'It's you you.' Glospin's voice was chilled with contempt.

'G.o.ds of Purgatory, it is is you!' you!'

'Not necessarily,' said the Doctor, pulling down his hat to hide his face in the twilight. He laughed awkwardly. 'Have we met? No, I don't think so. So sorry. Must dash.'

Chris caught his arm. 'You can't leave him in there. He's trapped.'

'No worse than he deserves, I'm sure.' The Doctor yanked himself free.

'You!' accused Glospin. 'I'd know that ego anywhere. The b.l.o.o.d.y bile you have, slinking back in after everything.

After all this time!'

'I'm sure you're making some mistake.' The Doctor shot a sidelong glance at Chris. 'My client will explain everything.'

'Doctor,' said Chris, trying to stay calm.

The Doctor shushed him.

'Doctor, I know.'

'No, you do not know, Chris!'

Chris lowered his voice. 'Yes, I do. This is your home and your family.'

The Doctor stepped backward in shock. For a second, Chris thought he was having another hearts attack.

The magnitude of his statement slammed back in on Chris. The whispering, which had died in his head, erupted again in earnest. Sorry, Roz. There are things that should never get said to your friends. Sorry, sorry.

'Sorry, Doctor,' he mumbled.

65.The Doctor said nothing. His head shook a little as if he refused to accept the statement.

Glospin's eye in the stove had seen everything. His voice began to sneer. 'Did you think we'd al be dead by now?

That you'd left it long enough? Wait until they all know you're here!'

'Shut up!' said Chris.

But Glospin started to yel . 'It's him! He's here! Help me! He's come back! Drudge! Drudges!'

'Glospin!' shouted the Doctor. 'Is that you in there?'

Glospin went silent.

The Doctor stared in at the grating. Eye to eye. A long moment of recognition.

Then he turned back to Chris. His manner was quiet and grave, like that of a condemned man. 'Christopher, keep an eye out along that pa.s.sage in case anyone else turns up.'

'Yes, Doctor,' said Chris. 'I'm sorry. When you want to leave...'

The Doctor nodded towards the pa.s.sage he had emerged from.

Chris moved obediently away feeling the Doctor's eyes burn into his back as he went. He wasn't even halfway along the dark pa.s.sage, when a wave of nausea broke over him. He stumbled against the wall, his senses swimming. As he went under for the first time, he heard Glospin and the Doctor start to argue.

'Don't entertain the delusion that anyone wants you back. You've already been replaced!'

Chris was looking at an airy room lit by orange sunlight... Beyond the window stood the tall towers of some unEarthly city. The figure of Glospin, the old man Glospin from the dream, stood between him and the view. Glospin was shouting at him and brandishing a doc.u.ment.

'... I discovered anomalies in your genetic codings!'

Chris felt a fury that he did not understand. It took over his every sense. 'Nonsense!' he heard himself say, but his voice was curiously old and felt like someone else's. He levelled a finger at the outraged Glospin and saw that he wore a jewel ed ring. 'This is some childish attempt to complete my severance from the Family. Aren't you satisfied, hmm? Why do you still insist on pestering me?'

'You certainly never belonged to Lungbarrow's Loom. Exactly who or what are you?'

'I'm your Cousin!', declared the voice in Chris's head. He raised his cane to strike at Glospin and they were soon brawling like schoolroom rookies.

With a crash, a black, coffin-like box shot through the solid wall.

Glospin backed away as it hovered closer to him.

'No!' Chris heard himself shout.

The box drove straight at Glospin. There was a cold, white flash.

Chris clung to the wall in the dark.

As his senses levelled, he could still hear the arguing. There was no love lost between the Doctor and Glospin.

66.'What do you mean, did I come down the chimney?' snapped the Doctor. 'How do you think I got in? I let myself in at the front door.'

'Really?' retorted Glospin and started to laugh. 'As far as the House is concerned you were cast out long ago. . .

Doctor! ' '

'And from the ramshackle look of the place, it's gone into terminal decline without me.'

'You'd better ask Satthralope about that.'

'So she is still Housekeeper. The old harridan could never let go of anything, could she? Even if the House has gone to rack and ruin around her. Who's Kithriarch now? I thought you had your sights on the inheritance.'

'Satthralope wil tell you.'

'Oh, no. Not if I can help it.' The Doctor's tone level ed to that familiar goading superiority he reserved for his nastiest opponents, usual y just prior to wrecking their plans of Universal domination. 'So you missed out on your inheritance too, did you? What a pity. After al that effort to get me out of the way. And now you're stuck in a samovar! Let me guess who shut you in there. Just the sort of mealy-mouthed punishment Satthralope would dish out. Even to her favourite!'

