Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [43]
‘None taken,’ said the Doctor. Anji noticed that this courtesy gave him, another black mark with Scale. She suddenly didn’t want to go back inside the dark little room, no matter what new sights appeared on the mirrored table.
‘I’ll stay out here, if you don’t mind,’ she murmured. ‘I need the air.’
‘Well, suit yourself,’ said Scale rudely. ‘It’s not as if I run this place to make a living.’ He was only slightly mollified when the Doctor put an extra coin in his hand. ‘Come in, then.’ He stood aside ungraciously.
‘So what’s on today?’ said Fitz as Scale turned down the lamp. ‘Any hunters or cows?’
‘We’ll see,’ Scale said sullenly. The Doctor had gone right to the table and was looking at the scene it showed with interest, though when Fitz joined him, there was nothing in particular to see, just the same cottages and marshy area.
‘Where did you get this?’
Scale’s eyes darted from one to the other of them uneasily. ‘It were mine,’ he said aggrievedly. ‘I come by it honest.’
‘Yes, yes, I’m sure you did. But where?’
‘I had it off an old Eye-talian carny man. He said it were Swiss.’ The Doctor snorted. ‘That’s what he said!’
‘It’s no more Swiss than I am. Tell me,’ the Doctor turned his pale eyes on Scale, ‘where’s the rest of it?’
Scale’s face hardened. ‘How’d you know there were more of it?’
‘You said something yesterday about having most of it stolen,’ said Fitz.
‘I did.’ Scale was suddenly lachrymose. ‘It’s robbed I was.’
‘Where?’ said the Doctor.
‘Down in Devon just a few months back. We was wintering there, and I took one glass away to clean, and all the others was stolen. Oh it were hard, sir, it were hard.’
‘How many went missing?’
‘There was eight to begin. This is the only one left.’
‘And how did you have it set up before? Not like this, surely.’
‘No, sir. As a hall of mirrors. Here,’ Scale became suspicious, ‘why’re you so bloody interested?’
‘A hall of mirrors?’ said the Doctor, ignoring the question. ‘And what did it show? Not the usual thing, I’ll wager.’
Scale abruptly lit the lamp. ‘Show’s over.’
The Doctor paid no attention. ‘What is this?’ he said, leaning over the railing to tap the table with his forefinger. ‘It’s not like any glass I’ve ever seen.’
‘I said, show’s over.’
‘Your hall of mirrors,’ said the Doctor. ‘When people entered it, what did they see? Their futures or their pasts?’
Scale was across the little room so fast Fitz didn’t even have time to react. He got the Doctor by his collar and pushed him against the wall. ‘How do you know so much about it?’
Fitz started to step forward, a little uncertainly since he had no real idea of how to tackle the much larger Scale. The Doctor’s eyes flicked towards him warningly. ‘I’m by way of being a scholar of time,’ he told Scale, unruffled. ‘Horology, chronology, temporal aerodynamics, also known as Why Time Flies. Did you ever wonder that? It might just as well flow. Like that river in your mirror. That’s the Thames, isn’t it?’
Scale’s hand tightened. ‘Might be.’
‘Oh I think it definitely is. Though not exactly the same river. You know what Herodotus said about stepping in rivers twice. You need my help.’
‘And you need a good thrashing.’
Scale raised his fist. Fitz darted forward to shove him off-balance, even as the Doctor slipped from his grip like water, and as a result Fitz and the Doctor collided and went down together, knocking into Scale and toppling him too. For a moment, there was a confused scrambling. Fitz smacked into something hard, the Doctor and Scale yelled in unison, and there was a floor-shaking crash. Fitz covered his head. When, after a second, nothing had fallen on him, he peeked out and saw that the table was on its side. The mirror had slid off the trestle legs and slammed to the floor on Its back. As he got up, Fitz was amazed to see the glass hadn’t even cracked.
The door banged open and Fitz met Anji’s alarmed eyes. Scale had rushed to his precious mirror, abandoning his assault on the Doctor