Doctor Who: Marco Polo (7 page)

'Perhaps I should have let him kill the
woman and then we could have dispatched the others as I wanted to do
on the Plain of Pamir,' Tegana replied, and reminded Marco that he
had always claimed thev were evil spirits who had brought only
trouble to the caravan. Marco shook his head.

'No, you are wrong. They are travellers
as we are, but of another nature which I do not understand. Even so,
I am responsible for their safety.' Tegana snorted in disgust. 'No,'
Marco protested, 'I took their caravan from them and it is my duty to
see them safely on their way home,' Tegana patted the stallion's
rump.

'Do you think they hold you in such
esteem?' he asked.

'The Doctor, no, though with good
reason. The others, yes.'

'And which of them commands?'

'The Doctor.'

'And leaders are obeyed,' Tegana
emphasised and suggested that, with cunning, Susan had won Ping-Cho
from Marco's side.

'She's a child, Tegana,' Marco said
with a smile.

'Be warned. Only a fool defends his
enemies,' Tegana retorted. As they walked from the stables towards
the main courtyard Tegana argued that the Doctor and his followers
would set them at one another's throats and, when the caravan was
divided, they would be destroyed one by one.

'They are harmless, Tegana,' Marco
insisted as they entered the courtyard.

'Harmless,' Tegana echoed the word and
pointed to the TARDIS, 'when they possess a caravan that flies.'

'What power they have is locked inside
and I hold the key.' Tegana stopped Marco with his hand and leant
closer to him.

'Last night, Marco, when you and I and
the man, Ian, were scouring Tun-Huang for the woman, Chenchu thought
the old man was in his room but it was not so,' Tegana hissed
conspiratorially. 'He was out here with his caravan.' Marco was taken
aback. 'What exactly are you saying, Tegana?' 'Does a magician need a
key to open a door?' Then Tegana walked into the way-station leaving
Marco staring at the TARDIS.

They were eating breakfast when Barbara
came downstairs. The men stood up as she approached the table and Ian
pulled out her chair.

'How do you feel, my dear?' The Doctor
solicitously asked the question that was on everyone's mind with the
exception of Tegana who wondered what she knew. Barbara smiled at the
Doctor as she sat down.

'Still a bit shaky, Doctor,' she
replied.

'You are most fortunate to be alive,
and had it not been for Tegana. . .' Marco left the rest of the
sentence unspoken.

'Yes, I know, and I am grateful to the
War Lord,' she said looking into Tegana's dark, expressionless eyes.
A servant came and took her order. Marco stared fixedly at his plate.

'What possessed you to go to the cave?'
he asked. 'You know my rule about obtaining permission to leave here,
particularly at night.' Barbara hesitated before replying.

'I wanted to see it,' she lied, 'and I
knew you wouldn't've let me go.'

'Certainly, not alone,' Marco replied.

'If you'd asked, I'd've gone with you,'
Ian said. Marco looked directly at Barbara.

'How did you find it?' Barbara was
flustered for a moment and then said that when Marco had first
mentioned the cave he had indicated where it was. Marco shook his
head.

'No, I didn't,' he said flatly. Barbara
put her elbow on the table and rested her forehead in her hand as Ian
repeated Marco's question.

'I followed someone.'

'Who just happened to be going there.'
Marco's voice was full of disbelief. 'Now tell the truth.'

'I've told you, I followed someone.'

'Who?' Marco insisted. Barbara looked
at them one by one and finally her eyes rested on Tegana.

'The War Lord Tegana,' she spoke softly
but everyone heard. Tegana leapt to his feet.

'Me!' he cried fiercely. 'I have been
to the cave but once and you were there when I
arrived.'

'That's not true,' Barbara protested,
'I followed you.' Tegana eyed her coldly and reiterated that he had
only been there once.

'Why would I lie?' Barbara reasoned. 'I
was almost killed.' Tegana turned to Marco.

'Mark well all I have told you, my
friend,' he said and strode from the room onto the courtyard.

The servant brought Barbara's breakfast
and placed it in front of her. As she smiled her thanks, Marco stood
up, excused himself from the table saying he had things to do and
went upstairs to his room. For a moment there was silence which was
broken when Ian suggested that Barbara should start to eat. She
looked around the table.

'You believe me, don't you?' She
sounded tentative.

