The King's Dragon (13 page)

'No, no, no!' The Teller clutched his hands to his head. 'That's not what I was saying! That's the
opposite
of what I was saying! Beol, you can't defeat these ships! Not alone!'

'I am the King of Geath, not you!' Beol replied.

Shocked, the Teller took a step back.

'Oh, marvellous, just what my life needs,'

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muttered the Doctor. 'Another power-hungry megalomaniac.'

'It falls to me to protect this city,' Beol said regally. 'As we promised.' He put his hand upon the Teller's shoulder. 'You are very dear to me. But I shall not allow you to make me break my word. I have enjoyed all the riches and honours that the people of this city could lavish upon me. Now I shall play the part that they expect from me. I shall do what we promised. What I promised.'

'Doctor,' Rory whispered. 'He doesn't sound power-hungry. He sounds honest.'

'They're the worst kind,' the Doctor said. 'The ones who believe everything they're saying. Next it'll be the special destiny or "I did what I thought was right."'

As he spoke, the dome darkened and the unmistakable shadows of the dragon-ships were visible again through the gold.

'Beol,' said the Doctor firmly. 'This is an enemy that you do not understand. You can't defeat it, not without my help and no matter how much you strut around in a gold hat saying that you can. People will die if you don't let me help - the same people that you claim to be protecting.'

Beol ignored him. 'Take them and lock them up,' he said to his knights. 'Then you two - find the girl. You two - come and join me outside.

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We'll show these dragon-folk we're not afraid of anything they can throw at us!'

The knights moved towards the Doctor and Rory, but Hilthe intervened, stepping between them. 'These people are our friends. They are trying to save the city from some terrible enemies. I strongly advise that you pay attention to what they have to say.'

'Yes!' said the Teller. 'She knows! She's seen!'

The King cut her off. 'Mother, I have always held you in great respect. You have been a fine servant of this city and I have honoured you for your long years of dedicated work. But your people and your city would be better served now if you did not allow yourself to be gulled by spies sent to sow the seeds of mistrust amongst us. And it would break my heart to learn that you were part of their plot.'

'Spies?' Hilthe glanced uneasily back over her shoulder at Rory and the Doctor. 'Plot?'

'They are spies sent from Dant,' Beol said.

'Dant?' Hilthe frowned. 'Don't be ridiculous.

They're not from Dant!'

Beol addressed the Doctor. 'Who are you, if not a spy from Dant?'

'I'm the Doctor,' he said patiently. 'I'm here to help —'

Ìf you are here to help,' asked Beol, 'why did you
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present my gatekeeper with credentials showing you were an envoy from Dant? Why did you allow me to receive you at court in that capacity?'

'Ah,' said the Doctor. 'There's an excellent reason for that. An absolutely convincing and thoroughly persuasive reason. I just have to think of what it is.'

'Well, Doctor,' said Rory. 'Another fine mess...'

Hilthe said, 'I am sure there must be a reasonable explanation.'

'Perhaps there is,' Beol replied equably. 'Perhaps you can explain, Doctor, where the young woman who was with you before has gone? Did you send her to spy upon us while you made mischief here?'

Suspicion clouded Hilthe's face. Of course, Rory thought guiltily, that was exactly what she had seen — the Doctor sending Amy after the Teller.

Hilthe gave him a bewildered look that quickly turned into mistrust and suspicion. Rory's heart plummeted. It hurt to think that Hilthe thought less of him.

The shadows of the dragon-ships passed overhead once more. The dome quaked.

'I have no more time for this,' Beol said. 'I must go out to the city. Seize them. Find the girl.' 'Doctor,'

said Rory, 'I think we're sunk.'

'I'm coming to that conclusion myself.'

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'What's your plan?'

'Plan?'

'You do have a plan?'

'Of course I have a plan.' The Doctor whipped out the tiny satellite dish, and brandished it aggressively.

'Never in a million years are they going to believe that's a weapon,' Rory said. 'They're pre-industrialisation, not stupid.'

The Doctor put the dish away. 'Fine. Let's go with the other plan. My very first plan and still my very best plan.'

