. I don't like this, it tastes like swamp water!'

Sil laughed at the Doctor's lack of taste. 'Exactly,' he said.

'Go to them,' the Matrona ordered as she pa.s.sed Peri on her way to attend to Lord Kiv. There was nothing for it but to obey.

'My Lords,' Peri said, looking down as if abashed by the utter superiority of Sil and the Doctor.

'Bring my friend something better than the water of an inferior swamp. Snail juice, perhaps...'

Sil laughed with the Doctor joining in. Neither paid any attention to the veiled girl before them. Peri felt like throwing the rejected drinks back at the grinning faces of the loathsome pair but she resisted the impulse and walked to a low serving table where various drinks of vivid hue were lined in rows ready for service.

Across the room Kiv sighed as the medicine brought some relief to his aching head. He looked up at the Matrona gratefully. 'At last the pain eases. Stay near me Matrona you I trust.'

'The Lord Kiv does me great honour.'

Kiv sighed again. 'Tomorrow I must trust my life to this man of science.'

'What chances of success, my Lord?'

'Equal odds to live or die. I have no choice but to give myself into his hands.'

'Matrona Kani!' Sil's voice shrilled across the chamber.

'See that my Lord Kiv is served only the most wrigglesome of soft sea snakes!'

'I need you to tell me that, Sil.'

'No, but I just thought I would!' Sil giggled and the Doctor joined in two naughty schoolboys ripe for mischief.

Peri filled new gla.s.ses with the purple fermented snail's milk that was the champagne of Thoros-Beta and presented the goblets to Sil and the Doctor.

Still chortling, the Doctor sipped his drink. The sour taste offended his palate. 'What is in this drink?' he snapped at the girl.

'Everyone else is drinking it, I thought...'

The face of the Doctor contorted with rage, 'You thought thought, who are you to...'

Peri couldn't bear the sight of him. 'Oh, shut up, Doctor!'

'How does the servitor know the name of the Doctor?'

Kiv asked.

'Because, my Lord...' the Doctor said softly. 'She is a spy!'

With a sudden movement he whisked away the flimsy veil from Peri's face.

'This,' the Doctor continued in a gloating voice, 'is the girl who ran from the Induction Centre. She no doubt intended to poison every one of us in due course.'

'What?' Kiv reacted with alarm.

'I prepared your medication myself,' the Matrona calmed the agitation of the Mentor.

'Doctor, please...' Peri began.

Sil decided a decisive show of authority would impress his master. 'She must confess. Guards... take her to the Rock of Sorrows!'

With a guard holding each arm, Peri began to be dragged out of the chamber. 'Doctor, please help me!' she called back plaintively. But the Doctor remained impervious to the appeals of the girl and on the Matrix his face, in close-up, seemed impa.s.sive and uncaring.

'That's the ploy. I remember now!'

The Doctor was on his feet. Trembling with relief and excitement.

'Ploy, Doctor?' said the Valeyard not bothering even to rise from his seat.

'Yes, yes, my plan to remove us both from the heart of the Mentors' domain. I gambled that after I'd helped Crozier fix their celebral transference unit, they might just trust me to interrogate Peri alone.'

'To what end?' the Valeyard drawled the question out innocently.

'Escape, I should imagine,' said the Doctor, the certainty of the purity of his motives lessening through the alt.i.tude of confidence displayed by the Valeyard.

'Did the interrogation take place?' the Inquisitor asked.

'It certainly did, Sagacity.' Again that worrying smile played about the cruel mouth of the prosecuting counsel.

'I would wish to see that.'

As soon as the words had pa.s.sed from the Inquisitor's lips, Zon activated the Matrix recall systems and the scene changed to a view of a pilar of rock on the sh.o.r.eline of the Sea of Sorrows. Above the skyline, low in the sky, hung the twin planet of Thoros-Alpha. The aspect changed and a much closer view of the perpendicular rock could be seen with the incoming tide beginning to lap against the base of the rock. Again the Matrix focus changed this time to a different angle with the pillar seen from the sh.o.r.e.

Chained to the rock, Peri was reacting with panic as the pink sea foam started to wash over her shoes.

Opposite the Rock of Sorrows lay a cave whose entrance was surrounded by tangled mauve vegetation. From this cave came a figure in a red coat who picked his way carefully over the rugged sh.o.r.e towards Peri.

'What do you want?' Peri's voice was tossed towards him but the sound of the incoming sea took away any tone of defiance it might have carried.