'Of all the silly questions,' the
Doctor replied with a smile. 'Eat.' Barbara picked up her chopsticks
as Susan leant confidentially across the table.

'I have a theory about the War Lord
Tegana,' she murmured and then explained it. The Doctor glanced
uncomfortably at Ping-Cho which vexed Susan. 'Oh, grandfather, I'd
trust Ping-Cho with my life.'

'So would I,' Barbara said and,
agreeing with Susan's theory, took it one stage further. 'He must've
been in the second chamber when I was taken prisoner and he obviously
knew what would happen to me, yet he did nothing about it until, as
Susan's said, he had to for his own ends.'

'The trouble is, my dear, we have no
proof,' the Doctor admitted, 'none whatsoever.' Ian fiddled with the
chopsticks on his plate.

'Frankly, Doctor, the sooner we take a
powder the better,' he said.

'Have your glasses of water ready in a
few days time,' the Doctor replied. Ping-Cho looked at Susan with a
puzzled expression and then, realising what Ian had meant, lowered
her eyes.

The day was spent preparing the caravan
for the next leg of their journey. Lan-Chow lay two hundred leagues
to the south-west and their route would take them across the
foothills of the Nan Shan mountain range, through the old cities of
Su-Chow and Khan-Chow where the Great Wall of Cathay began. In all,
Marco calculated that they would be travelling for thirty to forty
days before reaching their destination which stood on the banks of
the Hwang Ho, or Yellow River.

'I am rearranging the accommodation
for the journey,' Marco announced in the evening and looked at Susan.
'You will share Barbara's quarters so that Ping-Cho may be alone.'
Both of them were shocked.

'Oh, why, Messer Marco?' Ping-Cho
wailed. Marco cleared his throat.

'We are entering Cathay,' he said, 'and
you are the Lady Ping-Cho from an illustrious family in Samarkand, on
your way to be wed at the Khan's court to one of his most
distinguished advisers. It must be seen by those we may encounter
whilst travelling that you are being treated according to your
exalted station in life.' Ping-Cho ran up the stairs to their room
and Susan followed her. Barbara raised her eyebrows at Marco.

'You can't mean that,' she said,
half-smiling.

'I would not have said it if I had not
meant it,' he replied.

'Stop being pompous. They enjoy each
other's company so much.'

'A familiarity I should never have
permitted.'

'I doubt you could have prevented it,'
Ian added and the Doctor silently agreed with Ian's earlier opinion
that the sooner they were on their way the better.

Upstairs, Ping-Cho sat miserably on the
edge of her bed while Susan tried to comfort her, saying that it
wouldn't be so difficult as they would share a horse all day,
venturing off into the foothills, eating their meals together, and
Barbara wouldn't say a word if she crept into Ping-Cho's compartment
for a whispered midnight conversation.

But that was not the way it turned out
to be. When Ping-Cho came onto the courtyard in the morning, a horse
had been saddled for her and, with it, a Mongol bearer to hold the
reins and walk alongside. Susan was given another horse and the
Doctor sat in the lead wagon with the Mongol driver whilst Barbara
and Ian, on horseback, kept him company on either side. Marco and
Tegana would ride off into the foothills in search of pheasants,
quails, hares and wild boars to supplement their evening meals.

Though the atmosphere among them was
tense, the progress was good and on the ninth evening they pitched
camp within sight of Su-Chow. During their evening meal, the Doctor
made several mental calculations. The way-station at Su-Chow was no
more than half a day's travel away which would give them ample time
to take a bath, have their clothes cleaned, and dine at leisure. When
all was quiet, he would slip into the TARDIS to refit the verified
circuits of the microswitches, then gather his team
together and take leave of this vexacious Venetian and his uncouth
barbaric companion, although he did feel a brief pang of remorse
about separating Ping-Cho and Susan. After dinner he challenged Marco
to a game of chess and, to everyone's astonishment, allowed himself
to be beaten on the thirty-fifth move.

'Shah mat,' Marco cried in triumph. The
Doctor studied the board.

'Why, so it is,' he said blithely and
congratulated Marco on his decisive victory. 'You'll grant me my
revenge tomorrow evening at the way-station?' he requested.

'Whenever you like, Doctor,' Marco
replied, 'but we're not staying at Su-Chow. Our next stop will be at
Kan-Chow in ten days time. Shall we wait until then?'

