Chapter Twelve
They rode east for three days. They began to pass ruined villages. The road was filled with people fleeing west. They carried tales of wanton destruction and strange beasts in the land. They stopped at an inn where the landlord was packing to flee.
The Doctor set the coordinates and the TARDIS began its journey into the past. He'd rifled Leoht's saddlepack for the things he needed. He took the items he'd worked so hard to create. He installed the circuit that would activate with a combination of acid fumes and an adrenaline surge, and set the legend in motion.
He'd been delighted to see them all again. The sultan, Cermine, Bethda, Lorin, Merdin, even the women of the forest. But more than any of the others, he'd been glad to see Lathan when he stopped at the inn for a few weeks to give him lessons in the staff. He retrieved the subliminal device from above the child's bed in Tal-Kittan. He'd programmed it carefully, so she wouldn't have nightmares.
As soon as he dropped the last item off and gave the scholar his instructions, he reset the coordinates. He delivered some letters on Micorn, then headed for Earth. He had an appointment in 1638.
"Doctor! You'd better come see this."
"What is it, Peral?" He stopped unloading Leoht and walked through the stable to where Lib and Peral were standing. He looked in the stall, then went back to his horse.
Lib and Peral looked from the big buckskin mare, contentedly munching grain, to the Doctor, calmly unloading his horse. They stood and watched as he brushed him down and gave him fodder. They kept waiting for him to say something. They watched him check his pack and give a small nod. He shouldered it, walked out of the stable and toward the inn. They followed. Lathan shook his head and started stabling their horses.
"You're not supposed to be here."
"Yes I am, Doctor. You brought me."
"I left you on Cordahm."
"Yes, but you came back for me. You'd changed a lot. If you hadn't walked out of the TARDIS right in front of me, I wouldn't have believed it was you. You gave me some things to give you." She handed him a platinum coronet set with a topaz, a pair of topaz rings, and two tiny circuit boards. "You said to tell you the circuits are for the garnets and dust the TARDIS more often."
"JO! How did you get here?" Peral couldn't believe it. She hadn't changed at all. She was still incredibly beautiful.
"Hi, Peral. He brought me." She nodded at the Doctor and grinned. "You sure have changed. Looks like you picked up a few years on me. What did you do to him? He's gorgeous."
"He's been riding around on a horse for the better part of three years and this planet doesn't have tergo jam."
Jo gave Lib a hug and said, "You two look good too. It's only been about six months for me. Just long enough to get really bored. By the way, you're going to have twin siblings. Tarna says boys. Doctor, I'm supposed to tell you four circuits must operate or two will die. I'm not sure what you meant by it."
"That's all right, I do. Lib, I'm going to get us rooms. Send Lathan to me."
They watched him leave. Jo shuddered and said, "Lord, that smile was scary. He went a long way away. Now, who's Lathan?", then laughed at Lib's glowing description of her new husband. She kept catching herself staring at Peral. He was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen.
"Lathan, I don't really want to do this."
"Why, Doctor? I had thought it done."
"Because it uses you. I use you. I don't like it."
"If you found pleasure in it, you would not be one for whom I would do this. I am honored to aid you. I ask you allow it."
The Doctor took the garnets from Lathan's hand and his own and installed the circuits. Lathan held out his hand and he slid the ring back on. He was surprised when Lathan took the other ring from him. "I do this that you will know it is my choice." He lifted the Doctor's hand and slid the garnet on his little finger.
Lathan joined the others in the inn's common room. Lib asked him what was wrong. "I have seen great pain in him. I did not understand when you told me he had lived long. The numbers were but numbers. This night I looked into his eyes and saw time beyond counting and love beyond measure. The aloneness of him can never be understood by such as we."
Jo smiled. Lib had picked herself a winner. "Yeah, it's easy to forget when you're trailing him around, or when he's clowning, or throwing a tantrum. Then, all of a sudden, you look in his eyes and catch a glimpse of eternity."
"Jo, I think you need to hear what's been going on. What do you say to a walk out to the stables with me?" Peral grinned. "I want to meet your horse."
"Sounds great. The Doctor gave me a cloak to match this gold get-up I'm wearing. I'll get it and meet you in the stable. Her name is Freond. She's a sweetie." Peral and Jo spent a long time talking. Then, somehow, things changed and they spent a long time not talking.
"OK, Doctor, you want to tell me why you're stalling?"
"I'm not STALLING!"
"I'd tell you you're cute, but it would be an understatement. You're stalling, all right, and I want to know why."
"Jo, when Lib and Peral put the rings on us the first time, they didn't know what they did. They chose to reactivate them without my knowledge after I'd gotten them deactivated. Lathan knew what he was getting into. He'd seen it."
"Doctor, you'd lay down your life, all your lives, for any one of us. I know it. We all know it. Don't you think we have the right to choose to do the same for you? Now quit STALLING!"
