'Sheltering generation on generation of your Kith since the birth of the New Time.'

'Home.'

'We are your plans, designs and architecture. We, who rejoice in your name of...'

'Lungbarrow!' they chorused. 'Lungbarrow! Lungbarrow!' Their cries echoed through the Hall, taken up and repeated by the walls and galleries, the wood and stone.

157.

The Cousins and guests stared up and about in fear. The glancing echoes darkened, grew more thunderous, as if the House itself had found a voice.

LUNGBARROW! LUNGBARROW! LUNGBARROW!.

Through the continuing tirade came Satthralope's voice. 'None of you shal ever leave the House again! The Family is united at last!'

Glospin was staring fixedly across the table at the Doctor.

The Doctor was gazing up at the TARDIS which was swaying unnervingly in the web.

As the tumult final y died, there was a clash of drums and tuned gongs from invisible musicians. Forty-five chairs, most of them empty, shuffled round to afford their occupants a view of the open Hall.

Giant puppets, bigger than Drudges, lurched out of the shadows. Huge painted heads set on flowing cloaks. They seemed to work themselves.

'Good grief,' complained the Doctor and slumped in his chair. 'I thought we'd be spared this.'

'Begin the Mystery,' said Satthralope and stamped her cane.

'This ritual,' said Leela, excitedly, 'is it the Mystery of the New Time?'

The Doctor gave a glum nod.

'Then I have read about it,' she continued proudly. 'But it is never performed now. It was presumed lost.'

'Just like Le Sacre du Printemps?' added Dorothee.

'Some things are better off staying lost.' The Doctor scowled across the silverware at Glospin. 'Was this your idea?'

'In your honour,' smiled his Cousin. 'It's traditional. Highly appropriate, don't you think, for such a special occasion?'

The Doctor slid deeper into his chair. He glanced enviously at Chris. The young man's head had nodded back and he was snoring gently.

The gongs began a rolling repeated tune like a gamelan band over which a wild flute wailed like the wind. A puppet with a blue cloak and long silver hair full of jewels appeared. One eye was red. The puppet gyrated about the Hal , billowing its cloak as if it was casting spells.

'This is the al -seeing Pythia,' said Leela. 'And this is Ra.s.silon. Now they will fight for the future of Gallifrey.'

A second, smaller puppet had appeared. It had red hair and a crown and it waved a silver mace or rod. It performed a stylized fight with the Pythia puppet; the two figures exchanging blow after symbolic blow, more dance than combat. Eventual y, the Pythia swung its head high and the flute shrieked in agony. The drums rolled like thunder and the stone floor of the Hall cracked open in spectacular fashion. The puppet vanished into the creva.s.se with a scream and a spurt of flame.

'Sepulchasm!' shouted the Cousins as the Ra.s.silon puppet raise its arms in triumph.

'Inaccurate,' complained the Doctor. 'Ra.s.silon should not be wearing that sash yet.'

'Whoa! Better write in and complain,' said Dorothee.

Leela shushed them. The spectacle had clearly moved her. 'It was the curse. Now Gallifrey is doomed and there are no more children.'

158.

Mock snow started to fall from the gal eries. Through the swirling white, they watched a slow procession of puppets, al carrying small swaddled bundles. Each figure took a turn, gently laying its bundle into the crack through which the Pythia had fallen. Dorothee thought of her own mother tucking her in at night. She saw the Doctor shoot Leela a sudden knowing glance. 'It's just a play,' he whispered. 'Nothing personal.'

Leela held his look for a long time. She looked deeply upset. 'I am so sorry for you all,' she said. He nodded and squeezed her hand gently, but Dorothee couldn't tell who was rea.s.suring who. She also noticed that Glospin's eyes never left the Doctor.

The puppets were moving in a circle in what Innocet called the mystical Dance of the Intuitive Revelation. First they lamented in identical movements, railing fists at heaven, putting their heads together, dancing with one mind.

Then slowly, each one broke the circle, finding a separate dance of its own.

Two figures joined Ra.s.silon. The first juggled flaming b.a.l.l.s with a single hand. ('Oh, very symbolic,' said Dorothee.) The second only moved in the background. It was faceless and wrapped in a black cowl.

'That one is the Other,' announced Glospin.

The Doctor fiddled with his cutlery.

Accompanied by another shriek from the flute, the first, the juggling Omega puppet, exploded in flames. When the smoke died, only his unscathed hand stuck out of his ashes on a stick. Ra.s.silon moved to take the hand, but the Other puppet moved in and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the prize. The two puppets fought a duel, hand to mace, until the Other was finally vanquished and cast down.

There was a triumphant crescendo of drums and gongs.

And Chris suddenly jumped out of his chair. 'No!' he shouted at the puppets. 'That's all wrong! It wasn't like that at all!'

'Silence!' ordered Satthralope and the House rumbled angrily.

The Doctor held on to Chris, trying to calm him.

'Those aren't his thoughts,' called Glospin, pointing at Chris. 'They're Wormhole's thoughts. He's the serpent who destroyed our Family!'

The grim puppet of the Other rose, towering up from the floor. It gave a fluted shriek and rushed at the Doctor, swallowing him whole in its black cowl.

