As far as the Doctor was concerned, the appearance of a fifth lion was either one of two things: good or bad.

Seeing as four lions could easily rip him to shreds, no need for a fifth one to be present, he figured it was good, considering it could serve as a distraction. Thing was, a distraction was only worth anything if you just needed to buy more time. No matter how much time he had, he wasn't sure how he was going to get out of this mess.

The lioness roared again, making sure all the attention was on her just before taking a large leap, landing herself between the Doctor and the other lions. To his surprise, her gaze was locked securely on the cats.

'I've been looking for you everywhere!' she said, though still maintaining a steady growl.

'Have you?' said the Doctor in a somewhat higher voice than usual. 'Well, I've been here. Where have you been? How did you get out of the cage?'

'I was never in. Amy told me to come find you.'

He stared thinking for a moment. Only a moment, because the Doctor was very clever.

'Of course! Stupid Doctor.' He gave himself a whack on the head. 'You're actually, properly talking, aren't you? Not just TARDIS translation circuit, you are intelligent!'

'I dunno about that other stuff, but I hope I'm smarter than most animals at least.'

'Oh you are, I've no doubt! Have we met?'

'Yes, it's Evelyn, but-'

'Ah yes Evelyn! You seemed perfectly nice. Maybe somewhat dull, but you're not dull at all! Some sort of Metamorph, I presume...'

Evelyn batted away at an approaching lioness.

'I think we need focus on the issue at hand, Doctor!'

'Yes, quite right. I got thinking, which is usually good but no. Right. We need to get out of here. The odds are against us and they're going to realise that at any moment.'

A lioness snarled and put a foot forward.

'Not to mention I've just reminded them. I need to get my sonic screwdriver!'

'The magic wand?'

'What? Oh, OK yes, magic wand. It's right there.'

Evelyn spared a glance over her shoulder to see where the Doctor was pointing.

'And how are we going to get it without you getting mauled?' she asked.

''ll be fine. You just get the magic wand, quick as you can and get it back to me. I'll take care of the rest.'

She seemed unsure. Well, unsure from what the Doctor could tell from the back side of a lioness, but she nodded.

'Ok.' The feline breathed a deep intake of breath. 'In three, two, one...'

She pounced into the air with grace and power, all the other cats staring after her as she did so. But she wasn't a cat for much longer. Her moments lingering in the air made it seem as though she was levitating, as she quickly changed into something much smaller: a tiny blue bird.

The lions were distracted as the bird swiftly took to the air, trying a few swats at the little thing but it was clearly out of reach.

The Doctor had moved quickly away from his cornered space in the one side of the cage, moving past the lions and over to the side where the large bone was laying. He picked it up and braced himself, backing up to the edge of the cage.

By the time his back hit the metallic bars the lions were advancing again, but he felt a tap on his shoulder.

'Here!' shouted a human Evelyn from beyond the bars, shoving the sonic screwdriver into his hand.

'Aha!' yelled the Doctor, turning around to open the door, which he slipped out of frantically just as a lioness pounced.

'Sorry about that,' he told the lioness as she grappled and clawed at him through the bars. 'But to be fair, you do seem pretty well fed.'

Suddenly the Doctor's screwdriver began beeping shrilly and Evelyn covered her ears.

'What is that?' she asked.

'That would be Amy,' said the Doctor, inspecting the device just before switching off the sound. 'She's activated the distress signal on her phone.'

'That's why I came to find you, she's been captured!'

'I thought that may be the case. But not to worry, this will tell us where she is.'

'I already know where she is.'

'Oho, ahead of the game are we? Clever girl.' He laughed to himself, Evelyn smiling lightly to go along with it. 'Oh, that would have been funny if you were a teenager in the 21st century, or at least someone who knows those dinosaur movies. But never mind that, let's go get Amy!'

Pit, pat. Pit, pat. Pit, pat.

It had gotten dark not too long after Evelyn had left. Though Amy didn't really like the feeling of being in a dungeon, blind to her surroundings with only a snoring religious guy to keep her company, she was confident the Doctor would show up any moment to get her out of the situation.

Pit, pat. Pit, pat. Pit, pat.

But then hours passed. Amy of course couldn't sleep, even if it was obviously the middle of the night she felt wide awake. Despite the darkness, she decided to see if there was any way out. She tried the bars but it was no good, and eventually she just decided to reel it in for the long haul, listening to a steady dripping from a leak in the ceiling.

Pit, pat. Pit pat. Pit, pat.

It wasn't until she was able to see again that she became truly worried. She assured herself boredom must have gotten the better of her and that that much time surely couldn't have passed. But it was morning according to the sun, and, on Earth at least, Amy had known the sun's timing to be pretty reliable.

She let her chin rest on the window ledge as she watched orange take over sky. It was really a beautiful sight, if you could get over the smell of medieval times long enough to enjoy it. Sighing, she wished for the Cardinal to wake up soon. Maybe he had some valuable information. Or maybe he could just save her from boredom. Either way, she wanted to talk to him.

Though it may not be the Cardinal, she was definitely about to get some company. Sounds of footsteps and muffled voices were coming from right outside the dungeon doors.

She immediately got to her feet as she wanted to feel as alert as possible for whomever it was.

With a lot of creaking, the old wood door swung open and, flanked by two guards, the Cardinal stepped in. Well, the fake Cardinal. But the sound did cause the real Cardinal to jump up with a start.

