Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [100]
The sense of rage hit them like a breaking wave.
Data cores were hurled out of their racking like missiles. Planks half tore themselves up from the floor and lunged at the Doctor. As he vanished from view among the swaying shelves, they saw the white branches that tangled across the ceiling break free and reach down like gnarled fingers.
They heard his shout and then al the shelving caved in over him.
'Doctor!' yel ed both Dorothée and Leela. There was no answer. And through all of it, Chris had stayed fast asleep.
154
Chapter Twenty-six
The Play's the Thing
'He wil come down,' said Innocet.
'He could be dead,' said Leela.
'Or injured,' said Dorothée. 'We should have stayed.'
'He wil come.'
The Doctor's Cousins and companions had waited an age in the Hall in embarrassed silence for the Doctor to arrive.
The tall banqueting tables had been positioned round the House's Loom, with the glass casket containing the sleeping Quences suitably garlanded to form the centrepiece. Forty-five places were set around the table, but everyone present had clustered into two opposing groups at one end. No one's feet touched the floor.
Friends versus Family.
Everyone looked at the body on the table.
Something rumbled under the floor and then the huge flagstones burst open with a crash. A dishevelled shape was spewed up into the Hal from the depths.
The Doctor clambered awkwardly to his feet and surveyed the gathering, swaying slightly.
'Well, well. Gallifrey's most dysfunctional family!'
God, he's drunk, thought Dorothée. She climbed down from her seat to give him a place between herself and Leela. He was not wearing his formal attire and his clothes were dishevel ed and dusty. Behind him, the hole in the floor closed itself with a crunch and a sigh.
'Charming,' he said, caustically surveying the table. 'Cheer up, everyone. It's a party. Otherstide felicitations to you all!'
He flourished a trick bunch of feathery flowers out of his sleeve.
'Very festive,' said Dorothée. 'What happened to you?'
'You know what libraries are like. They can't stand anything to be overdue.' He was trying to be dismissive, but his voice tremored slightly. And he had a black eye. 'Satthralope must keep the House under tighter control. I've never been beaten up by a library before. I don't recommend it.'
He peered at Chris, who was asleep in the chair beyond Leela.
'We can't wake him,' she said. 'He's sleeping so deeply.'
Dorothée fol owed the Doctor's accusatory glance up to the roof, where a familiar shape hung in a net of cobwebs.
'Jesus, how did that get up there?'
'How do we get it down here?' he snapped.
'Is this how you treat al your friends?' Innocet called from across the table.
'No different from his Family,' said Rynde.
Leela whispered, 'Say the word, Doctor, and I will make these miserable Cousins of yours do you honour.'
155
He shook his head. 'Don't worry about them. They haven't enjoyed themselves so much for centuries.'
He turned to the company. 'Now let me guess what's on today's menu.'
'Fish,' said Cousin Rynde.
'And my shopping,' added Dorothée. She nodded across the table at a tray stacked with slices of sun-dried tomato ciabatta.
'And feathergills,' said Owis, eagerly leaning forward to proffer a dish.
The Doctor frowned suspiciously at him. 'Is that my pullover?'
A row of woollen question marks peered from under Owis's tunic. 'Lose and weep, find and keep!' he chanted and proffered the dish again.
'Doctor, how much of it is true?' interrupted Innocet.
He ignored Owis's dish. 'Is what true?'
'That you wil deny me my place as next Housekeeper should we all survive.'
'He's Quences's successor,' interrupted Rynde. 'Given the chance, he'd throw us all out of our House.'
'What about me?' said Owis. 'He says I have no right to exist at all.'
'When are we going home?' said Jobiska.
While they bickered, the Doctor