Thought I was gone, didn't you? No. Just veery slow with the updates. It's going to be this way, folks. I'm sorry.
In happier news, mostly, people seem to be pleased by the last chapter. Thank you. That pleases me. It was tricky, especially the bit with the name. I'm glad most of you think it should be left between them, too.
On with the show.
I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
~John Lennon
I.
"So you're sure it's okay that we just got up and left the palace this morning? We didn't need to leave somebody a note or something?"
The Doctor didn't even look up from the vendor's stall of odds and ends he was poking through. "What? Oh...no. It's fine. I'm sure of it. Remember what I told you? Be hours yet before the court gets up and about. We have plenty of time to explore here in the city, take in a little local culture, and so on. Come here and take a look at this! I haven't seen one of these in ages..."
Amy sighed, but she had a smile on her face. She couldn't help it. She'd been mostly happy since their eyes had opened and she'd realized that everything she had felt in that dreamlike place between and inside their two minds was still there. There were moments of shadow that flickered briefly, flashes of what she'd seen, of what she now knew, but they were mostly subsumed in this new togetherness. She looked down at her palm and traced her thumb across the thin, white scar there. There was one on each hand. Each looked old, like a wound she might have received in childhood, something serious that had healed. She knew it hadn't been there before...
Before the bond became whole. Before I knew him for all he is. Before he told me his name.
"Pond," he called, looking up from whatever it was that he had unearthed. "You must see this. Come on!" She could feel his eagerness frothing through the bond like seafoam along with the steady strong baseline hum of his love for her.
Tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket, she walked over to see what treasure he'd discovered here in this Rishellian sidestreet.
II.
They spent the remainder of the morning poking around in the marketplace and touring the city outside the palace walls. It was when they were on their way back that Amy mentioned it.
"Doctor, why aren't there any Rishellians living in the city?"
He smiled just a little, and she could feel something like a sense of being pleased coming from him. "Who's to say that there aren't?"
"Look, I know what I just saw, and I didn't see a single pointed ear or pair of wings..."
"True. There are no High Lords living in the outer city. Or, well, they might live there, but they don't engage in trade. They would be in supervisory roles, crowd control, and so on."
"Well, then who are the people who actually live in the outer city?"
"They're the rest of Rishell, Amy. This planet isn't all elves. There are many different races represented here. Right now, in this time, the High Lords are the ruling caste of Rishell."
"You said, 'right now.' Does that change?"
The Doctor smiled that enigmatic smile and waved his hand in a circular arc that took in the poverty of the city and the shining luxury of the palace. "There's an imbalance. The few have much and the many have almost nothing. You do the maths on that one."
Amy knew enough about the history of her own world to know how that story generally turned out...
They were almost back to the gates of the palace when a High Lord clad in bright green caught up with them. His long blond hair streamed back over his shoulders, and although he was clearly moving at great speed, his steps looked effortless and graceful. He took the middle of the crowded city street as his own. Amy noticed that the common humans and others on the street were almost tripping in their haste to get out of his way. She also noticed that he took this as his due, took no more notice of their efforts than if they had been animals or insects. She and the Doctor exchanged knowing glances at this display of conspicuously entitled behavior.
When he stopped in front of them, he bowed low, a court bow, and stayed in it until the Doctor waved what looked to Amy vaguely like the sign of the cross over him. The golden-haired High Lord stood up and flipped his mane over his collar before smoothing his hand down the front of his green velvet tunic in a gesture that could only be called preening. Amy could feel a rich amusement flowing from the Doctor. The only outward sign of it she could see on his face, though was the sparkle to his eyes and the slightest of smiles tugging at the corners of his lips.
Interesting. I wonder if I would even notice if I didn't have this connectedness to guide me.
"Milord Doctor, I presume?" The High Lord's voice was unctuous and superior at the same time. Amy was impressed at his ability to maintain such disparate attitudes in one utterance.
"At your service, certainly, dear sir." The Doctor answered, just a little too earnestly.
"The Empress has been seeking you for more than an hour, milord." The way he said it made it sound like sad-eyed puppies had been kicked and babies had had their candy taken away just because of this. Amy's lips twitched despite her better efforts, and she slid her teeth into her bottom one to keep a smile from appearing.
