Doctor Who: Marco Polo (11 page)

'Where did you find this?' he asked.

'In your room,' Ian replied.

'Whereabouts? Where had I hidden them?
You must remember where you found one.' Marco circled Ian slowly.
'But you didn't find it, did you? It was given to one of you and you,
Ian, lied to protect someone else, Ping-Cho obviously.' Ian remained
silent as Marco held up the key. 'It does not matter to me why you
lied. What is important is the fact that you are capable of lying.'

'So you don't believe me when I say we
come from another time.' Marco shrugged and put the chain back inside
his blouse.

'If I did, Ian, I would give you the
key,' he said and went upstairs to his room.

The second crisis took place in the
early hours of the morning when Susan was asleep. Ping-Cho slipped
out of bed, dressed and tip-toed to the door.

'Goodbye, Susan,' she whispered and
went down td the stables where she saddled up her horse and rode back
towards Lan-Chow and, far beyond it, Samarkand.

Susan raised the alarm when she woke up
and saw Ping-Cho's empty bed. She ran to Marco's door and knocked.

'Who is it?' Marco called.

'It's me, Susan, Messer Marco.
Ping-Cho's gone." The door opened and Marco, fully dressed,
stood there.

'Gone? Gone where, Susan?' Susan
swallowed before she replied.

'Home, I think. To Samarkand.'

'But that's more than three hundred
leagues away. She'll never reach it.' Marco hurried to the stables to
confirm that Ping-Cho's horse was not there. Susan woke Barbara and
Ian.

'Is it because of the key?' Ian asked.
Susan shook her head.

'She's homesick and she's taken
grandfather's advice.'

'About marrying,' Barbara said. 'I
don't blame her but it's a dangerous thing to have done.'

When they were all downstairs, Marco
said that as he was responsible for her safety, he
would ride back to find her and told them to stay at the way-station
until he returned. Tegana remarked that his mission to Kublai Khan
was more important than the impetuous act of a young girl and
reminded Marco that the Khan had sent Ling-Tau expressly to command
him to reach the summer palace without delay. Marco was in a quandary
which Ian offered to resolve.

'You ride on to Shang-Tu,' he said,
'and I'll ride back, find Ping-Cho and bring her to the summer
palace.'

'Good thinking, Chesterton. En route
you can verify that my ship is safely on its way,' the Doctor
remarked. To Karakorum, Tegana thought. Marco considered the
proposition. It was viable. He turned to Ian.

'When can you leave?'

'Now.' And as they rode on, Ian rode
back.

To Ian's surprise, it took three days
hard riding to catch up with Ping-Cho. She was at the small inn
beyond Lan-Chow where they had rested after the attack in the bamboo
forest. Ping-Cho burst into tears when she saw him, tears of dismay
but, at the same time, tears of relief.

'You've come to take me back, haven't
you?' she said, drying her eyes.

'I promised Marco I would see you
safely to the summer palace,' Ian replied, 'and I must keep my word.'

'I can't marry an old man I've never
met. I won't. Ian.'

'I'm sure the Khan will understand and
excuse you from the marriage.' Ian had his fingers crossed mentally
and then changed the subject. 'Did you see the Doctor's caravan when
you were riding here?' Ping-Cho shook her head.

'I hadn't thought about it, but now
that you mention it, no, I didn't.'

'Neither did I. Perhaps the convoy
follows a different route.' He shrugged. 'On our way back we'll stop
at Lan-Chow and ask Wang-Lo.'

Whilst they were eating their evening
meal under the watchful eyes and eavesdropping ears of the innkeeper,
Ian spoke of Ping-Cho's attempt to escape.

'How did you expect to reach
Samarkand?' he asked.

'I knew I was bound to meet up with a
caravan and I have enough gold to pay my way.' Ian reminded her that
they hadn't met many going in the opposite direction between Lop and
Lan-Chow.

'It is true, my lord, one must wait
until there are enough wagons to justify a caravan,' the innkeeper
volunteered, 'and the lady would need to wait until another moon
because a convoy passed through the village yesterday. The old lord's
caravan was part of it.' Ian nearly choked on his food.

'The old lord who was here with us?'

'Yes.'

'His blue caravan?'

'Yes.'

'Going north?'

'Yes.'

Ian looked at Ping-Cho. 'It's too late
to do anything tonight but we're not riding for Shang-Tu in the
morning. You wait for me here whilst I retrieve the Doctor's flying
caravan. Promise me you won't make another dash.'

