The King's Dragon (3 page)

It spread up from the river onto hills that lay to the north in a grand display. It was as if the people of the city had no fear of showing their beautiful
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THE KING’S DRAGON

home to the wider world. In fact, they wanted everyone to see. And why not? It glowed in the sunset; the late light caught upon the red tiles of the roofs, the yellow buildings, the gold...

As Amy looked more closely, she was able to pick out detail. The city was laid out in circles: concentric avenues running in rings that drew her eye to a central plaza. There, in the heart of the city, stood a huge round building with a great domed roof.

The dome was golden. Amy reached out her hand as if to touch it. It was a marvel, smooth and round and precious, like the egg of a magical creature. Amy wanted to run her hand across its surface and feel the sun-tinged metal in her hand.

'Like it?' said the Doctor.

'It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen,'

Amy replied.

Rory, in a quiet awed voice, said, 'What
is
that place?'

'The council chamber,' the Doctor said. 'The heart of Geath, where its citizens meet to debate, discuss, deliberate — and eat.' He checked his watch, tapped its face, then checked it again. 'We should get a move on.'

Rory was already halfway down the hill. Amy half-ran and half-slid after him, eager for a proper look at the astonishing golden hall. Could it be as
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DOCTOR WHO

glorious up close? Could anything? Turning to look back, she saw the Doctor standing still on the hilltop, hands stuck in his pockets. Behind him, it was starting to get dark.

'Come on!' she called.

The Doctor nodded, as if coming to a decision, and followed her and Rory down the hill. They still had some way to go.

As she walked, it occurred to Amy that the driver of that cart had not shown much of the reputed hospitality. But it was hardly worth mentioning. No doubt they looked like a fairly odd bunch of hitchhikers. She couldn't really blame him for passing them by.

The track down the hill and their new enthusiasm soon brought them to the broad paved road that led into Geath. They crossed the river by means of a great stone bridge. It was obviously ancient, but immaculately constructed; the massive blocks smooth and interlocking. The sun set, but the evening remained hot, making the promise of the grand hall and a friendly welcome even more appealing. It was very quiet. Nobody passed them, walking or riding, in either direction.

Ten more minutes brought the travellers to an arched gate in the city walls. The walls were very high and the gate very locked. Behind them,
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THE KING’S DRAGON

everything was quiet. A single torch glowed dimly and they huddled under it.

'Have we got here after closing time?' Amy asked.

'Closing time? In Geath? No such thing.'

'A locked gate isn't very hospitable,' Rory said.

'No.' The Doctor looked thoughtfully at it.

'Odd, isn't it?'

'Maybe if we let them know we're here they'll be all smiles,' Amy said.

She reached for the hammer on the door. It was a fascinating design: it looked like a dragon, clambering up the gate, its head turned sideways so that a single ruby red eye could keep watch on the road leading up to the city. The dragon's long gold tail curled down to form the door-knocker. Amy picked up the tail — then dropped it, quickly.

'Doctor, it's warm!'

The Doctor unfurled a long finger and, tentatively, brushed the tip along the dragon's tail. 'So it is.'

Amy reached to take hold of it again but the Doctor was there first. She tutted in annoyance.

Why couldn't she be the one to experiment for once? Out came the sonic screwdriver. Hadn't she seen it first? Amy watched unhappily as the Doctor ran his thumb down the scales on the dragon, almost caressing them.

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DOCTOR WHO

'Definitely odd,' he said. Then he picked up the long tail and banged it hard against the gate.

There was a pause, a thump, and then somebody cursed inventively. The spy-hole in the gate opened.

The Doctor stuck his face up close and grinned through. 'Hello! How are you? Can we come in?'

'Who's there? What do you want?'

The Doctor fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his psychic paper. He held it up closer to the hole in the gate.

The keeper muttered a reply.

'Sorry,' the Doctor said. 'Having a bit of trouble hearing you! Big wooden gate in the way!'

'I said I can't read!'

'Ah.' The Doctor stared down at the paper. 'Of course. Oral culture. That's a design flaw, isn't it?'

