Tarak tapped the hilt of his dagger. 'There's this.'
Evil as they were, Romana could not face watching Zargo and Camilla being stabbed in their sleep. 'It's not a wooden stake, is it, Tarak? We're supposed to be looking for Adric, remember?'
Reluctantly, Tarak moved away, and they began exploring.
Finding Adric was easy enough. He lay on a smaller bier hidden in a curtained alcove, stretched out like Zargo and Camilla, and with the same corpse-like stillness.
Tarak looked at Romana's worried face. `What's the matter? It is your friend, isn't it?'
Romana nodded. 'Oh yes, it's Adric all right. I'm just wondering if we've found him in time.' She peered down at him. 'They can't have made him one of them so soon. Surely the mutation must take some time?'
Suddenly Adric's eyes snapped open, but his face was cold, expressionless and he showed no signs of recognising Romana.
'Adric,' she called softly. 'Adric, wake up!'
He stared blankly at her. `What? What are you doing here, Romana?'
`Trying to rescue you! Come on, Adric, wake up!'
Adric stared at her, and suddenly his eyes seemed to focus on her face. `It's like a dream,' he murmured. 'Someone was staring into my eyes, whispering to me about power and eternal life.' He rubbed a hand over his eyes. `They were talking about initiating me, at some big ceremony tonight.'
Romana helped him to sit up. `Come on, Adric, we've got to get out of here.'
A mocking voice behind them said, 'I think not!'
Tarak and Romana whirled round---to see Zargo and Camilla advancing on them.
It was a horrifying sight. The two had awakened in the full vampire state, eyes red and glowing, hands outstretched like hooked talons, sharp canine teeth gleaming at the corners of their mouths.
Tarak drew his dagger and sprang to the attack. His target was Zargo, but Camilla caught his wrist with one hand and twisted the dagger from his grasp, so that it clattered to the floor. For the first time, Romana realised the full extent of the vampire's appalling strength. Tarak was a powerfully built man in the prime of his life, but Camilla held him effortlessly with one hand. Changing her grip to the front of his tunic, she lifted him clear of the ground, and hurled him across the chamber towards Zargo.
Zargo caught the flying body, lifted it still higher, and then dashed it down upon the bier.
The force of the impact snapped Tarak's neck, and he rolled lifeless to the floor.
Camilla ran to the body and crouched beside it, clawing greedily at Tarak's neck.
Realising there was no pulse, she looked at Zargo, her face twisted horribly with rage and disappointment.
`You have killed him! The blood of the dead is stale and flat. I must feast on the living!'
Zargo smiled horribly, waving a claw-like hand towards Romana. 'No matter. We still have the girl.'
They advanced on Romana.
Rolling swiftly from his bier, Adric snatched up Tarak's dagger by the blade, drew back his arm, and threw with all his strength.
The heavy knife flashed across the room, and thudded into Zargo's heart.
Zargo halted his advance. He looked down at the dagger-hilt projecting from his chest.
Breathlessly Adric and Romana waited for him to fall dead to the ground.
But vampires do not die so easily.
Zargo smiled.
He plucked the bloody dagger out of his body, and tossed it away.
Claw-like hands outstretched, the vampires moved in to the attack.
The Traitor
Romana and Adric edged away until their backs were to the chamber wall.
The two vampires poised to spring-then a voice called, 'No!'
Aukon was standing at the foot of the stairs. Such was the authority in his voice that despite their ferocious hunger for blood, the vampires checked their attack.
'Go, Aukon,' hissed Zargo. 'It is too late to interfere now.'
'I said no,' repeated Aukon angrily. 'Get back! The boy is the Chosen One, soon to be joined with us. He is not for you.'
'The girl, then,' hissed Camilla. 'Let us have the girl.'
'The girl is a Time Lord, one of the ancient enemies of the Great One. She, too, has been chosen. She is to be held for sacrifice at the Time of Arising.'
The Doctor was marching up and down the TARDIS in an agony of indecision. 'Romana and Adric just aren't coming, K9. And that probably means Tarak didn't get a chance to deliver his message. I'm going to have to go to the rebels myself.' The Doctor paused. 'But will they help, I ask myself?'
