Chapter 7- Plantagenet

Author's Note: Once again very sorry for the month long wait, and thanks for being patient. I was glad to see you all being very excited by the skeletons that attacked the company, and so was I.

A little reminder, please make sure to allow private messages on your profile, because I like to send you a message after your review.

So here is where we start going to the heart of the story. Please note, my knowledge of falconry is very limited, so if I make any glaring errors, let me know.

Enjoy your read and please review!

The skeleton on the right slashed its claws and caught Richard's blade, which parried the blow away. But the skeleton came again, this time grabbing the blade of the sword with its hand. Because of it having no flesh it felt no pain.

James hacked it deep into its ribs; the skeleton let out a wounded snarl but grabbed James' hilt and shrieked into his ever paling face. Richard gave it a roundhouse kick to the spine, making it stumble and release its grip on both, followed by a swift decapitation by the King. The skull flew many yards before rolling down a hill.

Catesby, Robert, Huddleston and Pilkington slammed their swords into the skeleton on the left, despite it showing considerable resistance and managing to graze Catesby's eyebrow. It screeched and eventually crumbled to the ground.

However, the chief was the most formidable; Ratcliffe and Stanley shielded the Doctor and Clara, but the chief had debalanced Stanley again and pushed him against Ratcliffe who fell backwards.

Clara's heart raced as her fingers began to tremble. Acting quickly before her fear consumed her like a statue, she swung her torch in a downwards motion against the chief. Surprisingly, it collided and he stumbled back slightly. But her next blow was far from lucky, as the chief grappled her torch and her hair and rasped as he thrust her back. Clara let out a cry and her legs gave way.

"Get away from her!" the Doctor snarled. He had swept up Stanley's sword and was wrestling with the chief by leaping on his back like a lion on a buffalo. Before the Doctor could slash at his neck as his rage commanded him, the chief's bony and iron strong grip flung the Doctor over and onto the ground.

Richard charged at the final skeleton and stabbed him deep while holding his sword from the outer of his palm. He growled as he followed with a side kick to the spine, which could be heard cracking. The chief screamed as he was fiercely slashed down and Richard slammed his boot hard on the skull.

The air was silent except for the drumming of all their hearts. Clara saw Richard's grey eyes scanning the vicinity with a sudden flame of vengeance. She saw his chest heaving with life and him adjusting his shoulders, his hair was wavy behind his ears, clearly having endured war and blood through the past few decades. The skeletons dared not rise up and feel his anger, and for the first time Clara truly felt scared of him.

But then the darkness in his eyes mellowed like a breeze after a hurricane. He put his sword in his left hand and knelt down, extending his right towards Clara.

"My Lady, are you hurt?" Richard asked softly. His mouth turned into a wistful smile.

Clara took his hand and climbed to her feet. "I'm all right... thank you," she responded. She suddenly realised that his eyes were still burning into her and his smile sparked her own to her lips.

"I'm very glad to hear that, truly."

Clara's cheeks began to flush with red and she found herself looking away.

"I'll check you over as soon as I can!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly, touching Clara's shoulder.

Suddenly, the whispers began to simmer again and the company were reminded of the purpose of their mission.

"Doctor, Catesby, Stanely, follow me into the cave," Richard ordered. "My Lady, stay close to us. The rest of you, guard the outside and make sure no more skeletons come. If you do not hear from us in ten minutes, call for reinforcements!"

"Your Grace, is that wise?" James whispered leaning in close to the King. "We do not know what's down there; perhaps your Grace should wait here?"

"No James," Richard muttered back. "I will not ask my men to do what I would not do myself.

"Gather the torches, follow my lead!"

Richard took a torch and slipped through the mouth of the cave. For a second, it looked nothing extraordinary, it was a usual cave. The ground was like a dark and dusty hallway of a reasonable length.

The Doctor helped Clara down after he had jumped through, and Stanley and Catesby followed. After their eyes adjusted, it seemed like the hallway led to an illuminated room behind an open door.

