The King's Dragon Read online

  The images came to an end. 'A choice between aristocrats and bureaucrats,' the Doctor muttered.

  'Why is nothing ever simple?' He glanced over at Hilthe. 'You see now that you made the right decision, Mother?'

  'Yes.' She nodded slowly. 'Yes, I do see that now. To use tools such as this, even in defence...

  Soon enough they would be used in anger.' She shuddered. 'I would not want a repeat of all that I have seen here. Not in Geath. Not for anything.'

  'Said you were wise.'

  Hilthe tilted her head, permitting the compliment this time. 'The sooner the city is free of these terrible devices the better. Doctor, let me hear your counsel. What would you advise?'

  'We have to hand it over to the Herald,' Rory said quickly. 'She hasn't shot at us. Giving in to the Regulator would be like giving in to blackmail.

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  Wouldn't it? They've threatened us. That's like...

  terrorists!'

  The Doctor flicked the tiny satellite dish, setting it spinning like a gyroscope. 'However,' he said, 'the Regulators

  clearly

  understand

  how

  dangerous

  Enamour is. They saw how it was used to control their people, to maintain that perfect society.

  Perhaps that's why they're reacting so strongly.'

  Rory appealed to Hilthe. 'Can't you explain?

  She spoke through you—'

  Hilthe held up her hand to stop him. 'Doctor, am I correct in my assumption that what we saw was an account of the war seen through the eyes of the Herald and her people?'

  'Yes, I think that's right.'

  Hilthe turned to Rory. 'If we were to ask the Regulators, we might hear a very different version of why this war was fought.' She frowned. 'It strikes me that the Herald chose her vessel and her mouthpiece very carefully. Who else in Geath would be so receptive to the idea of a restoration? Who else in Geath has longed as much as I have to see the old order return? The Herald and her masters are plainly very clever. I do not trust them as much as you trust them. And the reason that I do not trust is because I am in many ways very like them.' She gave the Doctor a wry smile and he smiled back.

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  'So,' Hilthe said to him, 'returning to my original question. What would you advise, Doctor?'

  'First, I think we should get the dragon out into the main plaza. The Regulator said it was monitoring our progress. Moving it would be the best demonstration of progress we could make.'

  He stared at the dragon for a moment and then started shoving bits of alien wires and technology into his improbably capacious pocket. 'Also, it will be one less temptation round here.'

  Rory watched him in disbelief. 'Doctor, how exactly do we go about moving a massive golden dragon without anybody noticing?'

  The Doctor threw the amplifier back inside the dragon. It landed with a clatter. He held up a finger.

  'Working on that one! Working on that one right now!'

  'Doctor, we won't get as far as the front door!'

  'Maybe not.' The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and used it to seal up the dragon again. 'But I'm guessing that the people of Geath might be glad to see the back of the thing. It's hardly been a good night for them, after all.' He bent down to look underneath the dragon. 'Is this thing on wheels?'

  'After this evening, I'll admit that anything is possible,' Hilthe said. 'But you'll have to persuade Beol first.'

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  'Beol,' muttered the Doctor, as he stood up again. 'Don't talk to me about—Ah, Beol! There you are!' He goggled at him. 'What a spectacular hat!'

  'Doctor!' Beol stood in the doorway of the council chamber, magnificent in his dragon armour and helmet. 'Why am I not surprised to see you here?'

  135

  Chapter

  8

  Beol strode across the chamber towards them. Four of his knights followed him, and behind them came a fraught-looking Teller.

  'It is most strange!' said the King. 'Only a few short hours ago my guests were shown to their rooms - the best rooms that I can offer! - and yet here they are, in the dead of night, skulking round the council chamber... What, I wonder, could have brought them here?'

  'Yes.' The Doctor jerked his thumb at the dragon.

  'Well, that, obviously. And your Teller has already done that joke. Very good, though. Did you think of it yourself?'

  Beol glanced at Hilthe. 'I confess that I'm 137

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  surprised to find you here, Mother. I thought you held Geath's interests at heart.' Hilthe opened her mouth to protest, but Beol turned away from her to speak to his knights. 'Take them away.'

  'Now hold on a moment!' The Doctor ran to take cover behind the dragon, dragging Rory after him. 'Beol, I don't know what you think is going on here, but I can absolutely one hundred per cent guarantee that you're wrong. You're so wrong that right now whole new scales of wrongness are being calibrated simply to encompass the sheer magnitude of wrong... This isn't winning you over, is it?'

  'Beol,' said the Teller. 'He's a clown but I think you should listen to him—'

  Beol raised his hand. 'I know already what you have to say, Doctor. I admit I do not understand how you have conjured up these strange apparitions, but my Teller has already explained that they are not demons or monsters, but simply mechanical. If men have made them, I can master them.'

  '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 Doc
tor. '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 140

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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 142

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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 143

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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 144

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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, 145

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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 146

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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 147

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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.