"Um... Yes. Sorry. What was it she wanted again?"
The High Lord's mouth thinned. Clearly Amy and the Doctor were not suitably impressed with the situation. What more could one expect from Others, though, really?
"Áinfean, Empress of Rishell, bids me tell you haste to the main audience chamber. There a messenger waits who will only speak with you." His tone of voice managed to mix boredom, suspicion, and accusation together somehow.
The Doctor's amusement disappeared. "What do you mean, a messenger who will only speak with me? This person asked for me by name? I don't understand."
The High Lord, sensing the Doctor's sudden change of mood, smirked. "Oh yes, milord. By name. And he will talk to none other. Lizards are bloody stubborn that way."
III.
Amy sensed the change in the Doctor immediately. He took her hand in his with a subtle squeeze.
*Don't ask me now. It's very, very complicated, and well, I thought there weren't any of them left, actually.*
Oh, nooo you don't. Lizards? What does that mean when it's at home, Doctor?
They were hurrying behind the High Lord, and they were sliding through the crowds again like some sort of sea-parting miracle.
*Last time I was here, I searched everywhere for them. I've met them on other worlds, you see, but all the places here I looked, there was nothing left but bones, fossil records, sites where they had been...*
Doctor, slow down! You're losing me. What is it you're talking about? He was distracted, though, and he wasn't paying attention to her, his mind racing, images coming at her in a confusing blur of places that she could not quite decipher until finally she simply dampered the connection between them to prevent being overwhelmed. She could still feel his excitement, but the flood of information stopped.
They crossed the huge chamber where the Fighter and the Fool stood now, and neither the Doctor nor the High Lord guide slowed. Amy could sense that same eagerness for discovery that the Doctor had been feeling earlier when he'd found that bit of junk in the stall in the market but multiplied by a hundred, maybe by a thousand as they approached the doors to Áinfean's throneroom.
IV.
Beyond those huge carved doors was a frozen tableau. Áinfean sat on her throne on its raised dais, resplendent in white. At her shoulder was Irial. His hand was on the hilt of his sword, his dark cape thrown back to keep it from being in the way if he needed to draw his blade quickly. His silver eyes were focused with deadly intensity on the being in the center of the room. They barely even flicked away to acknowledge Amy and the Doctor. Amy had the impression of a very large dog straining against a very strong collar.
The courtiers themselves had drawn back from the center of the room to stand in small clumps, each similar in its coloration and fabric décor. Amy guessed they had arranged themselves by their Houses. Each House grouping was staring at the individual in the center of the room with baleful and untrusting glares. They were whispering and muttering under their breaths. None of them seemed brave enough to make their comments louder than that, though. Indeed, if any of their voices raised to the point of quasi-audibility, they were heartily shushed by those they were standing with, and fearful looks were quickly shot at the still figure in the center of the room, as if it might be provoked into action by what had just been said. When the figure did not move, their faces became haughty again, and the whispers resumed...
All the noises stopped when Áinfean noticed the Doctor's presence. She stood with something like relief on her face and said in a voice loud enough to carry across the entire room, "Milord Doctor! How good of you to join us today. I hope we have not disturbed your rest?" Her tone was tinged with acidity and sarcasm.
The Doctor pasted a genial smile on, folded his hands behind his back, and stepped into the center of the room. "No, no. Amy and I were just touring in town, getting a bit of local color and fresh air. Sorry not to have been available in an emergency. Amy told me to leave a note, didn't you Amelia? Nothing like a good old-fashioned note to keep everyone informed..."
Amy just nodded. She had a feeling that this wasn't really a conversation she was a part of...
Áinfean smiled again, strained. She looked as though she might have a headache coming on. "Yes. Well. You're here now. That's the important thing. I would like to introduce you to someone, Doctor. He has come a very long distance specifically to meet you." Her tone indicated that she would like this person to go back where he came from or to any other place that was an equally long distance away again as soon as possible. And possibly take the Doctor with him when he went.
The Doctor ignored the tone, took all the words at literal face value. He was really very good at doing that. He turned his attention to the tall slender figure in the center of the room.
