Doctor Who_ The Blue Angel Part 13

She looked confused and on the brink of tears. In her arms she held a squalling baby wrapped in sheepskin.

Daedalus addressed her directly. 'I am sending you both back home. This moment. The child I give you, Madeleine, in exchange for my own child. On the condition that you name her Susan.'

The girl Maddy nodded quickly. She was scared. 'Yes, sir.'

Icarus stepped forward. He kissed the girl on her cheek. 'Goodbye, mother.'

Maddy stared at him hopelessly. As if she could remember his face but couldn't place his name.

And then Maddy and Big Sue faded away.

Icarus turned to his father. 'You will get them home safely?'

'For my son,' laughed Daedalus, 'anything.'

Meisha had been watching all of the proceedings narrowly. 'He is your son? Your true heir?'

Daedalus nodded grandly 'He is indeed.'

'Then you shall both be our prisoners. And we shall execute you both!'

Daedalus threw back his gargantuan head and laughed. 'What do you think the Ghillighast are, Meisha? Do you really think they are destined to rule the Enclave? Is that the glorious destiny left to them?'

The High Priestess stood resolute. 'I do believe it.'

Daedalus wearily shook his head. 'You should have listened to the vermin you routinely consult, Meisha. You should have listened more closely. Because the Ghillighast themselves are just so much vermin themselves. You're nothing! You're not fit to rule your own moon, let alone anyone else's world! You're finished and useless! I only let you live so close to Valcea because you amused me. Do you really think you can threaten me now?'

Meisha had tears standing in her eyes. 'But this is the time of the Bride of Pesst... This is her apotheosis...'

'Ha!' cried Daedalus, with a magnificent shrug of his trunk. 'I think you'll find this is no one's apotheosis but mine!'

As he was laughing fit to burst at this, the Doctor was backing away towards Compa.s.sion. He had noticed something no one else had.

'Get back into the bus,' he warned his companion fiercely.

'What?' Compa.s.sion wasn't used to being told what to do.

'It's safer on the bus!' he urged. 'Now, go!'

'But...'

He tutted, and pointed up at the wrecked ceiling above.

Compa.s.sion saw the owls arriving en ma.s.se en ma.s.se, an immaculate formation of perfect white plumage.

They rose up above the ceiling of the palace of Daedalus and then, inexorably, they crashed through the remains of the gla.s.s.

'What...?' bellowed Daedalus and looked up to see the owls descend.

The Doctor and Compa.s.sion turned and pelted towards the bus.

The owls filled the air of the throne room. With them they carried their precious egg.

And Iris and Fitz.

Chapter Thirty-Nine.

The Throne Room Was...

The throne room was silent now.

Until the huskies started barking.

Up till now they had been slinking in the shadows, puzzled, frightened, out of their depth as their masters the Ghillighast went about their business in this strange new world.

But now the huskies started howling and barking and they longed to rush in and attack the newcomers.

The owls were standing in the centre of the floor, perfect, huge, gazing impa.s.sively at the occupants of the room. There were thirty of them and their egg sat protected, a great green-gold jewel, in their midst.

They ignored the protests of the dogs and fixed their gaze on Daedalus, the bleeding, battered king of this world. And his son who, raising his own azure wings to protect himself, began to back away, knowing that it was for him that they had come. Suddenly the boy grew defiant.

'Kill me if you must. If the compulsion is so great if the force of your mythology of what is bred in your hollow bones leads you to desire my desecration; the bursting of my gizzards the shredding of my wings;then do it act out your history figure your mission out upon me.'

'In the bus,' said the Doctor again.

'You aren't the kind to run away,' said Compa.s.sion.

'I don't care,' he snapped. 'Get aboard.'

Then he turned back to the frozen knot of figures and bellowed.

'Iris! Here!'

From among the owls emerged a tall golden-haired figure in lime-green plastic. She threw back her head and laughed.

Beside her was Fitz, somewhat cowed by recent events.

The Doctor turned on Compa.s.sion with gleaming eyes. 'I told you they were alive.' She shrugged. 'You don't know yet', he said, 'how we do things round here.'

While the owls were still taking things in, getting their bearings solemnly gazing at the Ghillighast, the shattered remains of the stateroom, the elephant and finally, finally, with their huge eyes burning in terror at Icarus the Doctor seized his chance.

'Run!'

Iris and Fitz pelted across the chrome floor, skidding on snow and broken gla.s.s, towards the bus.

They tumbled inside, with the Doctor bringing up the rear.

Iris seized the antiquated controls and, with a few sharp jabs and wrenches, plunged them into the vortex.

