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'I've never threatened a god before,' she continued. 'I could get used to it.'

'It was you who dictated what Azathoth was saying just now,' Holmes said suddenly.

'Yeah,' Ace replied. 'Once we topped Tir Ram, Azathoth knew we were serious, so I made a deal. If it didn't try to convert us, I wouldn't blow its face off.'

'Sounds fair,' said Bernice.

'When you lot came in, and Watson here recognized Sherlock's brother, we were a bit stumped. Then Watson reckoned that we could get rid of him and his minders by getting Azathoth to tell him to leave. When he played up a bit it threw us, but I worked out that if he thought you were being guarded by a couple of new converts, he'd be happy. Good thing the rakshassi are crustaceans,' she added, 'otherwise Watson would have had trouble dressing up as a true believer. As it was, he could slip the hand on like a glove. After we'd scooped it out, of course.'

Azathoth shifted its massive bulk slightly.

'It's being very quiet,' I said. 'Does that not strike you as odd?'

'Probably had a shock,' Ace said. 'I mean, nobody's ever talked to it like that before.'

She seemed inordinately pleased with herself. I was not so sanguine about our position.

The Doctor appeared to be listening to something.

'Can anybody hear a whispering sound?' he asked. We all shook our heads. 'Hmm. Perhaps I'm hearing things.'

Judging by his scowl, he was not convinced.

'Anyway, they're preparing to descend to the plain,' he continued. 'To the area where we came through to Ry'leh, the weakest point of contact.'

'How can they get Azathoth down there?' Bernice asked. 'The rakshassi can fly, but their god's powers seem to be strictly limited in that department.'

'A fair question,' the Doctor said, 'but they've shown a remarkable ability to get around problems so far. They've evaded the Shlangii mercenaries by building these pressurized caravans and taking Azathoth across the icy surface, they've built rough and ready space suits for themselves . . . No, I don't think that we can rely on them falling at the last hurdle. And remember, they had to get Azathoth up here somehow.'

'They will obviously use Tir Ram's fakirs to open a gateway back to Earth,'

Holmes added. 'Once in India, the cult would spread like wildfire. Within a few months, the entire world would be united in Azathoth worship, I have always nurtured a hankering for a united world, but not this way.' He shook his head. 'I am presuming that the fakirs have been converted?'

'We were locked in that caravan for long enough,' the Doctor said.

I cleared my throat.

'Tir Ram assured us that all of his people had been blessed by Azathoth.'

I noticed a smile appear on the Doctor's face. I was just about to ask him what he had in mind when there was a tremendous bang! and the entire caravan rocked suddenly, throwing us off our feet. Ripples ran through Azathoth's moist bulk. I thought I could feel a sigh of satisfaction emanating from it.

'Bloody hell!' Ace scrambled back to her feet and looked around wildly.

'We're under attack.'

'I think not,' the Doctor replied calmly. 'Climb up to one of those windows, if you will, and see what's going on.'

Like a monkey, Ace scrambled up the rough wooden walls of the caravan to where the coloured glass windows were set. Some remnant of my usual gallantry - severely dented by these capable women of the future - rose to the surface. I climbed up behind her.

'This is no place for women,' I said as I came alongside her.

'Sod off,' she said succinctly.

I kept quiet, and gazed through the thick red glass of the window at the panorama thus revealed.

The sun cast a low red light across the jumbled terrain, and the twisted spires of the mountain tops reached for the starspeckled sky as before, but near where our caravan sat the icy surface of Ry'leh was marred by a jagged hole a few hundred yards across. I could hardly see it for rolling banks of mist. The grotesque silhouettes of rakshassi clustered around