She found herself in a great stone cavern, dimly lit by a flickering torch set into a wall bracket, its roof supported by many huge pillars. Hippias was nowhere in sight, although his abandoned sword lay close to the door. She turned back and hammered on the door.
"Let me out," she screamed. "Let me out!"
A shattering roar came from behind her.
Jo turned and saw a terrifying creature stalking towards her out of the shadows. The body was that of a huge, immensely muscular man, wearing a leather loin-cloth.
The head was that of a bull.
The creature threw back its head, gave a savage roar, and charged towards her.
14.
The Captives
Lakis was by nature a timid girl, but in this emergency she found unexpected reserves of courage. Waiting for a moment when Crito was talking to the guards, she dodged around them and dashed into the royal chamber.
Dalios was still talking to the tall white-haired stranger. The two men looked up surprised as she skidded to a halt. "Lord King, forgive me! Lord Hippias and the High Priest have gone to the lair of the Guardian, followed by the Lady Jo."
The Doctor leaped to his feet. "What? Lord King, tell me how to reach them!"
The many pillars supporting the chamber roof were what saved Jo"s life. The Minotaur moved quickly, but it was relatively clumsy, and the smaller Jo was much more agile.
Time after time, the creature charged with a savage roar. Time after time it was left baffled, swinging its great head to and fro as Jo ducked into hiding behind a pillar.
Unfortunately the s.p.a.ce before the door was clear. Even if the door hadn"t been locked, there was no chance of reaching it without being seen.
Jo flattened herself behind a pillar, gasping for breath. She was getting very tired.
The Minotaur however, seemed as fresh as ever. And if Jo once started to slow down ...
It was searching behind the pillars now, looking for her. As the snuffling of its breath came closer, Jo prepared for another spring - and wondered how many more she could manage . . .
The Doctor came haring into the temple - and found his way barred by Krasis and a temple guard.
"Seize this intruder," screamed Krasis.
The guard raised his trident-spear, but the Doctor was in no mood for interruptions.
Wrenching the spear from the guard"s grip he swung it round horizontally and thrust it forward under the chins of both Krasis and the guard, so that they were held back against the wall on tiptoe. Maintaining his grip with one hand, the Doctor s.n.a.t.c.hed the key from Krasis"s belt with the other.
"Sorry to hold you up like this, Krasis, but I need that key!"
Snapping the trident across his knee the Doctor disappeared through the secret door, leaving Krasis and the guard gasping for breath behind him.
Somehow Jo had been driven away from the main door, into a network of tunnels and pa.s.sages on the far side of the hall. All the time she could hear the bellowing of the Minotaur as it pounded after her. The creature was hunting her, she realised, driving her towards the heart of its maze.
"The Doctor came through the door and looked around the underground hall.
"Jo!" he called. "Jo, where are you?"
From the far side of the hall he heard a faint cry of, "Doctor!" It was followed by a distant bellow The Doctor began running towards the sound.
The Minotaur"s plan had succeeded at last.
Jo was trapped in a blind alley at the end of which was a shining mirror set into the wall. The Minotaur lowered its head and bellowed, ready to charge.
Exhausted, Jo awaited her fate.
Suddenly Hippias appeared behind the Minotaur. He had been lost in the maze all this time, tracking Jo and the Minotaur by the sound of the creature"s bellowing.
Faced by the terrifying sight of the Minotaur when he had first come through the door, Hippias"s nerve had broken. Throwing down his sword, he had fled into the darkness of the maze.
Now, seeing Jo in danger, his courage returned. "Stay back!" he shouted. The creature whirled round. s.n.a.t.c.hing a blazing torch from its bracket on the wall, Hippias hurled it at the creature"s head - and missed.
The crushing force of the Minotaur"s charge sent him to the ground. Scrambling to his feet, Hippias dodged behind the monster, leaping upon its back in a vain attempt to throttle it. . .
Reaching up and seizing him in its great hands, the Minotaur held Hippias high above its head. It stalked towards the cowering Jo at the end cul-de-sac and hurled the struggling body of Hippias at her. Jo leaped aside. Hippias crashed into the mirror, shattering it into fragments and exposing the wall beyond. He fell to the ground and lay still.
Swinging round on Jo, the Minotaur prepared to charge again - when there came another distraction. This time it was a shout of "Toro! Ah, Toro!"
It was the Doctor. He had slipped off his cloak and now he was holding it so the red silk lining faced the Minotaur, and he was giving the traditional cry of the Spanish bullfighter: "Toro! Hey, Toro!"
The Minotaur charged. The Doctor flicked the cape aside and the Minotaur shot past, missing him by inches.
As quick as any fighting bull in the arena, the Minotaur spun round and charged again. Once again the Doctor flicked the cape, and this time as the creature charged past he dealt it a savage chopping blow with his fist on the back of its bull-neck. The Minotaur stumbled and fell to its knees. It shook its head and bellowed dismally.
The Doctor turned and ran to Jo, who was watching terrified, pressed against a stone wall. "Are you all right, Jo?"
"Just about! Are you all -" Jo broke off to shout a warning: "Look out, Doctor!"
The Minotaur had lumbered to its feet and was charging straight towards him. The Doctor leaped aside, taking Jo with him.