The Doctor stepped back in horror. She had taken them out of time.

He hoped she knew what she was doing.

'Why are we here?' asked Compa.s.sion, as she gave the swirling continuum outside a scornful glance.

'We're buying time,' said Iris. 'We can pop back when need be. I've bookmarked the exact moment. Don't worry.'

Fitz was back on the chaise-longue chaise-longue, fis.h.i.+ng out a bottle from the drinks cabinet. 'I've had more than enough. Why don't we just sod off for good?'

But there was no answer.

Iris seized the Doctor and gave him a rough bear hug. A surprisingly powerful one for such a svelte woman.

He coughed and found himself responding.

'It's been far too long,' she said. 'But I knew you were here.'

'Hmm,' he said, through a mouthful of honey-coloured hair.

'I just know when we're embroiled in the same adventure. I can feel it in my water.'

'Hmm,' he said again, trying to shake her off.

'You just took so long getting to me! I had to get to you!'

'Quite. What were those owls?'

'Ah.' She relinquished him at last and started to explain about the giant egg and its connection to the boy Icarus, and how the owls were pledged to protect one and destroy the offspring of the other, and how she and Fitz had hitched a ride, and how Daedalus was the father of the angel boy, and how the boy had been secreted on the Earth and...

'Why don't we just have one of our little mind-melding thought-transfer Time Lord telepathic conference things?' she asked brightly, flexing her fingers and brus.h.i.+ng her hair back from her temples.

The Doctor shuddered. 'It always feels as if someone's rummaging through my sock drawer.'

'Good,' she said. 'Then I can see what you're hiding in there.'

With that, she clamped her fingers to his forehead and he had no choice but to reciprocate.

Fitz and Compa.s.sion looked on as the two of them silently apprised each other of their recent respective doings. Compa.s.sion looked faintly nauseated.

At last the two of them broke off contact.

'Of course,' said Iris to Fitz, 'we don't really have to touch each other to make contact. It's just that the Doctor likes running his fingers through my hair.'

The Doctor looked grim. 'So we're in quite a pickle.'

Iris tossed her head. 'The whole Enclave is in a pickle. And it's all down to Daedalus!'

He looked irritated. 'So while I was stuck in the Corridors, you've been busying about causing even more trouble! Bringing the owls to Valcea, of all things! How is that supposed to help?'

'I had to get here somehow,' she said grumpily.

'But I'd almost sorted the whole thing out! Daedalus had got Icarus back that was all he wanted really, I'm sure of it. He'd just stop all of this nonsense and then the Federation people could have come and taken him away.'

Iris shook her head. 'The Nepotist Nepotist has crashed itself. A kamikaze mission. You know that.' has crashed itself. A kamikaze mission. You know that.'

'I could have prevented that! I could have saved Blandish... all of them... I could have sorted it out...'

'No, Doctor. And don't even think Daedalus would have stopped at getting his son back. That was hardly the point.'

'Well, now those owls are there, they'll rip him to shreds! And that's your fault, Iris! You've caused that!'

She sighed. 'As I said. I've bookmarked that point. It doesn't have to happen.'

'That not the way I do things.'

'It's how I do them.'

They were at loggerheads.

'Doctor, Iris...' began Fitz placatingly, taking a swig of brandy. 'Why '

'Shut up,' Iris snapped at him. She went on: 'Daedalus wants this war to happen. He knew that if he caused enough trouble within the Enclave, he would get it to draw the attention of the rest of the universe. A universe which had, hitherto, been completely oblivious to it. He wants that kind of unpleasantness.'

Compa.s.sion put in, 'Why should the rest of the universe be so interested in a little cul-de-sac like that?'

Iris snorted with impatience. 'Because the Enclave is part of the Obverse. It would be terribly valuable for all sorts of reasons. You've seen how things work there. You've seen the Corridors. Obverse physics could have a profound effect on our on your universe. It should have remained a secret.'

'Obverse?' The Doctor frowned.

Iris smiled sadly. 'Yes, I've not told you much about that before, have I, Doctor?' She started to move back towards the cab of the bus. 'The Obverse is my home.'

'Obtuse, more like,' muttered Fitz.

The Doctor was confused. 'Are you saying you're not who you claim to be?'

'That and more besides!' laughed Iris. 'Now, shall we get back and wrap up the end of this thing?'

Although a squid, and having to learn to cope rapidly with a whole new way of being, let alone thinking, Belinda found a surprising amount of continuity between her usual and her present form.

She had watched the arrival of the owls with some perplexity, and then the fleeing of the Doctor and the others into the bus.