He was shaking his head.
‘This quest,’ I said, ‘will hold us together for a little while longer, at least. You claim not to want war.’
‘Of course I don’t want war! You know full well I don’t want that!’
‘This may be the way to prevent Aurelian from taking battle to Conrad. He was set upon that course until Lancelot arrived. But if we are busy chasing…’ I smiled at him. ‘If we are busy chasing a mirage, we cannot waste ourselves waging war, can we?’
The Doctor contemplated my words. ‘You’re a wise man, Bernhardt.’
‘I only speak the truth as I see it.’
‘Hmm.’ The Doctor had taken out his favourite toy, the long thin piece of metal, and he twisted it round in his hands. ‘I suppose you might be right. Although what will happen when Aurelian finally realises that the Grail does not exist, I’m not entirely sure. What damage will that do to his knights’ faith in him?’
‘Perhaps by then we will have found the courage to face our end. Because the end is coming, Doctor. I know that, and I have long since made my peace with it. I hope that when it comes, I will have the courage to face it and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my lord, who is also my friend. And perhaps, on this quest, we might find something – some kind of fortitude, maybe, to bring back to the final battle.’
‘That might be all you hope for, Bernhardt,’ he said, ‘but I don’t surrender easily. I have to understand…These knights – who are they? Where have they come from?’
‘You said they came from Clara’s land,’ I replied. ‘Doctor, where is that, exactly?’
The Doctor waved his hands about. The device he was holding hummed and buzzed. ‘Oh, you know, very far away, over the mountains and so on…’
‘Do you mean from beyond the stars?’
He looked at me fiercely. ‘What do you know about what lies beyond the stars?’
‘You heard Aurelian,’ I replied. ‘There are stories that have come down to us through the centuries that say that the Lords of Varuz once walked amongst the stars.’
There was a pause. Then the Doctor said, ‘That could be figurative.’
‘It could indeed,’ I said. ‘Or it could be the simple truth. You forget that I have lived my whole life amongst devices the making of which I cannot comprehend,’ I said. ‘Lights that come on with the flick of a hand. Swords that burn. What else did our forefathers make? What voyages did they embark upon? Which strange worlds did they visit, as you now visit ours?’
He did not reply to any of this.
‘It is clear to me that Clara – and you – come from a world very distant from my own,’ I said. ‘And now this Lancelot has arrived too. What has brought you here?’
‘I keep saying this,’ said the Doctor, ‘but there was no Lancelot. No Holy Grail. Just stories…’
‘And yet here he is. Might it be that the Grail, too, exists?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Emphatically not.’ He sat frowning for a long while, the metal device spinning round and round in his hands. ‘Still, I suppose I’d better come along with you. To keep an eye on things.’
My heart lightened considerably to hear this news. ‘I would be very glad of your company on the road.’
He looked around my rooms, an ill-tempered expression on his place. ‘I would have thought you’d be glad to get away. It’s depressing here.’ Perhaps he caught something passing across my face, for he frowned and said, ‘Am I being rude again? Sorry. I suppose it was very nice once.’
‘It is home,’ I said, simply.
‘I miss Clara!’ he said. ‘She always tells me when I’m being rude! I hope she’s had the sense to go with the ambassador to Conrad.’
I laughed at that.
‘What?’ he said. ‘What’s funny?’
‘For a wise man, Doctor, you can be very foolish.’
‘I know that already. But how in particular am I being foolish now?’
‘I do not know exactly who that man was,’ I said, ‘but he was certainly no ambassador from Conrad.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘There were many clues,’ I said. ‘But chiefly – why would he be travelling alone? Where was his entourage?’
‘Didn’t he have a dangerous journey, though?’ the Doctor said. ‘Aren’t there bandits, or something?’
‘All the better to travel with companions then,’ I replied. ‘But there were other signs. He knew none of the forms of address, for example – and while I know that Conrad is a man of the people, even he takes the trouble to use the appropriate forms.’
‘Perhaps it was meant as an insult,’ the Doctor said.