There was another series of thumps from behind the gate, which then opened a crack.

'But the wife can,' said the gatekeeper. 'So you'd better come in.' He peered behind the Doctor and shook his head at Amy and Rory. 'Not them. Only you.'

Th e D o c to r we nt t h r o u g h the g ate , unapologetically looking back over his shoulder at his friends.

They stood there for almost two whole minutes before Amy muttered, 'Bored now!' She waved at
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THE KING’S DRAGON

Rory. 'Come on, then. Leg up.'

'What?'

'If they won't let me in through the gate, I'm going over the wall.'

'Amy, can't you wait for once?'

'Not a chance!'

'But what if they don't let the Doctor through?

Then you'll be stuck in there—'

Patiently, Amy explained. 'No - I'll be on the inside and can come and open the gate once the keeper has gone back into his house. Hands, please.'

About three and a half seconds later, Rory was crouching with his hands clasped together in front of him. Amy was standing on them and scrabbling up the wall.

'Sometimes,' Rory said to Amy's left shin, 'I feel like I've spent my entire life doing things like this.

And then I start to worry that I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing things like this... Amy!

That's my face you're standing on!'

'Nothing vital, then.'

'Thanks a lot!' He pushed her up, she pushed too - and then she was sitting on top of the wall. A sudden thought struck him. 'Amy - what do we do if the Doctor
does
persuade them to open the gate?'

'What?'

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DOCTOR WHO

'There'll only be one of us. One of me! Here! By myself!'

Amy grinned down at him. 'You'll think of something. You usually do.' Then she swung over the wall and was gone.

Inevitably, the gate opened a split-second later. The Doctor breezed out with the gatekeeper scurrying behind him.

'No need to apologise! Easy mistake to make!'

the Doctor said cheerily. Then he saw Rory, standing by himself, and frowned.

The gatekeeper tapped the Doctor's arm.

'Excuse me for asking, but I thought you said two companions?'

'So I did,' the Doctor replied.

'She... got tired and went home,' Rory offered.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. 'You mentioned a carriage?' he said to the gatekeeper, as Rory came sheepishly through the gate.

'On its way,' the gatekeeper said. 'Don't want you wandering around the city at night, do we?' 'Don't we?' said the Doctor.

'Well, dark night, empty streets, you never know who's hanging around.'

The Doctor scratched his nose. 'Don't you?'

'Still, better than it used to be. Time was anyone could walk into Geath, any time, day or night! Can you believe it?'

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THE KING’S DRAGON

He swung the gate closed. It gave a loud thump, as the Doctor said, softly, 'Why is that a bad thing?'

Amy slipped round to the back of the gatehouse.

She could hear the Doctor speaking - quickly, so that the gatekeeper (and, presumably, his wife) didn't get much of a chance - but she couldn't make out any words. Never mind. As long as the Doctor was talking, he'd be keeping them busy and away from her. She inched around the side of the house, coming to a halt near a window. Slowly, she leaned forwards to peer inside.

The room was crammed full of gold. The candlesticks were made of gold. The poker and fire-irons were made of gold. The door handle - yes, that looked a lot like gold. There was gold stitching on the curtains and on the cloth that covered the small table below the window upon which cutlery (gold) and plate (gold) were laid out. All of it gleamed in the candlelight. Two comfortable chairs stood facing each other companionably. Gold cushions rested plumply upon them. It was a tiny, very cosy treasure vault.

'What,' Amy muttered to the absent gatekeeper, 'is your scam, exactly?'

She tried the window. It opened. Carefully, still listening out for the conversation going on round
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the front of the building, Amy leaned inside, exactly far enough to be able to touch one of the spoons on the table. It too was warm. More than that, it was...

Wriggling.

'Whoa!' Amy jerked back her hand. 'Now that is the most freakish thing in a whole world of freakishness!'

She was about to test it again, but the conversation at the front of the house was finishing.

Quickly, she pulled the window down again and slipped back into the shadow of the wall.

The gate was open. Rory slunk in, tail between his legs.

'Poor Rory,' Amy whispered to him. 'I'm guessing you didn't think of something.'

