Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [30]
'If the Chapterhouse read those papers, Lungbarrow will be a laughing stock. There's going to be enough trouble over Owis without you making things worse.'
He was suddenly smooth and calm. 'I don't expect you to believe anything. But you've read the proof in the documents already, so you know I'm right. Never mind the implications for our Family, my discovery will turn all of history and all your precious classics on their heads.'
'Blasphemy.' Her face was like stone. 'I don't know who you're involved with, Glospin. But I'll not let you pass this irreverent nonsense on. I'll speak to the captain myself.'
'The captain's already gone. I'm fully empowered to make Quences's mind transfer myself.' He took her arm. 'Your devotion's very touching, Cousin. But you can't argue with genetic proof. You'l understand... once the shock's worn off. Our Family's hatched a serpent in its clutch. And what a serpent!'
'He's still alive and still our Cousin. So Owis has no legal right to exist!' A moment of panic crossed Innocet's implacable features. 'You've seen him! At the Capitol, you've visited -,
'Careful,' he said. 'That name's forbidden, remember?'
She lowered her head, took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. 'What have you done to your hand?' she said.
Glospin pulled down his sleeve, but Chris had noticed that the whole forearm had an inflamed burn scar.
'It's nothing. An accident at the Eugenics Faculty. It'll heal. Now give me back my document.'
'You have copies,' she said.
Glospin shook his old head. 'Deep down in your hearts you know I'm right. You're too late, Cousin. Quences wil be here at any moment. And after the old fool's read out my inheritance, I shal assume my rightful place as new Kithriarch of the Family.'
'Excuse me, Cousins,' butted in Owis, who had been trying to attract their attention. 'Someone says that as Replacements go, and given the fact that characteristics can skip a regeneration, I am almost half as intel igent as they might expect me to be.' He paused and looked baffled. 'Is that a compliment?'
'Dolt!' Glospin raised his cane to strike Owis, but a deep gong boomed. The far doors of the hal flung themselves wide open.
Arkhew gripped Chris's arm. 'It's starting,' he whispered.
The crowd of guests parted to let through the cortege. At its head, carrying an ornate staff twice her height, was the old bonneted woman in black whom Chris had seen in the rocking chair. She scanned the Family with a vicious eye as she ceremoniously led the way towards the raised plinth.
'Who's grandma?' muttered Chris.
'You mean Cousin Satthralope? She's the Housekeeper.' Arkhew turned away, but Chris pul ed him back.
'I think you'd better talk me through this, Arkhew,' he said. 'Give me any detail you think is important. Just treat me as if I know nothing.'
'My Family are shameful,' said Arkhew despairingly. He nodded at the younger version of himself, who was pushing eagerly to the front of the crowd. 'They get what they deserve.'
Chris shrugged. 'Al families are like that. You should hear my lot.'
Behind Satthralope glided the two huge wooden servants (the House Drudges, said Arkhew), their identically angular faces hard in the lamplight. A massive ornamental bier trundled between them, apparently moving by itself. It was carved from black wood and covered with the fearsome beasts of a grotesque alien mythology. Their enamelled eyes rolled hungrily as the bier processed across the hail. A carved tail snaked behind it. High on the bier sat the wizened old man whom Chris had seen in Satthralope's mirror.
'Ordinal-General Quences,' guessed Chris. 'How come he's stil alive at his own funeral?'
The old man was wrapped in furs. His head drooped, apparently too heavy for his scrawny neck to support.
'He's the Family Kithriarch,' said Arkhew. 'This is his chosen Deathday. That's why he's riding the ceremonial catafalque. He won't die until he has read out his will. Then he'll be interred in the Family vaults under the House.'
'If he lasts that long,' Chris said, but the potential grisliness of