He smiled at her. One of those gentle smiles that made her feel like crying. Then he softly said, "All right, Jo. Tell the others the show is three nights from now at second moonrise. There's a stone circle half a kilometer west of here. Wait for me there. I have to find someone of royal blood."
Leoht took him cross-country at an all out run. Southeast. He rode seven hours, then Leoht plunged him into a fight. He jumped down and straddled the boy he'd just seen fall. He'd done well against the men, but there were just too many.
He dodged the halberd and grabbed it. The man on the other end hung on. The Doctor used him to take out four others. Leoht cleared the area of foot traffic and the Doctor knelt beside the boy to see how badly he was hurt.
"You have given me timely rescue. I know not who you are, but you have a king's thanks."
"I'm the Doctor and thank my horse. He's the one who was looking for you. I just came along for the ride. You look like you've seen some rough treatment lately."
"I have, Doctor. My father was betrayed by his chancellor and died. I was given into the hands of a most evil woman. Two men loyal to me aided my escape. They gave their lives that I might flee from my own castle. I am Gerond and upon my father's death I became king of this land of Palenthale. I have been a king enslaved for near two years."
"Two years!"
"Yes. The woman thought to win me, then coerce me. It is only in recent times she began to so ill use me." He shuddered. "I fear my dreams will long be haunted with memories of these last months."
The Doctor helped him as he tried to stand. He couldn't. "How long has it been since you've eaten?"
"I do not know. I fled west with these hounds upon my trail. If berry or tree fruit were in my path, I ate."
"That's what I thought. You're too weak to hold on to me, so I'm going to put you in front. You can eat and sleep while we ride. I'll get you to safety, then I have a boon to ask. Leoht."
The Doctor pulled food and water from his saddlepack and gave Gerond a small amount of each. The journeycake was high in calories and very nutritious. He and Tira had created it. They were ready to start when Gerond fainted.
The Doctor examined him and was furious at what had been done. He gathered him in his arms and Leoht knelt for him to mount. Somewhere, there was a woman who would be called to account for the abuse of a fifteen-year-old boy king.
They rode slowly toward the inn. The first day and night he held Ger
ond as he slept, waking him every few hours to eat and drink. The boy had been embarrassed, and somewhat frightened, on his first awakening in his arms, but the Doctor had smiled and told him to rest. His argument, that Gerond would want to be able to ride behind him before they met others, was an effective one.
Leoht decided they were ahead of schedule and made a little side trip. The Doctor left him with Gerond and walked into the caravan camp. He warned the caravan master against traveling east and bargained with him a bit. He returned with garments and accouterments. Leoht stopped at a hot spring about two kilometers from their destination and they bathed and changed, from travel stained man and boy, to champion and king. They rode into the circle of stones at second moonrise.
Jo slid the topaz on the Doctor's hand herself. She didn't want him to have any doubts it was her decision. Gerond was awed by the assemblage of champions, but he too laughed at the expression on the Doctor's face when Jo and Peral told him what they wanted.
The innkeeper had been a bit irate at being shouted awake in the middle of the night. He was taking his family, and all they could carry, west in two days and had been working long hours to prepare. Then he saw Gerond. The boy looked so like his father the innkeeper recognized him instantly. He ran through the inn, awakened his guests and family, and hosted a reception.
"OK, from what you told me, I'd say he didn't activate the rings. No glow. Got any ideas?"
Peral grinned. "Yes, Jo, as a matter of fact I have. Lib and I think he deactivated ours too. We'll need the landlord's help," He glanced over at the innkeeper merrily urging people to eat and drink. "but I don't think that will be a problem."
The landlord was delighted and enlisted the aid of his other guests. Soon everyone in the inn was in on the conspiracy.
The Doctor sang one last chorus of the roundelay and sat down. On the floor. The guests and the landlord cheered. He tried to get up and Lathan and Peral caught him. The conspirators raised a last toast, as the Turime carried the Champion up the stairs.
Gerond returned the pitcher he'd used to keep the Doctor's cup full and followed. He watched as the Turime brought their four rings together and touched them to the great red stone on the Doctor's hand. He began to truly believe they would win his land back for him when he saw the jewels glow with magic.
The landlord put out the last of the lamps and smiled. What a tale he would have to tell his brother when he reached his inn ten days to the west. He wondered if he would believe him. He had spent the night helping his king and the four Champions of Man get the great Champion of Life thoroughly drunk.
The next morning proved all the circuits were in working order.
"No, Gerond, you can't come with us."
"But, Doctor, this is my realm you seek to free."
"How far does your realm extend?"
"To the east seven days ride. To the north, two. To the west, five. To the south, eight."
The Doctor gave up trying to convert the ground covered by horses into terms of 'days ride' on derkine. "Is the Prince of Pasedel one of your vassals?"
"No, my kinsman. He holds the land to the west of my kingdom. He is king, but has never wished the name."
"He's preparing an army to join the Baron of Pralth. They will soon ride east. I want you to go to them."