A sapphire glow emitted from the walls of this chamber, as the company realised the blue crystals that were scattered all around, covered with grey cobwebs, but resonating ripples of light and ghostly whispers. These crystals embossed a kite shaped table that was in the centre of this room, like an altar of sacrifice.

The Doctor began scanning this room with his torch and sonic screwdriver. Clara felt an uneasy feeling which was almost like someone was about to pry into her heart, like someone was forcing her way back to the day that she got the dreaded phone call telling her that her Mum was dead. She had to bite her tongue and clench her fists to hold back the tears that were yearning to come.

Richard had stopped dead in his tracks and lowered his sword like a walking stick to the ground, his face turned away from his company.

"Fight it, people!" the Doctor ordered abruptly. "Fight it, it's an age old trick to manipulate your minds, to entice you, it's not REAL!" he roared.

"These blue crystals, they need to be pried out and bagged, they're transmitting a cognitive channel between our brain and hearts, they're projecting people we love and have lost to trap us," the Doctor continued. "I need to have them analysed as soon as possible. Stanley, Catesby, step away! Do not look directly into them!"

The two jumped back, they too had been moved to enticement by the crystals, there was something about them that seemed to call out to a person's soul, promising something great yet very heavy in return.

"Summon the others!" Richard commanded. "Bring a knife for each, and for Doctor."

"Yes, your Grace," Stanley obliged.

Richard drew a dagger that was single edged and slightly curved like a miniature Arabian scimitar, and began decapitated the crystals from their stumps.

Within minutes, the Harringtons, Ratcliffe, Huddleston and Pilkington had descended with Francis, Brackenbury and a number of others. Richard repeated the order and they all began cutting away at the crystals and sneaking them in their bags.

Clara vigilantly scanned the chamber, which seemed like an ancient crypt of some sort, hoping that the cursed of this place wouldn't seek revenge upon what they saw as a grave robbery. The three skeletons had in all fairness been too easy, there had to be more.

The ghostly hisses weakened to murmurs, to echoes, as each crystal was removed, until it all faded like a storm and silence fell.

For a moment, they all held their breaths, and the only sound was the flickering of the flame on the torch.

A high and shrill squawk killed the silence, like a bird of prey sweeping for the kill. The party jumped, and Pilkington almost dropped his torch.

"Good Lord, where's that coming from?" Francis yelled. The bird, or whatever was making that sound, squawked again, as if to answer.

Clara followed the sound and pointed her torch to a hollow opening in one of the walls. "Over here!" she called, and the Doctor was the first to follow over.

His eyes widened in both surprise and pleasantness. "Oh, hello old chap!"

There sat, a beautiful falcon, very small. It's feathers were meant to be a mixture of white and light grey, with a green coated head for the top part; however, the dust and debris had jaded that to a dirty grey. It's right wing was significantly higher than the left, which appeared to be shriveled- clearly broken

"Here we are, come on, boy," the Doctor beckoned. But the falcon just gave a painful cry and tried to get away.

"Ssssshhhh," Clara said and began kissing her teeth and beckoning with her clicking fingers. "Hey, it's OK, come out, I'm not going to hurt you." Slowly, the falcon stepped forward, until the tips of Clara's fingers were stroking his head and he let out a yawn of relief, before allowing himself to be scooped up gently by her.

"My dad took me falconeering a couple of times," Clara explained to the awed onlookers.

"Excellent work!" the Doctor commented, running his sonic device over the falcon. "Hmmmmm... rare breed of peregrine, broken left wing..."

"Can you treat him?" Richard asked suddenly, gazing into the eyes of this wounded bird that had been fettered in this dark prison for so long, yet it was alive.

"I think so," the Doctor said. "But first we need to give him a name. Clara, any ideas?"

"Umm..." Clara looked towards the Doctor, then at Richard. As if it was meant to be, the name rolled off her tongue like a barrel off a slope. "Plantagenet."

Richard's mouth twitched into a flattered smile. "Yes, I suppose that is a very fine name, indeed."

