Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [40]
‘You’ve travelled,’ Larna whispered. ‘I’ve never left the Dome. I’ve never even been to Low Town. I want to. You had the chance to leave. Why did you come back?’
‘This is home.’
‘Tell me about her. Where did you meet?’
‘We didn’t.’ The Doctor paused.
‘You painted that picture of her,’ Larna said.
The Doctor nodded. ‘She taught me to dance.’
Larna smiled, and so did the Doctor. Their eyes and thoughts met.
And they had the floor to themselves and they were dancing beneath a sky the colour of amber. He was dressed formally, a neat row of gold buttons running down his chest, matching the silk of her gown. The harpists were playing a pavane. It was a celebration of some kind, a festival, it didn’t matter which one. The entire household and their friends were all around. There were a number of aliens, too – Mr Saldaamir, a pair from Althrace, and a fat yellow-skinned man with red fins around the crown of his head. Everyone was smiling, spellbound, watching their choreography.
Anywhere else this would be unspeakably decadent, but even here it was scandalous. The young son and the older woman. What would his father think?
It didn’t matter to them. The dance was everything, all that existed at that moment. Elaborate equations of form and sound were expressed through their slow, stately movements. He led, not merely remembering what she had taught him that afternoon, but developing it, elaborating upon it. Now, for the very first time, she was learning from him. And they knew, they remembered, that she still had much to teach him and that she would learn from him in turn.’
The music stopped and every single guest began to applaud them, even the harpists. This was the first time that they had ever been so happy, but the night was still young.
She reached out to stroke his face, daring to do it and damn the consequences.
Larna was going to pull her hand away, but the Doctor held it there, sliding his fingers between hers, placing his other hand on her waist, never taking his eyes from her. His touch was warm, and as they drew together she could feel the velvet of his jacket against her, even through the cotton of her shift.
They began to dance.
Gallifrey’s nameless sun rose over the Capitol Dome, as it had done since the first days of the universe.
No sunlight penetrated the Dome itself, but the Oldharbour Clock that stood in the Eastern parts of the Capitol marked the occasion by chiming Nine Bells. On the ledge beneath the vast clock face, an intricate mechanical ballet began, as life-sized animated figures emerged from their positions and set about their daily routine. They were gaily painted and beautifully dressed, certainly symbolic of something, although even the few Gallifreyans that had noticed them couldn’t agree what it might be. One of the problems was that the clock had never been built. Not in this timeline, anyway. It was a paradoxical survivor from the Time Wars, probably the only vestige of its parallel Gallifrey still in existence. It had just appeared one day, no one remembered when.
The analogue Time Lords that had built the Tower had imbued the clockwork figurines with a degree of sentience and the capacity for self-development. Now, unknown to anyone, the clock people were the most intelligent beings on Gallifrey. Their social interactions were complex, if perfectly regulated, and they had developed a complex framework of philosophy and etiquette to explain their world and their actions. It would be some time yet before they realised that they were just characters on a long-forgotten clock face, but the discovery would come. When it did there would be dissension, schism and war. But still they would circle each other in perfect orbits, moving their limbs in perfect arcs.
The chimes from the Clock Tower could be heard on the Eastern side of the Citadel. Raimor and Peltroc heard it as they walked through one of the common hexangles around the Panopticon galleries. All around them, Time Lords and Technicians began to emerge from their quarters and glide smoothly to