Doctor Who_ Enlightenment - Barbara Clegg [32]
‘You can’t let them keep him!’ she hissed.
‘He wants to stay,’ the Doctor was as emphatic as he could be out of the corner of his mouth.
Tegan was nothing if not persistent. ‘Why?’ she asked through closed lips, like a ventriloquist. The Doctor halted, pretending that he had dropped something. And as they both searched for the imaginary object on the floor, he muttered, ‘Wrack mustn’t win the race. He’s stayed to prevent her.’
Tegan forgot to keep her voice down. ‘What!’ she exclaimed, ‘You can’t believe that! ’
‘Sh!’ came from the Doctor.
But it was too late. Mansell towered over them. ‘Move!’
he said, stonily.
Wrack was pouring a pale golden wine into the silver goblets. She poured carfully, ignoring Turlough. She sipped, just as carefully, and a look of pleasure crossed her face. ‘Muscatel,’ she murmured, and turned sleepy eyes to the boy, as he stood watching her dejectedly from the doorway. ‘The grapes are grown in an island in the ocean –
the Atlantic, I believe they call it on that planet. Its taste was buried deep in the mind I took it from. He was a Captain too – of a ship like this. A buccaneer. I had to dig deep to get it’ – she smiled, cruelly – ‘Very deep. I’m afraid I hurt him.’
‘Wh-where is he now?’ Turlough asked.
‘I had no more use for him,’ Wrack answered, and held out a goblet. ‘Drink.’
It sounded more like a command than an invitation, and Turlough took the proffered wine and drank, trying hard not to think of the wretched buccaneer whose mind had unwittingly provided it.
Wrack wandered over to a divan in the corner of the room. ‘Your friends have gone,’ she commented idly, sinking down amongst the cushions.
‘Good riddance.’ Turlough mustered as much bravado as he could.
Wrack beckoned him over. ‘My thanks for detecting the spy,’ she said, smiling up into his face. ‘And for choosing to stay with me.’ She patted the divan next to her, and Turlough sat down, beginning to feel pleased with himself.
Her next remark caught him off guard. ‘Why did you?’ she asked.
‘I told you,’ Turlough thought quickly. ‘I like to be on the winning side.’
Wrack seemed amused. ‘And you want a share of the winnings?’ Turlough nodded. ‘Even if you’re not sure what they are?’
Turlough’s mouth set in a stubborn line. ‘I know what the prize is,’ he said. ‘Enlightenment.’
‘And you know what that means of course.’
He had a sneaking feeling that Wrack was laughing at him, but as she got up and started to pace the room, still talking, he realised that she was completely carried away by her plans, and hardly conscious of his presence.
‘When Enlightenment is mine,’ she said, ‘I will no longer depend on Ephemeral minds. Everything conceived, from the beginning of time to the end, will be clear to me.’ Her eyes glowed. ‘I shall create and destroy as I wish. I shall never be bored again.’
‘So Enlightenment brings knowledge, is that it? Or is it power?’ Turlough felt completely fuddled.
‘Enlightenment brings whatever one desires,’ Wrack said. ‘I desire to be amused.’ She crossed to one of the portholes. ‘And I have a new toy to show you.’ She beckoned to him. ‘Come and see how I entertain my guests.’
Standing at her side, he looked down onto the deck below. Several of the crew were rigging something up over the side of the ship, under the direction of two officers.
‘What are they doing?’ he asked curiously.
And then as they stepped back to survey their work, he knew. A long flat board was lashed there, sticking out into space, a pathway to nothing.
‘The plank,’ Wrack said. ‘An ingenious Ephemeral idea for disposing of those who stand in one’s way.’
There was a certain amount of jostling and ribald laughter from the buccaneers below. More of them appeared, and then the crowd parted, to form a rough lane leading back to the companion-ladder. With a sick feeling, Turlough saw that several of the guests had been dragged up and were cowering in a frightened group by