'Nothing save the Great Crystal - and the seal of the High Priest.' Detatching it from its chain, Krasis held out the gold medallion.

The Master took it and studied it eagerly. The flat golden disc was carved with elaborate symbols. The Master studied them eagerly. 'But that's it. From this seal I can learn the correct mathematical constants. Kronos is in my power at last!'

Stuart Hyde had been carefully loaded into a wheelchair, and Ruth Ingram, escorted by Jo Grant, the Doctor and the Brigadier, was wheeling him out of the front door of the Inst.i.tute towards a waiting ambulance.

Understandably, Stuart wasn't in the best of moods.

'Rest, that's what you need,' said the Doctor rather more cheerfully than was really tactful. 'That's all you can do at the moment - rest until your body recovers from the shock.'

A charming prospect I must say,' grumbled Stuart. 'You'd better find out about my old age pension, Ruth. After all, I'll be twenty-six in seven weeks time.'

'Try not to be too bitter, Stu,' said Ruth gently.

Suddenly Sergeant Benton came pounding towards them. Doctor! The Master's in the lab!'

The Master was carefully transcribing the mathematical symbols carved into the great seal. The Director watch him in puzzlement. 'But how can Atlantean symbols mean anything to you?'

Comparative ratios remain constant throughout time,' said the Master confidently. 'If you have nothing intelligent to say, Perceval, keep quiet!' He punched a complicated set of co-ordinates into the TOMt.i.t console. 'And now - we switch on!'

He turned on the power, and the rising whine of the apparatus filled the room.

In the inner lab the crystal began to glow. Krasis raised his arms in worship.

Sergeant Benton meanwhile was concluding what he himself felt was an extremely unlikely story.

The Doctor frowned. 'Are you sure he said he was from Atlantis?'

'Yes,' said Benton simply. 'He just appeared from nowhere.'

The Brigadier wasn't interested in apparitions. He was only interested in the Master.

'Right, what are we waiting for? On the double, Sergeant Benton - Doctor! Females stay under cover, all right, Miss Grant?'

The Brigadier dashed off towards the laboratory. Benton at his heels.

'Brigadier, wait? shouted the Doctor.

'And wait for me!' called Ruth Ingram. Females under cover indeed!' She ran after Benton and the Brigadier.

Jo felt suddenly strange and shivery. She heard a strangled cry from behind her and turned. 'Doctor, look?

Stuart Hyde was recovering his youth at amazing speed. Grey hair turned to brown, the skin became firm and youthful, the eyes clear and bright - and suddenly there was a puzzled-looking twenty-six year old Stuart sitting in the wheelchair.

The Doctor studied the phenomenon thoughtfully. 'A ma.s.sive feedback of time . . .

We're too late, Jo. Kronos is coming!'

In the laboratory the crystal was pulsating, blazing with light. The Master stared into the heart of the fiery glow, raising his arms in a gesture of welcome. Come, Kronos, come!'

Krasis, the High Priest, stared enraptured at the crystal. Doctor Perceval, the Director, looked on in horrified fascination.

In the heart of the crystal a shape was beginning to appear. Perceval peered into the fiery glow, trying to make it out. At first it seemed like a giant bird, then like a man, finally more like a man with wings, though the head was still birdlike... He heard the steady beat of mighty wings. The winged shape grew bigger and bigger emerging from the crystal until it was somehow there there in .the laboratory, a shape of white light thrashing about in the confined s.p.a.ce like some great eagle in a too small cage. in .the laboratory, a shape of white light thrashing about in the confined s.p.a.ce like some great eagle in a too small cage.

Krasis prostrated himself in worship, but the terrified Director screamed and turned to run. The noise and movement seemed to attract the winged attention, and it swooped down on him like a great bird of prey. Fiery wings enfolded him, swallowed him up and Humphrey Perceval ceased to exist, his very being absorbed by Kronos, so that an atom of him remained.

As the Director disappeared, Kronos resumed the terrifying swirl of activity. The fiery wings thrashed frantically, sending whole shelves of equipment smashing to the ground.

The Master was beginning to fear that he had a monster he could not control.

'Kronos! Be at peace!' he roared. 'I am your friend.'

Krasis raised his head, gazing worshippingly at the restless fiery form. 'You will never control Kronos. He is the ruler of time. He is the destroyer. We are doomed!'

'Rubbish!' said the Master. A sudden idea came to him and he s.n.a.t.c.hed up the Great Seal of Atlantis and held it out before him. 'Kronos, hear me! I order you to be at peace and obey!'

Kronos recoiled, and the beating of the wings lessened in intensity.

The Master laughed. 'Well, well, well! So, the pet dog does obey his Master!' He advanced upon Kronos, driving the fiery being back into inner lab and slamming the door. 'Now, stay in your kennel till I have need of you!'

The Doctor and Jo watched as the retreating figures of the Brigadier, Sergeant Benton and Ruth suddenly ceased to retreat and became motionless.

Still striving to move forward, their bodies were frozen, like running figures when the film is stopped.

'What's the matter with them?' asked Jo The Doctor said, 'You stay back.'

He began running towards Ruth Ingram, the nearest of the group. As he approached he felt the resistance of the temporal distortion. Forcing his way through it, the Doctor grabbed Ruth's arm and yanked her back towards Jo. As he retreated, movement became easier. By the time they reached Jo, Ruth was back to normal.

She blinked and around. 'What happened?'

'That's it,' said the Doctor. 'She's outside the limit of the effect now.'

He ran forward and repeated the rescue Operation with Benton.

Ruth looked on in astonishment. 'What happened to me? What's going on.?'

'Don't worry,' said Jo rea.s.suringly. 'The Doctor will explain - I hope!'

