Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [101]
There was sudden silence.
The Doctor glanced at Glospin, who was sitting apart from the others.
'I didn't say a word,' said his Cousin.
Quick as a flash, before his chair could object, the Doctor climbed on to the banqueting table and started threading his way between the candles and cut glass. A trail of footprints on the tablecloth marked his path towards the glass coffin.
There was uproar from the Cousins. Shouts of 'No!' and 'Don't touch him!'
'Why?' he said. 'What can you possibly be afraid of?' He bowed his head and laid his bunch of fake flowers on the coffin lid.
'Recquiescat in pace,' he said quietly.
'How dare you!' Satthralope's voice rang out through the Hall.
'All joints on the table wil be carved,' observed the Doctor, watching various condiment boats scuttle for cover.
Satthralope's cane clacked on the flagstones as she made her painful way to the table. The Drudges came behind her.
'Down, sir! By al the fires in the kitchen, down!'
The Doctor half smiled. Dorothée had a sudden unpleasant premonition that he was going to play the spoons. She glanced at Leela, who was fingering her knife.
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Instead, the Cousins watched open-mouthed as he sauntered up the table to meet the Housekeeper. When he reached her place setting, he knelt among the cutlery and bowed his head. 'Cousin Satthralope, thank you for your Housepitality. I am honoured.'
'Honour?' Her rage was scarcely under control. She lifted her eyes to the gal eries. 'There were some honourable people here once.'
Like an imperious sovereign, she lifted her ringed hand towards him.
The Doctor shrugged. 'Lives have hung on a signed contract here, a kissed ring there. Family favours meant precious little to me for many years.' He reached forward to kiss her wooden ring, but the old woman grabbed hold of his ear and pulled him off the table.
He yelped with pain and hit the floor, but her bony fingers held on tight.
Leela and Dorothée both scrambled to help him, but a Drudge blocked their way.
'What have you done with Quences's will?' demanded Satthralope, pulling his head back and forth by his ear.
His face was screwed up in agony. 'What have you done with the rest of my Cousins?'
'Wormholed little revenant! Sneaking back here!' She twisted his ear hard. 'I don't apologize for what the House threatens. It is very angry!'
She pushed him roughly away.
'Of course, it's angry,' he said from the floor. 'What do you expect when you buried it alive with all its Family?'
' I buried it? Me?' Satthralope turned to scan the remnants of her Cousins. 'The House of Lungbarrow was so ashamed of what you did, that it buried itself and took us all with it!'
The Doctor gave a little moan of shock. He stumbled to his feet and stared up at the TARDIS, his hands slapping at his pockets. 'The will,' he muttered. 'I've got the will.'
Innocet had moved in beside him. 'Not now,' she muttered. 'You'll kill us al if you're not careful.' She took his arm and gently guided him back to his seat between Dorothée and Leela.
Satthralope had climbed up into her own place at the head of the table. 'At Otherstide, the time of renewal, we pledge our devotion to the House.'
'And my name day,' mumbled the Doctor massaging his ear. He signalled for his companions to stand. They let Chris sleep on while Satthralope sang the incantations.
'Book of Foundations. Chapter Prydon. Verse six seven three.'
'Lungbarrow,' responded the Cousins.
'We will always return to the Loom from which you wove us.'
'Ancient House.'
'Sheltering generation on generation of your Kith since the birth of the New Time.'
'Home.'
'We are your plans, designs and architecture. We, who rejoice in your name of...'
'Lungbarrow!' they chorused. 'Lungbarrow! Lungbarrow!' Their cries echoed through the Hall, taken up and repeated by the walls and galleries, the wood and stone.
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The Cousins and guests stared up and about in fear. The glancing echoes darkened, grew more thunderous, as if the House itself