'Probability of indigenous dissident group rendering effective assistance -very low,' said K9 gloomily.
'Sssh, I'm thinking,' reproved the Doctor. `I've got to make a very impressive entrance, something that will win them over immediately ... Got it!'
He hurried over to the TARDIS console and began making minute adjustments to the navigational circuits, muttering to himself meanwhile. `Now, what we need is a very slight spatial movement, and no temporal displacement whatsoever. Very tricky, these short hops, K9!'
'Relative smallness of E-Space should render fractional displacements less complicated to attain, Master.'
`Let's hope so,' said the Doctor. 'Good boy, K9. Well, here we go!' He operated take-off controls, and the central column of the control console rose and fell. It was the beginning of a journey that would be over almost as soon as it began.
Kalmar was arguing furiously with Veros, who seemed to have become far more militant since the disappearance of his friend Tarak. `We can't let Ivo and the villagers attack alone, Kalmar. They'll all be slaughtered.'
'And will it help if we are all slaughtered with them, just as we're beginning to win back some of the old knowledge? I refuse to throw away everything we've gained!'
Veros aimed a vicious kick at the old video console. 'I'm beginning to think Ivo was right, Kalmar. These toys mean more to you than the lives of our friends.'
'These toys, as you call them, are the slow secret of victory,' said Kalmar furiously. `Why do you think They are so afraid of knowledge, of science?'
'Your precious Doctor was a scientist, wasn't he?' jeered Veros. `Like all the rest, he vanished in the Tower.'
The argument was interrupted. With a wheezing, groaning sound, a strange blue box appeared from nowhere, materialising in the very centre of the rebel HQ.
The astonished rebels leapt back, some fleeing in terror, the bolder ones, like Veros snatching up weapons.
The door of the blue box opened, and the Doctor stepped out. 'I'm awfully sorry to drop in on you unannounced like this, but we do seem to have a bit of a crisis on our hands.'
Adric and Romana were taken from the Inner Sanctum in chains, and held under guard in the State Room. They stood talking in low voices, while Zargo, Aukon and Camilla held an equally low-voiced conference on the dais. Zargo and Camilla occupied the twin thrones, while Aukon stood between them. Adric looked at the three sinister figures in astonishment. He looked helplessly at Romana. 'Look, how about telling me what's going on here?'
'You mean you still don't know?'
'I told you, I was hypnotised or something. It's all like a kind of nightmare.'
Romana drew a deep breath. 'Well, it's a very long story, but according to the Doctor ...'
On the dais, Aukon was saying, ' We stand on the very threshold of our triumph. I have communed with the mind of the Great One, and he is ready. Thanks to the blood and the souls that we have fed him, his body is healed of his wounds. He is regenerated, whole once more.'
'He will arise tonight?' whispered Zargo.
'It is certain.' There was utter confidence in Aukon's voice. `When all is prepared, we shall go to the Resting Place and summon him.'
'He will be hungry when he awakes,' said Camilla gloatingly.
Zargo said, 'Ivo and his villagers will be able to perform one last service for their Master.'
'And when they have all been devoured?'
Aukon's vo
ice sank to an ecstatic whisper. 'We shall leave this miserable space-trap for the real universe. A universe full of rich, fat worlds, teeming with life. We shall suck their blood until they are empty husks, then move on to more worlds, and again on to more - countless inhabited worlds, waiting to feed our hunger!'
'We have served a thousand years - for this!' muttered Zargo.
Aukon's voice was stern. 'This night our servitude will end, and our glory begin. But remember, the proper rituals must be carried out, or the Great One will be displeased.'
Zargo glanced across at Adric. 'And what of the boy, Aukon, your Chosen One? I have told you how he attacked me.'
'He was newly woken. It is possible his mind was confused. I shall examine him further. If he satisfies me, then you shall initiate him as planned - after the sacrifice.'
Camilla looked hungrily at Adric. 'And if not?'
'If not, then he dies with the girl!'
The Doctor was doing his best to put some heart into the rebels, but it wasn't easy. Only Veros seemed convinced of the need for immediate attack. Kalmar and most of the rest were still dubious, though the Doctor was beginning to win them over.