'How old are you now, Wormhole?' asked Glospin. 'You realize it's six hundred and seventy-three years since we last met - to the day.'

'Ah, how quickly Otherstide comes round,' the Doctor mused. 'And I haven't brought you a present.'

'You were always old for your age.' Glospin's sneer turned into another laugh. 'Of course. Otherstide Otherstide. Your name day fell on Otherstide, didn't it? How could I forget that? You must be at least -'

'Mind your own business and four-quarters.'

'Well, felicitations, Cousin. And I haven't bought you a present either.'

'I've never made a fuss about anniversaries,' said the Doctor. 'How old are you?'

'One thousand seven hundred and eleven. Three Three generations.' generations.'

The Doctor was silent for a long moment. 'Careful living,' he said, but his voice was flat and downbeat.

' I I didn't have a choice,' Glospin said. 'You look pretty wel worn. I'd reckon you're on five or six generations at least. didn't have a choice,' Glospin said. 'You look pretty wel worn. I'd reckon you're on five or six generations at least.

You've been living too fast.'

'Chris,' hissed the Doctor. 'We're going.'

Chris hauled himself up and started back along the pa.s.sage.

'He's not going to let me out,' called Glospin. 'What a way to treat an older Cousin.'

'Let him go, Doctor,' said Chris firmly. 'Because if you won't, I will.'

The Doctor looked extremely hurt. For a moment he and Chris held each other's stare. Then he walked to the stove and began to pick at the latch. After a moment, he took off his shoe and hit the cross-bolt hard.

'Don't do that!' shouted Glospin. 'Stop it! Stop it! It's heating up!'

Chris saw a row of flames in the base of the stove. 'Doctor, get him out! He'l be roasted alive!'

'Say please, Glospin,' said the Doctor.

Inside the stove's oven, Glospin began to scream.

67.'Please?' repeated the Doctor.

'Doctor!' yel ed Chris. 'Please!'

The Doctor grabbed the rusty kettle off the top of the stove and emptied the brackish water over the flames.

There was a hiss of steam.

They could hear Glospin gasping inside.

The Doctor produced a metal instrument from his pocket and set it to the latch. There was a slight vum vum noise and the whole front of the stove swung open. Glospin shot out sideways as if he had been kicked. He landed on the tiled floor in a heap. Smoke drifted out of his clothes. noise and the whole front of the stove swung open. Glospin shot out sideways as if he had been kicked. He landed on the tiled floor in a heap. Smoke drifted out of his clothes.

'Osirian bottleopener,' said the Doctor coldly. 'Satisfied?'

'Thank you,' said Chris.

'Let's go.'

The stove slammed its oven door in frustration.

Chris ignored the Doctor and crouched by Glospin. In Earth terms, the Cousin now looked to be in his late thirties.

His once coa.r.s.e black hair was now brown and curling. It fell thickly to his shoulders, framing a handsome, but thin white face. A red-brown scar on one pale hand extended up his arm.

'He's hurt, Doctor,' Chris said.

Glospin pulled back his hand. 'That happened a long time ago.' He glared up accusingly at the Doctor. 'It's never healed properly.'

The Doctor ruminated for a moment. 'Bring him,' he said. He turned and walked away up the pa.s.sage. 'I want to be away from here before daybreak.'

'What daybreak?' said Glospin as he laboured to stand up. He looked after the Doctor and began to laugh out loud.

68.

Chapter Thirteen.

Black Window

Cousin Innocet was crossing the galleries above the Hall when she heard the voices. They were arguing pugnaciously. The House's great chamber had properties to enhance and amplify the quietest whisper, but Lungbarrow had so many echoes of its own, and thoughts that posed as echoes, that it was often difficult to identify the source. That was what had taught her to move silently in the House. A sudden movement in a quiet place could set off a host of echoes, scattering like a blue-brown flock of raucous blossom thieves startled from the orchards in spring.

The echoes came up from the direction of the old conservatory. As she pa.s.sed by one of the hearth-rooms, she heard another familiar voice.

'It's my turn,' it complained. 'If you don't let me have a go, I'll tell Innocet.'

Innocet, thus invoked, pushed open the door.

'Owis?' she said sharply. What are you doing?'

Owis looked up startled from his position by the huge fireplace. He tried to stuff some morsel into his pocket. 'I didn't do it,' he protested.

'Who's that with you?' she said.

A pair of feet were sticking out of the fireplace. She moved closer and saw that his filthy trousers were made of st.i.tched shrew skins.