The Sands Of Time Part 24

The Doctor shook his head. 'Not when Tegan and I altered the only sketch made by the expedition so that it was inaccurate.'

Atkins gaped. 'But, why Doctor?'

'Because it is the name of Nephthys, and it conceals the mechanism that opens the door to the secret inner chamber we told you about.' He reached out, hesitantly, and pressed in the middle of the open square in the centre of the cartouche. As soon as he pushed, he whipped his hand away as if burned.

They watched and waited in silence for several seconds. But nothing happened.

The Doctor exhaled heavily. 'Well thank goodness for that,' he said.

The murder of Sir John Mapleton and the theft of a single bracelet from his collection made the local early evening news. Tegan and Atkins had spent the afternoon in town, each finding that they enjoyed the other's company.

Atkins was secretly impressed with Tegan's openness and her forthright nature. Tegan admired Atkins' control and reserve.

The Doctor had warned Tegan before they set off that she was not to explain too much to Atkins. But in fact Atkins did not seem interested in explanations. He took everything in his stride, nodding politely at Tegan's inadequate descriptions of cinemas, aeroplanes, and the one way system.

They arrived back just after six-thirty, and found the Doctor, Prior and Vanessa sitting in the lounge watching the television. 'Don't even ask,'

Tegan told Atkins, and he shrugged and settled into an arm chair.

'Good grief,' Prior said as the article finished. They had all listened in silence, the Doctor, Tegan and Atkins exchanging worried glances when a picture of the bracelet was shown. Vanessa sat silent and still, her eyes fixed on the television.

'I knew Mapleton,' Prior said. 'Only slightly. Did some business with him.

You remember?' he asked his daughter.

She nodded, but still said nothing.

'What sort of business?'

'Oh, bought a couple of pieces he was bored with. Vanessa fancied that bracelet, strangely enough. But he wouldn't part with it. I think we went for a necklace instead.'

'Why the bracelet?' Tegan asked.

'Oh, I don't know.' Vanessa seemed to switch back on. 'Just liked the look of it. It was years ago. I probably thought it would impress some boy at school.'

'It probably would,' the Doctor agreed. 'Certainly somebody wanted it very badly.

Vanessa had been feeling strange all day. She was tired and felt as if she was floating just above reality. At first she put it down to the excesses of the previous night's party, but by the evening she was wondering if perhaps you felt like this all the time after you turned twenty-one. It would explain the behaviour of many of the adult population, after all.

The news about Mapleton left her with an odd mixture of emotions. She was at once saddened by the loss of an acquaintance of her father's, and at the same time she experienced a bizarre feeling of excitement. And now she wanted to - to, well she was not sure what. But something had to be done soon.

She sat alone in the lounge, staring at the blank screen of the television, and listened to her mixed thoughts and emotions. It was almost as if they were in some way no longer her own.

'Could I ask you something?' The Doctor's voice jolted her out of her reverie.

'Of course, Doctor. How can I help?'

He sat in the armchair next to her, perched on the edge of the leather, hand clasped in front of him and elbows resting on his knees. 'Your great-great several times uncle, Lord Kenilworth, brought back various relics from one of his expeditions.' Vanessa nodded. 'Like your mummy, you mean.'

'Er, yes. Yes. Well, those relics included several which were all together inside the tomb, and which have some significance we don't yet really understand.'

'How do you know?' Vanessa asked. But in the back of her mind she felt sure she already had the answer.

'Oh, well, it's probably all in Kenilworth's notes which are down in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Anyway, there are four relics I'm interested in. One is a statue of a jackal. That was stolen many years ago, while the expedition was on its way home.'

'Anubis,' muttered Vanessa. 'He who is in the Place of Death.'

'Yes, absolutely,' the Doctor said slowly. 'I thought you weren't interested in Egyptology.'

'I'm not. But you pick things up.' Vanessa shrugged. Where had she heard the phrase before? Never mind, it wasn't important.

'Well, interested or not, the second relic is the ring your father gave you last night.'

Vanessa's hand immediately closed over the ring, and she pulled away, sinking deep into her armchair.

'It's all right,' the Doctor said quietly. 'I just want to be sure it stays safe.

Because the third relic is the bracelet stolen from Mapleton last night.'

'You think someone is after them?'

'What do you think?' the Doctor asked quietly. When she did not answer, he went on: 'The last of the relics is a carved statue of a snake. A cobra.

You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?'

His eyes were deep and blue. Penetrating, searching, pleading. Did she know where the snake was? 'No,' she told him. 'I don't.'

The Doctor nodded as if this was the answer he had expected. 'Well, just a thought.' He stood up.

'I'm sorry. You could try the family records, Kenilworth's account of his expedition might say what happened to it.'

'Thank you,' said the Doctor from the doorway. 'It might indeed.'

