Just like a castle in a storybook.
And the mullioned window stood half-open.
The rope Jamie had climbed disappeared through the window, and as his head and shoulders reached the stone windowledge, he gave the rope a final tug to make sure that it was still securely fastened.
To his amazement, a girl"s voice responded with a cry of: " Ouch! Ouch! " "
And a second later, a beautiful girl appeared at the open window. She had long blonde hair, under a silver coronet, and a filmy, fairy tale dress and Jamie realised with some embarra.s.sment that her long blonde tresses were plaited into a long braid, and the long braid went on and on and eventually turned into the "rope" which he had been climbing.
Now the beautiful girl regarded him with some severity, and said: "I suppose you know that hurts."
Jamie swallowed hard and said in a small voice: "Oh, gosh I mean I"d no idea I mean is that really all yours?"
The fairy tale princess sighed: "Of course it is. I don"t mind people climbing I"m quite used to it, actually...
Only you would keep tugging so."
"I"m awfully sorry," Jamie apologised.
She dismissed this with a wave of her aristocratic hand, and then asked: "Are you a prince?"
"No... Why?"
"You"re supposed to be. I"m a princess but you probably know that. My name is Rapunzel. I dare say you"ve heard of me: I"m quite well-known, as princesses go."
Jamie frowned, holding on to the edge of the windowsill with his fingertips. This seemed a very extraordinary place to be having such an extraordinary conversation.
"Rapunzel... " he mumbled. "Aye, I reckon I"ve heard the name, but "
"You"re not a woodcutter"s son, by any chance?"
"No, I"m the son of a piper, and my arms are getting tired, so "
"A piper"s son? You must be Tom!" she decided. "I"ve heard of you too."
"Wrong again, your Highness; my name"s Jamie McCrimmon. My arms are just about to come out of their sockets, so if you don"t mind "
"Jamie McCrimmon?" She shook her head regretfully.
"No, I"m afraid I"ve never heard of you, Mr McCrimmon how very disappointing. In that case I think you"d better go. Goodbye."
She turned as if to move away and Jamie called desperately: "But wait a minute, your Highness Rapunzel.
You can"t leave me like this! If I let go I"ll fall to the bottom of the cliff, and that would make a terrible mess...
Please let me climb in through the window."
She looked doubtful. "I don"t think it would be allowed."
"I wouldn"t stay long," he panted, feeling his sweaty fingers beginning to slip on the smooth, hard stone. "Just a brief visit pa.s.sing through, you understand. Please!"
Rapunzel eyed him appraisingly, then relented. "Oh, very well... I must say it"s a great pity you"re not a prince
you"d have made rather a good one... Come along then but for goodness sake keep quiet!"
She moved back from the window, and Jamie made one last determined effort, and succeeded in hauling himself up over the stone ledge.
He landed headfirst, in a heap on the floor, and then picked himself up, tugging his kilt into place and dusting himself down not wishing to look too much of a fool in the eyes of the princess.
The princess? What princess?
Jamie looked around in bewilderment for the Princess Rapunzel was nowhere to be seen. He blurted out: "Princess your Highness where have you gone? This is no time to play hide and seek... "
His thoughts raced: not only had she disappeared but those yards and yards of blonde, plaited hair had vanished too all within a split second. It was like a conjuring trick.
"A trick... Of course another of those rotten tricks," he realised bitterly: and came to the same conclusion that the Doctor and Zoe had reached about Lemuel Gulliver. "But then she"s a character in a fairytale she"s not a real live person at all."
He sighed: she may only have been an illusion, but she was a very pretty illusion, and he would have liked to get to know her better... Oh, well there was no point in crying over spilled milk now: he had reached the castle at any rate; he would have to explore it further. Then he frowned, and took a closer look at his surroundings.
This was like no castle he had ever seen. The inside of this strange building was very different from the outside.
The room in which he found himself had no ancient stone walls, ma.s.sive oak doors, or wrought-iron gates.