‘Doctor,’ I said firmly, ‘that man was no ambassador from Conrad.’
‘All right, I’ll take your word for it. So who was he? What was he doing here?’
‘I have no idea. Looking for a Grail of his own, perhaps?’
‘Clara…’ he said. ‘I sent her off with him…’
‘She struck me as a young woman of great ability,’ I said. ‘If anyone can take our message to Conrad, I believe it will be her.’
‘I hope so,’ said the Doctor. ‘But who was that man if not the ambassador? What did he want? And exactly how many people are there wandering around Varuz these days?’
Too many, I thought, and soon our company would be another.
—
‘What did you think I meant?’ asked Emfil. ‘Is there some other treasure I should know about?’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Clara. ‘It’s just a story. So tell me about the Glamour. What is it? Is it jewellery? Is that why you wanted a better look at my pendant?’
Emfil chewed his bottom lip. ‘To be honest, Clara, I’m not sure…’
‘Well, what does it look like? You must know what it looks like?’
Emfil was embarrassed. ‘Not really, no…’
‘OK,’ said Clara. ‘So how long have you been looking for the Glamour, exactly?’
‘The whole of my adult life,’ Emfil said wistfully.
‘Lifespans may vary,’ said Clara. ‘How long is that?’
‘About ninety-seven—’ The word that followed went on for a good few seconds, and Clara wasn’t sure that all the sounds in it were within her hearing range.
‘I don’t have enough consonants to say that back to you,’ she said, ‘but ninety-seven sounds like it could be a lot of them. So you’ve been looking for this thing for ninety-seven whatever-they-ares and you don’t know what it looks like? Have you thought you might be in the wrong job?’
‘Any really important task is worth it,’ Emfil said, huffily.
‘It sounds a bit pie in the sky to me.’
Emfil looked up anxiously. ‘Pie in the sky?’
‘Figure of speech,’ said Clara. ‘Forget it. So what brought you here? Do you have a lead?’
Emfil looked at her suspiciously. ‘You’re very interested in my business all of a sudden. Why do you want to know?’
‘All right,’ said Clara. ‘Listen. I’m not interested in your Glamour, whatever it is. Really, anything that takes more than ninety-seven penny-whistle-and-kazoos to find – I’m just not interested. Do I look like a patient woman? I can hardly stand waiting for my morning cup of tea. I’m asking because you’re the only person around here who doesn’t want to come at me with a burny sword, and I’m trying to be nice. So what brought you to this world?’
Emfil was still wary, but he said, ‘There are other people pursuing it. I heard they’d come this way.’
‘Others?’ Clara laughed out loud. ‘How many aliens are there on this world right now?’
‘I don’t know. They might not be here at all. It’s not a precise science. I might be a star system or two out.’
‘Ah.’
‘So – I’ve explained my business,’ said Emfil. ‘What about you? What brought you here – you and your master?’
‘He is not my master, father, boyfriend, or anything else,’ Clara said firmly. ‘Is that cl
ear?’
‘All right, all right!’ Emfil flapped his hands in a soothing gesture. ‘Sorry!’
‘We’re friends, OK? Why is it so difficult for people to get that? We’re friends, and we’re travellers. Sightseers. We wanted to see somewhere nice.’ Clara looked around the mountainside. ‘And bits of it are nice – very nice – and bits of it are just plain weird, and on top of all that there’s going to be a war, probably, and I thought you were the means by which I could do something to stop that, but it turns out that you’re a stamp collector or whatever the space equivalent of that is, and now I don’t have anyone to take me to Conrad but I’m going to have to try anyway because the Doctor asked me to, and somehow I always end up doing what the Doctor asks me to, even when I think it’s a terrible idea. Anyway, that’s who I am.’
‘Sorry to disappoint,’ said Emfil, in a rather subdued voice.
‘I’ll get over it. So where are you going now?’
