"So what can I do for you guys?" Lola asked some time later when Amber and Jack had returned from the infirmary and Rose and the Doctor were done throwing chips at each other. "I can give you a guided tour of the city, oh no wait, I can't sorry, princessly duties…" she said with contempt, "but I can get a friend of mine to show you round. His name's Adair, he works in the kitchens. Nice boy actually, course, my Uncle doesn't approve, thinks I should spend time round people more of my social calibre, but they are all pretty boring. Adair is good fun, you'd probably like him."
"Lola, shut up," Amber said bluntly.
"Sorry," Lola said with a grin.
"You said the thief always strikes at fading light?" the Doctor asked.
"Yuhuh," Lola replied, trying very hard to limit her answers to one word.
"And that they steal historical and royal artefacts?"
"What are you thinking?" Rose asked with a grin.
"I'm thinking we can help Lola and her Uncle," the Doctor replied, "this thief is stealing royal artefacts, which, am I right in thinking are kept inside the palace?"
"Yep, most of them anyway, and the ones that aren't are kept in the churches and stuff with the historical ones," Lola took a breath but saw everyone watching her and swallowed back what she had been about to say, "I'll stop there shall I?"
"You're learning fast!" Jack said.
"Right then, this is what we'll do," the Doctor said, "Jack, Amber, you go with Lola's friend Adair and see what you can find out on the streets. Rose, you and me are going to have a look round the palace. Lola, can you get us permission to go anywhere?"
"I should think so," Lola said, "As long as you are in sight of someone at all times, so you have an alibi if something else goes missing."
"We won't be sneaking anywhere, just looking around," the Doctor said.
"I'll hop too then," she said, and wandered over to a speaker in the wall, "Hey Adair!" she said into it, pressing one of the many buttons.
"What Lola?" a male voice asked, "This better not take ages, coz I'm supposed to be helping out and I don't want to get told off again."
"I am relieving you of your cooky duties and appointing you to show round some visitors!" Lola said.
"Lola, did I ever mention that I love you? I'll be right there!" Adair answered.
"He loves me," Lola said smugly, making Rose grin.
A few seconds later, a dishevelled looking boy with fairly dull wings skidded round the corner.
"Lola, if your Uncle wouldn't kill me I could so kiss you right now!" he said with glee, "Free of the damn kitchens!"
Lola giggled, twirling her long dark hair between her fingers and blushing slightly.
"Well, you still have to work!" she reprimanded teasingly, "this here is Amber and Jack, they want a tour of the city. No skiving your duty, I want good reports from both of them when they get back."
"I'll be on my best behaviour, I promise!" Adair said, saluting to Lola. He then turned to Amber and Jack and bowed, "I'm Adair, I'll show you anything you want to see."
"Do you talk as much as Lola?" Jack asked.
"Not nearly as much!" Adair replied cheerfully, then held the door open for them.
"Now then Rose, you and I are going to go for a little explore," the Doctor said, and held out his arm to her.
"See you later guys!" Lola said, "Was nice meeting you and all…"
"Thanks for everything Lola," Rose said with a grin, before the girl could get into her stride and talk their ears off.
"Nice one," the Doctor said as Lola left the room.
"I'm surprised they didn't throw you in a cell in case you were thieves," Adair said to Amber and Jack as he walked them through the now almost empty streets of Corfeil.
"They tried," Amber said, "and failed, thanks to Lola."
"And before you get suspicious, we aren't thieves, we only just got here," Jack said.
"Oh, I know you aren't thieves. If you ask me, the guy doing this has to be from the city, or at least know it very well," Adair said, shrugging in an unconcerned kind of way, "personally I think it has to be an insider, someone with all the right keys. What planet did you guys say you were from anyway?"
"We didn't," Amber replied.
"Earth," Jack replied.
"You might be, but she's not!" Adair said, nodding his head towards Amber.
"Hey," Jack said, plucking the hat from Amber's head and showing it to him, "Vintage Earth gear!"
"Anyone can go shopping!" Adair said, unconvinced.
"Well you're right, I'm not from Earth," Amber said.
"I knew it! Where are you from?"
"Someplace else."
Adair rolled his eyes.
"Fine, be unfriendly," he said, "Just trying to be nice, interested you know?"
"Well don't get too interested!" Jack said, wagging his finger at Adair warningly.
"Don't worry mate, I have no intention of stealing your girlfriend!" Adair said.
"I should hope not!" Jack said.
"Excuse me?" Amber asked, hands on hip, "Your girlfriend?"
"So if this thief is local how come they don't have wings?" Jack asked quickly.