159.

Chapter Twenty-seven.

Table Manners

The last rays of sunlight slanted across the gardens and into the shabby hall in the South wing.

Captain Redred was only too glad to escape the House's cloying atmosphere. He checked the doc.u.ments he was carrying and stepped into the transmat booth. He separated the official doc.u.ments of interment registration from the item requiring special carriage to the Agency.

Deathdays always brought out the worst in a place, and the summary edict he had delivered could only add to the gloom. Yet the rumours circulating the Chapterhouse, rumours of an illegal birth at Lungbarrow, seemed unheard of at the actual scene of the disgrace. Most Family members he had encountered appeared almost improperly jovial. Only the Cousin Glospin, acting in lieu of a Housekeeper too distressed to deal with official matters, gave the occasion the due weight it demanded. But even Glospin had his own cards to play and Redred found himself acting the messenger. At least his bribe was not an insult.

A Deathday was a private occasion, when a House was left to its own grief. Worst luck, he would have to return to collect the cinerary urn containing the mind of the deceased.

He sent the signal that would transmat him back to Prydon Chapterhouse.

Something crackled. A flash and a shower of sparks. The light dimmed and the booth clogged up with smoke.

Redred wrenched back the door and got out.

Cobwebs caught in his face. He choked. His throat stung. The air outside was stifling. And the shabby hall was suddenly completely dilapidated. Its windows had been boarded up.

Instinctively, Redred accessed the Chapterhouse on his wrist-link. He'd transmatted to the wrong location. He pulled off his helmet and coughed painful y. The link hissed with empty static.

There was a movement behind him. Something grasped on his shoulder and yanked him round.

Redred yel ed as he stared up at the snout of a savage beast with yel ow tusks like knives.

The black cowl of the Other puppet crumpled and fell apart to reveal the figure of the Doctor, defiant amid its ruin.

Glospin was slowly clapping. 'Well played, Wormhole. An il uminating performance.'

'That's enough in front of our guests!' Satthralope cracked down her cane. 'Proceed with service,' she told the mountainous Drudges.

The Doctor returned to his place at the table.

Chris had sunk back into his chair. 'I want to tell them, Doctor. I want them to know what I saw.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Get something to eat first. I'll tell you when.'

The headless Drudge laid a huge platter on the table and a sense of wonderment spread through the Cousins. On it sat the four fish that had come down the chimney. They were cooked whole with the inevitable garnish of mushrooms.

The second Drudge placed a small bowl before Satthralope. Its contents were purple and slimy. The old woman scooped them up and swallowed them.

'Fish tongues,' said the Doctor in answer to Dorothee's quizzical grimace. 'Traditional.'

160.

The Drudges served portions of the fish to the company and offered round the ciabatta bread. The Cousins and Leela tucked in heartily. Dorothee and Chris poked at their helpings.

As the gla.s.ses were filled with emerald-coloured wine, Rynde said, 'Remember that ornamental hermit we had?

The one that lived in a grotto up the mountain?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor.

'I dismissed him,' snapped Satthralope. 'He was too expensive and a bad influence.' She regarded Dorothee graciously. 'The Doctor', as he wishes to be known, honours us with this gift of fish.'

'It wasn't anything,' said the Doctor.

'The Family bestowed on him the finest education it could afford. It was always hoped he would achieve the rank of Cardinal.' Her tone hardened. 'Shamefully, he chose only to be what he is - a Doctor of something or other I cannot even remember! Certainly nothing that could ever earn him a respectable living!'

'Have you tried these skul caps?' simpered Owis, pa.s.sing the plate of mushrooms again.

Dorothee didn't like the smel of them, but Leela reached for one.

The Doctor slapped her hand away from the plate and stood up. 'Living? What do any of you know about living?

Most of you have hardly even stuck your noses off the Family estate.'

The Cousins stopped eating and stared.

'I have dined at the tables of alien emperors and languished in their dungeons. I've seen whole galaxies born in the fires of the Aurora Temporalis. I've saved lives and taken them too. Which of you has even heard of the Frost Fairs of Ice-Askar the Winter Star? Or dreamt of the torches burning on the ca.n.a.ls of Venice?'

The ensuing stunned silence was broken as Satthralope dismissed the Drudges.

'Has he been away?' asked Owis. 'Did he bring back presents?'

'I could never stomach that,' said Rynde with a look of distaste.

Innocet stared silently into her supper.

'Home,' said Jobiska. 'I want to stay at home.'

Leela helped herself to more bread.

'Is it true?' said Satthralope. 'While your own Family were buried here in the misery you caused, you were away from Gallifrey, consorting and revelling with unworldly aliens?'

'Course he was,' said Chris. 'Who do you think we are?'

The Cousins gave a unified gasp of revulsion.

'Obscene,' said the old woman.

'You threw me out,' said the Doctor. 'Where did you expect me to go?'

'Monstrous.'

'At least I can choose my friends, even when I can't stick my own Family.'

Dorothee squeezed his arm. Then she stood up on her chair. 'Happy name day to you,' she sang out loud and looked to the other companions to fol ow.

161.