Doctor Who: Marco Polo (13 page)

The Empress was a large lady and the
Doctor observed that mighty Kublai Khan was petrified of her,
although when they spoke he frequently used terms of endearment such
as 'turtle-dove' and 'lotus-blossom'. The Doctor also noted that the
Empress enjoyed her food and he understood why Kublai suffered from
gout. In all, there were about a hundred people seated at the various
tables and approximately the same number of dishes were served. There
was a choice of, at least, fifteen soups, including one called a
'water-melon pond', and egg dishes in profusion followed by
fresh-water as well as sea-water fishes and crustaceans. Then, of
course, came the poultry dishes which reminded the Doctor of the old
adage that the Chinese eat everything bar the feathers. Next on the
menu were the meat and vegetable bowls served with a multitude of
rices, after which the meal was rounded out with a variety of
desserts. The wines were of every hue and taste and to the Doctor's
astonishment there were Italian and French ones as well as champagne.

'My father imports them,' Marco said
modestly.

During the banquet and between
mouthfuls the Empress expressed her regrets that the Lady Ping-Cho had been unable to attend whilst
her husband-to-be, indicating a watery-eyed old man at one end of the
head table, languished for her arrival. Kublai patted the Empress's
hand.

'Exquisite butterfly,' he said with a
quick glance at Marco, 'the Lady Ping-Cho was unavoidably detained at
Lan-Chow.' The Empress popped a succulent slice of pineapple roast
duck into her mouth and suggested that another banquet should be held
on the eve of Ping-Cho's nuptials in Peking. Mighty Kublai Khan did
not argue.

Ling-Tau found Ping-Cho and Ian at a
way-station just after dawn and instructed their escort to take them
directly to Peking, adding that he would ride on to order the
warriors accompanying the wagon to deliver it there as well. Then he
bowed to them and turned to leave.

'Stay and have some breakfast,' Ian
suggested.

'Yes, please do,' Ping-Cho said a shade
too quickly and, blushing, looked down at her food. Ling-Tau took off
his bandeau and belt and then sat down with them. As they ate he
recounted Marco's interview with the Khan and when he was finished
Ian shook his head in amusement.

'When will Kublai, Tegana and Marco
realise that only one man, the Doctor, has the knowledge to make his
caravan fly? I haven't, nor has Barbara. Susan, perhaps, because she
is his granddaughter, but no one else. So it is a useless weapon in
their jostling for power.'

'But the great Khan and the noble
Doctor have become friends so would he not assist mighty Kublai in
this struggle for dominance?' Ling-Tau asked.

'No, Ling-Tau, he would not and could
not for reasons too complex to explain.'

'Does it fly fast?' Ping-Cho asked.
'Very fast,' Ian replied.

'Faster than the noble Ling-Tau on a
horse?' Ian smiled at her.

'Yes, I'm afraid so.'

'I would like to see the Doctor's
caravan fly.'

'So would I,' Ling-Tau added.

'Perhaps you will,' Ian said, 'at
Peking.'

The carriage of state was luxurious. It
was long and had four wheels. The sides and top were, once again. an
ivory latticework apart from the central golden doors and a silken
canopy which could be drawn over the top if the sun's rays became too
strong. The interior was lavishly furnished with cushions and a low
ebony table. The carriage was drawn by five pairs of white stallions
and there were two drivers as well as the four footmen who stood on
the back. In all, there were three carriages, each slightly less
magnificent than the one ahead of it. The Empress and her retinue
were in the second, the Grand Vizier and his in the third. Susan and
Marco rode white stallions and on either side of the procession a
line of warriors jogged. Kublai arched an eyebrow and glanced at the
Doctor reclining on the other side of the table.

'Do you wager, dear friend?' he asked.

'I've been known to, Sire,' the Doctor
replied.

'The Empress disapproves,' Kublai
confided.

'Ah,' the Doctor said, unable to think
of anything else.

'Backgammon?' Kublai suggested, taking
a box from underneath the table, 'to while away the time.'

'Why not, Sire?' the Doctor answered
and Kublai opened the box.

At midday the procession stopped for a
roadside picnic under a huge elaborately decorated silk canopy. The
Doctor found the snack only slightly less extravagant than the
previous night's banquet.

'And how did we spend our morning?' the
Empress asked Kublai as she stuffed a dried shrimp wanton into her
mouth. The Doctor thought her choice of verb was unfortunate.