'As you please,' the Doctor mumbled,
realising that their quick escape was no longer possible and
regretting he had thrown away an easy victory on the thirtieth move.

Beyond Su-Chow they travelled across
undulating prairies which stretched away northwards and, to the
south, the Nan Shan mountain range with its snowcapped peaks still
dominated the horizon. The weather was temperate, the caravan
maintained an average of five leagues a day and, as they journeyed
on, Marco relieved much of the tension by allowing Ping-Cho and Susan
to spend more time together. For his part, the Doctor contained his
impatience as best he could which did not go unobserved by Ian and
Barbara who realised what should have happened at Su-Chow.

On the fifth day they encountered a
merchant caravan travelling in the opposite direction. Courtesies
were exchanged and questions put about the possibility of other
caravans along the route. The merchant, a bumptious, overweight,
middle-aged man from Kan-Chow, reported that since leaving Kan-Chow
he had only seen a group of Tartar horsemen riding towards the city.
He admitted that he was alarmed at their approach, believing them to
be bandits which, by their appearance, they could have been, their
leader having a vivid scar down one side of his face. But they rode
on leaving the caravan in peace. Tegana was intrigued to learn that
Acomat must have overtaken them at night and would be waiting for him
in Kan-Chow.

Barbara was the first to see it on the
eighth day of their journey. They were travelling through a valley
towards Kan-Chow when she saw in the distance a grey line which
snaked up and over the hills. She pointed to it excitedly.

'Look, Ian, it's the Great Wall of Chi
- Cathay,' she corrected herself with a glance at Marco.

'Good for a two thousand mile stroll
along the top,' Ian replied.

'It was built three hundred years
before the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ,' Marco added.

'And do you know why it was built?'
Tegana demanded, punching himself on the chest. 'To keep War Lords,
Tartars like me out of Cathay.' He roared with laughter. It occurred
to the Doctor that, after all, Tegana had a vestige of humour in him.

By noon on the tenth day they were
installed in the way-station at Kan-Chow under the shadow of the
Great Wall and, after Ian had bathed and changed his clothes, he
knocked on the Doctor's door. He was invited in, sat down in a chair
and then the Doctor began juggling with the micros witches.

'Been like that since Su-Chow,' Ian
remarked as the Doctor sent five of them flying into the air to be
deftly caught, one by one, in his mandarin's hat.

'By this time tomorrow, Chesterton, we
shall be elsewhere,' the Doctor prophesied. Ian thought about the
prospect for a moment.

'I won't be sorry but there will be all
those loose threads left dangling,' he replied. 'What happens to
Marco, Ping-Cho and Tegana?'

'My dear fellow, we know what happens
to Polo. He almost reaches home but gets captured by the Genoese and
chucked in the clink which serves him right after the way he's
treated us.' The Doctor dusted his hands dismissively. 'Ping-Cho will
no doubt marry her civil servant and as for Tegana, with all due
respect, I can only wish for the worst.' Ian volunteered to let
Barbara and Susan know that they were under starter's orders.

'Be careful what you say to Susan,' the
Doctor cautioned, 'particularly if Ping-Cho is around. That Chinese
child makes me nervous.' Ian was surprised.

'Good Lord, Doctor, why?'

'She knows I have a duplicate key,' he
replied and told Ian about the incident on the courtyard at
Tun-Huang. 'When I came out of the TARDIS the pair of them were
standing there,' he concluded. Ian smiled.

'Doctor, the least of our worries is
Ping-Cho.'

Ian's
conjecture about Ping-Cho was more accurate than the Doctor's
prophecy and the only person concerned about her was Susan as they
sat in her room. 'Will you be leaving tonight?' Ping-Cho asked.
'Possibly,' Susan replied.

'I want you to know that this journey
has been the happiest time of my life, in spite of all the dangers
and Messer Marco's odd behaviour after Tun-Huang.' 'I keep wondering
what Tegana said to him.' 'I've asked Messer Marco a hundred times
but he remains silent.' Ping-Cho looked earnestly at Susan, 'You will
say goodbye, won't you?' 'Of course.'

'No matter how late it is.'

'I promise. My room's just along the
passageway and I must pass yours to go downstairs.' Ping-Cho looked
perplexed. Susan smiled and rapped on the bedside table with her
knuckles. 'I'll knock on the door.' Suddenly Ping-Cho's face lit up.