Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [73]
By the time Chris had got lost twice and been back to Innocet's door by accident, he was truly crukked off. With the lights up, his sense of direction had gone to pieces. He took a different route and heard the Doctor's whee-whoo whistle echoing up through the labyrinthine building. He tried it himself, vaguely hoping that it would act as some sort of sonar thread through the maze.
On the third landing down, he heard the answer. The two notes came back at him, deeper and backwards.
Whoo-whee.
He kept walking, aware that something was behind him, something large and lumbering. But when he glanced back, there was nothing in the passage, not even a shadow in the lamplight.
He clambered down some stairs and found the funguretum at last. The fungi were all over the walls, even up to the black dome. A cloaked shape rose in the broken pen as he approached.
'He's gone,' said Innocet, excitably. 'We were wrong. You were wrong.'
107
Chris stepped in through the gap. 'No chance. I wish you were right, but no chance. Sorry.'
'Arkhew's gone away. Just like Maljamin.'
Chris crouched and looked at the bootprints in the slime. 'You see? The body's been dragged out. Someone got here before us. Probably the killer trying to cover up the evidence.'
Innocet stepped out of the pen. A gaunt figure in her cloak, every emotion locked away. 'Where is he? '
'Oh, no,' said Chris. 'That's a big mistake. Wrong sort of shoeprint for a start-off.'
'Why did he bring you?' she said. She turned and her eyes pierced him. What is your family and chapter?
He winced and broke her stare. Standard technique. 'Don't do that, please.'
She frowned. 'Will he let us out or has he just come to torment us?'
'Um, I don't think he knew,' Chris said. 'He's shocked. But you didn't tell him everything, did you?'
'That's no business for an outsider.'
'I'm an impartial Adjudicator. I'm meant to be on the outside.'
'He regards you as his friend.'
'Yes. The Doctor's a good friend. A close friend. That just makes it worse. So you must tell me what happened to Ordinal-General Quences.'
'Nothing happened.'
'OK,' he said, disappointed. 'Only one murder then.'
'That word is forbidden. Even concerning Arkhew's death.'
'Fine. The other mur... unexplained death was only something I dreamed anyway. But you'd better know about it, because Arkhew dreamed it too.'
'A shared dream?' she said.
'You don't seem surprised.'
'Once upon a time the phenomenon was quite commonplace.' She was being cautious. 'Did you speak to him?'
Chris nodded. 'He was terrified, poor little guy. He said we were seeing Quences's Deathday exactly as it happened. He was crying and shaking. We saw the Family row over the wil and then when we saw Quences murdered...'
She shushed him and stared around. 'Keep your voice down. It's impossible. It isn't true. You couldn't have seen.'
'But you believe it happened.'
'Quences is sleeping in stasis. You've seen for yourself.'
'Arkhew and I saw Quences murdered. Arkhew recognized who the killer was.'
Innocet was suddenly calm. 'And?'
Chris shook his head. 'He didn't say. But he knew all right. I think he's gone and confronted them with it. And that's why he's been mur-sorry, he's dead, too.'
108
'Exactly,' she said coldly. 'So it was the Doctor who killed Quences and now he's killed Arkhew as well.'
Chris thrashed his arms in exasperation. 'It wasn't the Doctor. I saw it happen too.'
'Then who was it?'
'It was an elderly man. Not tal . Dressed in black with longish white hair.'
She studied him for a moment. 'You'd better come with me,' she said. 'Then you can see for yourself.'
The handle to Satthralope's door resisted turning several times. Final y, at her signal, the door opened itself and admitted the miscreant. He marched in and seemed almost put out to find the room apparently abandoned.
'I'm here, Satthralope,' he called. 'I await your displeasure.'