'Conversing on this and that, precious
fawn.' Kublai looked at the Doctor for confirmation.

'The Dynasties of Asia, gracious
Empress,' the Doctor volunteered.

Kublai clutched at the straw. 'We
discussed our lamented uncle, Jenghis, saying he was the warrior of
the family, beloved panda. Nothing frightened him. We are but a poor
planner, an administrator of sorts.'

'The mighty Khan demeans himself,' the
Empress said to the Doctor as she reached out for a Lan-Chow steamed
dumpling. 'His only weakness is that he likes to gamble.' The Doctor
thought it an appropriate moment to taste a sliver of the chicken
chessmen.

As they approached the golden gates of
the palace at Peking Kublai closed the backgammon box and put it
under the table.

'What is the reckoning?' he enquired.
The Doctor thought for a moment.

'You owe me, Sire, thirty-five
elephants with ceremonial bridles, trappings, brocades and
pavilions,' he said, 'and four thousand white stallions as well as
twenty-five tigers.'

'That's not too serious,' Kublai
commented.

'Plus the sacred tooth of Buddha and
all the commerce from Burma for a year,' the Doctor added. Kublai
winced.

'Those last two debts are distressing,'
he admitted. 'Marco brought us the tooth from India and when the
Empress is not at table she pores over the accounts. Will you allow
us to try and win them back?' He sounded wistful.

'All of them, Sire,' the Doctor replied
magnanimously as the plan for recovering the TARDIS formed in his
head.

Marco had not exaggerated when he
described the palace at Peking as a walled city within a city.
Architecturally, it was different to the summer palace. There were no
latticework walls through which a cooling breeze could pass. On the
contrary, the walls were substantial, designed to keep out the winter
winds. There were mosaic paved alleyways lined with houses where
Kublai's retinue, some fifteen thousand, lived. As at Shang-Tu four
wide tree-lined avenues led from the walls to the central square and
the ornate palace which had more than a thousand rooms.

The carriage of state drew up in front
of the main entrance as servants hurriedly placed the steps in front
of the golden doors and helped Kublai and the Doctor to descend.
Carefully, with the aid of his cane and leaning on the Doctor's arm,
Kublai went up to the palace entrance where guards had opened the
golden doors.

'You know, dear friend,' Kublai
confided as they went inside, 'we like the summer palace very much.
But, finally, we think there is no place like home.' Secretly, the
Doctor agreed with him.

In accordance with Kublai's
instructions, the War Lord Tegana was welcomed at the Peking palace
in a manner that befitted his importance. He was shown to a ten-room
suite and twenty servants were assigned to him. On the following
morning the Khan's three military commanders called on him to pay
their respects and suggested that he might care to inspect the army.
Tegana readily agreed and they rode to a camp north of the city. It
was a sea of multicoloured tents and each one flew a banner
representing the company to which the warriors belonged. Tegana
estimated that Kublai's force-of-arms was twice the size of Noghai's
but that did not dismay him.

On a nearby plain five thousand archers
were firing at clay warriors. Very few arrows fell short of, or
missed their targets. On another plain ten thousand cavalrymen with
lances charged down on bags of straw suspended on poles and elsewhere
fifteen thousand foot warriors drilled in perfect unison. As they,
rode back to the palace Tegana invited the three commanders to dine
with him that evening and they accepted. Over the meal they discussed
Noghai's defeat by Kublai's army near Samarkand.

'It was your element of surprise that
caught us out,' Tegana conceded, 'your ability to travel so far, so
swiftly and then fight. We were ill-prepared for the battle. It would
not happen again.'

'It is to be hoped that it will never
happen again.' the cavalry commander replied, 'as you come to the
Court as an emissary of peace.'

Tegana smiled and thought they were
fools, as was Kublai, if they believed he had not understood the
purpose of the day's exercise and he knew who now held the element of
surprise.

Kublai's retinue, with the Doctor,
Susan and Barbara, arrived the next evening and the Grand Vizier had
already arranged their accommodation. Dinner was intimate, no more
than forty people, and the Doctor noted that the War Lord Tegana was
conspicuous by his absence. The Empress, between mouthfuls, was
deciding the dishes to be served at Ping-Cho's pre-nuptial banquet on
the following evening and glancing coyly at the old husband-to-be
whom the Doctor considered had sunk irretrievably into his dotage.