"Don't touch those!" the Doctor snapped suddenly. A couple of soldiers jumped back from the sack. "These are not safe, they have been causing a psychoteleconective wave into Princess Lizzie's mind and I need to find out why! I can only do that back at Westminster, with my TARDIS and without you lot being so fascinated by these things like a bunch of rascals, that you can't seem to control your impulses to grab something just because it's shiny!"

"Thank you, Doctor," Richard sighed. "Do not touch any of the crystals until Doctor has given you permission to!"

With that, they all ascended their way out of the cave. The first thing they noticed was that the clouds had bowed out for a glowing sun in a full splendour, despite the day being still just as chilly as when they had set out a few days ago. The second was the absence of painful whispers. Thirdly, as their eyes adjusted to the light, Elizabeth Plantagenet was treading on the earth, with a relieved smile on her face. No pained headache or terror, like she was free from a cage.

"I take it you're feeling much better?" Richard asked, once they had reached the hill where his niece was. Bess nodded, before throwing her arms around Clara, who was pleasantly surprised but hugged back.

"Thank you," Bess whispered.

"What for?"

"For helping me." Bess pulled back and faced Richard. "Thank you, Uncle and all of you!"

The men nodded and the King grinned but waved his hand in quasi-dismissal. "It was nothing; I promised to help you, didn't I? Besides, don't thank me yet. Let's wait until we know what those crystals are and we're sure that you're mind is safe, shall we?" Richard flicked a finger over her chin as if she was a little girl. Clara could see Bess go red, so she tactfully looked away.

The bags which held the crystals only amounted to three in total. Robert Harrington held one, Catesby held the other, while James and Thomas Stanley eyed the final like tigers on a weakened prey.

"I'll get this-" Stanley began, putting his gloved hand on the bag.

"No, you're fine, I will," James responded quickly, gripping with both hands. Stanley scoffed, but released his hold.

"Very well, Harrington," Stanley said. "I will give you this little 'victory' then!"

James' veins on his neck began constricting and his fists began clenching. Francis' hand fell amicably but wisely on James' shoulder.

"James, he's trying to rile you up, it's what he does," Francis reminded. "Don't give him the satisfaction." He mounted his steed, while the former nodded following suite.

The Doctor helped Clara do the same before mounting his own.

They briskly followed the road back to Westminster- Richard and Ratcliffe, with Bess at the front, they were engaging in merry conversation; Stanley, Brackenbury and Catesby rode behind; the Harrintons followed silently, Francis and Huddleston flanking them and appearing to whisper something reassuringly. Clara, with Plantagenet, rode with the Doctor, who appeared not to have noticed her through his big frown.

"Hey," Clara whispered, nudging him from his reverie.

"Hey, Clara! You were wondering why Stanley and the Harringtons have a problem with each other?" he muttered.

Clara chuckled. "Yeah, that too."

"I'll tell you more, once we get back to Westminster," the Doctor said. "It's a little sensitive and gossiping in front of your subject isn't good."

"I was actually kind of wondering how you were," Clara said. "You're not happy with the crystals are you?"

"No, I'm not," the Doctor replied. "When I scanned them with my sonic screwdriver, there was a peculiar reading that came up. It seems like the spirit world is a gateway from these crystals."

"You mean like... ghosts?" Clara probed. "As in not like Kemi, or someone, from a pocket universe, you mean actual ghosts or people that have died?" She didn't like to admit fear, she preferred to call it intrigue or excitement, but her heart was madly racing and her skin becoming paler.

"Possibly," the Doctor muttered. "I'll only know for sure when I have it analysed, but that's not all that's odd."

"There's more?"

The Doctor nodded. "Much more. These crystals shouldn't even be here. I mean no human, not even witches or warlocks, could have the technology or knowledge to use them for what I think they're used for. These crystals aren't even from Earth."

Clara's back inflamed with goosebumps. She realised the gravity of what they had found.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading, please review. By the way, Kemi was the woman they met in "Hide", she came from the pocket universe.

I know how the story is going to go and how it will end :(. I don't know exactly how many chapters there will be, but I think we are at least a third into the story and touching on the main plot! Anyone want to hazard a guess as to who's controlling these crystals, what the crystals can do or were intended for?