Vanessa watched the door close behind him. She would feel better after a good night's sleep. She wished James had not had to go away. She'd have done anything to keep him here, with her.

The Doctor did not sleep that night. This was not unusual. Instead he waited until the house was quiet, then went to Prior's library. He hunted out every volume he could find about the various dialects and styles of early Egyptian hieroglyphics. Then he looked for any doc.u.mentation of the myths about Seth, Nephthys, Osiris and Isis.

He read every word of each of the books at lightning speed. But it still took him almost until dawn. With his new and deeper insight into the legends and the writing, he hoped to be able to decipher more of the inscriptions he had copied down from the tomb. He was not sure when he would next get a chance to spend a useful amount of time on his studies, but even from what he remembered of the inscriptions, he did not feel that all was well.

In fact, he had several very nasty suspicions.

It did not take the Doctor long the next morning to convince Tegan and Atkins of the importance of finding the cobra. He also gave then a brief description of his conversation with Vanessa the previous night, and mentioned in pa.s.sing that he was still hoping to decipher more of the inscriptions.

'It seems a sensible suggestion,' Atkins volunteered. 'Although we already know where the cobra went.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes. To Macready. Still, given Vanessa's contact with the ring and the bracelet, I thought she might have heard what happened to the cobra.'

'Prior would be more likely to know,' Tegan pointed out. 'He's the expert in this stuff after all.'

'Good thought, Tegan. Let's go and ask him. At least he might be able to point us to some sort of inventory of snake relics in the collections of the world.'

They found Prior in the library. He limped over to them, leaning heavily on his sphinx-handled stick, and listened patiently to the Doctor's request.

'Did Vanessa ever tell you how she and James Norris met?' he asked as they sat round the library table.

'I thought he was the architect for the alterations you did to this house,'

Tegan said. Prior nodded. 'Indeed he was. But Vanessa and I knew him before that. He practically begged me for the work, in fact. He was young and enthusiastic.' Prior laughed. 'He still is, I suppose. Anyway, I had him draw up the plans and supervise the work. Did a d.a.m.ned fine job too, as it turned out. But I could see that Vanessa valued his company, even then.

And I must confess I like the lad myself.'

Atkins coughed quietly, and everyone turned towards him. 'He did mention, Mr Norris that is, that he originally came to you when he inherited some relics of Egyptian origin.'

Prior nodded. 'Indeed he did. He had no idea of their value, but he had read an article I wrote for Newsweek about how tourism and neglect are eroding the great sites of ancient Egypt and they should be preserved.

Shocking.' He leaned across the table. 'Do you realize that -' He broke off.

'Never mind, hobby horse of mine. Sorry.'

'Not at all,' the Doctor said. 'There's a long way to go before people understand the importance and delicacy of their own past.'

'Indeed so,' Prior nodded. 'Indeed so. Anyway, you were asking me about the cobra from Kenilworth's expedition.'

'And you were telling us about James Norris,' Tegan said.

'Well naturally,' Prior replied. 'After all, he's got it.'

'What?' The Doctor looked round at his friends. 'Does Vanessa know that?'

he asked quietly.

'Oh yes,' Prior said. 'It was one of the relics he brought to me for valuation.

Pure coincidence, he had no idea that it was almost a family heirloom.'

Prior gave another short bark of laughter. 'Wouldn't part with it though.

Vanessa tells me he's got it out on his mantelpiece in that cottage of his in Cornwall. I've told him a thousand times, anyone could just walk in and -'

He stopped short again, mouth open and brow creased as if a terrible thought had just occurred to him. 'My G.o.d,' he said quietly.

'What?' The Doctor was leaning across the table, his hands reaching out towards Prior. Prior turned to him gravely. 'I hope he's got it insured,' he said.

'Where is Vanessa?' Tegan asked. 'I haven't seen her all day.'

'Oh she went to have a lie down for a bit. She's been a bit under the weather last couple of days. Probably missing James. He's down in Cornwall.'

'At this cottage of his?'

'Yes, Doctor.'

The Doctor considered. 'Two of the four relics are missing already,' he said to Prior. 'Of the others, Vanessa has one and James Norris has the other.'

'You think they might be in danger?'

The Doctor nodded. 'It's possible,' he said. 'If you keep an eye on your daughter, perhaps you can lend Tegan a car and tell her how to find Norris's cottage.'

Prior nodded. 'I can lend you a map,' he told Tegan. 'But it's about a four-hour drive from here. Might even be five.'

'And why am I going to see Norris?'

'To warn him he might be in danger.'

'You could phone him,' Prior offered.

The Doctor shook his head. 'I'd rather Tegan saw him in person. He's more likely to take things seriously then. But perhaps you could call and make sure he's there when she arrives.'