She edged round to the road, keeping to the shadows. The Doctor was gabbling away, at the gatekeeper and his wife. Then a carriage pulled up. A golden carriage.

'How lucky you are,' gushed the gatekeeper's wife, as Rory and the Doctor clambered into their carriage. 'You're going to meet the King! The King!'

'King?' Rory whispered to the Doctor, as they took their seats. 'I thought this was a republic or something.'

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THE KING’S DRAGON

'It is. It
was.'
The Doctor leaned over to open the door on the other side of the carriage. Amy hopped in. 'Hurry up!' said the Doctor. 'We're going to meet the King!'

'King?'

Amy

nodded

back

towards

the

gatehouse. 'You should see how the other half lives.'

The carriage clattered along. The Doctor frowned out of the window, beyond which the city of Geath gleamed silently. Rory and Amy waited patiently.

Eventually, the Doctor held up some fingers.

'There are three things wrong here. Firstly, as Rory pointed out, the people of Geath don't have a king.

They have a council. They have elections. They have made an
art form
out of elections. That's the first thing wrong.'

One of the Doctor's fingers went down. He stopped talking and resumed frowning. Amy and Rory exchanged a look.

The carriage continued through the deserted city. They went down long curved avenues, through little plazas with statues and fountains at the centre, caught glimpses of covered steps leading up the hill and alleyways leading down to the river - but they saw nobody. The carriage rattled into a plaza bigger than any they had passed through yet and far more elaborately gilded. The
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torchlight glittered on the thick metal that coated the fronts of the buildings. A deep-noted bell gouged; once, twice.

Amy jumped. 'This place is giving me the creeps.'

Crossing the plaza, the carriage came to a halt.

The travellers climbed out and found themselves in front of a huge round building. This had to be the hall they had seen from the hilltop, Amy thought; the one with the magical dome. That was too high for her to see it clearly; looking up she saw instead a haze of soft light rising above the hall. The walls of the building were enamelled; the decoration more intricate than anything she had seen so far, with swirling spiral patterns that bewildered her eye when she looked for more than a few seconds. Two men stood on guard in front of the hall's big arched doors. There was nobody else in sight. Silence enveloped the city, a watchful, anxious silence. The night heat was cloying. Amy looked at the golden hall and gave a shudder of trepidation.

'The second thing that's wrong,' the Doctor said, 'is that the streets are empty. Geathians live their lives out in the streets and the plazas. Daytime: they sit outside and work and talk. Night-time: they sit outside and eat and talk. So where is everyone?

Why are they hiding away and locking
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THE KING’S DRAGON

their doors?' He put one more finger down.

The two guards came towards them, bowed low, and gestured at them to come inside. They walked into a wide white corridor with an arched roof; there were alcoves at intervals along each wall, and in each of these some golden artefact was on display: vases, statues, figures clasping gilded lamps.

The further in they went, the more lavish these objects became, as if they were drawing nearer and nearer to the source of it all.

'The
third
thing that's wrong,' said the Doctor,

'and, speaking for myself, I think this probably comes under the heading "most wrong" — is that gold doesn't occur naturally on this world. Not an ingot, not a leaf, not a flake. There shouldn't be any gold.' He glanced back down the corridor. 'But there is. There's
quite a lot
of gold.'

They came to a pair of double doors. One of the guards pushed these open, and the companions walked through into a huge chamber, full of light and music and people. The Doctor still had one finger raised. It stayed raised and, as Amy watched, those closest to them began to notice.

They fell silent; they nudged the next group along, who looked round and, seeing the Doctor, also fell silent. The clamour of conversation lessened steadily and the music faltered. Soon the hall was in complete silence and everybody in it was
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looking their way.

The Doctor waggled his finger in greeting.

'Hello! I'm the Doctor. No, don't get up.'

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A chamber full of
courtiers glared at them. The Doctor beamed back, his smile like a ray of pure white light through the hostile, shimmering room. Hundreds of people were gathered there, glorious in their finery, as if the jewel-drenched and fantastic figures of a mosaic had stepped down and taken shape in the real world.