Part 10 (1/2)

Nepath blanched at the interruption.

'At all?' the Doctor went on. He was again sprawled in his seat, legs out and arms folded. 'It's just that I notice almost all the items you have here display some affinity with fire. Either explicitly or by a.s.sociation.'

Nepath answered slowly. 'Fire is a theme of my collection, yes. How observant of you, Doctor. There is no especial significance in this particular case.'

'Any of them?'

'I beg your pardon?'

There were impatient shuffles and murmurs now. The bidders were anxious to get started.

'Sorry,' the Doctor went on. 'I was just wondering, before we start, whether there is any significance to the fire motif in any of the items that you have up for sale. It just seems to me that there isn't. That you are withholding any and all pieces where the fire is, what shall we say, integral?' He paused, then nodded as if pleased with his choice of word. 'Yes, integral to the work.'

Nepath's reply was an impatient rasp. 'And if I am, that is surely my prerogative' He drew a deep breath, and went on: 'Since you are so interested, Doctor, perhaps you would start the bidding. The reserve on this piece is one hundred and ten guineas.'

The Doctor held up his hands as if in deferential surprise. 'Oh I'm not interested in bidding,' he said quickly. 'But you please go on.' He smiled. 'Don't mind me.'

The dancing statuette eventually went for over two hundred guineas. But by that time Grant had already lost interest. Beside him the Doctor's eyes were again closed, and at one point Grant could swear he heard the man snore.

It took almost three hours to conclude the auction. By the end of it Grant was thoroughly bored and the seat had become decidedly uncomfortable. The final piece, a figure of a man with four arms dancing within a circle of fire that ran from his feet over the top of his head, his hair splayed out to touch the edges of the ring, went for a staggering amount of money. To Grant it was merely another bronze statue. He had watched figures and boxes and bowls and ivory sold for what seemed to be quite unsupportable sums.

Nepath drew the proceedings to a close and once again thanked everyone for their presence and for their patience. People slowly began to leave, ushered out by Lord and Lady Urton. A woman with a face like a well*worn hatchet was on hand to show them the way back to the entrance hall.

Grant waited for Urton to come and find him. There was more to it than the auction, he was sure. Urton would never have dragged him halfway across the country for this. Beside him. the Doctor also sat unmoving, as if waiting for more. As he glanced round the room, Grant saw that several other men were also lingering.

It was Nepath who approached them. He stared at the Doctor for a moment, and received a wry smile in return. Nepath turned to Grant. 'Sir William, how good of you to come,' he said quietly, reaching down to shake the man's hand. His huge grip was firm. 'Your journey will not be wasted, I a.s.sure you.' He glanced again at the Doctor, frowning.

'I am glad to hear it, sir,' Grant told him. 'So far it has been interesting, but hardly my sort of event I admit.' He tried to inject the right amount of antic.i.p.ation and censure into his tone. Admonis.h.i.+ng but not alienating, he hoped.

Nepath smiled thinly and turned to the Doctor. 'I apologise, Doctor,' he said. 'It seems that nothing here engaged your interest. A pity. But perhaps another time?' It was clear that the Doctor was not invited to stay behind.

Yet still the Doctor did not move. He made no effort to stand, let alone leave. 'Yes, a great pity,' he said smoothly. 'I'm sad to think I was invited here under false pretences.'

Nepath drew in his breath sharply. 'What do you mean?'

The Doctor stretched and yawned. 'You said there would be artefacts here that were unusual, intriguing. Of interest to a specialist.'

Nepath was angry, but he struggled to hide it. 'I think the guests were well pleased with the occasion and with what they saw and purchased.'

'Oh I don't doubt it.' The Doctor leaped suddenly to his feet, his eyes level with Nepath's as he leaned slightly forward and returned his stare. 'But to those of us who have been there, who have seen the temples of living rock, drunk from the fountains of cascading white water, spoken with the wise men of the mountains.' He shrugged and sighed. 'Hardly enthralling.'

Before Nepath could respond the Doctor nodded towards another of the men who was waiting behind. Grant recognised him as the final buyer. He was holding the statuette of the man within his ring of fire.

's.h.i.+va,' the Doctor said. 'A rare and beautiful piece. But hardly extraordinary.'

'Perhaps you are misinformed, Doctor,' Grant suggested. He could see that Nepath was annoyed, and wanted to help.

'Oh, I doubt it,' the Doctor said lightly. 'The G.o.d of dance and of music. His dancing keeps the universe moving, like the ring of fire. It supplies the raw cosmic energy that fuels all life. He beats the drum in his right*most hand to signify the pulse of creation itself. The fire simultaneously creates and destroys the universe as he constantly dances, isn't that right? And heaven help us, literally, if he should stop.'

'I see that you know your subject, Doctor,' Nepath said. There was a hint of appreciation in his tone.