'I promise, Ian,' Ping-Cho said with a
little smile.

Marco was going to bed when he heard
the jingling bells and instinctively knew that Ling-Tau had come once
again from the summer palace. He threw on his robe and went
downstairs where Ling-Tau smiled a greeting and bowed.

'What is it this time, Ling-Tau?'
Marco asked.

Ling-Tau took the sealed parchment from
the despatch pocket of his belt.

'Not for you, Messer Marco, this is for
the War Lord Tegana.'

'I'll fetch him.' Marco climbed the
stairs, rapped on Tegana's door and told him the Khan's courier had a
message for him. Tegana came downstairs, tore open the document, read
it and turned, stone-faced, to Marco.

'Kublai Khan will not receive me at the
summer palace. I am to proceed to Peking.'

'An escort worthy of your rank will
arrive tomorrow, my lord,' Ling-Tau reported. Without comment, Tegana
went back to his room.

'What's this about?' Marco asked.

'I do not know. But you and the Lady
Ping-Cho are expected at Shang-Tu.' Marco explained that Ping-Cho had
run away and Ian had gone to fetch her back. Ling-Tau eased his belt
and took off his bandeau.

'I shall go and find them in the
morning,' he said, 'and in Lan-Chow arrange their escort to
Shang-Tu."

'Thank you, Ling-Tau.'

'It will be my pleasure to see the Lady
Ping-Cho again,' he said with a grin.

At dawn Ian rode north and caught up
with the convoy beyond the bamboo forests. The TARDIS was no longer
with it but the leader told him that Kuiju had left them about two
leagues back and taken the wagon along the old Karakorum road. Ian
galloped back to the intersection and turned along the abandoned
track riding as quickly as he dared. By mid-afternoon he had Kuiju
and the wagon in sight about a third of a league ahead of him. But
there was a problem. Kuiju had two companions with him. As Ian
stalked them, he tried to resolve the situation, but one against
three, even with the element of surprise, seemed long odds. At dusk
he heard the bells and, tethering his horse, ran to the centre of the
track waving his arms. Ling-Tau reined in.

'Where is it?' he asked, jumping to the
ground with his bells jingling.

'Down the road. They've bivouaced for
the night.'

'They? How many?'

'Three.'

'We'll surprise them.'

'And risk a counter-attack in the dark?
No, Ling-Tau, let's wait until dawn and take them out whilst they're
eating. But, please, don't wear your belt.' Ling-Tau laughed and took
it off, explaining that he had seen Ping-Cho at the village inn,
caught up with the convoy and been told where Ian had gone.

'Tell me about Karakorum,' Ian said.

'It used to be the capital of the
Mongol empire,' Ling-Tau replied, 'but when the Khan built his palace
in Peking, it was abandoned.'

'It's a deserted city?'

'No, a dispersed one. Karakorum wasn't
built of stone. It was a vast collection of tents and encampments and
when the Khan moved to Peking the Mongols folded their tents and
left.'

'You mean there is nothing there?'

'Nothing.'

'Then why is someone taking the
Doctor's caravan to Karakorum?'

Ling-Tau grinned. 'We'll pose that
question at dawn,' he said.

As the sky began to lighten, Ling-Tau
drew his sword from the scabbard attached to his saddle and he and
Ian skirted along the edge of the track using the scrub for cover.

'Two of us with one sword,' Ling-Tau
observed, 'three of them with, no doubt, three. An advantage of two.'

'Matched by stealth, speed and the fact
that we know they're there but they don't know that we're here,' Ian
replied with a grin.

As they approached the wagon they could
see Kuiju and his two companions squatting on the ground eating with
their fingers from a bowl of cold rice and meat. Ian and Ling-Tau
exchanged a glance, nodded and struck.

Ian kicked one of them in the solar
plexus and left him gasping on the ground. He disarmed him as the
second one jumped to his feet and fled into the woods. Kuiju made the
mistake of trying to draw his sword but stopped abruptly when the tip
of Ling-Tau's pricked his neck.

'Where were you taking this?' Ian
asked.

'To Karakorum, my lord.' Kuiju's voice
quavered.

'But Karakorum doesn't exist anymore,'
Ling-Tau said.

'No, my lord, yes, my lord,' Kuiju
stammered.

