Chapter Eleven
"You're sure?"
"Oh, quite. It's the most out-of-the-way place I know."
The dust was thick this deep in the Labyrinth. Several twists and turns earlier, the ribbed floor had given way to solid stone; the treaty under which Krakor and Vanussia had worked together to renovate the tunnels and other historic landmarks had been abandoned, according to Cerf, as soon as it had become clear that it wasn't doing any good.
"Do we have to go down that tunnel, Doctor?" said Jamie. "Look, it's all dark in there."
Cerf nodded. "There won't be any more lights after this," he said. "I'm surprised the ones we did install are still working. Do any of you happen to have a flashlight?"
"I have a small one," said the Doctor, producing a tiny penlight, "but I doubt it would do any good by itself."
"Dark is better," said Elfik. "They'll be looking for us by now."
"Aye," said Jamie, "but what if we fall down some great hole in there?"
"Here's the answer!" said the Doctor triumphantly, pulling an ancient torch out of a wall slot.
Cerf looked at the torch. It was a spike of wood about two feet long, smooth and shiny, and the flame end was stained dark. "Very nice," he said, intrigued. "And how do we light it?"
"With my penlight," said the Doctor. "Now, observe." He pulled a huge magnifying glass from his pocket and focused the wavering beam of his little penlight into a tiny star on the head of the torch. Jamie watched, grinning. The Doctor always carried matches, but it was just like him to forget about them at times like this so he could mess around with light beams and lenses and whatever else he happened to have in his pockets.
The magnifying glass was clearly much more powerful than it looked. After a moment a wisp of smoke curled up, and then there was a small flame. It grew into a good-sized white light.
"There, Your Highness: your ancestors were very civilized during their time. Chemical flame, twice the light of an ordinary torch, practically smokeless, and it doesn't use up that much oxygen either."
"And we can pick more up on the way!" said Cerf delightedly. "Is it far to this cave of yours?"
"Not too far now," said the Doctor, leading them off into the blackness.
o0o
...were found, and it was given out that the entire royal family had perished in the blaze. Hron, now Emperor by default, launched an inquiry into the cause of the fire, but the investigation was halfhearted and soon dropped.
Within a day, the Krakod Thane inscribed a proclamation expressing grief at the tragedy. Hron did not respond to the message, and, with few preliminaries, announced the voiding of the Port Merac Treaty and the annexation of the Ten Thousand Islands...
Victoria yawned as she put the book down. She leaned back in the antique chair in the control room, but as soon as she closed her eyes the whole impossible situation came back full force.
There was still a squad of guards outside the TARDIS. They had tried a crowbar, a blowtorch, several electronic lockpicks, and a small hand grenade, with no success. There had been no word or sign of the Doctor or Jamie, and there was no way of knowing what had become of the two friendly soldiers. Victoria herself was practically a prisoner; not an uncomfortable one, being that she was in the TARDIS, but it's the principle of the thing that counts. Volume Two of the Story of the Dragon Day Treaty was nowhere to be found, and to top the whole thing off, the planet was due to be destroyed sometime during the next day.
She stood, stretched, and looked up at the viewscreen, suddenly realizing that the activity outside had stopped some time ago. For a moment she had a wild hope that the guards had all gone away, but no; there they were, sitting on the rocks, backlit by two and a half moons and half the galaxy scattered faintly across the sky. Most of their faces were in shadow, but it was clear that they were watching the doors very carefully.
"Come on," she muttered, more to the TARDIS than anyone else, "don't they ever get tired?"
The TARDIS, as usual, declined to respond.
"I've got to get this to the Doctor somehow," said Victoria, picking up the book again. The gold lettering glinted under the soft light. "He said it was essential." She looked at the console. "Oh, why am I talking to you, anyway? It's not as if you'll answer."
A bright light started flashing on the console. Then a quiet, urgent beeping sound came from somewhere overhead.
"What–?" said Victoria, and then let out a little scream as the floor tilted. She grabbed onto the edge of the console as the TARDIS jolted and shook, and then swayed from side to side as if dangling in midair. Then there was a tremendous thud.
