Doctor Who_ Cats Cradle_ Witch Mark - Andrew Hunt [47]
'What's he talking about, Professor?'
'Captain, these names you use, they're unfamiliar to us. Perhaps you could give us some better idea about these people.’
'Not people, their armies are arrayed against Dinorben. Look out there. They seek to destroy us because we seek to return to our true home. We cannot let them through the gateway. How long would we last if we were accompanied by those beasts?’
‘But Dryfid told us that Tír na n-Óg is being attacked by demons. You'd leave all these others to be destroyed by them?’ Ace was disgusted that Rhys could think this perfectly natural.
The Captain sneered. 'They are kith and kin with the demons Goibhnie created them all and seeks by any means to destroy us.’
'But you've lived in peace for so long. Why should they turn on you now?'
'Who can fathom the ways of monsters? Down there, look. He pointed to one of the grey masses which Ace now interpreted as being one of the attacking armies. 'Down there are Firbolg; semihuman, they have the head, arms and trunk of a true man, .but below that they are horses. The army that faces the gate directly is the mass of the Sidhe; they are humanlike in form, but their bodies are covered with a red hair and their heads are like the head of a wolf. And over there, to the north is the army of the Fomoir. They are men of stone, grey-skinned and with the strength of the earth and the sap of the mountains for their blood. They rest when the sun is at its zenith, even this hellish excuse for a sun, and that is the time when you will be able to leave Dinorben for when the Fomoir rest the other armies ease their attack - if you can call it that.'
And what of the Ceffyl?' asked the Doctor, realizing that Rhys had missed them from his description.
The Ceffyl are not amongst the armies below. They still roam the plains, doubtless to waylay men on their way back to Dinorben. They take the form of an ordinary horse but can be distinguished by the horn which pierces their forehead.'
That s not Ceffyl, dum-dum,' said Ace, 'that's a unicorn.’
Rhys gave her a strange look. 'Aye, that is what Herne called them. But there are many names which amount to the same thing.'
‘ “A rose by any other name . . .” ’ commented the Doctor.
What's that?' asked Rhys.
‘Shakespeare,' the Doctor told him, but the Captain’s face remained blank. English literature would naturally be a mystery to him.
Rhys turned and pointed out across the land. 'You will travel to the north, through the forests of Coed and then across the plains of Porfa. Beyond that lies the sea and the island of Goibhnie. Come, it is time we ate. I have some food prepared in my rooms.' Once again he led them through the labyrinthine corridors of the wall, as regular as a wyrm's wrigglings through underworld. His quarters were not far, though, and soon they were seated around a sparsely laden table.
‘Venison, bread and wine are all I can offer, I'm afraid. Essential supplies are being distributed at a minimal level.'
‘That's all right. We understand,' the Doctor answered. He took a strip of the meat and tore a chunk off the loaf and motioned for Ace to do the same. Rhys poured wine into wooden goblets and passed them to his guests.
Ace took a sip and nearly gagged at the bitterness. ‘What’s is that?'
‘I think it's meant more for softening the bread than for drinking by itself,' the Doctor told her.
‘After a few mouthfuls you hardly notice