imagine the dissidents creeping out by night to inspect the smouldering hulk, discovering the Trions and realising the truth about the fire. ‘Why don’t Amyand and his friends know more about the ship?’ he asked thoughtfully.
‘The place of fire is out of bounds–on penalty of death.
The people who buried my father must have got caught.’
The Doctor shuddered. He remembered how close he had come to such a burning. Turlough looked down at the body of his brother as they turned off the street into a derelict house. ‘Savages!’ he muttered.
‘He was very lucky,’ said the Doctor, leaning over Malkon as Amyand and Sorasta laid him on one of the bunk beds in the corner of the cave. ‘The power cell in the gun must have decayed.’
‘Will he be alright?’ asked Turlough pathetically, as he kneeled beside the bed.
‘I don’t know. He’s in severe shock.’ The Doctor tried to sound more hopeful than he felt. ‘There could be some damage to his nervous system.’
Leaving Sorasta to look after the injured boy, the Doctor moved over to the machinary in the other half of the cave. He was curious to know more of the technology of the old Trion colonists. ‘Why fuel that cave with volcanic gas?’ he muttered as he scrutinised the flow system.
‘The cave has always been used for sacrifices,’ said Roskal helpfully.
‘With all due respect to your fellow Sarns, the people who built this had a more sophisticated purpose than burned offerings to Logar.’
‘Ready, Doctor?’
The Doctor turned from the ancient switches and dials to where Arnyand stood waiting for him in the entrance.
Turlough jumped up from Malkon’s bedside. ‘Don’t you want to stay with your brother?’ asked the Doctor.
‘You’ll need me when the Sarns find out you’ve escaped from the cave.’
‘I’ll take care of the Doctor,’ said Amyand, pointing to his sabre.
‘There’s not much you can do against laser guns,’ said the Doctor’s companion. rolling up his sleeve. ‘But if they see this...’
The Doctor stared at the brand on the boy’s arm. ‘Does everyone from Trion have that mark?’
‘No,’ said Turlough enigmatically. ‘You have to be very special to wear the Misos Triangle’. Unwilling to continue the conversation, he led the way through the black fissure in the wall of the cave.
The Doctor noticed the smell of sulphur in the tunnel was now stronger. It seemed warmer, too. As they hurried on through the narrow cleft he tried to puzzle out what had happened to the Master that he should need Kamelion’s help so badly.
‘Perhaps he’s into another regeneration crisis?’
speculated Turlough.
‘His current body must be good for a few more years yet,’ said the Doctor, wishing heartily that the evil Gallifreyan was indeed near the end of his unnaturally prolonged life. ‘No,’ he added. ‘There must be another reason.’
The Master knew that Kamelion was returning. He could feel the approach of his alter ego , together with the band of primitives who would swiftly release his TARDIS. He laughed at the good fortune that had brought him to Sarn.
Not only was he to be reunited with his slave, but the TARDIS sensors indicated a transforming power on the planet beyond anything he could create in his laboratory.
He peered into the viewer, eager for the arrival of his rescuers.
The crocodile of Sarns wound along the ridge path like pious Athenians on the Sacred Way to the Acropolis. So much walking in one day had exhausted the Elders, but the Outsider would not let them rest. Peri, still in the savage grip of the automaton, glanced anxiously in the direction of the volcano, now venting continuous black smoke.
Timanov entered the ruin, gasping for breath, but he forgot his discomfort as soon as he saw the blue box–a most remarkable object. To his surprise, the Outsider gave the divine transporter hardly a glance, going directly to a pile of masonry in the far corner. ‘Beneath that rubble,’ he
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
John O'Riley
Brenda Sinclair
Christopher George
Stephen Lloyd Jones
Karl Iagnemma
Celya Bowers
Jill Gregory
Aria Cunningham