"The thief wears entirely black, and if they have wings they keep them covered with a cloak. It's impossible to tell anything about them, from gender to age or status," Adair said.
"That narrows our choices down then doesn't it…" Amber said dryly.
The Doctor scanned around with his Sonic Screwdriver, while Rose nosed inside a few ornamental vases, not entirely sure what she was looking for or could expect to find.
"You wont find anything here," a familiar voice said.
Rose and the Doctor turned around to see Lola's Uncle walking over towards them.
"I must apologise about earlier, you are right, innocent until proven guilty, I was wrong to be so presumptuous about you," he said, "I am the steward Nadir, welcome to the proud city of Corfeil."
"Nice to be here," the Doctor said, "I'm the Doctor and this is Rose Tyler, and we are going to help you if we can!"
"I would be most grateful, this string of crimes is quite baffling…" Nadir said, bowing to them, "It worries me that Lolanedia, Lola," he said at their baffled looks, "will be turning sixteen in two days time, ascending to the throne with the thief still at large would be very bad for her."
"Then we will work quickly," the Doctor said, "our two other companions are out now having a look around."
"How is your blue haired friend?" Nadir asked, "I heard she was taken ill."
"She's fine thanks to the expert care of your doctors," the Doctor said, "Probably much better than she was before she came."
"Good, I'm glad to hear that. I will leave you to your investigation," Nadir said, bowing again, and leaving the room.
"Poor guy," Rose said, "Sounds like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders."
"If it was during your reign as steward that a four hundred year lack of crime was broken I think you'd have the weight of the world on your shoulders," the Doctor said, scanning a wall with his Screwdriver.
"I think it's more worry for Lola, she's not exactly the most responsible of people, is she?" Rose said.
"You don't know that," the Doctor said neutrally.
"Oh come on," Rose said with a grin, "you can tell she's a bit ditzy."
"Blonde, only with dark hair," the Doctor commented.
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with blondes!" Rose said, "she doesn't exactly dress like a princess either. I mean, look what her Uncle wears, all those robes and stuff, she just wears jeans and a t-shirt, you can tell she doesn't exactly take it seriously."
"She's not even sixteen, do you expect her to take things seriously? Look at Jack, he's in his thirties and doesn't take anything seriously!" the Doctor grinned.
Rose laughed.
"I wonder what happened to her parents, how come her Uncle ended up as steward," she pondered.
"That's none of our business, we're just here to catch a thief," the Doctor said.
"If you think about it, catching the thief is none of our business either…" Rose teased, but she skipped in front of him down the corridor to check the next room.
"What important work were we dragging you away from in the kitchen then?" Amber asked to distract Adair from Jack scanning around.
"Just food prep for the ceremony at the end of the week," Adair said.
"What ceremony?"
"Lola's crowning, and probably wedding," Adair said, trying hard to sound unconcerned and failing.
"Wedding? She can't be a day over sixteen! Who's she marrying?" Amber said.
"She's sixteen on the day she's crowned, and she's marrying her Uncle," Adair said.
"Isn't that a bit wrong?" Jack asked, discretely rejoining the conversation.
"Well, I think so, but lots of the older people think it's a good idea. Lola's a bit dizzy and will probably need help ruling, and who better to give it than the steward, and he's not really her Uncle anyway, only through marriage."
"That's still gross," Jack decided.
"That's rich coming from you who would have anyone," Amber said.
Jack actually looked quite hurt.
"I could have anyone, but there are some people I want more than others…" he said.
"Ssh," Amber said curtly.
"What? I just…" Jack began but Amber put her hand over his mouth and peered behind him.
"I thought I heard something," she whispered.
Jack turned around and looked in the direction she was gazing and saw movement among the shadows.
"Race you!" he said to Amber and the pair dashed off after the shadow, leaving Adair sprinting with the aid of his wings to catch up.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"To catch a thief," Amber said.
"You can't do that!" Adair said.
"Why not?" Jack asked, looking at Adair with confusion.
"You'll get yourself hurt, you don't know this city – there are cliff edges and sudden drops all over the place! Leave it to the police."
"And a fine job they're doing rounding up a load of innocent tourists!" Amber said.
"From what I heard you lot are hardly innocent," Adair said, "Con men and assassins?"
"We are the least of your problems," Jack said.
"Yeah, you probably are," Adair said darkly as a figure dressed all in black jumped off a building, waved to them, then dashed off, followed closely by Jack and Amber.
Rose and the Doctor searched each room they came to, eventually taking them to the kitchen. It was a flurry of activity, with exotic looking dishes being prepared everywhere. Steam filled the room like a sauna and the smells were delicious.
"This has to be good for the skin," Rose commented, pulling her hair back.
