Part 40 (1/2)

The black water started about halfway down the slanting pa.s.sage. A flotsam of old drowned furniture had collected at its edge.

169.

She tried to tug at one of the overturned coracles, but it was too heavy for her frail little arms.

'Come on, granny,' said Chris, pounding up behind her. 'I'll do that.'

He lifted her in and climbed aboard after her.

'Are you coming as well, dear?' she asked.

'That's right,' he said, testing the paddle. 'I'm off home too.'

'I don't know where he went,' protested Dorothee.

The Doctor was all urgent hands and darting looks. 'He's following Jobiska. She's gone to join the missing Cousins.'

'We shall find him,' said Leela.

'No, stay here, both of you. Keep an eye on things. And don't let anything disturb the House.' He squinted at Leela.

'What?' she said.

'Crumbs.' He dabbed her mouth with his hanky. 'If you need help, speak to her.' He waved a vague hand.

Dorothee glanced round the Hal . 'Who? Battleaxe Galactica's gone to her room.'

'Not Satthralope. Innocet.'

'She just went out.'

'What?'

They pointed. 'That way.'

The Doctor set off at a pace.

'Your bread is good,' said Leela.

'You ate the lot,' said Dorothee.

'I was hungry.'

'At this rate you can't go on wearing that bikini much longer.'

'Captain,' said Glospin. 'That dispatch you were given. You'd better hand it over.'

Redred flicked off his wrist-link. 'It stays with me until I get out.' He pointed to the TARDIS. 'This TT machine was stolen last night from the dry dimension docks at the Capitol.'

'Last night,' said Glospin, amused.

'By your Cousin.'

'You'l find the Doctor's behind most of this.' Glospin flourished his coded Agency badge. 'You see, I discovered anomalies on his Loom certificate. He may be a pretender. Or a changeling.'

Redred smiled. 'Another imposter?'

'This is his revenge for being disinherited and expelled from the Family. It was he who murdered the Kithriarch.'

170.

'Serious allegations.' Redred consulted his wrist-link.

'And he's regenerated since he last came here,' Glospin added. 'I'm sure we'd find more evidence if we could get into his s.h.i.+p.'

171.

Chapter Twenty-nine.

Consequences

Innocet struggled to steady her coracle - half a hewn-out stixxi pod, grown in the atrium before it flooded. The pole she was using to steer slithered in her hands.

She was halfway across. The black water reflected the lamplight in serpentine patterns on the branches of the atrium's ceiling. Around the walls, half-submerged portraits of former Cousins glowered out disapprovingly.

Ahead, on the far side of the lagoon, were the coracles that Maljamin and Jobiska had used. The Drudges always brought the boats back.

The House knew.

It was all a game.

Innocet! In the turmoil of voices in her head, she heard her own name called. And again. In the turmoil of voices in her head, she heard her own name called. And again.

She looked back. The Doctor was at the water's edge. When she ignored his calls, he climbed into another boat.

Something swished past in the water.

A skinny reptilian shape was circling the coracle. Its long white head lifted above the surface and opened out like a vicious flower. Stalky eyes like stamens waved over a ruff of purple-blotched petals. It hissed. Its glistening tongue uncurled from a central ring of teeth. The monstrous progeny of both cavepool lizard and meadow orchid, hybridized in one of the Doctor's most repulsive experiments.

'You were told not to bring those things indoors,' Satthralope had complained.

Something grabbed at the pole. A second creature was writhing in the water behind the boat. Innocet tried to beat it away. The coracle lurched wildly. She struggled to stay upright.

The first creature rammed the boat.