Doctor Who_ Companion Piece - Mike Tucker [24]
Next to Agatho — in chains! — was the TARDIS, which was periodically struck with a mitre whilst Agatho railed against Time Lord witches and murderers. He warned the congregation to be vigilant for strangers and to report them to the cathedral, or they would answer to the Inquisition. His gaze kept flashing to del Toro, who occasionally, almost imperceptibly,
nodded his approval.
The choir exalted the Cardinal's soul to heaven, and Cat's chains bit into her wrists. She was tired. She longed for the service to end.
She was aware of a muttering behind her, and a slight drop in the temperature of the cathedral. The mutters became raised voices, and some women screamed.
Cat twisted in her chains, to see a pale, smoky figure, semi-translucent, float slowly down the aisle towards the altar, its arms raised as if in supplication. A guard stepped up to bar its path — and the wraith passed through him.
It was the Doctor.. .
He floated up to the pulpit . . . he seemed to be reaching for the Bishop.
Agatho fell to his knees, sweating and trembling. 'My God! W e are undone!' he cried. 'The sin was not mine . . . '
`The Devil's work!' someone in the congregation shouted, and others shouted back in agreement. People were starting to get to their feet, pushing towards the doors. Pews were toppled over, people fell, were trampled. At a nod from Guii del Toro, the guards tried to corral the panicking crowd, but to no avail.
Cat strained to see past the jostling, pushing bodies of the faithful, to catch a glimpse of the Doctor. She saw him float up to the TARDIS, then vanish. The ghost was gone.
The Doctor came round in a cell that could have belonged to any age. Crude metal walls, no light, no sound. He called out, but heard only the echo of his own voice in reply. He felt forgotten.
W hat had happened up there on that awful machine? W here had he been? He had felt his . . . consciousness ripped out, blown about the planet like so much dust. Clawing his way back had been so hard . . . He still felt far from his old self.
Is that what they had done to the other Time Lord? Again and again — exploring, analysing and then stripping his regenerations away...
The cell door opened and a guard beckoned for him to come out. He crawled through the hatch and into the dim light of the corridor.
`W hat — ?' The guard grabbed him roughly by the arm and began
jerking him down the corridor. 'W here are we? Look, you don't have to be so . . . '
He was pushed through a door and fell at the feet of Guii del Toro. Next to him, held tightly by a guard, was Cat.
Relief flooded across her face. She tried to reach out for him, but the guard held her back.
`Doctor! I thought you were dead. I saw you . . . '
Tor a while, I thought I was dead.' He smiled up at her weakly. 'How are you, Cat?'
Cat struggled from her guard's grip.
`Doctor, there's been a murder!'
`The Cardinal Archbishop of the Southern Rimworlds was struck down while at prayer at the high altar,' del Toro cut in levelly.
`A murder in the cathedral . . . ' The Doctor nodded slowly. 'Yes . . . I think I might have seen it. My memories are still very vague:
`So you admit you were there.'
`In a sense, yes. Not my corporal body, of course. You had that.'
`W e have already seen that you can send your spirit from your body at will:
`That was your machine; the Doctor grumbled. 'It nearly killed me. Nearly forced me to regenerate.'
`A shame that it didn't,' said del Toro. 'Cardinal Runciman might still be alive.
`If you had any grasp of the technology you use against your victims you would realise the impossibility of my — '
`Doctor, you are not here to debate your guilt or innocence. You are here to give me information, and sate the hunger of the faithful. Philippo here saw you arrive in your Devil-box.'
A terrified-looking townsman was pushed forward from the shadows by a guard. He stared at the two prisoners and nodded his head