The Minotaur slammed into the stone wall with such incredible force that it smashed a hole in the wall"s centre section, bringing down not only the wall but part of the ceiling as well. There was a rumble of falling stone and the monster vanished beneath a pile of shattered masonry.
Jo turned and saw the shattered body of Hippias. "He saved my life, Doctor."
The Doctor made a quick examination. "I"m afraid he"s dead, Jo."
The Doctor saw a gleam of light beyond the shattered wall and peered into the chamber beyond. "It"s the Crystal Jo. The Crystal of Kronos!"
They clambered through the gap, and later they were standing before a circular stone alter on top of which reposed a huge glowing crystal, a larger version of the one used in the TOMt.i.t machine.
The Doctor pointed. "There you are, Jo, that"s what all the fuss is about."
"It"s beautiful - but at the same time it"s horrible. It gives me a funny feeling."
"Cheer up, Jo. Now we"ve got the Crystal, the Master"s little game is at an end.
"Not quite," said a voice behind them.
They turned and saw Krasis and several guards. They must have reached the chamber by its proper entrance, thought the Doctor.
"The game is just beginning," said Krasis triumphantly. "A pity that you will not live to see the end."
"That"s where you"re mistaken, Krasis," said the Doctor firmly. "And if you value your own life you will take me to see the King!"
The Doctor stared indignantly at the black clad figure in Dalios"s chair. "I asked to see the King!"
The Master smiled and spread his hands. "But I am am the King, Doctor - for all practical purposes. Didn"t Krasis tell you? A jolly fellow, our Krasis. He loves a joke!" the King, Doctor - for all practical purposes. Didn"t Krasis tell you? A jolly fellow, our Krasis. He loves a joke!"
The Doctor glared at Krasis"s malignant face. "Does he really?"
The Master settled himself comfortably in Dalio"s chair. "A complete success, our little palace revolution."
"What"s happened to King Dalios?"
"Why, nothing, Doctor."
Queen Galleia entered. The Master rose and" bowed.
The Doctor gave her a quick glance. "So Dalios is still alive?"
"Of course," said the Master. "Alive and treated honourably."
Galleia came majestically towards them. "Even though Dalios is an old man, the King is still the King."
The Master gestured towards the Doctor and Jo. "And now it seems I must thank you both!"
"What for?" asked Jo.
"Why for giving me the Great Crystal, Miss Grant."
The Doctor glared indignantly at him. "You don"t mean to say you still intend to go ahead with this stupid plan?"
"I most certainly do, Doctor. And tomorrow, you will both receive a suitable reward an introduction to the mighty Kronosl This time there will be no mistakes!"
"I wouldn"t count on that," said the Doctor angrily.
The Master snapped his fingers. "Take them away!"
The Doctor and Jo were led away.
The Master turned to Galicia. "You seem discontented, my love. You would question my decision?"
"Perhaps. It depends what you mean to do."
"You must learn to obey, my love. To do my will. To carry out my commands like a soldier."
Galleia"s eyes blazed angrily. "Or like a servant girl? You must learn, my love my love, that Galleia is a Queen." She strode disdainfully away.
The Master stroked his beard and sighed. It looked as if their a.s.sociation was to be a short-lived one after all.
The Doctor and Jo were both chained to the wall in the same bare stone cell. They were reacting to imprisonment very differently.
The Doctor was leaning against the wall in the most comfortable position he could manage which wasn"t very comfortable at all. Jo, meanwhile was wrestling frantically with her chains.
"Any luck?" asked the Doctor.
She shook her head. "They didn"t include Atlantean chains in my UNIT escapology lessons. It"s no good."
The Doctor nodded consolingly. He had their given their chains a thorough inspection on their a and decided that, since he had left his sonic screwdriver in the laboratory, there was nothing to be done.
Moreover, he was in a strangely philosophical mood, as if he had only to bide his time and somehow things would work out. A strange feeling for someone chained to a dungeon wall condemned to annihilation . . .
Jo felt no such optimism. "Doctor, what are we going to do?"
"We"ll just have to play it by ear."
"What will happen if the Master wins?"
"The whole of creation is very delicately balanced in cosmic terms, Jo," said the Doctor thoughtfully, "If the Master opens the floodgates of Kronos"s power, all order and all structure will be swept away and nothing will be left but chaos."
"It makes everything seem so - pointless."
The Doctor smiled at her. "I felt like that once, when I was young. It was the blackest day of my life."
Jo looked curiously at him. It was very seldom that the Doctor embarked upon any kind of personal reminiscence. "Why was that?"
"Ah well, that"s another story. I"ll tell you about it one day. The point is, that day was not only my blackest, it was also my best."
"What do you mean?"
His eyes gazing into the past, the Doctor began to speak. "When I was a little boy we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. Above our house near the mountain peak, there sat under a tree an old man. A hermit, a monk... He"d lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and had learnt the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me."
"And he told you the secret?"
The Doctor nodded.
"Well, what was it?"
"I"m coming to that, Jo, in my own time. I"ll never forget what it was like up there... All bleak and cold, just a few bare rocks with some weeds sprouting from them and some pathetic little patches of sludgy snow. It was just grey. Grey, grey, grey ... The tree the old man sat under was ancient and twisted, and the old man himself-he was as brittle and as dry as a leaf in the Autumn."