There was noise outside now, a lot of noise. Victoria looked at the viewscreen. The guards had loaded the TARDIS onto a freight hovercraft and it was in the air, heading for the palace.
o0o
It wasn't exactly a room, but neither could it be called a cave: half round, with one flat wall, rough from chiseling, and faded pictures of beasts from Efes's stone age around the perimeter. There was a shelf along the wall, at about chair height, and wall slots held the one lit torch and the two others that they had saved for later use.
"I still think you should have woken me up to watch," grumbled Cerf.
Kapik's eyes twinkled. "It's the death penalty, it is, for disturbing the eminent slumber of the Sovereign Emperor of Vanussia," she said in a hollow tone.
"It is not!" said Cerf.
"Besides," Jamie said seriously, "we tried, but it was no use. You were flat out."
"Hmf," said Cerf, disgusted.
The Doctor came over from where he had been studying the cave paintings. "Your Highness," he said, "something's been bothering me for some time now, and I've just put my finger on what it is. How did you guess that Jamie was alien to your planet?"
Cerf looked abashed. "Well, he was just... the way he was acting, the way he looked. Different. Alien, you know."
The Doctor looked at Jamie. "Yes, I see, it's rather obvious, isn't it?" he said, in mock seriousness. "Say now!" said Jamie sharply. The Doctor gave him a reassuring smile and continued, "But where did you get the idea that he's from outer space, of all places?"
"It was really Elfik who suggested it," admitted Cerf.
The Doctor looked at the astronomers, who looked at each other. Kapik's voice echoed a little as she spoke for her sister.
"Our Tenek Eighteen satellite recorded an incoming object. Its size and spectrum indicated something created by intelligent beings, and when the Prince told us about Jamie, we naturally assumed..." She shrugged.
The Doctor frowned. "That's strange. My TARDIS shouldn't register like that."
"Wait a moment. You're saying that the thing we were tracking wasn't your ship?"
"Yes. This is most disturbing. Your Highness, I suggest we try to get back to my TARDIS as soon as possible."
"I thought that was the general idea," said Cerf. "What's so urgent all of a sudden?"
"Well," said the Doctor, "whatever their sensors picked up, it wasn't my ship. Perhaps we can use the TARDIS sensors to find out if it's a ship at all, and if so, whose is it."
"All right," said Cerf. "You seem to know the caves better than any of us. Do you know a way out that doesn't lead to the big cavern?"
"Yes, the way I sent Victoria. That's this way."
They followed the Doctor through twists and turns until they got to a well-lit passage with a rubber floor. Cerf went back a few yards, extinguished the faithful torch and left it in a wall slot where it wouldn't be noticed.
Once they were almost spotted by a squad of guards whose leader was giving them you go that way, I'll go this way,' instructions. After that, they proceeded very carefully, and successfully avoided several more patrols.
Eventually they came upon a red streak carved into the wall. The Doctor explained that the streak had been made by explorers hundreds of years before, to show the way out of the Labyrinth. "Fortunately," he said, "your renovation crew didn't bother to erase them."
"There's a line like that coming out of a crack in the back of my cave in the garden," said Cerf.
"Oh, is that the cave overlooking the path on the west side of the palace?" said the Doctor.
Cerf nodded.
"Splendid!" The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "That's right where this tunnel ends off!" He ducked out of sight, and the others went after him.
It was a tight squeeze at the last, but everybody made it. "Here we are," said the Doctor, brushing off his coat. Bright morning sunlight was streaming in the mouth of the cave. "My, my, what a nice place you have here."
Cerf looked around. "The hoverboat's gone," he said uneasily, pulling out his needler. "Your missing girl wouldn't have been able to fly one of those, would she?"
"Of course not," said Jamie. "And anyway, Victoria wouldna done anythin' like that."
Elfik was examining the bushes at the mouth of the cave. "Went out not long ago," she said in her clipped manner. "Fast, too. We're not safe here."
"Brilliant observation," said a voice from a corner.
Everybody looked around.
"Oh, not again," said the Doctor, rolling his eyes upward in frustration.
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