'I know there are many difficulties,' admitted the Doctor. 'Lack of energy-weapons, no real battle experience, almost insurmountable odds.' The rebels started looking down-cast, and the Doctor decided they needed a bit of inspiration. Borrowing freely from his favourite Earth poet, he went on, 'But he who outlives this day and comes safe home, shall stand a-tiptoe when this day is named and rouse him at the name of E-Space!'
The rebels gave a ragged cheer. The Doctor beamed and made a mental note that some day he must pop back to Elizabethan London and tell young Will how well his speech had gone down. 'Well, that's the problem, gentlemen, and there's got to be an answer!'
'But what?' asked Kalmar dubiously.
'That is the question,' said the Doctor solemnly, borrowing from Shakespeare again.
'It's obvious,' said Veros. 'We join forces with Ivo and attack the Tower. Tarak was right.'
'And where is Tarak now?' demanded Kalmar. 'We dare not attack the Tower until we are ready.'
'You've got to be ready,' said the Doctor urgently. 'What's more, you've got to be ready tonight, before that creature wakes to its full life, and strength. You people have had a thousand years to rid yourselves of this evil - now all you've got left is a few hours.'
Kalmar said sceptically, `Doctor, as one man of science to another, do you really expect me to believe that some great creature has slept for a thousand years beneath the Tower-and that now it is about to awake and destroy us all?'
'Where do you think Zargo and his friends get their power from?' asked the Doctor desperately.
'From their knowledge,' said Kalmar. 'From science!'
'But they abandoned science - you've the proof of that all around you. Their power comes from the Great Vampire himself! If only I could show you what we're up against ...'
'Perhaps you can,' said Kalmar slowly. 'With the scanner.'
'What scanner?'
'That console you got working for us - I discovered another facility, Doctor. We can scan all the surrounding countryside - including the Tower. If this creature you speak of exists ... '
The Doctor was already sitting at the console his hands flickering over the controls. 'Right, Kalmar! In a moment, you'll be able to see that I'm telling you the truth. Gather round, gentlemen!'
The rebels crowded aroundthe screen and found themselves gazing at a snowstorm of statc. There were angry growls.
'Hang on a minute,' protested the Doctor. 'It'll take a minute or two for the picture to steady. Ah, there we are!'
The snowstorm was replaced by a blurred computerised picture of the Tower. 'Visible spectrum's a bit weak at the moment,' muttered the Doctor. He made some more adjustments, and the picture began to pulse. 'Infra-red, picking up life-forms. Now, if I go into x-ray and scan below the Tower ...'
The picture on the screen scanned down to the base of the Tower, until it took in the ground beneath. The Doctor adjusted the picture to cover the amphitheatre itself, and soon an enormous shape appeared on the screen. It was a hideous combination of man and bat, and it seemed to stir uneasily in its sleep.
'If you remember we're sing it on the same scale as the Tower,' said the Doctor, 'you'll get some idea of the size.'
'Incredible,' muttered Kalmar.. 'Do you really mean to tell me that something that size is a living creature?'
The Doctor touched another control, and soon a steady thump-thump, thump-thump filled the rebel HQ.
'What is it?' whispered Veros.
'The heart-beat of the Great Vampire,' said the Doctor solemnly. 'Well, Kalmar, you've seen it and heard it. Now are you convinced?'
Shaken, Kalmar turned to Veros. 'See if you can raise Ivo on the communicator. Tell him to join us here, with every available man. We attack tonight!'
Romana was just coming to the end of her account. 'So if the Doctor's suspicion is right, all the vampires in the stories are sort of race memories of the real thing.'
'Ah yes, the Doctor,' said Adric thoughtfully. 'Is he going to come back from the TARDIS?'
'Well, we were supposed to be joining him thereafter I'd rescued you.'
'Only you didn't, did you?' said Adric slowly.
'Didn't what?'
'Rescue me. Tarak got killed, you got caught, and now the Doctor's safely out of it. He can clear off in the TARDIS whenever he feels like it. Maybe he will, you couldn't blame him.'
Romana was furious. 'Adric, how dare you!'
'It rather looks as if this is one time the goodies might not win after all,' said Adric deliberately. `You and the Doctor don't seem to be doing too well.'