"Can I help you, sir, madam?" a woman asked, walking over, still beating a mix in a very large pan.
She had large brown eyes, small greyish wings, long hair in bad condition from years of tying it back to keep it out of the food and reddened hands from all the work preparing food. She had a wary look about her but there was a smile on her face as she greeted them.
"If you've come to thank the chef for your dinners, thank you kindly, but it was no problem, really sir, lady. You needn't have wasted your evening coming down here," she said with a small curtsey.
"The food was excellent, it was well worth coming down here to say thank you to you and your marvellous chefs," the Doctor said, "and I hope you don't mind too much if we have a look round while we are here."
"What would you want to do that for?" she asked, "I assure you, my kitchen is clean, spotless!"
"Oh, I believe it," the Doctor said, "I'm not looking for dirt, I'm looking for clues."
"Clues?" she asked.
"My name's Rose," Rose said, pushing in in front of the Doctor, "What's yours?"
"Mali, my lady," the woman said, looking rather flustered as Rose reached out to shake her hand.
"Well Mali, I'm just gonna repeat what the Doctor said – your food was lovely, I haven't had such a good meal in ages!" Rose said, elbowing the Doctor away, "what's your secret?"
"Well, we have a lot of herbs that grow round here on the mountains, they make excellent flavourings for our dishes," Mali said, her expression changing to flattered.
The Doctor grinned as he caught on to Rose's plan, and snuck away to have a look around.
"What's all this preparation for?" Rose asked as the Doctor switched on his Sonic Screwdriver, "Looks like there's gonna be a big party!"
"Well, it is the coronation of our Lady Lola, such a lovely child, we in the kitchen want to make it a special day for her," Mali said.
"Specially that Adair, I bet," Rose said with a giggle. Mali's expression suddenly turned very serious.
"Now you shouldn't encourage that, ma'am, they both ought to know better!"
"They're just kids, what's the harm in having a little fun?"
"When one of those 'just kids' is the future Queen of Corfeil, her Uncle would certainly not approve."
There was something in the tone of Mali's voice when she mentioned Lola's Uncle that made Rose shiver. She was about to question Mali further, but there was a crash from somewhere in the back of the room.
"Do these look like Artefacts to you, Rose?" the Doctor asked, holding up a collection of valuable looking objects.
Amber was the faster out of her and Jack, and she sprinted ahead, chasing down the thief. She tried to gather information from the thief's thoughts, but their mind was like a blank canvas, completely guarded and not letting anything through. A stronger psychic could have broken through this, but Amber wasn't about to try. Instead she ran faster.
The healers of Corfeil had done an incredible job on her wound. Even running like this, putting so much pressure on her body wasn't causing her any pain, only a slight discomfort that would fade in minutes once she stopped. It made coming to Sertia worth all the hassle.
Amber rounded a sharp corner and swerved out of the way of a fist that came flying in her direction. She turned to see the thief standing before her, head titled to the side cheekily as if to say 'is that all you got?'. Amber raised her fists and prepared to fight.
The thief bowed then stepped backwards and was enveloped by a thick mist. Amber heard the sounds of mischievous laughter from somewhere in front of her and ran straight for them.
Jack and Adair turned the corner and saw nothing.
"What?" Jack asked, "Where'd they go?"
"It's the mist!" Adair said, "it comes down off the mountains in patches, really thick. You can't see where you are going at all in it!"
"Amber!" Jack said, and sprinted off into the mist.
"That's so not a good idea…" Adair said, running after him.
Amber listened for the sounds of the thief, straining her ears to pick out the echoing footsteps. She could see no more than a few centimetres in front of her, and even then all she could see was swirling white fog.
On the back of her neck she felt a rush of air and ducked as a hand flew over her head.
"It's wrong to attack from behind!" Amber said, catching the thief's arm with her hand.
The thief merely tilted their head to the side again and attacked with the other hand. For a while they parried, each blocking the others attack, walking circles round each other. Amber switched to the offensive and threw blow after blow at the thief who dodged them all before blocking with their arms crossed in front of them. With another little laugh they stepped backwards and began running again.
"Dammit!" Amber said, and chased after them.
As she ran the mist began to clear so she ran faster. Ahead she could see the thief skipping about. Suddenly they stopped and turned around, waving. Amber saw this and ran faster, hoping to bridge the gap. The thief bobbed into a little curtsey then stepped backwards, falling down out of sight over a cliff edge concealed by the fog. Amber skidded to a halt just before it, pushing a few bits of gravel over the edge.
"That was too close," she said, breathing heavily as Jack and Adair ran to join her.
Next part coming soon!