‘I haven’t decided,’ he said. ‘I suppose I could always go back to my ship…’ He didn’t look too happy at that idea. ‘But I’ve come an awfully long way…’
‘And you don’t want to leave without discovering whether the Glamour is here or not. Fair enough. Well, I’m going over the border,’ Clara said decisively. ‘To Conrad’s country. You’re welcome to come with me if you like. As far as I can tell, it’s a lot richer over there, so there’s probably more of the kind of stuff that you’re interested in. There might be some news about the Glamour too.’
‘Hmm…’ Emfil didn’t look convinced. ‘My readings did suggest that I needed to be in this part of the world…’
‘Long way to come to leave empty-handed. And, besides,’ she added cheerfully, ‘don’t forget that we’ve been banished from Varuz. And sunrise has been and gone. We’d better get moving, or else…’ She waved an imaginary laser-sword about. ‘Could get hot.’
‘All right,’ said Emfil, reluctantly. ‘I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm. I don’t want to get mixed up in anything unpleasant, though.’
‘Er, you’re the one who turned up in a war zone pretending to be an ambassador.’ Clara felt obliged to point this out.
‘I didn’t know it was a war zone!’
‘You didn’t do your research, then.’
‘It’s hard to do research,’ he said sulkily, ‘when the world you’re visiting doesn’t have a galactic presence.’
‘So you just turned up and hoped you’d get away with pretending to be an ambassador?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s worked in the past. Nobody expects an ambassador to reveal too much. They expect you to be playing your cards close to your chest.’
Clara shook her head. ‘Got to admire your nerve,’ she said. ‘Your bad luck they really were expecting one this time, I suppose. We had the same problem, now I think about it.’
Having made the decision to carry on in each other’s company, they set off again up the mountain path, trading stories of places they’d been and sights they’d seen. Now that he was no longer concealing his identity, Emfil turned out to be quite entertaining company. If you had to be banished, Clara thought, there were worse people to be banished with than someone who had seen so many interesting places. Still, the journey was tough going, and increasingly so, as the path led them higher, and became narrower and more treacherous underfoot.
After scrabbling along a particularly rough section that led them round the curve of the mountain they came out, unexpectedly, into a round hollow in the mountain. There was a small clutch of wiry bushes over towards one side and, with a shock, Clara realised there were people lying there. She froze, expecting them to jump up from their hiding place and approach them. But nobody moved. She took a cautious step towards them.
‘No,’ said Emfil, suddenly, his voice very sharp. ‘Don’t go any closer.’ He swallowed. ‘Let me go and look.’
He came back after a few minutes, visibly shaken. ‘Four of them,’ he said. ‘All dead.’
Clara shuddered. ‘How?’
‘I think lasers must have been involved – No, don’t go and look! It’s horrible.’ He took a deep breath, and then pulled out his scanner again. ‘There’s something I want to check, though.’
‘What?’ Clara asked, trying not to look over at the bushes.
‘The symbols on their clothes,’ said Emfil. ‘I think I recognise them.’ After a few minutes fiddling with the device, he nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘These people – they’re from Conrad’s country. Clara, you know who this probably is?’
‘The ambassador and his party,’ she said. ‘This is terrible. Who would do this?’
They heard a noise behind them: the crunch of footsteps on the rocky path leading their way. They looked round for somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere – only the path leading out of the hollow up the mountain. Even if they went that way, it would not take long for their pursuer to catch up with them, and the narrow pathways would put them at disadvantage.
‘Stuck,’ said Emfil. ‘This trip is turning out not to be one of my favourites.’
‘And I think we’re about to find out who killed the ambassador,’ Clara replied. ‘Let’s hope they’re prepared to let a couple of stray travellers go on their way.’
‘But we know where the bodies are buried!’
‘Play dumb,’ she said. ‘It usually works.’
Chapter
7
The footsteps had stopped. ‘Come on,’ muttered Clara. ‘Put us out of our misery…’
‘Don’t say that!’ said Emfil. ‘I don’t want to die.’
‘They might not kill,’ said Clara.
‘We’re witnesses to murder!’
