Doctor Who: Ultimate Treasure (12 page)

By eliminating every path through the woods that seemed to lead back towards the white pyramid or the landing grounds, Qwaid felt they were at last making some progress. At any sign he couldn't make sense of he simply chose a direction at random.

The important thing was to look decisive. That had been Alpha's secret, he decided: always act as though you know what you're doing.

Whatever happened, he mustn't lose any more face before Gribbs and Drorgon. Not that they'd have the guts to do to him what he'd done to Alpha, but they might just give up, which would be nearly as bad. He'd already caught some reproachful glances as they limped along beside him. That hurt because what he wanted, perhaps even more than Rovan's treasure, was to hear them call him 'boss' to his face, and mean it.

Qwaid knew he had it in him. Hadn't he jiggered the
Falcon's
systems neatly enough to dispose of Alpha, for all his brains?

But he simply didn't have the sort of mind to untangle word games and such abstract problems. And suppose there were more obstacles of the same sort ahead. OK, so they could get through in the end by blood and sweat, but by that time the rest would have lifted the treasure. There had to be a way to even things up. There just had to be.

When they finally came upon a native waiting patiently at an otherwise unmarked junction he didn't waste any time in futile debate, but pointedly drew a coin from his pocket and flipped it to decide their route. He'd show them all that Crelly Qwaid played by nobody else's rules but his own.

The plain stretched away into the distance before them, into the shimmering heat haze, where it was just possible to make out a line of green that suggested another wood might lie on the far side. Peri estimated it was five miles across, perhaps more. To left and right the plain extended at least as far as the point at which it was lost in the haze, out of which rose two parallel walls of rock, apparently the sheer sides of a very wide, flat-bedded valley. It was the largest level surface she had ever seen, rivalling the monotonous expanses of those dry desert lake beds where they held land-speed record attempts. But none of them had ever been paved.

She could think of no better description of the neatly jointed pale-grey, hexagonal slabs, about ten or twelve feet across their flat sides, which covered the plain for as far as the eye could see.

She saw that Jaharnus was equally surprised by the spectacle, which had left even Falstaff momentarily speechless. The Doctor crossed to where the straggling turf and weeds of the wood gave way to the first of the tiles, and touched the hard surface.

'Hmm. Stone, or some very fine concrete, I think.'

They all moved to his side. Peri noticed that finer grooves divided up the tile into six equilateral triangular segments. 'Why does it have a red dot in its centre?' Jaharnus asked.

It was a small circle, perhaps six or eight inches across, apparently painted on. From where Peri stood every slab in sight seemed to have one, though the colours differed.

'I've no idea,' the Doctor admitted.

'Well at least we can see where were going,' Peri said. 'I suppose we've got to cross to the other side. I wonder how long it'll take.'

And she walked out a few yards.

As she put her weight on the third tile it soundlessly split open into its component segments under her feet and she dropped into darkness. Then there was a splash and green-scummed water closed about her head with a roar of bubbles.

She kicked upward frantically and surfaced coughing and spluttering and drawing in a deep breath. But immediately she felt the weight of her backpack pulling her under again. She flailed about but there was nothing to catch hold of. The sides of the hexagonal well shaft were smooth and sheer, and the segments of its cap lay flat against them. She tore in panic at he pack's straps, trying to wriggle free, but it was taking in water and growing heavier every second.

The Doctor's head and shoulders appeared over the lip of the shaft some eight feet above the surface of the water as he threw himself flat on the ground and stretched out his staff to her, handle first.

'Grab hold, Peri,' he shouted.

As the water was closing over her head again, her fingers closed about the end of the staff, and she pulled herself back into the air again, trembling with fright. Jaharnus was lying beside the Doctor, reaching down with her staff.

'Peri,' the Doctor said, his words crisp and steady and very reassuring. 'We can't lift you and your pack if it's full of water.

Take it off and hook it over the inspector's staff.'

Numbly Peri obeyed, struggling one handed with the straps, but managing to remove it and twist them about the staff's handle. The pack was lifted clear, then the second staff reached down again and she was able to grip both handles. In a few seconds she was sprawled on the hard stone on the edge of the well.

'It had to happen to me!' she panted miserably.