`You're not doing so much better yourself,' said Romana scathingly. `You stow away in the TARDIS, wander straight into trouble, and then expect us to come and rescue you. I'd be in the TARDIS myself now, if I hadn't come back for you - and poor Tarak would still be alive.'
For a moment Adric looked rather shame-faced, then he said loudly. `Still, I'm all right, aren't I?'
'You are?'
'Now look, I've been offered a partnership. Power and eternal life, they said.'
'Adric, they're vampires. Do you want to become one of them?'
Adric shrugged, `Well, from what you said, you seem to be on the menu tonight-and if it's a choice between that, and being one of the diners ... I mean, there's not a lot of sense in two of us getting the chop.'
'When the Doctor gets back from the TARDIS, Adric - and he will come back for us - he's going to be depending on your help-'
She broke off as Aukon left the dais and came towards them.
Deliberately, Adric raised his voice. 'Why am I being kept prisoner like this? She's the sacrifice, not me. I'm supposed to be the Chosen One!'
Aukon gave him a penetrating stare. 'And your attack on Lord Zargo?'
'Look, I'd just woken up from some kind of trance and I saw the girl being attacked. I knew she was a friend of mine, and I tried to help her. Of course, I didn't know what was going on, or I'd have thought twice about it.'
'Oh, Adric, no!' said Romana.
`Sorry, Time Lady. One of my family's died for you lot already. I reckon one's enough.'
Romana tried one last appeal. 'Adric, do you know what happens to vampires when they die?'
'Aah, but they don't die, do they, Lord Aukon?' said Adric cunningly.
It was not so much Adric's protestations of loyalty that impressed Aukon as the look of frozen horror on Romana's face.
Aukon summoned a guard. `Release the Chosen One. Take him and prepare him for the ceremony.'
A guard unfastened Adric's chains, and led him away.
`Prepare the sacrifice also,' ordered Aukon.
Two guards grabbed Romana and dragged her off. Aukon turned back to Zargo and Camilla. `Come, let us prepare ourselves, also. The Time of Arising is near!'
Attack on the Tower
By no
w the rebels had been joined by Ivo and his men. The Doctor had convinced them of what they had to do - the remaining problems concerned how they were going to do it. The Doctor had sketched a rough map of the terrain on the flyleaf of one of Kalmar's precious textbooks. He was jabbing at it with his pencil. `Now then, our HQ is here, and the Tower is there. We can take the Tower between us, I'm pretty sure of that.'
`What about Aukon?' demanded Ivo.
'Aukon and his friends will all be in the Resting Place. They'll be distracted by the ceremony.'
'What about the guards?'
'Well, there are ways of dealing with guards. What worries me is how do we deal with that?' The Doctor gestured towards the bat-shape on the screen.
'I thought you said your people killed them by the thousand,' said Kalmar mildly.
'Only after a long and bloody war, which we almost lost. Apparently it was the bow-ships that saved the day. They fired mighty bolts of steel to pierce the vampire's heart.'
'Isn't there some other way to kill them?' growled Ivo.
The Doctor shook his head. 'I doubt it. Their cardiovascular system is incredibly efficient, you see. They can just seal off minor wounds. I'm afraid there are very practical reasons for the traditional stake through the heart.'
'Suppose we sharpened a tree trunk?' suggested Ivo, without much enthusiasm.
'I doubt if even that would be big enough,' said the Doctor thoughtfully. 'Anyway, how would we propel it? No, what we need is a mighty bolt of steel.' Suddenly the Doctor leapt up. 'Of course, that's it. An arrow of steel and we've all been looking straight at it all this time.'
The Doctor rubbed his hands. `All right, gentlemen, gather round. We must finalise our plans.' He looked around the group, some of whom were nearly as old as Kalmar. 'Now, I don't think all of you need to take part in the attack,' said the Doctor gently. 'What we need is a kind of commando force of the youngest and fittest men from both groups.'
'Will you lead us to the attack?' asked Kalmar.
Ivo frowned, but cheered up when the Doctor said, 'No, Ivo's the best man for that. I shall have other things to worry about. However, I can lend you a very useful tool. Armoured, immune to hypnotism, and a dead shot with a nose laser!'
Doctor Who - [113] - [E-Space 2] - [Vampire Trilogy 1] - State Of Decay Page 7