'Why were you taking it there?' Ian
asked. Kuiju remained silent until the sword tip nicked him.

'At the War Lord Tegana's bidding. He
said it was a tomb he wanted.'

'A tomb? Is that how he described it?'

'Yes, my lord.'

'It's one he will never be buried in,'
Ian replied and pointed to the Tartar on the ground. 'Help your
friend here and join your companion in the forest.'

'Gladly, my lord,' Kuiju whined and
closed his eyes with relief when Ling-Tau lowered the sword. Yet in
the back of his mind, Kuiju thought that, at least, he had made fifty
golden pieces.

Ian and Ling-Tau took the wagon back to
the village inn where Ping-Cho was waiting for them. Ling-Tau put on
his belt and his bandeau and told them to stay at the inn until the
escort he would send from Lan-Chow arrived to conduct them to the
summer palace. Then he bowed to Ian, smiled at Ping-Cho, jumped on
his horse and galloped off.

'He's a fine young man,' Ian said as
they watched him ride away.

'Yes,' Ping-Cho replied demurely, and
blushed.

The escort of six warriors arrived in
the middle of the next morning and they set off immediately for the
way-station at Lan-Chow. It was dark when they arrived and Wang-Lo
insisted that the wagon be placed under the hanging gardens where, as
he observed, one could keep one's eyes on it. Ling-Tau had arranged
that the wagon join a commercial convoy on the following day but Ian
was dubious about letting it out of his sight.

'One assures you, my lord, that one
will not permit a repetition of such an unfortunate occurrence,'
Wang-Lo said with a dramatic gesture. 'One knows the leader of the
convoy who will come personally to take charge of the wagon.'

As they ate a late-night supper,
Ping-Cho asked Ian if he really believed Kublai Khan would let her
out of the marriage contract.

'If it were to be seen that your
affections lay elsewhere,' he said, studying his chopsticks before
pointing them at her. 'I'll tell you something else. The Doctor's on
your side and I've never seen him ultimately outwitted yet. He gets
his way.'

In the morning the leader of the
convoy, with four warriors, collected the wagon under Ian's watchful
eye and a new escort arrived to take them to the summer palace. All
along the route they were to discover that their meals and
accommodation had been arranged and at each way-station the manager
made a point of remarking that it had been the trusted Captain of
mighty Kublai Khan, Ling-Tau, who had dealt personally with the
matter. Ian noticed that Ping-Cho's blushes became more frequent.

Every bone in the Doctor's body ached
and each evening in a different way-station he soaked himself in a
hot bath knowing he was fighting a losing battle. Nonetheless, he
prided himself on his courage and his resilience, with not a murmur
of complaint as they trotted across the fertile country beside the
river. On the sixth night they stayed at the way-station in
Cheng-Ting which was also known as the White City because the colour
of the buildings could be seen shimmering from afar in the sunlight.
At noon on the seventh day they came to a red lacquered wooden
archway with a double filigreed golden gateway attended by two guards
in resplendent uniforms. On one side of the archway was the river and
on the other side a vast forest stretched off into the distance. The
guards opened the gates to let the party through the archway.

'We are entering the grounds of the
summer palace,' Marco said as the Doctor thought it would have been
easier to ride around the archway than go through it. In front of
them a wide well-kept grass path curved into the forest. As they rode
along it, Marco told them about the palace.

'The grounds are enormous,' he said,
'so that the Khan can indulge himself with his two passions, falconry and hunting.' He turned to
Barbara and asked her to guess the number of white stallions in the
stables. She thought the question meant there must be a lot.

'Five hundred,' she replied. Marco
laughed.

'Twenty times that number.'

'Ten thousand,' Susan exclaimed.

'One horse is more than enough for me,'
the Doctor muttered, in the belief that his ordeal was almost at an
end. But they still had two leagues to travel before they emerged
from the forest and saw the summer palace in front of them. It stood
in the middle of a large clearing encircled by the forest. There was
a high, red lacquered wall with a golden trelliswork along the top
with a golden dragon at each corner. Barbara estimated that the wall
was half-a-mile long. In the middle of it, facing them, was a golden
double gate and behind the wall they could see a central dome of
gold, flanked by golden spires which towered above it. As they
approached the gates, two guards barely touched them with their hands
and silently the two halves swung open. The Doctor thought it would
come as no surprise if the counterweights were solid gold as well.