Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [59]
'You can't think I did this,' he protested.
'I think nothing,' she said, which sounded to Chris about as accusatory as she could get.
He watched them for a moment. The Doctor and Innocet were staring hard at each other. It was apparent that something was passing between them - not just a mutual understanding, but a possible exchange of telepathic information.
***
'It's him,' Glospin insisted. 'Wake up, Satthralope. You must wake up.'
The old Housekeeper stirred in her rocking chair. Her gluey eyelids shuddered and opened a crack.
Glospin tried to pul free of the hand chair in which he had been placed. The huge fingers that formed its back had closed around him like a vice. 'Wake up, Cousin. It's him. He's come back. The outcast.'
'What's that?' She was still drowsy. 'Who's there? Where are my Family?'
A Drudge moved in and pul ed away the skein of web that covered her face. Taking a damp sponge from one of the wooden drawers in its cassock, it gently wiped her eyes. She made little infantile mewlings as the sponge dabbed at her face. Then she thrust the huge servant away.
'Glospin? Is that you?' Her voice cracked with lack of use. She squinted at the mirror.
'I'm here, Cousin,' he said from the chair beside her.
Satthralope tried to turn, but the effort was too strenuous. 'Come to see me, have you?' She started to cackle with something that he might once have mistaken for affection. 'Or did the Drudges bring you, eh, you wicked one?'
'I came to warn you. Look in the mirror. It's him. The one who's name you forbade us to ever mention. He's come home at last.'
She clasped the ivory head of the walking stick that lay across her lap. Held it tight in her ancient translucent hands.
'Him?' she said.
' He has come back. And Arkhew's already dead.'
'No, no! No one's dead. Not without permission. It was a dream. We've been dreaming together.'
Her eyelids sank again.
'Wake up!' shouted Glospin. 'Arkhew's dead. Do something before we're all murdered in our beds!'
'Murder? I forbade that word! There was no murder!' Her hands clasped her walking stick. She rummaged among her skirts for her keys. 'We must listen to the House.' Her neck clicked as she turned towards her servant.
'Drudge. Drudge! Is it true?'
The hinged side mirrors on the dressing table swung forward, casting endless corridors of light into the central glass. Satthralope moaned and clasped the finger-arms of her chair. She began to tremble.
85
'There is a disturbance in the bones of the House,' she whispered. 'The fledershrews are gnawing at the rafters.
There are beetles scuttling in the cel arage.' She gasped in pain. 'There is a wound gaping in the upper turrets!
Someone has crossed the threshold uninvited! Who is it? Who's there?'
'It's him,' said Glospin. 'Listen. He's come back.'
' Him? ' Satthralope gave a deep groan. Her looking glass reflected the passage leading to the funguretum It was occupied by two distant figures. One was Cousin Innocet, the other wore a pale hat that hid his face.
If nothing else, thought Glospin, at least the old crone will recognize a stranger in our midst.
'Drudges! Drudges!' yelled Satthralope.
The Drudge stepped up before her.
'Why did you let me sleep so long, eh? What's the time? I want my Family round me. All of them. And bring me that one, that trespasser, whoever it is. Now!'
***
The Doctor's expression visibly withered on his face as he held Innocet's stare. 'No, I can't believe it.' His voice was exhausted. He lowered his eyes and added formally. 'I must thank you for telling me, Cousin.'
'Words alone were not enough,' Innocet said.
'The sooner Quences is woken, the better.'
The Doctor glanced down at Chris in the pen and missed a sudden look of fear on Innocet's face. Chris caught her expression and busied himself with his self-imposed role as Adjudicator. He pul ed back the roughly woven material around Arkhew's neck. 'There's a lot of bruising on his throat. At a guess I'd say somebody strangled him.'
The Doctor smacked his hand on the fence. 'Yes, of course he's ultimately