'I know many subjects,' the Doctor responded. 'But I am surprised you were prepared to part with such a piece. After your comments on the fire theme.' He smiled widely. 'Unless you have another, or there is some flaw in this one.' He clicked his tongue. 'I hate to he kept in the dark, you know. Like the dwarf.'

'The dwarf?' Grant asked.

'The figure, s.h.i.+va, is standing on the head of a dwarf,' Nepath said. His eyes were still on the Doctor. 'The dwarf represents ignorance.'

'Ah!' The Doctor had lifted his finger in the air, like a schoolboy with an urgent question. 'Got it!' His voice echoed round the room. He seemed oblivious to the stares of the few people left as he leaned close to Nepath and whispered, just loud enough for Grant to catch the words: 'It's a copy, isn't it? And you have the original.' He stepped back and clapped his hands together as if in congratulation. 'Well, I hope you've sold the right one.' He sighed loudly. 'Such a pity you had nothing of real interest. Such a disappointment.' He hesitated for a moment, his eyes locked with Nepath's before adding. 'Well, I must be on my way, no doubt you have some other bric*a*brac to offload.'

Nepath seemed to flinch at the word. His face crumpled round the eyes for an instant before he regained control. His voice was level and stern, drained of emotion. 'Perhaps you would like to stay and see exactly what sort of bric*a*brac, as you call it, I really have, Doctor.' It sounded more like a command than a question.

The Doctor had already turned away even as Nepath was speaking. 'Oh I doubt it's anything much,' he said. 'Baubles and trinkets.'

'I insist!' Nepath's voice was a thunderbolt of angry sound. Then, more restrained, more controlled. 'Please, Doctor.'

Slowly the Doctor turned. His face was grim, mouth taut. 'Well, in that case,' he said quietly, 'I should be honoured, of course.' Without another word he returned to the seat beside Grant.

There were five of them left behind, not counting Nepath and Lord Urton. When all the others had gone, Nepath led them through the house to Urton's drawing room. A fire was set in the grate, the flames roaring up in a brilliant display of orange and yellow. In front of the fire was a low table on which were arranged several items. Grant surveyed them as he took his place in an armchair close by.

There was what looked like a solid sphere of dark material, rather like a cannonball. Beside this was a statue which stood about a foot tall, made of burnished, s.h.i.+ning metal. It was a bird, its wings outstretched and its head turned sideways so that it was seen in profile. The detail of the feathers and the features was intricate and impressive. Further along the table were what looked like pebbles or small rocks, of the same dark material as the sphere. Next to these was a bowl, and Grant caught sight of dark liquid within it. At the end of the table was a pair of tongs taken it seemed from the fire irons that stood in a bra.s.s bucket beside the grate, and a large lump hammer.

'This is more like it,' a voice said quietly close to Grant.

He turned and saw that the Doctor had taken the chair closest to him. 'Why? What's going on?'

'I have no idea,' the Doctor confessed gleefully. 'But that's always more fun, don't you think?'

Grant did not agree. He liked to know exactly what was happening. He liked to understand and control the situation. He shuffled uneasily in his chair.

When they were all seated, Nepath strode to the front of the room and stood with his back to the fire. Lord Urton stood close by, hands behind his back, expression fixed and stony. Grant was again surprised at how reticent the man was. Quite unlike his usual self.

'I think,' Nepath said with obvious relish, 'that you will all find this session instructive.' He turned and nodded to Lord Urton, who took the rocks and pebbles from the table and pa.s.sed them out to the a.s.sembled men.

Grant examined his pebble as Nepath waited. It was smooth and heavy. The material was warm to the touch, which made him suspect it was neither metal nor stone. He pressed at it to feel how hard it was, and felt the material squash under his thumb. He almost dropped it in surprise. He looked up quickly, hoping n.o.body had seen his reaction, and found his movement mirrored by most of the others as they too shared the discovery.

Only the Doctor seemed not to be looking to Nepath in surprise. He was busily squeezing the material he had been given into a flat shape. The tip of his tongue was just visible at the corner of his mouth as he worked at it, folding and bending it. Slowly, everyone turned to watch. He seemed to realise the attention, and looked up, eyes wide and innocent. Slowly, like a guilty schoolboy he held up the material, to show he had squeezed and shaped it into a perfect sphere.

Nepath's voice recaptured their attention. 'The material you have been given to examine...' He paused and glanced pointedly at the Doctor. '...To play with,' he corrected himself, 'has some interesting properties. It is, in answer to what is probably your first question, rock.'

'You mean it occurs naturally?' a man at the back of the group asked.

'Yes,' Nepath replied. 'And no.' He waited a moment before continuing. 'The rock itself is unremarkable. In fact, it can he found in the mine workings close to here. What gives it its unique properties is the way it is refined. A technique known only to the Abritzi people of the Urdesh.'

'Never heard of them,' someone muttered.

'And,' Nepath continued without pause, 'to myself.'

A third man spoke, his voice quiet and reasonable. 'So we have squashable, compressible rock. Remarkable I grant you, but is it of practical use? Of value?'