Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [108]
'This is some elaborate Otherstide masquerade. It's too late for your appeal to go through now.'
She pulled away from him. She had a clear path out, and then the Doctor was at her elbow.
'Innocet, thank you for sabotaging the transmat booth.'
'I did nothing of the sort.'
'Yes, you did. Chris saw you steal Glospin's original document. You deliberately prevented the delivery of some rather damning material.'
'Damning for whom? I didn't even consider the captain.'
'Dear Innocet,' he said humbly. 'You always put other people first.'
She almost laughed. 'I destroyed the document. I thought Glospin had gone mad.'
'Or had been driven to madness. I'm not easy to live with, you know.'
She held his eye again. Deep in the blue, there were flecks of green and brown, until it fell into a pool of black. She could see nothing beyond. She knew that was forbidden.
Who are you? she thought.
'I don't know. It frightens me.' He chewed on his bottom lip. 'The main problem is how to get you all out of here before the House finds out.'
Innocet looked around the Hall. Leela, eating yet more bread, was sitting on the side of the TARDIS with Dorothée.
Glospin and Rynde were plotting at the far end of the Hall. Nearby, Redred was studying his wrist-link and Owis was hunched in a chair, looking distinctly ill. The Drudges, immovable and obdurate, flanked Quences's coffin.
'Where is Chris?' she said.
He scanned the Hall. 'And where's Jobiska?'
No, she thought. Not another one. Not now.
***
When Jobiska reached the gate to the North annexe, it was open.
The black water started about halfway down the slanting passage. A flotsam of old drowned furniture had collected at its edge.
169
She tried to tug at one of the overturned coracles, but it was too heavy for her frail little arms.
'Come on, granny,' said Chris, pounding up behind her. 'I'll do that.'
He lifted her in and climbed aboard after her.
'Are you coming as well, dear?' she asked.
'That's right,' he said, testing the paddle. 'I'm off home too.'
***
'I don't know where he went,' protested Dorothée.
The Doctor was all urgent hands and darting looks. 'He's following Jobiska. She's gone to join the missing Cousins.'
'We shall find him,' said Leela.
'No, stay here, both of you. Keep an eye on things. And don't let anything disturb the House.' He squinted at Leela.
'What?' she said.
'Crumbs.' He dabbed her mouth with his hanky. 'If you need help, speak to her.' He waved a vague hand.
Dorothée glanced round the Hal . 'Who? Battleaxe Galactica's gone to her room.'
'Not Satthralope. Innocet.'
'She just went out.'
'What?'
They pointed. 'That way.'
The Doctor set off at a pace.
'Your bread is good,' said Leela.
'You ate the lot,' said Dorothée.
'I was hungry.'
'At this rate you can't go on wearing that bikini much longer.'
'Captain,' said Glospin. 'That dispatch you were given. You'd better hand it over.'
Redred flicked off his wrist-link. 'It stays with me until I get out.' He pointed to the TARDIS. 'This TT machine was stolen last night from the dry dimension docks at the Capitol.'
'Last night,' said Glospin, amused.
'By your Cousin.'
'You'l find the Doctor's behind most of this.' Glospin flourished his coded Agency badge. 'You see, I discovered anomalies on his Loom certificate. He may be a pretender. Or a changeling.'
Redred smiled. 'Another imposter?'
'This is his revenge for being disinherited and expelled from the Family. It was he who murdered the Kithriarch.'
170
'Serious allegations.' Redred consulted his wrist-link.
'And he's regenerated since he last came here,' Glospin added. 'I'm sure we'd find more evidence if we could get into his ship.'
171
Chapter Twenty-nine
Consequences
Innocet struggled to steady her coracle - half a hewn-out stixxi pod, grown in the atrium before it flooded. The pole she was using to steer slithered in her hands.
She was halfway across. The black water reflected the lamplight in serpentine patterns on the branches of the atrium's ceiling. Around the walls, half-submerged