'Well what do you expect if you will start off without thinking?'

the Doctor scolded, but she read genuine concern behind his eyes.

They retreated carefully to the edge of the wood, stepping only on those slabs they had already used. While they considered how to proceed, Peri emptied her pack and spread out the contents to dry. She hadn't brought a change of clothes, so she settled for taking off her boots and wringing her socks out as well as she could. With the midday heat, everything else would soon dry.

'I suppose it could have been worse,' she said, trying to make light of her misfortune. 'I only lost my staff.'

'Yes, it could have been much, much worse,' said the Doctor coolly. 'Even if you'd been able to remove your pack quickly enough, how long would you have survived if we hadn't been here to pull you out?'

The full enormity of it struck her, and she felt giddy for a moment. She had been thinking that there could have been more dangerous things waiting for her at the bottom of the shaft than water, but now she realised it might only have prolonged the inevitable if she'd been alone. 'I guess I really could have died down there.'

'Let that be a lesson to us all,' the Doctor said, his stern gaze passing over Jaharnus and Falstaff. 'However artificial and contrived all this seems, it's not a game. If you want to go back I suggest you do it now, while we've only the wood to contend with.'

Falstaff puffed himself up. 'John Falstaff retreat from danger?

Never!'

'We go on,' said Jaharnus. 'I'm not letting you three out of my sight. Besides, if there is any treasure I want to be sitting on it ready and waiting for Qwaid and his friends. As soon as this ridiculous quest thing is over and the locals remove their protection, I'm going to arrest them.'

'Well one dunking's not going to make me give up,' Peri said, hoping her voice sounded steady.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Very well. But we must take some sensible precautions, until we work out which slabs are safe and which aren't. At least we now know why they're colour-coded.'

'Oh,' said Peri, 'you mean there's a pattern to it. What colour was the one I dropped through?'

'Green,' said Jaharnus.

'For a start, we'll avoid those,' the Doctor said, rummaging in his pack. 'Sir John, you will have the honour -'

'I pray you, good Doctor, do not deny yourself the satisfaction of being the leader of our brave band on my account. I crave not the glory -'

'- of going last,' the Doctor continued, pulling out a coil of climbing rope from his pack. 'We need a solid anchor man, and you are eminently the most qualified.'

Five minutes later they set out, roped together, the Doctor leading, Jaharnus second, Peri third, and Falstaff bringing up the rear. The Doctor used his staff to probe each slab ahead of him. It took a significant weight to trigger a slab, and he had to lean heavily on it to be sure it was safe. Twice he almost fell into concealed pits, one of which had been dry, the other floored with spikes. Fortunately, there were no remains of a previous seeker in the bottom. It was slow going. After an hour they had hardly covered a mile, which was probably as fast as conditions would allow, Peri decided. They stopped for a drink from their canteens and to eat food bars provided by the TARDIS's synthesiser. The sun was high in the sky. Peri took her cape and hood out of her pack and draped it over her head and shoulders for some protection from its rays. The Doctor and Falstaff both had hats, while Jaharnus was bareheaded. Perhaps, with her tough skin, the sun didn't bother her, but Peri noticed she had been walking with her mouth agape, flicking out her red pointed tongue, rather like a dog panting.

The Doctor, who had been looking around him thoughtfully, suddenly asked, 'How many different-coloured slab spots have you seen?'

They looked around them. 'They are of all colours,' said Jaharnus.

'Really? Have you seen a brown or pink, black or white?'

'Surely that is a black over there?' said Falstaff pointing, then mopping his brow with a large handkerchief he had pulled from his sleeve.

'I would say that's violet, said the Doctor. 'You see, it's a little darker than that one over there, which is indigo.'

'Does it matter?' asked Jaharnus.

'Doctor,' said Peri, 'what are you getting at?'

'I should have noticed. There are only seven spot colours: indigo and violet, plus green, blue, red, orange and yellow.' The colours of the rainbow!' said Peri.

'Yes, and that suggests a sequence.'

'Well fillip me with a three-man beetle!' said Falstaff. 'I believe you have the key to the safe path over this interminable plain, Doctor.'