"They are both good men and have long been friend to my house. They must think all my line fallen. Doctor, it was the delight of my captors to speak of the vast army they gathered. I fear even the baron's great skill as general cannot overcome their numbers."
"Gerond, they do not stand alone. When I left, there were twenty thousand prepared to march east." He smiled at the boy's incredulous stare.
"There are not that many souls in the eastern realms!"
"This isn't a battle for your kingdom or the eastern realms. It's a battle for your world. Your kingdom just happens to be on the edge of the battlefield. The true battle will probably be fought even further to the east."
"I am sorry, Doctor, I have behaved as a foolish child, thinking of none but myself. I had not even thought of others in the eastern lands."
The Doctor smiled. "Gerond, the one thing you are not is a foolish child. Tell me what you know of the lands to the east."
There was a race of nomads who rode the eastern plains. They held the land for ten days ride to the sea. They were tribal and ruled by a council of chieftains. The nomads had been scattered. Some had come with magic weapons and destroyed camp after camp from the sky. Their herds and the captured were given to the bandits who pledged to the eastern army.
Bandits had used the hills between Gerond's kingdom of Palenthale and the coastal plains for centuries. Only the mountain kingdom of Palisaire had stood in the hills to defend the mountain villages. Its king had died fighting at the side of Gerond's father. He too had been a kinsman.
It had begun six years before, but three years ago it had changed. For the first three, people had talked of strange lights in the sky and men who sought wealth and power. Now they spoke of destruction and death. It was said one had called upon the Lord of Evil to send one of his servants and he paid the price of its coming in the blood of innocents.
"Gerond, I followed the servant of evil here. I couldn't understand why so many evil things seemed to have begun before I arrived."
"Doctor, the woman who held me captive has been a minion of the one who called upon evil for many years. She named him Chuck, but also called him Charlie."
"Chuck! That's a human name!"
It suddenly began to make sense. The guns, the helicopters, even the genetically manipulated animals, were possible to someone who had the scientific background of twenty-first century Earth, but how had Chuck gotten from that century to the fourteenth?
"I should have asked before. Tell me about the woman who held you captive."
"She told me she had come from the stars. Her skin was more the color of yours than mine. She too was of great height. I shall never forget her cruel smile, nor her long red nails. She is called Varna."
The Doctor asked the innkeeper to take Gerond to Peris. The innkeeper swelled with pride. He would be most willing to share his humble wagon with his king.
He didn't have to take him far. The army was on the move. He accompanied his king in to meet the prince six days after leaving his inn. He was in the midst of a war council with the baron.
Gerond stepped into the council and began sharing the knowledge he had gained as captive. The innkeeper was proud of his boy king.
"How did that bitch get here?"
"JO!"
"Sorry, Doctor, but that woman doesn't deserve the designation human."
"Actually, I was thinking of some rather nice dogs that would be insulted to know you'd classified Varna with THEM."
"Who's Varna?" Lib asked the Doctor. Jo was laughing too hard to talk.
"A particularly nasty woman I've had the displeasure of running into more than once. Now I know why so many people have been trying to take me alive."
Jo recovered enough to say, "Yeah, she wouldn't want you killed. She wants to do that herself. Slowly."
"I'm afraid I did make her a bit angry. She must have been terribly disappointed I didn't stay for our next 'date'."
"Doctor, she's going to be even madder than the last time you ran into her. You really gave her a bath."
"I need to know how she got here. Someone's done a great deal of nipping about through time. I assume it's this Chuck Gerond spoke of. I suspect he's from twenty-first century Earth. Varna's from the twenty-third century and they've made their way to the fourteenth on Laeth. I need more information."
"Not this time, Doctor! Not with Varna. Jiggling her web isn't dangerous. It's suicidal. If she hadn't wanted to sell you to the Daleks, she'd have killed you last time." Jo had seen that look on his face before. Usually, just before he decided to walk into a trap.
"This time I agree, Jo. It's
not worth the risk. She's not the real problem. Neither is Chuck."
They'd activated the rings. He hadn't really expected to get away with it. Actually, he'd been waiting to see how they planned on accomplishing it. He smiled at the memory of the four of them riding out of the inn yard trying to hide the fact they were sharing one very large hangover.
He seldom drank alcohol. It didn't take a great deal before he started to feel the effects, but he was a Time Lord. It took a very large quantity to incapacitate him. When he'd realized everyone in the inn was trying to get him drunk, he'd decided to let them. He'd had to be careful not to laugh at the way Gerond diligently kept his cup about two-thirds full. It would have spoiled the feeling of camaraderie if they'd discovered he was on to them.
He'd wandered a good distance from the camp. He'd needed some time alone. Now that there were four with him, they'd decided he shouldn't have to stand guard duty while they slept each night. They took turns keeping him company. Or keeping an eye on him.
He heard Leoht whinny in rage and turned to run for the camp. He raised his hands slowly. Four men stood less than three meters from him. All held weapons and all were pointed at him. Varna walked out of the trees.