Part 15 (1/2)

But what? Their att.i.tude bothered him as he watched them for any tell-tale signs.

If his attention had not been so fixed, he might have seen Luke sauntering into peril. Instead, the Doctor mentally a.n.a.lysed the facts. He started with the black, frisbee-like objects. What had she said about them? They'd change his lifestyle? Then there was the message that had brought him.

'Is it down there? In the Dell? Where I was supposed to go?'

He glanced down... and saw Luke.

But his cry of warning was still-born.

Reaching for a clump of valerian, Luke trod on a disc.

Instantly, a fountain of bark-like flakes gushed into the air enshrouding him. Mushrooming upwards, they blocked out the sky, cavorting and dancing on the breeze before beginning to settle.

When they did, two arms were raised in supplication and a brown, corrugated torso was surmounted by swirls and knots that faintly resembled Luke's face.

Where the handsome, golden-haired apprentice had stood, there now stood a tree; a tall, lithe sapling, not adorned with autumn leaves but with the burgeoning buds of Spring. Time was out of joint...

16.

Life In The Balance Rage burned in the Doctor's hearts. He levelled the TCE at the Master and the Rani.

'No! No! An accident!' The Master, above all, could recognise murderous intent. 'It wasn't meant for him!'

'And you're so warped, so callous, you think that justifies what you have done!' Never in all their confrontations had the Doctor experienced such an irresistible surge of hatred. 'First you turn an innocent young man into your acolyte, betraying his friends! Then you defile him with this monstrous act!'

'Stop being sentimental.' The Rani felt no remorse.

'What's happened? Animal life has been metamorphosed into vegetable matter. So what?'

'You'll be telling me next he's better off!'

'In essence, he is. A tree has four times the life expectancy of a human being.'

Her Philistine rationalisation appalled the Doctor. He had always harboured a sneaking admiration for the Rani.

No more! 'They should never have exiled you! They should have locked you up in a padded cell! Move! Before I forget my abhorrence of violence and eliminate the pair of you!'

A scream.

'Peri!'

Innocent of what had overtaken Luke, Peri had strolled into the Dell. With a 'fool's luck', treading carefully in her unsuitable red shoes, she had managed to avoid the outer b.o.o.by traps.

Her collection of herbs was spa.r.s.e until she spied the generous clump beneath the tall sapling. Red heel poised above a disc, she began to stoop to gather the valerian a branch of the sapling suddenly swooped, entangling her head and shoulders, forcing her, struggling, back from the disc.

That was when she screamed.

'Stay still, Peri! Stay still!'

a.s.sailed by a tree then, from nowhere, the Doctor's voice, Peri wondered if she was hallucinating.

'The tree won't hurt you!'

She must be hallucinating!

Again the rea.s.surance rang out: 'The tree won't hurt you if you stay still!'

She gave up the fight.

Amazingly, the branch gently swayed aside, releasing her. Despite the personal nightmare the catalyst had plunged him into, the metamorphosed Luke still retained a vestige of his innate decency.

'Perhaps now you'll accept ”there are more things in heaven and earth” than your barren philosophy allows!'

challenged the Doctor.

The Rani shrugged. 'And perhaps you'll accept you face a dilemma.'

The Master also detected an advantage. 'More of an impa.s.se.' He felt confident again; the moment of danger when the Doctor might have used the TCE had pa.s.sed.

'Wrong on both counts. There is no impa.s.se. And the dilemma, Rani, will be resolved by you.'

'Get to the point.'

'You put those evil contraptions in the Dell. So, you can lead Peri out!' The Rani shot him a glance of defiance.

'Refuse, and I shan't hesitate to use this!'

The look she gave the Doctor was venomous. But the logic of his ultimatum was irrefutable. Grudgingly, she descended from the ridge, then paused, deep in thought.

'She can't remember!' The Master's evaluation was pessimistic. 'She probably set them at random!'

'I doubt if the Rani's ever done anything at random.' He called to Peril 'Be patient.'

'But if she has? What then?'

'You're nominated as understudy. I should think you'd turn into a laburnum tree.'

'A laburnum? Why?'

'The pods are poisonous.'

Compartmentalising her emotions, keeping them from impairing her decision making, was a discipline sacrosanct to the Rani. The great leveller, fear, shattered that credo. In ch.o.r.eographed terror, she embarked on a complicated pattern of moves.

Peri's disorientation grew as she recognised the woman in chic leather gear coming towards her. What was the Rani doing here?