'Perhaps. There's only one way to find out.' He looked about for the next red-spot tile that had an orange adjacent to it in the direction they were travelling. He tested it and stepped forward. It was sound. So was the orange. They followed after him across yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. It meant travelling by a snaking course, but it was much faster than they had been going. Sure enough, there was a red tile adjacent to the violet.

They began to move with more confidence.

The Doctor's party were just visible as dots out on the shimmering plain, when Arnella followed her uncle through the last of the trees and stood on the edge of the great expanse.

Thorrin quickly had his binoculars focused on their rival seekers.

'They are apparently picking their way carefully and watching where they step,' he reported after a minute. He put the binoculars away and cautiously examined the nearest of the hexagonal slabs. From his pack he took a small device like a hand torch and played it across the first row. The fourth slab he tested triggered a sharp beeping. At his direction Willis found a large rock and dropped it on to the slab, which split open, precipitating the rock into a deep chamber below.

Thorrin chuckled. 'I think this is going to be perfectly straightforward, provided you step only where I do.'

Holding the scanner before him, he led the way out on to the tiled plain.

* * *

The grooves between the slabs going past underfoot, endless clusters of triangles building into endless hexagons. Red orange, yellow, green, blue...

Left, right, left, right. Angles and lines, all the same... Red, orange, yellow, green...

In a vague and remote way Peri wished she had brought sunglasses. The glare off the pale slabs was brilliant and it was getting hard to see the spots of colour on the tiles.

Red, orange, yellow...

The reflected heat washed over her as though it was the open door of an oven, but she plodded on.

Red, orange...

A part of her knew her feet were burning, but there didn't seem to be anything she could do about it.

Red...

Her legs gave way and she fell on to her hands and knees. The line around her waist jerked as Jaharnus carried on marching.

Falstaff nearly trod on her. Her skin was burning where it touched the stone slabs! With a yell of pain she scrambled to her feet again, feeling dangerously light-headed. The others kept on walking, pulling her along with them. The Doctor hadn't even noticed she'd fallen. What was the matter with them all?

Then she realised to her dismay that the entire horizon was lost in the quicksilver ripples of the heat haze. The sun seemed to be hovering directly overhead, blazing down out of a brassy sky and giving no clue as to their orientation. She couldn't see the sides of the valley or the woods. Their line of march had zigzagged as they followed the safe path. How did they know they hadn't gone off course? Their eyes had all been on the ground watching where they put their feet. She tried to shout to the others to stop but it came out as a croak through her parched throat. How long since she'd taken a drink? Desperately she jerked hard on the line. Jaharnus and the Doctor stopped and Falstaff cannoned into her.

Falstaff and Jaharnus stood swaying slightly and even the Doctor seemed unsteady. They were blinking and frowning, looking about them as though waking from a dream. Peri suddenly remembered that her feet were scorching even through the thick soles of her boots, and began hopping from one to the other. She must have been sweating profusely, yet the air was so dry and hot it evaporated right off her skin.

The Doctor took a long draught from his canteen, splashed a little over his face, then looked at them bleakly. 'It's a trap,' he said, his voice cracking as he spoke. 'A subtle one. Partly the Gelsandorans' doing perhaps, together with line hypnosis.'

'What?' asked Peri.

'A repetition of regular patterns going past the eye. It can induce a sort of trancelike state.'

'We must find some shade, at least until the sun starts down,'

Jaharnus said, her long tongue flicking out between words. 'We daren't walk any further like this.'

'Shade!' exclaimed Falstaff, swaying dangerously. 'Out here?

Surely you jest, mistress. A pox on Rovan! Old Jack is done for!'

'The sleeping rolls,' said the Doctor. 'It's better than nothing.'

They had to sit on their packs to insulate themselves from the ground. Putting the bedrolls over their heads to form a crude awning relieved some of the sting of the sun, but most of the heat was reflected up from the ground around them and they began to stifle in the dead, motionless air under the covers. Peri knew they had to last at least another couple of hours before they could expect any drop in temperature, but she was beginning to wonder what condition they would be in by then. They sat and suffered. Their water, which had seemed like an ample supply when they set out, judging from the temperate woodland where they had landed, ran out. How could they have anticipated finding desert conditions within a few miles of them? Peri thought dizzily. It wasn't natural. No, of course it wasn't.