Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [18]
"The past is for the dead."
'That made me really angry, you know? Don't know why, but I started hammering against the bronze doors. But they wouldn't give. The woman in brown had cleared off, but the crazy old hag was stil there. She kept cackling at me. "You know me," she kept saying. "I haven't forgotten you." A couple of the vulture birds had landed on the pavement behind her. They kept craning their necks out like they were sizing up dinner. Then she opened her wings above her - they were all tattered feathers - and she ran at me, beating them, and the stench of rotting carrion was coming at me in gusts. I tried to beat her off, but she grabbed me with her talons. Her claws had rings all over them with masses of jewels - and she perched on me. Her claws cut right in. Then she dug her filthy beak into my chest and tore out my heart.'
He realized he had grabbed his right side of his chest again and dropped his hand down awkwardly.
The Doctor glanced quickly at the console and then back to Chris again. 'Then what happened?'
'I yel ed myself awake and fell into the bath,' said Chris sheepishly. 'What more do you want?'
'I'd like you not to worry. Perhaps it was something you ate. Cheese or something.'
'You ate al the cheese,' said Chris.
'Ah.' The Doctor looked thoughtful. 'How do you feel now?'
'I need some fresh air. I thought we were going to Extans Superior.'
'We were. But the coordinates got changed.'
'Don't look at me. I was in the bath.'
'Yes.'
'So when do we get there?'
'It depends what you mean by there.'
'Goddess,' complained Chris with mounting frustration. 'Have we arrived anywhere yet?'
'Oh, yes,' said the Doctor. He seemed to be expecting a reaction of some sort. 'We've been here for nearly two hours. I'd have told you, but you were in the bath.'
Chris reached for the scanner control. 'Then let's see.'
'No!' snapped the Doctor.
Chris pul ed back as if the control was rigged.
30
'Leave it. I forbid you to touch it!' The Doctor's face was a tight knot of anger.
Chris moved back slowly. No sudden moves. He crouched by the Doctor's chair and said gently, 'OK. So what would you like me to do?'
The Doctor's eyes darted at him. 'We stay put. I'm thinking.'
'OK,' said Chris. 'You have a think. I'll get us something to drink.' He stood and walked quietly from the console room.
31
Chapter Four
All Fall Down
Cousin Arkhew bit his lip and clambered over the edge of the parapet. Digit by digit, damp fingers grey with dust, he slid along the outside of the cloistered gal ery towards the dead clock.
The ancient woodwork creaked its protest. Somewhere below him, the floor of the Great Hall was lost in the gloom. At this hour, the only light came from two tallow lamps that glimmered perpetually by the Loom plinth at the Hall's far end.
A sudden noise startled the little man - a scraping of metal on stone. He froze where he clung, watching another dim light moving along the gallery on the opposite side of the cavernous room. But it was only a lone candelabrum slowly wandering the corridors.
The light disappeared. Over many, many long years, Arkhew's eyes had accustomed themselves to the gloom. He had to reach the clock. He had to know if the latest rumours were true. If he found the missing will, then he would be a saviour. He would finish the long dark disgrace once and for all. No one would ever laugh at him again. There weren't many Cousins left to laugh anyway, but he had to make the point. He flexed his fingers, which were starting to go numb, and began to edge forward again.
The clock was just out of reach - an elaborate array of painted discs and wire circles, both astronomical and astrological, that had once turned and spun in and out of each other's sphere. Long dead, it stared from the balustrade like a many-layered eyeball.
A sudden draught of air lifted tendrils of dust web from the edge of the balustrade. Arkhew dodged and fumbled as they waved hungrily towards him. Dead man's fingers reaching to snatch you back into the past. Cousin