While Kronos thrashed about the inner lab like an angry eagle, the Master was working busily at the TOMt.i.t controls.

'What are you doing?' asked Krasis.

'Reducing the interst.i.tial flow rate. Now don't interrupt me, I must concentrate.'

'You do not have the power to control him,' screamed Krasis.

'I shall have, never fear. Just give me time!' He made a final adjustment. 'Now - I must put him back where he belongs!'

The hum of power rose higher and, as it did so, Kronos began to dwindle and fade.

The Doctor led the astonished Brigadier back to the others. Since the Brigadier's own subjective time had been slowed down, it seemed to him as if he had been running normally when the Doctor appeared from nowhere, and hustled him back to his starting point at impossible speed. Not unnaturally the Brigadier was both astonished and indignant. 'Doctor! Will you kindly explain...'

'There's no time to explain now. Benton, take the everybody inside, quickly!' The Brigadier was still spluttering. 'What? What?'

'Come along, man,' said the Doctor impatiently, and bustled everybody away.

Kronos seemed to be rushing away, becoming both fainter and smaller at the same time. Finally the winged shape seemed to disappear into the heart of the crystal.

The Master mopped his brow, and said sarcastically, 'It's safe to go in now, most n.o.ble High Priest. Thank you for your help.'

Krasis followed him into the inner lab. 'I am no slave that I should serve you, I serve only the G.o.ds.'

'You will serve me, Krasis, and like it!'

'You dare to mock the High Priest?'

The Master stretched out a hand to the controls. 'Take care, Krasis! I can always bring Kronos back!'

Instinctively Krasis recoiled. 'No! No, you... I beseech you . . .What is your will?'

'Knowledge!' said the Master simply. 'Your knowledge of the ancient mysteries.' His voice rose in anger. 'Why 'Why could I not control him?' could I not control him?'

Krasis said scornfully, 'For all your sorcery, you are as a child trying to control a wild elephant. A puny child!'

'But I have the crystal!'

'That crystal is but a part of the true Crystal of Kronos. '

The Master was furious. 'A part!' 'A part!'

'Only a small fraction,' said Krasis loftily.

'A fraction - and the rest is in Atlantis?

'Deep in the vaults of the Temple of Poseidon. Guarded night and day from such thieves as you. You may command the slave but never shall you control the Mighty One himself!'

The Master had already recovered from his setback, and his deep voice was filled with confidence. 'You think not? We shall see.'

He reached out and grasped the crystal.

8.

The Secret

In the Great Temple of Atlantis, Hippias held high a blazing torch and pointed dramatically at the empty altar. He was a tall, exceptionally handsome young man with glossy black hair that fell to his shoulders in shining ringlets in the Atlantean style. Wearing only the brief Atlantean kilt, he was a n.o.ble and impressive figure.

'You see, most venerable King - the crystal is gone!'

Beside him, King Dalios was, at first sight, almost comically unimpressive. Just a little old man with long flowing white hair and a jutting beard, clutching his night-robe around him.

And yet there was something impressive about Dalios, the calm and wisdom that come only with age. He looked thoughtfully at his excited councillor. 'And Krasis?'

Hippias spoke in a deep thrilling voice. 'I was there, O King! The sky opened and a spear of fire was hurled by the hand of Zeus...'

'Yes, yes, yes,' said Dalios impatiently. 'I saw the thunderstorm myself. What next?'

'They disappeared,' said Hippias simply. 'Krasis and the Crystal together - like smoke! What does it mean, Lord Dalios? Are the G.o.ds angry? Has the time come at last?'

Dalios looked pityingly at him. 'You are young Hippias, as young in years as in the Sacred Mysteries. What do you know of Kronos?'

Hippias gasped, at the sound of a name almost too holy to speak. As if reciting some lesson learned by heart, he said, 'The years of Kronos were the great years of Atlantis~ Perhaps some day he will return to us.'

'That is my fear,' said Dalios solemnly. 'Our world is in great danger. Come.' He led the young man through a secret door, and down endless winding stairways, until they were deep in the heart of the catacombs beneath the Temple.

As they descended the final flight Dalios turned and glanced over his shoulder at the young councillor. 'How old would you think me, boy?'

'A great age, Lord Dalios,' said Hippias respectfully.

'How great?' great?'

Hippias hesitated. 'Four score years more perhaps...'

Dalios smiled a little sadly. 'A stripling of eighty summers ... No, Hippias, when these eyes were clear like yours, I saw the building of the Temple. I was a witness to the enthronement of the image of the great G.o.d, Poseidon himself.'

'But that was - it must have been five hundred years ago.'

Dalios nodded. 'Five hundred and thirty seven.'

Hippias gazed wonderingly at him. 'Lord Dalios, would you have me believe that you are of such age?'

'I am,' said Dalios quietly, and led the way on down the stairway.

The stairs led to a short pa.s.sage. At the end of it there was a great bronze door set into a wall of solid rock. Dalios produced a ma.s.sive key, and after a moment the door creaked open.

It was as if he had opened the door to a furnace. A fierce white light blazed forth from the doorway. Hippias staggered back, his hands over his eyes. 'What is the light?'

'It is the true Crystal of Kronos,' said Dalios solemnly. 'This 'This is the great secret, the veritable mystery. Now that Krasis has gone no-one but you shares that secret. You must guard it with your life!' is the great secret, the veritable mystery. Now that Krasis has gone no-one but you shares that secret. You must guard it with your life!'

Hippias bowed his head. 'I shall, my Lord.'

Suddenly a shattering bellow came from the doorway.

Hippias looked at Dalios in alarm. 'Do not fear,' ~d the old man calmly. 'It is the Guardian.' He called through the doorway. 'Return to your rest. It is I, Dalios.'