Doctor Who_ Ultimate Treasure Part 26

And in the haze of spray at its base hung a rainbow.

'Beyond the rainbow!' Thorrin said, his voice hoa.r.s.e with emotion. 'That is what the innkeeper meant. Rovan's treasure is behind there. It must be!'

He was haggard and unshaven, his face scratched and his hair awry. Arnella thought she saw an unhealthy grey pallor suffusing his skin. But there was a fire in his eyes that was sustaining him beyond the normal limits of endurance.

'Yes,' said her uncle. 'That's it. We're so close now Come on!'

And the two started forward.

'No,' said Brockwell firmly.

The two older men stopped, astonished by the tone of his voice.

Brockwell continued in the same manner.

'Think what you're doing! At this moment we cannot afford to think of anything but our survival. Marquis: I know what you hope to find, but you daren't risk Arnella's life in the process.'

'You don't understand, young man,' said the Marquis. 'I cannot risk failure now. A line of succession is more important than any one life. You cannot ignore duty and responsibility. I'm going on alone if need be.'

'Professor,' Brockwell begged. 'You always prized logic so highly. Can't you see this is an illogical risk? Nothing can be that important.'

'No, Will,' said Thorrin, almost sadly, 'it's you who aren't thinking logically. Do you think I have been chasing after trinkets and baubles all this time? It's so simple. Just ask yourself: what would have made somebody like Rovan leave his empire as he did? And why did he need to take such a treasure with him?

There's only one rational explanation, and I a.s.sure you it is worth risking everything for. Now, I'm going on. Whether you come or not is up to you.'

And he and Rosscarrino continued down the hillside towards the rainbow. Arnella looked up at Brockwell, tears in her eyes.

'We can't let them go alone,' she said simply.

'I know,' Brockwell sighed.

The Falcon Falcon lifted from the woods, leaving Qwaid's body lying where it had been dumped from the hatch. lifted from the woods, leaving Qwaid's body lying where it had been dumped from the hatch.

Gribbs and Drorgon sat very quietly as Alpha took the s.h.i.+p up into the morning sun. They were tired and frightened. Alpha did not seem to need sleep any more, and had spent the night considering the information to hand and reaching no useful conclusion. The silver face was impossible to readjust how angry and frustrated was he?

But then, as he levelled the s.h.i.+p off, he looked through the side port and suddenly said, 'Of course. How absurdly simple!'

The distant drone of the Falcon's Falcon's motors echoed out of the sky as they were breaking camp. The Doctor peered upward through the overhanging branches. motors echoed out of the sky as they were breaking camp. The Doctor peered upward through the overhanging branches.

'Now I wonder where he's going. Not back towards the Gelsandoran town.'

'He's coming lower,' said Myra. 'Maybe he's going to land...

They looked at each other for a moment, then Myra hastily pulled off her boots. Peri saw her toes were long and claw tipped.

She used them to good effect as she rapidly s.h.i.+nned up the tall tree at their backs until she had a clear view.

'I can see them. They're heading towards the valley wall..

there's a waterfall... Doctor, I can see a rainbow! Remember what the innkeeper said? The Falcon's Falcon's heading straight for the fall... heading straight for the fall...

h.e.l.l, it's gone through! Did you hear that? It went straight through the waterfall!'

'Dexel Dynes, it is time for you to come with me.' Dynes jerked his head away from the monitors with an uncharacteristic gasp of surprise.

Shalvis was standing in the cabin beside him. 'What? How did you get in here?'

'It does not matter,' said Shalvis placidly. 'As your devices have informed you, the quest has entered its final stage. I thought you would prefer to witness it in person. An "exclusive, on-the-spot report", as you would say.'

Dynes suddenly beamed. 'Just let me get my hat.'

Gribbs looked nervously about him at the s.p.a.cious cavern, which was lit by the twinkling diffuse light refracted through the wall of water that concealed its mouth. Drorgon, standing beside him, was clearly just as apprehensive.

Alpha, by contrast, rolled briskly past them and down the ramp. 'Come on, Gribbs, Drorgon,' he ordered, his voice rising above the muted thunder of the falls. 'Don't you want to be rich?'

Several tubes and canisters had been clipped to the mid-section of Alpha's tractor body, and in one hand he held a heavy-duty rifle blaster. Recessed lights in his casing snapped on, illuminating the mouths of a several smaller tunnels that led off the larger cavern. After examining them carefully for a minute, he chose the most central and started down it, with Gribbs and Drorgon following reluctantly after him.

There was a narrow path that ran around the lake at the base of the falls and behind the curtain of water.

Drenched by the perpetual mist the thundering torrent threw up from the lake, Thorrin, the Marquis, Brockwell, and Arnella picked their way cautiously over the slippery rocks and stepped gratefully into the cavern. The first thing they saw was the Falcon Falcon.

'I thought it was heading this way,' Arnella said.

Her uncle's shoulders sagged a little. 'Perhaps we're too late.'

'No,' said Thorrin. 'If the treasure was meant to be found that easily it would simply be lying here in the open. Look, there are some tunnel mouths at the back. There's still a chance for us to catch up.'

The s.h.i.+p seemed quite empty, and after carefully skirting round her they faced the row of smaller caves. The ground before them was hard and gave no clue to which one the others had chosen. Brockwell looked down a couple of them.

'These could lead anywhere. And we haven't any torches.'

'Then we shall explore each one by touch on our hands and knees if necessary,' said Thorrin. And without another word he led them into the left-hand tunnel.