Rory, knowing what was coming next, groaned,

'Oh no...'

'Run!' shouted the Doctor as inevitably as sunrise or entropy.

They ran. They dived across the chamber into the cover of the arcade and sprinted down it, chucking chairs and tables and gold figurines behind them in order to slow down the knights' pursuit. They crashed through some wooden doors and carried on running along a wide curving corridor. Then, all of a sudden, Rory swerved round and started heading back towards the chamber.

'Rory!' yelled the Doctor. 'Not the plan!
Not
the plan!'

'Hilthe!' Rory called to him over his shoulder.

'Beol thinks she's betrayed him! I can't leave her
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there!'

The Doctor ground to a halt. 'Why?' he said, to the gilded ceiling or fate or simply to the universe in general. 'Why must they be so
wilful?'
He jogged back down the corridor, where Rory was now being held by two of Beol's knights. As the other two advanced upon him, the Doctor pointed towards Rory. 'You can't lock us up! He's getting married in the morning! No? Worth a try...'

Amy watched these events unfold from the shadow of a column at the far end of the room.

Rory and the Doctor made their run for it and the knights chased them. Beol left, presumably to get back to the defence of the city, and the Teller dashed after him. Only Hilthe remained, standing with her hands clenched by her side, staring at the dragon.

Amy heard Rory, in the distance, shout Hilthe's name. A few moments later, she watched the knights drag both him and the Doctor back into the council chamber. Hilthe took one look at them, turned on her heel and marched off.

As the Doctor and Rory were hauled off, the Doctor protesting loudly and ineffectively, Amy considered what to do next. If she went after Beol's men, she ran the risk of only saving them the trouble of searching for her. Hanging round the chamber was probably not a good idea either
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since they might well come back this way. Time was running out. They needed allies, quickly, if they were ever to have a hope of ridding Geath of all the Enamour. Amy decided to follow Hilthe.

Perhaps if she talked to her woman-to-woman, she might repair some of the damage done. If she could explain the Doctor... but how did you explain the Doctor? He was inexplicable. 'Don't worry about that for now,' Amy muttered to herself. 'Stay on target.'

Outside, the Regulator's ships were making another flypast. Pandemonium reigned in the grand plaza. Once the ships had passed by, Amy heard more angry and anxious shouts for Beol.

Then she heard his voice, rising above the crowd, responding to them, and - almost impossibly -

calming them, soothing them, inspiring them. By the time Amy reached the far side of the plaza and began to follow Hilthe up some stone steps, she could hear cheering break out behind her.

Hilthe was waiting for her at the top of the steps. 'I don't like being followed.'

'I'm sorry,' said Amy. 'I thought it was the best thing to do.'

'The best thing to do would be to surrender to Beol. That would also be the honourable thing to do.'

'I haven't done anything wrong! And that
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wouldn't be best for Geath.'

'How self-serving! Young woman, whatever your paymasters in Dant have promised you, is it worth all this? Our cities have been friends for such a long time! Why should anyone wish to see that change?'

'I don't know,' said Amy. 'I'm not from Dant.

Anyway, neither are the ships. Please, believe me.

This is serious, much more serious than you realise

—'

'Your charlatan friend the Doctor has gone to considerable lengths to convince me of that. Light shows across the dome of the council hall! Tall tales of a civil war amongst the stars!' Hilthe spoke angrily. 'Some sort of mesmerism to make me imagine someone was speaking to me! What a fool I've been! Why did I believe a word of it? Whatever possessed me?'

'But it's all true!' Amy took a step forwards.

'You've seen the ships! Not a light show or a picture — up there, in the sky above you! How can you explain them? I've not been to Dant, but I bet they don't have hardware anything like that!'

Hilthe hesitated and Amy pressed on. 'We only want to help. Before time runs out and those ships attack in earnest. All they've done so far is set fire to a few trees. When they turn those weapons on the city, it will be gone in no time. The whole city,
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gone! The Doctor can help, but not if he's locked up in a dungeon somewhere. Please, Hilthe! There isn't much time left!'

