Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [43]
In its mind, it heard the startled voice of the Keeper of its House.
The smashing of the mirror startled the old woman in her chair. She shuddered, trying to rouse herself from a sleep overgrown by tangled dreams.
'The Hand of Souls,' she croaked. Her ancient hand gripped the chair like a claw.
Her dreams opened to her like soft, gaudy flowers. They reeked with a heady perfume in the warm sunlight of her memories. Calling her back.
The sudden flash of broken glass glinted like droplets of soft rain on the leaves when she was a girl. Flashed like black ribbons in her hair.
A board was creaking. Somewhere away from here, beyond the windows of her dreams, a clock was chiming.
She let the warmth envelope her. She drifted down, sinking through the canopy of flowers. But now the flowers had spines. Whispers of waking tangled with sleep and unwelcome daylight winked through the thinning webby leaves.
57
Chapter Eleven
Tit for Tat
'I must apologize, my dear Madam Leela. It was a lamentable error.'
'He shot my dog,' said Leela. She sat awkwardly, the correct way one sits in company, just as Andred had shown her. The chair was deep and too comfortable.
'And I assure you, the captain will be severely disciplined.' Her host reminded her of a serpent. It was the way he sat, coiled in his own comfortable chair, unmoving, about to strike.
'His punishment is up to the Castellan, not you,' she said. This Time Lord looked like an elderly man, but on Gallifrey that meant very little; once elderly, twice, thrice elderly. He had a grizzled beard and wore a black skullcap and a black robe trimmed with fur. His room was an old man's room too. It was gloomy despite the large window overlooking the Capitol. Its walls were built of huge and ancient stones. It was filled with ancient relics, compasses and pyramids with eyes - symbols of a history she did not know.
His serpent mouth widened in a cold smile. 'I'm sure you understand that the Castellan, your... ah, consort, has an extremely responsible position to maintain.'
'You mean he's important,' Leela said. She was already tired of being spoken to as a primitive.
'Hmm. And what you did today placed that position in extreme jeopardy.'
'Let me speak to him then. He wil understand.'
The Time Lord leant towards her. 'Did Castellan Andred give you those security clearance codes?'
'No.'
'No?'
'If you do not believe me, old man, I wil submit to your mind probe test.'
The serpent Time Lord laughed. 'That does sound very barbaric.'
'Yes,' Leela said.
There was an uncomfortable pause. Until now, she had assumed that they were determined to trap her, but perhaps it was Andred they were really seeking to destroy. Or perhaps it was both of them.
'Tell me how you gained access to the entire panotropic net on just one portal,' the Time Lord asked.
'My dog did it.'
'This is the computer registered as K9?'
'He was my friend. And you destroyed him.' She got out of her chair. 'Who are you? You will not hold me here. I demand to see the Castellan!'
'The Castel an has no jurisdiction here,' he said. 'He is only a Chancellery lackey.'
She moved towards him and hit a force wall. The jolt of the air barrier stunned her for a moment. She fell back into the chair.
The Time Lord remained absolutely calm opposite her.
58
'You are from the Celestial Intervention Agency,' said Leela slowly. 'Andred has warned me about you.'
'Has he indeed?' said the Time Lord. 'And what does he say?'
'He says you have no faces. That no one other than the President knows who your leaders are. And she is bound by law not to say. But I know your face now, old one. I do not forget.'
The Time Lord nodded. 'Then you will know that once you are detained under the Agency's jurisprudence, no plebeian appeal or litigation can overrule our judgement.'
***
Chancel or Theorasdavoramilonithene, resplendent in Patrexes purple, was in no mood to be argued with. 'The Agency has breached al laws of hospitality,' she stormed, her hands clasped so tightly under her chin that her bony knuckles outshone her rings