It was mid-morning when Ping-Cho, Ian
and Ling-Tau reached the palace. Ling-Tau went directly to his
quarters while Ping-Cho and Ian were shown to their apartments. As
soon as he could, Ian found the Doctor and told him all that had
happened. The Doctor frowned.

'Both Polo and the Khan knew about
Tegana's attempt to steal my ship?' he asked.

'Yes, Doctor. Ling-Tau reported it to
Kublai who told Marco.'

'Yet no one informed me. When will it
arrive?'

'Tomorrow afternoon, Doctor.'

'This requires thought, Chesterton.
There is mischief afoot,' the Doctor said darkly, 'but what?'

Ping-Cho found Susan's four-room
apartment and when she saw her, burst into tears.

'There's to be a banquet tonight to
present me to my husband-to-be,' she wailed, 'and we are to be
married tomorrow. I can't do it, Susan, I'd sooner die.'

'Let's move your things in here with
me.' Susan sounded brusque and efficient. 'Then we'll work out what
can be done about it.' But they could think of nothing practical
short of Ping-Cho throwing herself on her knees and begging Kublai to
excuse her from the marriage which would offend the watery-eyed old
man and her family in Samarkand, as well as the Empress who had taken
great pains to organise the feast. Worst of all, they both realised
that Kublai might reject Ping-Cho's entreaty because of protocol.

'What is so cruel,' Ping-Cho said
miserably, 'is that my heart flies to someone else.' Susan thought
for a moment.

'Ling-Tau?' she ventured. Ping-Cho
nodded. Susan whistled silently. 'Then it's up to grandfather to
persuade Kublai to let the match be broken,' she said. 'He can be
very persuasive, my grandfather, and he and Kublai have become good
friends.' Ping-Cho shook her head.

'Why should the Doctor intercede on my
behalf when his flying caravan has been taken from him in the Khan's
name? No, Susan,' Ping-Cho sighed, 'there is only one solution.'

'Stop that, Ping-Cho, no you don't.'
There was a knock on the door which Susan opened. The Grand Vizier
and Ling-Tau stood there.

'Mighty Kublai Khan commands the
presence of the Lady Ping-Cho before him,' the Grand Vizier intoned.
Ping-Cho grabbed Susan's arm. 'Come with me, please,' she begged. 'Of
course,' Susan replied and the four of them went to the throne room
where both Kublai and the Empress awaited them.

'Kow-tow,' the Grand Vizier ordered.
'No, no, no.' Kublai dismissed the obeisance, wagging a
forefinger.

'Fly to my arms, child,' cried the
Empress. 'Let me share your grief.'

'I do not understand you, gracious
Empress,' Ping-Cho looked mystified as she curtsied. 'What has
occurred?' Kublai beckoned her over to him.

'There has been a tragedy,' he said
gently. 'Your beloved husband-to-be, so anxious to be worthy of your
esteem, yet more, your love, drank a potion of quicksilver and
sulphur, the elixir of life and eternal youth and expired on the
spot.'

'Oh,' Ping-Cho replied, glancing
furtively at Susan but carefully avoiding Ling-Tau's eyes.

'Will you not weep for a lost love?'
The Empress's voice rang with accusation. Ping-Cho hung her head for
a few seconds and then looked the Empress in the eyes. 'Gracious
Empress, I grieve an old man's death as all would do. But how can I
weep for a love I have never known?'

'What is your wish, Ping-Cho?' Kublai
asked. 'To return to your home in Samarkand, or will you stay awhile
in our Court to brighten all our days?' Ping-Cho glanced at Ling-Tau
and blushed, which did not go unnoticed by Kublai or the Empress.
Then she smiled at Kublai.

'If I may, great Khan, I would like to
stay.'

'So be it,' Kublai replied.

'Your decision to remain will be the
reason for our banquet tonight,' the Empress exclaimed, mentally
allocating Ping-Cho's late would-be husband's place to Ling-Tau.

The Doctor held a council-of-war with
Barbara and Ian in his six-room suite.

'Within minutes of my ship being at the
palace, we shall be on our way,' he announced. Both Barbara and Ian
were taken aback.

'How?' they asked in unison.

'I shall be in possession of the key,'
the Doctor sounded confident.

'How?' They put the same question
again.