Doctor Who_ Curse of Peladon - Brian Hayles [32]
The face of the young king saddened perceptibly. He knew that by rejecting Jo’s plea he would lose all claim to her friendship. But he was helpless.
‘Hepesh is right’, he said flatly. ‘I am powerless. The laws of my people must stand.’
Hepesh moved forward to pull Jo back from the throne, but still she begged Peladon to act with mercy.
‘Peladon... please!’ she cried, ‘there has to be some other way!’
Looking down at Jo’s sweet face, so near to tears and yet so brave, a blinding memory bright as a revelation burst upon the young King’s mind. It wasn’t Jo’s features that he saw before him, but those of his mother, Ellua. It was her voice, not Jo’s, that spoke to him. And yet the words were the same. ‘There has to be another way... ‘ It had been a trivial incident, a moment’s misuse of power by a boy not yet able to understand that his words held life and death for his people. A word of command and the servant would have been slain; but at his mother’s quick intercession, he had held his hand, and decreed a far lesser punishment. Years later, that same servant had died, valiantly defending his royal master against a ravening wolf; a life given up willingly to a purpose—not wasted by a moment’s thoughtless anger. The memory came and went in an instant—but it left the knowledge of the one harsh remedy that lay in the young King’s power.
‘There is an alternative’, declared the king, standing and facing the Doctor. ‘Trial by combat.’
To the Doctor, the alternative that Peladon now offered was virtually a reprieve; at least, it meant that he had a fighting chance. To Jo, it seemed to offer the difference between the hangman’s rope and the executioner’s axe. Hepesh, on the other hand, saw Peladon’s decree as a weakening of the throne’s authority and yet another concession to the aliens.
‘The alternative cannot stand!’ he exclaimed. ‘This alien is not of noble blood!’
‘It’s barbaric...!’ Jo protested angrily. She had expected a royal pardon.
‘It is all I can offer,’ said the young king. Couldn’t Jo see that he done as much as he dared?
Hepesh had not been answered. His objection still stood, and he reasserted it. The Earth delegate cannot be allowed an honourable alternative!’
Peladon was becoming irritated by Hepesh’s constant and petty objections. He snapped back icily.
‘You forget, Hepesh, that the Chairman Delegate is a man of rank and, as such, an honorary nobleman of the Citadel!’ He turned to the Doctor. ‘What do you say, Doctor?’
The Doctor met the young King’s gaze proudly, and lifting his head, smiled. ‘I accept the challenge, your majesty. Who do I fight?’
The King’s next words tightened the band of fear around Jo’s heart, and wiped the smile from the Doctor’s face.
‘You will be held captive in your room until dawn. Then you will enter the Pit of Combat and engage in a fight to the death—
with Grun, the King’s Champion!’
7
Escape into Danger
The reassuring look from the Doctor as he was marched away had given Jo no comfort. Now the alien delegates had withdrawn to confer amongst themselves, and Jo had been shown to a room cut off from that in which the Doctor was being held. It was while she was sitting there, thinking desperately of ways to effect the Doctor’s escape, that Grun knocked at her door and entered at her command. Seeing him there, Jo felt a moment of hope—he could only have been sent by the king.
Had Peladon changed his mind? At Grun’s mimed gesture that she should follow him, she smiled and did so, without any argument. She had to run to keep up with Grun’s vast strides, and it was only a short time later that she once more stood before Peladon.
Her heart sank at Peladon’s next command.
‘Go, Grun’, he ordered. ‘Prepare for the combat in honour of the Royal Beast.’
Grun saluted, bowed, and left. When the throne room doors closed after him, Jo and Peladon were left alone together. Jo could hide her anger no longer. ‘Why have you had me brought here?’ she asked. ‘To show me how clever you are at giving stupid orders?’
‘I had to talk to you—’ pleaded Peladon.
Jo wasn’t impressed.