Part 5 (1/2)

'Certainly not! Whatever for?'

'Please, I just want to demonstrate something. Then I'll go and leave you in peace.'

'Oh, very well.' Awkwardly, Ambril perched the hat on top of his head.

The Doctor looked at Chela. 'Now, count the faces.'

Chela looked blank.

'Do as he says,' ordered Ambril.

Chela counted. There were the masks, of course. ”One, two, three, four, five . . .' Chela saw the puzzled face of Ambril beneath the head-dress. Catching the Doctor's eye he gave an involuntary smile.

'Exactly,' said the Doctor. 'And one more makes six. The sixth Face of Delusion is the wearer's own. That was probably the idea, don't you think?'

Ambril was spluttering with rage. 'Out. Get out! Go on, get out!'

The Doctor moved hurriedly towards the door.

Struggling to keep his face straight, Chela hurried after him.

Nyssa stood in one of the market streets looking anxiously about her.

Although she hadn't managed to catch up with Tegan she'd managed to keep her in sight at least for a time. Now Tegan seemed to have vanished. Choosing a direction more or less at random, Nyssa went on with her search.

As soon as she was out of sight Tegan stepped out of her hiding place - which was in fact the entrance to Dugdale's Hall of Mirrors. The Hall had been temporarily deserted by its weary proprietor, who was consoling himself with a mug of wine at the local tavern. Tegan was about to move away, when suddenly she changed her mind. She turned and went into the Hall.

Retracing her steps, Nyssa found herself outside the abandoned fortune-teller's booth. She remembered that somehow Tegan had been concerned in whatever had happened there. She went up to the doorway. 'h.e.l.lo! Anyone there?' No answer. Nyssa slipped inside.

Peering round in the gloom she saw the fragments of the shattered crystal ball. And there, on the table, was the Doctor's anti-dreaming device. Nyssa picked it up.

Tegan pa.s.sed through the tiny vestibule and through a curtained door into the Hall itself. It wasn't really much of a hall, just a long tent-room.

It was lined with mirrors, ranged along the walls. Each mirror was framed with a crudely-drawn snake mouth, a kind of parody of the Cave of the Snake.

Tegan looked in the first mirror, and saw herself as a dumpy dwarf. She looked in the second, and saw an impossibly tall, elongated Tegan. She looked in the third mirror - and saw the Mara.

5.

The Sign of the Mara

The giant snake-skull filled the entire mirror. Tegan backed away in horror, trying not to look. 'No no,' she whispered. 'Please.'

The Mara said 'Face me!'

The voice was deep and harsh, the Mara voice, but it was coming from Tegan's lips.

Tegan shook her head. 'No, no... I mustn't. I can't.'

'Face me!'

'I'm so tired.'

''Then borrow my strength.'

Tegan struggled to regain control of her own mind. ”How is it possible?

On the Kinda world the Mara was repelled by mirrors.'

'On the Kinda world, I was trapped in a circle of mirrors,' said the hateful voice. 'There is no circle here.'

Tegan rubbed a hand over her eyes. 'Why am I so confused?'

'You are divided against yourself. A stranger in your own mind. You are pathetic'

Tegan closed her eyes.

'Look at me!' commanded the Mara. 'I can make up your mind?

'No,' muttered Tegan weakly. 'No. . .'

' Why not? What are you afraid of? Just who do you think you are?'

In spite of herself, Tegan straightened up and stared full into the mirror. The Mara snake-skull seemed to glow brighter for a moment, then slowly faded away.

Tegan looked down at her left arm and saw the mark of the Mara. A snake design ran down her forearm, the head of the snake on the back of her hand.

Tegan - or rather the Mara inside her - smiled, a cold, triumphant smile.

The Mara was in command.

The Doctor walked back through the market, pus.h.i.+ng his way abstractedly through the crowds.

He heard a voice calling out behind him. 'Doctor! Doctor, wait.'

He turned and saw Chela running after him.

The Doctor waited and Chela hurried up to him, glancing over his shoulder to see that he wasn't observed. 'Here, Doctor, take this.'

Chela thrust something into the Doctor's hands. It was a pendant, a blue crystal on a golden chain.

The Doctor examined it. 'What is it?'

'The Snakedancers use them in their rituals. They call them ”Little Mind's Eye”. In the Legend, the Great Crystal is called the ”Great Mind's Eye” '.

'Indeed?' said the Doctor thoughtfully.