'What? What's going on?'

'Oh, now you wake up,' said Amy as Ferdinando seemed to try and remember his current situation.

A guard took out a ring of skeleton keys, immediately going up to the barred door and unlocking it. The door swung open screeching.

'I hope you've enjoyed your stay,' said the imposter Cardinal, inviting her to walk out.

'What... you mean you're letting me go?'

'Of course not,' scoffed the fake Cardinal. 'I just need you to be at the palace. After all, how can you be blamed for a murder if you're not at the scene of the crime?'

'Oh...'

'What about me?' asked Ferdinando, standing to approach the door and his fake, but a guard stepped in his way.

'You get to stay here until I decide I don't need you and can finally dispose of you.'

Ferdinando's eyes widened with realisation of the imposter's intended fate of him to be.

'Quite,' said the fake Cardinal, turning toward Amy. 'So will you come quietly? Or...'

He purposefully let his sentence hang in the air to allow his guard to produce one of the longer, thicker swords she'd ever seen, gracefully bringing it up to the tip of her nose.

'...will Bruno have to do something un-knightly?'

Amy peeked her head around the blade to look at the guard.

'Big blade. You compensating for something, Bruno?' she sneered, but was only responded to by the sword being back in her face.

'That is no way to treat a lady!' said the real Cardinal.

Chivalry. Amy decided she definitely liked this guy.

'Lucky for me, she's no lady,' replied his double. 'Just common help.'

She barely had a moment to frown at the comment before the blade was at her nose. Trying to hide her surprise, she gently guided it away with her finger. She sighed.

'Alright, enough with the showing off, I'm coming.'

Bruno sheathed his sword and led Amy out the door, leaving the terrified Cardinal alone.

No one had given them any trouble on their way out of the Palazzo Vecchio. It was, after all, very early in the morning and Italians generally started their days later than most people.

'It's this way!' said Evelyn, leading them away from the building.

The Doctor jogged to follow her, but just as he started his sonic screwdriver beeped loudly, followed by many soft, successive beeps, that had a long pause in between.

Evelyn raced toward him. 'Don't let that get too loud! It's early, but we don't want people knowing we have magic... it is mainly frowned upon.'

'You know, if we're going to keep referring to my sonic screwdriver as 'magic' I'd rather like a name change. Like a great warlock, or something.'

'What?'

'Maybe Gandalf! No that's taken...'

He began mumbling incoherently to himself and Evelyn just shook her head.

'Anyway... what did the sound mean?'

'Ah yes!' said the Doctor, bringing his thoughts back to the situation at hand. 'It meant we're going in the wrong direction.'

'But I followed her! She definitely is that way,' Evelyn said indignantly as she pointed a finger a finger.

'And now she's this way,' said the Doctor, taking Evelyn's finger and moving it to face the opposite direction. Evelyn dropped her hand as the Doctor looked at the readings of the screwdriver.

'And according to this... she's at the Pallazzo Pitti.'

'That's the Medici's house!' said Evelyn.

'I know!' the Doctor said with glee, not sharing the worry obviously painted on her face. 'This is perfect, I'm getting to see all the sights I wanted to and do some adventuring. Funny how things work out isn't it?'

'But Amy is arrested...'

'Ah right. Can't have it all, I suppose.'

'Not to mention, that's their private home. They don't just let random people walk up and come in for tea!'

'Do they normally do that here? And I thought I was special.'

Evelyn rolled her eyes, beginning to get frustrated. How can a man seem so smart but so clueless at the same time?

'I mean, they don't, but they have a lot more guests and political meetings here. Their private home is pretty much just for them.'

The Doctor smiled widely.

'I like you,' he said, giving her an unexpected rub on the head, like they were old buddies. 'You're a lot more clever than you let on, you should show it more often.'

She shook her head. 'People don't want women to be clever, they want them to be quiet and to do their jobs.'

'More reason to break the mould. If you're special, show it.'

He flashed her another smile and she couldn't help but grin back. Soon they were just grinning stupidly at one another, until the Doctor suddenly clapped his hands in her face.

'Right! Pallazzo Pitti, sneaking in... I know just how to do it.'

'You do?'

'I do. See that?'

The Doctor pointed upwards at what looked like a covered bridge with windows and arching at the bottom. Evelyn nodded.

'That is the Vasari Corridor. Built in 1564 by Grand Duke Cosimo de' Medici. Only took them five months to build and it's over a kilometre long! So impressive for this time period. But, then again, money talks, so not too surprising.'

'What does that have to do with anything?'

'Well, it has to do with a lot of anythings. But what it has to do with us is that the reason Cosimo built it was so he and his family wouldn't have to walk with the commoners every day and could just take the passage to their home. Their home of course being-'

'-the Pallazzo Pitti, that's brilliant Doctor! Oh I do hope this means you are smart and not just a mad man.'

'You can be smart and still be mad. In fact, most great minds are. Mine included.'

'So where's the entrance?'

'Actually, it's inside the Pallazzo Vecchio.'

'Oh. That could be a problem.'

'Shouldn't be for you, unless that was actually just a particularly nice lioness I met earlier,' said the Doctor, giving her a pointed look.

'Right, but what about you?'

'Luckily, the Medici wanted to be able to look over the streets on their walk home. So we'll just need to crack a window.'