Hilthe looked up at the sky. The ships were gone, like a bad dream, and only the moon remained, high and full. Hilthe gestured to Amy to follow.

'Come with me. Beol has people out looking for you. We must get you undercover. I'll take you to my house. Then you can explain why, having lied to both me and Beol, I should believe a single word you have to say now.'

That was a tricky one, Amy thought, as Hilthe led her through the streets. It had seemed such a good idea at the time to pass themselves off as locals; a shortcut to the heart of the action.

Travelling with the Doctor, always moving on —you could forget that there were consequences to your actions. When Amy had stepped into the TARDIS, she had stepped out of her old life like a snake sloughing off scales. It made everything so easy.

They reached Hilthe's house, dark between the other gaudy buildings. Hilthe led Amy inside and took her to a reception room at the far end of the house. 'Wait here,' Hilthe said. 'I'll have some refreshment brought up. Then we'll talk.'

Hilthe closed the door behind her. Amy paced the room restlessly. 'Stupid place! Dragons and
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Enamour and things with claws for hands...' She shivered despite the heat. That was the worst thing about all this, she thought, the sick cold fear that the Regulator induced. All this shaking and quivering - that wasn't how Amy imagined herself.

Amy Pond was someone who climbed over walls, and kept a brave Scottish accent going in defiance of the onslaught of Gloucestershire vowels, and took a ride in a time machine because it was there and -

well, because you would, wouldn't you? But the Regulator battered through these defences as if they were as insubstantial as mist. It left her feeling frightened and, worse, it left her feeling alone.

'Stupid!' Amy muttered fiercely to herself.

'You're not alone! You're...'

A fugitive in the night on an alien world, with monsters on the loose and footsteps in the corridor.

Booted footsteps. In the corridor.

Amy swung round. She heard Hilthe say, 'In here.' She had been betrayed. Worse than that, she had let herself be led into a trap.

'Stupid! Stupid!'

Amy grabbed a chair and shoved it in front of the door, propping it under the handle to delay any entrance. She looked wildly around the room for another way out. She ran to the window, but it was sealed. She shook it hard but it might as well have been barred. 'It's the middle of summer!' Amy
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yelled at Hilthe. 'Why are your windows locked, you frightful woman!'

The guards were battering at the door. Amy saw a curtain on the far wall and wondered desperately if she could hide behind it. Nothing else to try. She pulled the curtain back to see a narrow staircase.

Servants' access. 'Oh, workers of the world unite!'

Amy said gratefully and dashed up the stairs as the guards broke through the door.

Amy came out on a bare landing. There was a window at the far end. She ran over and opened it far enough to be able to clamber out onto the roof. She pulled the window down behind her and then set off, half-running, half-scrambling, across the sloping roof. Seeing its edge come up, she judged the distance, made a running jump, and landed cat-like safely on the next house along. She looked back and whistled. 'Wow! Go me!'

Then she saw the guards. They were through the window and in pursuit. Amy ran across the rooftop.

'Great,' she muttered as she crashed past a chimney. 'Now I'm a character in a video game.'

She made it comfortably onto the next building.

This had a wide flat roof with chairs and potted plants dotted around, probably very nice during the day. Amy ran to the far side. Her heart sank to see how far the jump was. She ran round the perimeter of the roof in increasing desperation,
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sweating and panting for breath, but there wasn't any easy way over.

The two guards leapt across easily from the last building. 'Don't be stupid, girlie,' one of them shouted at her. 'You'll never make it!'

That clinched it. Next he'd be calling her a lady.

'Don't "girlie" me!' Amy yelled back. She grabbed one of the potted plants, threw it blindly at her pursuers, and then set off at a run towards the edge of the building. When she reached it, she jumped. 'Geronim-aargh!'

'Why is it always you I'm locked up with?' Rory complained. He was sitting on a pallet, arms folded and legs stretched out, watching the candle burn down. 'It's not fair! It's always you. There was that time on Ariel Station in the zero-g factory. Then again after the thing with the semi-llamas. Oh, and let's not forget the basement in that house in Venice... I mean, it's not that I mind basements or even llama thingies - I don't mind them, not really -