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 ship.'

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.

Innocet grabbed at the pole, lost her grip and fell into the water. The weight of her hair pulled her down. She saw the huge petal mouth open to encircle her. Its tongue gleamed in a sudden flash of fire.

The Doctor, standing in a second boat, was yelling and brandishing a flaming brand into the heart of the petals.

The creature gave a bubbling hiss of rage and dived away.

Innocet reached for the Doctor's hand. He was hauling her in when his boat lurched and tipped him in beside her.

The torch spluttered out in the water.

Round the prow of his coracle came the second creature, eyes waving in its beautiful open head.

It suddenly rolled in the water, thrashing angrily as something gradually dragged it down under the surface.

The Doctor pushed Innocet into his boat and clambered in after her.

There was no sign of the creatures. He set his weight to the pole, heading the coracle towards the far side.

Satthralope sat tightly in her chair. She turned her keys, but the House was not listening. Her mirrors had gone blank.

'Not dead yet?' said Quences, his cloak of shadows billowing. She stared at the dripping dagger in his chest. He came closer, closer. 'Don't imagine your stranglehold on the House will stop me.'

'You're not dead,' she mouthed. 'You're not dead!'

172.

'Does the House know that?' wheezed the old Ghost.

The House, she thought. I I am the House! am the House!

And she forgot herself completely.

'What's happening now?' said Leela.

They were sitting on the overturned TARDIS, watching Redred and Glospin spread a doc.u.ment on one of the Hall tables.

'Don't know,' Dorothee said. 'Something to do with the Doctor's ancestry. They reckon he's not who he says he is.'

Leela's hand went to her knife. 'Then we must protect him.'

'Comes as no surprise to me. People are always saying that about him.'

'Which people?'

Dorothee shrugged. 'People all over. When you travel with someone, you can't help finding out a few dark secrets.

Don't tell me you've never wanted to know who he really is.'

'Sometimes,' said Leela. 'But that would be wrong.'

' Comment? Comment? I mean, why?' I mean, why?'

Leela looked at her sternly. 'The Doctor is wise and strange, and he is powerful. But he is also a mystery that wil only reveal itself to the chosen.'

'Maybe,' said Dorothee. 'But I still want to know.'

They sat in silence. Dorothee looked across at the implacable Drudges. Behind them, the image in the gla.s.s coffin flickered fitfully.

'Leela,' she said quietly. 'I saw.'

'I think we'd better find the Doctor.'

Innocet sat dripping and shivering on the steps, listening to the plaintive voices in her head.

'You had no right to follow me,' she told the Doctor.

'Take off your wet things, Innocet,' he said. 'Then you must show me where the Cousins are.'

'I will not,' she said.

He took off his jacket and wrung out the sleeves. 'I know you've been protecting them all this time. You're the only one strong enough.'

He sat down beside her and tried to take her hand. 'Innocet, listen. We can put an end to it at last. You must tell me where they are.'

'Take away your hand,' she said.

'Please, Cousin. No more secrets. You can let go now.'

She tried not to listen. Water slapped on the steps.

173.

He sighed. 'You know, on other worlds there are people dedicated to clearing up the mess I leave behind. It's always been actions and reactions with me, and I tend to forget the consequences.'

She watched something moving under the water.

He continued, 'But now I have to make amends for the suffering I've caused you all. It's my responsibility. So stop h.o.a.rding all the misery for yourself and tell me where the others are hidden!'

She closed her eyes.

'Then do it for Chris's sake,' he said.