"Really? Just to meet me? I am flattered, sir. Whom do I have the honor of meeting?"
The being had been in the exact middle of the room, surrounded by but totally untouched by the goings-on in there. It had been facing the throne, sitting crosslegged in a graceful pose of total motionless ease. It now unfolded itself and rose in one sinuous motion, turning to face Amy and the Doctor for the first time. What she saw took her breath away.
It has to be a mask.
*Ah, but that's the beauty of it, Amelia Pond. No. No, it doesn't. And it isn't. Not at all.*
What is it, Doctor?
*That, Pond,* he said with great relish, *that is what you would call a dragon.*
V.
The dragon's face at first reminded Amy of nothing so much as masks she'd seen from Japan, tapestries, paintings, and carvings friends of hers who had lived there had photographed. The difference was this carving lived, moved, had musculature under the hard shiny surface and uncanny intelligence in its bright golden eyes.
Amy shivered slightly as those eyes pinned hers briefly. She felt as though she was falling into a pool of liquid gold. It was extremely quick, but she knew it for what it was. She felt herself weighed, measured, and cataloged. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but it was an unusual one. Am I never going to quit meeting things that want to rummage around in my head? That gets SO old... She looked a little uncertainly at the being, and she realized that amusement was dancing in those eyes. One lid slid down and back up.
Did it just wink at me? Do dragons wink?
The dragon opened its mouth in an expression that showed far too many sharp white teeth for her liking. A dark purple tongue flickered out and a slight hissing laugh escaped it.
"Yes. And we laugh, too, Lady Pond. I hope you will not take offense at it."
She looked at the creature again. The dragon stood a full head taller than the Doctor, and although it wore loose pants and a top that reminded her of something from a martial arts film, she didn't find it immediately threatening. There was something about it that she found...likable. Maybe it was the way the light was dancing off its dark green scales. Maybe it was the way it had felt when it had so gently brushed its mind across her own, politely, surface-testing, like a handshake, really, compared to some explorations she'd had. Maybe, too, it was because the High Lords, Áinfean in particular, seemed to fear him so.
"Nah. No harm done," she grinned back at him.
The dragon gave an elegant little bow of his head, pleased and turned his attention back to the Doctor. The Doctor had been watching this whole exchange, saying nothing. Amy had felt him tense slightly when the dragon had brushed his mind across her own, but he had not reacted in any way other than that tiny heightening of tension. Once the dragon had winked at her, even that had dissipated.
"I believe you are looking for me," the Doctor said, slipping his hand down to take Amy's.
The dragon nodded. "We have been waiting for two hundreds for you, Lord of Time. Since the Awakening. Since we Emerged. The Dragon King requests your presence in the Heart of the Mountain. He has sent me here to retrieve you immediately if you will consent to come."
The Doctor tilted his head. "What's going on? Why the immediate departure?"
The dragon met his gaze easily. "He said you would ask. He said I was to tell you that although you are Lord of Time, there are some moments you will not wish to see. These are what he wishes to tell you of when you arrive. I have no further information than this message. I am merely an ambassador. The King did not see fit to disclose any other detail other than that it is critical that you come now."
The Doctor looked from the dragon to Amy. "What do you say, Pond? Want to go see the dragons?"
Before Amy could reply, the dragon cleared his throat politely. Both turned to face him again. "I apologize if I was unclear. I have been sent to fetch you. Only you. I have no directive concerning your mate, Doctor."
The Doctor frowned. "You're saying she can't come?"
The dragon looked at him for a long moment, and Amy sensed something passing between them. Even with the bond, though, she could not tell what it was, exactly that was being shared. Then the dragon spoke. "I'm saying that I have been given no orders for her transport. You must consult with the Dragon King for more information."
Apparently, the Doctor had gotten something important from that last exchange that Amy had missed. His head was down, and he wore his "intensely thinking" expression. "I see. I see," he muttered. "Well, in that case, I suppose I'd better be getting there as soon as possible, then, right?"
Any guesses on what's going on with dragon kind? Oh, and look for Irial to be popping up big-time in the next couple of installments. Please put on your patient-people hats in waiting for these installments, however...