The Doctor pointed to footprints in a patch of mud on the path beside the falls.

'Thorrin's party. They must be worse off than we are now Why didn't they have the sense to give up?'

'Well, we're here as well,' Peri pointed out.

'Perhaps our reasons are n.o.bler now,' said Falstaff softly, as though speaking to himself.

'So you're not after Rovan's treasure for yourself any more?'

Peri replied half mockingly.

Falstaff turned to her, wearing a more serious expression than any she had yet seen. 'Mistress Brown, there is more to life than beads and baubles.' He looked again at the path that led behind the waters. 'Honour p.r.i.c.ks me on. Yea but... no. I'll. do it this time.' And he led the way, leaving the others to exchange curious glances.

Red's claws scrabbled over the slippery rocks, but he reached the cavern behind the fall and there growled at the Falcon Falcon.

'It's all right, boy,' Peri a.s.sured him. 'I don't think there's anyone at home.'

The Doctor was looking about the cavern and the tunnels leading off it with a disappointed expression on his mild face.

'Hardly very original, is it?' he observed.

'What do you mean?' asked Jaharnus.

'Cryptic clues, waterfalls, caverns, dark tunnels. The traditional resting place of hidden treasure. But have the Gelsandorans included the usual tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs?'

'Doctor, please don't talk in riddles,' Peri begged.

'I mean will there be some final tricks or traps to catch us when our guard is down.' He suddenly rounded upon them, his usual flippancy melting away and his eyes flas.h.i.+ng in deadly earnest.

'Remember: this has all been, in part at least, an elaborate experiment run by well-mannered people who don't care whether we live or die! Take care where you put your feet and don't trust anything you see.'

And he stepped into the right-hand tunnel.

Thorrin's party no longer had torches, but patches of a mossy plant gave off a pale luminescence that, once their eyes had adjusted, was just sufficient to find their way. It was not, however, bright enough to distinguish the trigger stone in the floor that depressed with a click under Brockwell's foot. Circular panels set at waist height dropped away along both sides of the tunnel. Arnella screamed and Brockwell threw himself flat.

Nothing happened.

After a minute he very cautiously rose to his knees and peered into one of the holes exposed by the panels.

'It's empty,' he said in surprise.

They examined the other recesses. There were no crossbows set on hair triggers, or pneumatic blowpipes loaded with poisoned darts, or even modern energy weapons. they were all empty.

Alpha's enhanced vision system detected the tripwire before he triggered it. Moving well back he ordered Drorgon to toss rock at the wire.

A roof panel several metres farther along the corridor fell open with a crash, forming a steep ramp. Down this rolled a spherical rock that almost filled the corridor and bounced towards them at surprising speed. Before they could retreat further it crashed into Alpha's metallic body.

And rebounded without a sound and rolled to a stop.

Alpha reached out a glittering arm and prodded the boulder.

His fingers sank into a soft, yielding substance.

'A painted ball of sponge!' he exclaimed coldly.

Though the Doctor and Falstaff were leading at that point, the trap caught Peri and Jaharnus. They heard the click of a pressure plate and the whole length of corridor under them abruptly dropped, the end farthest behind them falling the most until it was a forty-five-degree ramp, sending them tumbling backward. Peri had a momentary horrified image of a wall of spikes waiting at the bottom of the incline, but before they could slow their fall they had hit.

Something crumpled. She waited for the pain but none came.

She saw the others peering down at them from above, Red whining sympathetically. 'Are you all right?' the Doctor called out anxiously. Jaharnus twisted round and picked up a shard of one of the spikes. It was thin card, rolled into a narrow cone.

'It's a bad joke!' Peri said angrily.

'Would you rather they'd been real?' said Jaharnus.

With a sudden hiss, clouds of white vapour billowed out of concealed vents, flooding the corridor in front and behind them.

'Run!' shouted Brockwell.

They dashed forward, trying not to breathe, but there was too far to go. Thorrin was forced to take in a shuddering lungful of air. Then another.

'Wait... I don't think it's dangerous.'

The others stopped in bewilderment. Curiously Thorrin examined one of the nozzles still fitfully expelling the vapour.

'I think this is just... dry ice,' he said, then looked about him angrily. 'Why are they toying with us?'

The tunnel sides fell away on either side of Alpha's party and large half-seen forms seemed to lunge out at them. Gribbs and Drorgon blasted several in their alarm before they realised sheepishly that they were simply skeletons of long-dead monstrous beasts.

'What is going on here?' Alpha demanded, but Gribbs and Drorgon could not give an answer.

The Doctor halted them before a suspiciously neat checkerboard-tiled section of pa.s.sageway with a large dark void above. Only by s.h.i.+ning a torch upward could they make out the hundred or so weighted spears suspended like lethal stalact.i.tes above the board. They found rocks and tossed them on to the tiles before attempting to cross. But strangely not one tile released a single spear.

Brockwell drew back his foot just before stepping on the fine grid of wires that crisscrossed the floor ahead. Cautiously, he removed his belt and used the buckle to short the grid out. There was an impressive crackling and sparks showered brilliantly from the sides of the pa.s.sage. He frowned and very lightly flicked a fingertip across two of the wires. The sparks erupted again, but he had felt not the slightest of shocks.

They crossed the grid to the accompaniment of further spectacular but quite harmless pyrotechnics.

Alpha turned a corner and stopped abruptly.

'What is it, boss?' Gribbs asked anxiously.

'Something different, Gribbs.'