‘This might not be the murderer—’
‘We’re in the middle of nowhere! Who else is it going to be?’
Fair point, Clara thought. But who would have murdered the ambassador? Was there anyone who would gain from that? Conrad wouldn’t; neither would Guena. Aurelian? Perhaps, if he wanted to send a message back to Conrad, but for all his flaws, Aurelian didn’t strike her as the kind of man to kill in an underhand fashion. He would prefer the open field, the sword in his hand, riding towards the enemy. Could this have been the act of one of his followers, acting on their own initiative?
‘Perhaps they’ve come for us,’ said Emfil, and gave a low moan. ‘Oh, how could we have been so stupid? This was always the plan, wasn’t it? Send us off into the middle of nowhere and then send someone after us to murder us.’
‘No,’ said Clara firmly. ‘The Doctor wouldn’t let them do that.’
‘The Doctor isn’t here!’
The crunch of footsteps began again; much closer now. Then a head appeared over the edge of the hollow – a dark head of hair – and a man lowered himself down to join them.
It was Lord Mikhail.
He was no longer dressed in his finery, but for his long journey. He had laid his hands upon a sword somehow, Clara noted, although she doubted that Aurelian would have let him keep one. Perhaps he had friends in the city, who had armed him secretly before he left. It struck Clara that for a man who had been sent away from his home, he seemed to be much more at his ease here in the mountains than he had been in the city.
‘If it was at all your intent to be quiet,’ Mikhail said, walking towards them with his hand around the hilt of his sword, ‘I can assure you that you were failing. Were you not concerned that Aurelian may have sent soldiers to make sure you left?’ He looked around and then, inevitably, he saw the bodies. He recoiled, and murmured something under his breath.
Clara said, ‘Are you responsible for that?’
He looked at her angrily. ‘What kind of man do you think I am?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Clara, honestly. ‘I’ve only ever seen you losing your temper with your uncle. I know you’ve been banished. And so you might be wanting to find a way to buy your way back into Aurelian’s favour.’
‘I do not want his favour,’ Mikhail said. ‘I want nothing from him. And
if this was the price…’ He shook his head. ‘Of course I did not do this evil thing – and nor, for that matter, do I believe that Aurelian would do this. He may not be a wise man, but neither is he a murderer.’
He took a deep breath, and then crossed over to the bodies, and began to search them. Clara was horrified. ‘Leave them alone!’ she cried. ‘Isn’t what’s happened to them bad enough?’
‘There may be messages,’ Mikhail said. ‘And, besides, I would like to have them lie peacefully rather than this. I would like them to have some dignity in death.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Clara said, in a quieter voice. Perhaps there was more to Mikhail than she had so far seen. ‘Can I do anything?’
He nodded, so she helped him move and then cover the bodies.
When this was all done, Mikhail stood and sighed. Emfil, at his request, had gone to fetch water, and Mikhail and Clara washed, thoroughly. ‘There should be a burial,’ Mikhail said. ‘Words said over them to help them to rest. But I cannot do that here. We must go on. We will tell Conrad’s people where to find them, and hope that, in time, the right thing can be done.’
‘Tell Conrad’s people?’ said Emfil.
‘That is where we are all heading is it not?’ Mikhail said. He looked thoughtfully at Emfil. ‘You, sir, how did you survive this massacre?’
‘Eh?’ said Emfil.
‘Were you not with the others of your party when they were attacked? Or did they defend you while you made your escape? It was brave of them if so.’
Clara realised that the young lord was still labouring under the mistaken belief that Emfil was the ambassador.
‘For that matter, why did you not bring your whole party to Varuz?’ Mikhail said. ‘Aurelian likes pomp. He would surely have been impressed. You might not have been sent away so peremptorily.’
‘Yeah,’ said Clara. ‘You know, we should probably explain something.’
‘I’m not the ambassador,’ said Emfil. ‘I’m just a visitor. Sorry.’
Doctor Who: Royal Blood (Glamour Chronicles, Book 1) Page 8