It was all smooth, shining and brightly lit from some concealed source in the polished ceiling. Walls and shelves and work surfaces everywhere were of some unknown plastic substance and the whole place looked more like a laboratory than a fairy tale citadel. In fact, it resembled the heart of a gigantic computer or word processor though Jamie could not have been expected to recognise such a thing.
He watched the tape decks spinning and whirring at irregular intervals: small lights flashed red and green and it occurred to him that it was a little like the control panel of the ill-fated TARDIS.
In this random thought he was nearer the mark than he suspected for, although he was unaware of the fact, this room was only a few yards away from the Control Centre where, at that very moment the Master sat before his bank of television screens, and plotted his next move.
Another tape deck, which had been motionless, suddenly sprang into life at Jamie"s elbow with a loud whirring sound, making him jump.
He took a pace back, putting out a hand to steady himself and accidentally brushed against a switch which activated a microfilm projector. At once the screen on the opposite wall blazed with light, throwing up the image of a printed page the first page of a book.
"Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge"s name was good upon "change for anything he it. And Scrooge"s name was good upon "change for anything he chose to put his hand to... Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. chose to put his hand to... Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.
" Jamie read these words with blank incomprehension: he had never heard of these people just as he had never heard of Charles d.i.c.kens, or of Jamie read these words with blank incomprehension: he had never heard of these people just as he had never heard of Charles d.i.c.kens, or of A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol. Who was Scrooge? Who was old Marley, and how had he died? Was this meant as some kind of warning?
He tried to turn the microfilm projector off again, but pressed the wrong switch. A ca.s.sette recorder began to operate, and as the twin spools revolved, a female voice from a nearby speaker made the hairs p.r.i.c.kle at the back of Jamie"s scalp... He whirled around in alarm but there was n.o.body there. Just a recorded voice, which continued placidly: ""Christmas won"t be Christmas without any presents,"
grumbled, Jo, lying on the rug... "It"s so dreadful to be poor!"
sighed Meg looking down at her old dress... "I don"t think it"s fair for some girls to have lots of pretty things and " " fair for some girls to have lots of pretty things and " "
Click! Jamie found the right switch this time, and the voice was silenced in mid-sentence. Jamie found the right switch this time, and the voice was silenced in mid-sentence.
He looked again at the ca.s.sette in the machine and saw that it was labelled Little Women Little Women. Then he wandered on, searching the room for clues: every available corner was filled with shelves, all stacked with more ca.s.settes and box-files all neatly labelled in a scholarly hand: Treasure Treasure Island; The Pit and the Pendulum; Swallows and Amazons; Island; The Pit and the Pendulum; Swallows and Amazons; Alice in Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland.
Slowly he began to realise that he was in some strange library, where all the stories ever written had been safely stored away, in endless memory banks.
Only they were not all stories that had been written: some of them were stories that had yet to be worked out.
There were stories here that were still being composed, at this very moment.
(In the adjoining room, the Master picked up his pen and began to write... ) Jamie was startled yet again by another unfamiliar sound. He traced it to its source a tickertape machine, tucked away in a side alcove, which clattered busily as it spewed forth a thin paper ribbon with words printed upon it.
Inquisitively, he read the sentence as it unrolled before his eyes: and felt a sudden chill of fear.
"The Doctor and Zoe, unable to find their companion in the labyrinth, came at last to an underground lake where a new labyrinth, came at last to an underground lake where a new terror awaited them... " terror awaited them... "
"It seems to be an underground lake," said the Doctor.
He and Zoe stood on the sh.o.r.e of the lake: at intervals around the lakeside, rough niches had been carved out of the rock, and in each one stood a branched candelabrum.
The candleflames illuminated the walls of the cave huge columns of iridescent colour, formed by vast stalagmites and stalact.i.tes, like organ pipes, glowing with unearthly hues of red and ochre and gold. And the deep black waters at their feet reflected the scene in a perfect, unbroken mirror: two images, one reversed beneath the other for the water was not ruffled by the least wave or ripple, but remained totally still, as if it were waiting...
"It looks sinister," said Zoe at last. "Let"s go back Jamie can"t have got past this place there"s no way forward."
