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'Congratulations,' he said. 'You win.'

Glospin quickly nicked the skin on Chris's arm with his knife. He pulled back as the Drudge scooped Chris up and stalked away into the gloom.

He studied the blooded tip of the knife, sniffed it, held it to the light. 'The answer to your question, Owis, is simple.'

He smiled. 'You or the Doctor. One of you wil have to go.'

121

Chapter Twenty-one

Rice Cakes and a Banana

Chris dreamt he was awake.

He lay on a hard bed with a shawl over him. He'd just seen the murder again. Same characters, same location, same blood. And the white-haired figure was the man in the portrait. The man that Innocet called the first Doctor.

Towers of diamond lattice rose above him, like wine racks with coloured tubes instead of bottles. Above those, there were tangled branches merging with the solid, mottled sky. Something scampered along the underside of a branch, jumped across a gap and vanished behind the towers.

'Six,' said Innocet's voice.

Chris heard the clack of counters. He angled his head and saw Innocet and the Doctor hunched over a Sepulchasm board. The room could be a library, he thought. But there was no power to read the books.

'I was trying to get to my old room.' The Doctor threw a die. 'But there's a lagoon in the North annexe. Two again.'

'An underground stream comes in on the third level,' said Innocet.

Chris could hear them being polite.

'Only when I was thrown out, I left an experiment running that I didn't have time to finish. Some hybridized water-sligs that I crossed with a red-petalled orchid. I don't expect they survived.'

'Eight,' she said. The counters clacked. 'The creatures were locked in your room for one hundred and thirty years.

When they final y broke out they were as big as ichthydiles. There's a breeding colony in the annexe.'

'Ah. So that's why it's been closed off.'

'Forty-seven years ago, one of them strayed away from the colony. The Drudges trapped it in the kitchen. But no one could kill it, so it's still there.'

Goddess, thought Chris. That was what was in the larder.

A die clattered. 'Two again!' complained the Doctor. 'This is ridiculous. I know you think I killed Quences, but it isn't true.'

'I saw you leave his room.'

'Impossible. I didn't come back to the House. They didn't even want me back. I was happy to concur.'

'Quences wanted you back. Nine. I'm catching up.'

'He was clinging to false hopes. But I wouldn't be tied down to his plans. And so Satthralope buried the place out of spite until I returned. Where's my Badger gone when I need him?'

'That dreadful old toy.'

'A present from Quences.'

'Oh, Snail,' she sighed, 'He always indulged you, you know.'

Snail! thought Chris.

There was a smile in the Doctor's voice. 'It's a very long time since I was called that.'

122

'Yes.' She sounded duly embarrassed. 'Once you were safe, Badger went off quite meekly with a Drudge.' There was a pause. 'So what was in Quences's will?'

'How can I possibly know that?'

'Because you stole it when you came back! It's your throw.'

'And murdered Quences in warm blood? Three to win.'

'I saw you. Chris and Arkhew saw you too.'

'One and a half,' he complained. The counters clacked. 'And I didn't kill Arkhew either. What did Satthralope do?

She must know. Quences is laid out downstairs for everyone to see.'

'Yes.'

'Oh, no!' The Doctor's voice was suddenly chil ed. 'It's for the House. That's why he's laid out. It's al a lie. She hasn't told the House!'

Innocet lowered her voice. 'It nearly kil ed her, but she managed to convince the House that Quences survived your attack.'

'Not guilty!' he insisted.

'And to convince the House, she had to convince herself too.'

'More fool Satthralope. Still deluded after al these years.'

'Then you tell her that, before she tries to wake Quences up.'

Oops, thought Chris.

'Your go,' said the Doctor.

***

'What is your function?' demanded Satthralope.

The motheaten avatroid monstrosity known as Badger