"Oh yes, there is," said the Doctor. "Nothing has been left to chance." And he indicated a flat-bottomed skiff, lying motionless alongside, tied up to a metal ring set into the rock.
"I think," he continued, "that we are meant to go on... not back."
Zoe had a sudden moment of panic. "No!" she said. "It"s all too easy it"s luring us on to something horrible it"s a trap!"
"This place is a collection of traps, one after another,"
replied the Doctor. "So far we have come through them unscathed. And I can"t bear to resign from the game now. I look forward to meeting this inventive games-player whoever he is face to face... Come along don"t be afraid."
"I am am afraid," said Zoe in a small voice. afraid," said Zoe in a small voice.
"I know... But come along anyway that"s what bravery means. If we were never afraid, there would be nothing to be brave about."
As he spoke, the Doctor untied the painter and helped Zoe into the boat. Stepping in after her, he pushed off from the rocky sh.o.r.e, and their frail craft glided out into the middle of the deep, inky waters.
There were no oars, no rudder nothing to propel the skiff and yet it floated serenely on, as if it knew the way to go.
"You see? We were expected," said the Doctor.
The lake was larger than they had at first thought, for when they circled around a rocky outcrop at the furthest point, they found that it opened up into another tunnel a subterranean river, still glowing with an eerie light from the strategically placed candelabra.
The rock formations were breathtakingly beautiful: the colours were beyond belief. On they went with the splendour of the geological display all around them gradually lulling their apprehensions.
"It"s like a dream," Zoe said at last. "I feel as if we might sail on like this for ever. As if the dream will never end."
But after a while, the boat seemed to change course. It floated towards the bank and there it stopped, at the foot of a flight of stone steps: and would go no further.
"We have reached our destination, I fancy," said the Doctor. "Come on let"s go ash.o.r.e, and see what new marvels are in store for us."
They left the skiff behind them and climbed the steps.
At the top, they found themselves in a small circular cavern, fenced in by yet more stalagmites, and lit by yet more branched candlesticks.
The cavern was empty, except for a marble statue at the far end the statue of a woman in Grecian draperies with thick sausage curls piled upon her marble head, looking rather like the Venus de Milo before she lost her arms.
The Doctor glanced at this piece of artwork with interest. "What have we here?" he enquired. "I imagine there must be at least one more test in store for us do you suppose this statue is something to do with it?"
"I believe you"re actually enjoying enjoying all this... " Zoe accused him. all this... " Zoe accused him.
"Well, it is is a challenge, isn"t it?" the Doctor retorted. a challenge, isn"t it?" the Doctor retorted.
"And the last statue we encountered was the unicorn so "
He broke off, and frowned. "Is it a trick of the light, or did you see the statue move?"
Zoe clutched his hand. "It can"t. Statues don"t move."
"Except the unicorn... That was alive and mobile, until it froze into a statue. But this time, I suspect the situation is reversed... "
Zoe swallowed hard. "It"s true it"s happening the other way around the statue is coming to life!"
There was a definite movement in the marble figure now: no question about that. Slowly the female figure stretched her limbs, and advanced towards them. But the most terrifying part was the transformation of her hair for on top of her n.o.ble brow, those thick sausage curls now seemed to have a life of their own. Each one began to writhe, wriggling and squirming; they raised their pointed heads and hissed, like a nest of serpents...
"The Medusa," said the Doctor simply.
The dream had not ended yet: it had turned into a nightmare.
In his control centre, somewhere high above them, the Master chuckled with glee, and continued to write his pen flashing across the paper.
In the adjoining room, quite unaware of this, Jamie continued to read the printed words that poured out on the ticker tape his eyes wide with horror.
"Now the Doctor and the girl were face to face with the Medusa... Medusa...
One glance from her eyes would turn them to stone. "
The Medusa continued to grope her way towards them but blindly, for her marble eyes were still shut. At any moment, the heavy eyelids would raise and the fatal gaze of those bewitching eyes would fall upon them, petrifying them for all time...
The Doctor grabbed Zoe and pulled her roughly towards him, averting his own gaze from the monstrous creature that approached them.