Dennington gazed up at it in awe. “So how do we get over that? Climb?”
“No,” said Dunjan. “Tressure will have guards on the other side who would kill us in an instant.”
“What about the main gate? We could knock on the door and ask them if we can see Tressure.”
“It would take another full day to follow the wall around to the main gate. We must find an alternative route.”
“I’m open to suggestions.”
Dunjan started to bang his staff on the ground whilst walking around and around in random patterns.
“What are you doing?” asked Dennington, confused.
“The fortress has dungeons and tunnels that stretch far under the land. Maybe we could find a passage in that way.”
“Can’t you just put a spell on the guards? You know, knock them out?”
“Tressure will have protected them, but -” he seemed to have found something, “- a-ha!”
“What?”
“Hollow ground. We can get through the earth into the dungeons.”
Dunjan raised his staff, muttered some words under his breath and brought his staff down sharply on the ground. The earth began to tremble and cracks formed. Dennington stepped back as a large hole appeared where he had been standing.
Dunjan smiled.
“Bloody hell, Dunjan! Well done!”
They peered down into the abyss. It was a few feet down but they’d make it. But below was just blackness.
“Shame we don’t have any rope,” said Dennington. “I lost it in the river. Think you can jump that far?”
“Life is nothing without risk.”
In his throne room Tressure was distracted. Danny was pinned against the wall and screaming in agony. The tears were streaming from his eyes and he was begging to be released.
“You’re weak!” screamed Tressure. “Weak!”
Danny crumpled in pain and fought against the harsh yellow light that was emanating from the Eye around Tressure’s neck.
“Please, stop,” he begged.
But the torture continued.
With all of his strength Danny edged himself forward. It was as if someone was inside him, pushing him on. He reached out and to Tressure’s horror he grabbed the Eye. The light enveloped Danny and he gasped in shock and surprise.
And then…nothing.
Danny was lying somewhere. He couldn’t quite tell where. But all around him was yellow-green light. An old man appeared out of nowhere. No, there were two men. One old, one young. No, wait. More than two men. There were women as well. People were appearing from everywhere. Soon a huge crowd of people were gathered around him.
“Who are you?” asked Danny fearfully.
“Do not be frightened,” said one of the woman. “We are the Gods of the Eye.”
“I...I don’t understand.”
“We are the Gods that once were,” added a young man. “We are the past keepers of the Eye. The ones that came before Tressure.”
Danny listened intently as the Gods told him of the story of the Eye. And then they gave him specific instructions of what he was to do. Danny nodded and then…
He was lying in Tressure’s throne room on the floor. In his hand was the Eye; it had been pulled from Tressure’s neck. Now the God stood over him, watching with interest.
“What happened?” The previous conversation seemed a distant blur.
“You defied me,” said Tressure, calmly.
“Oh, my head,” groaned the Doctor, wondering whether or not to risk opening his eyes against the sunlight.
“What have I been drinking?” groaned Ivy.
“Whatever it was, I had some as well. I feel like the morning after last years Christmas party. I thought Nivere had shot us,” said Caroline.
“She did,” replied the Doctor. “She just had the gun on a high stun setting.”
“Nice of her to leave us alive,” said Ivy.
The Doctor opened one eye and then the other and then groaned in pain. He shielded his eyes as he forced himself to sit up. His head was pounding with the beat of a thousand elephants stamping on his skull.
“Is it safe to open our eyes yet?”
“I think so, Ivy, but take it slowly.”
The two women sat up and then opened their eyes. After a while the brightness of the morning sun started to feel normal again and, although they still had splitting headaches, they were beginning to feel much better.
They’d eaten a few rations that Nivere had left behind and then gathered their stuff together.
“So what do we do now?” asked Caroline. “Go back to the TARDIS?”
“We can’t just leave Mark. He might still be alive.”
“Yes.” The Doctor bit on his finger nails in thought. “Okay. It looks like we’re going to have to get to this God’s fortress after all.”
“What?!” spluttered Caroline. “You were all for abandoning the expedition.”
“Yes, I know, but I don’t think we’ve got any choice. Nivere isn’t going to stop until she’s got the power of the Eye. It’s inevitable that we’re going to end up there.”
Dennington and Dunjan, meanwhile, had come to a dead end. They had jumped through the hole and into the tunnels underground only to find themselves in a stone prison chamber with no obvious means of escape.
“So now what do we do?” asked Dennington.
“Well I could try using my magic to get us out, but this far down and this close to Tressure might render it in-operable.”
“You mean from now on your magic’s gonna be useless?”
“More or less,” said Dunjan, biting his lip.
“Great. We’ll just have to go back up.”
Dennington sat down on the cold floor just has he heard a soft groan. It seemed to come from the far corner of the cell. The whole place was in darkness so they had no idea of what was making the sound. Dennington grabbed Dunjan’s stick and motioned for him to stay back.
“Hello?” he called wearily into the darkness.
There was no reply.
“Hello? Who’s there?”
The groan came again; this time a little more strained.
“Are you okay? You sound like you’re in pain.”
The groan came louder again, but this time Dennington noticed a mechanical twinge to it. Robotic. It sounded more like a faulty robots voice.
“Are you okay? What are you?”
Dennington thought he saw a glint of metal shining in the darkness and put his face closer. A great metal hand reached out and grabbed Dennington around the throat. He shouted out in terror as a blank, metal face with black holes for eyes stared back at him.
Nivere and Grasp were running through the jungle, out of breath and feeling very tired. But they had to keep going. Behind them were the two savages that had taken the girl. They must have located them and they were chasing them, gaining ground on them all the time.
“Come on, Grasp, come on!” she shouted back to the lizard man who was firing bolts of energy back through the trees.
“We must stop them, Captain,” panted Grasp.
“Leave them. We need to run!”
They continued running and eventually Grasp ran up alongside Nivere. But Nivere was already starting to run out of steam. After a while she slowed to a walking pace and collapsed on the floor.
“It’s no use,” she said, panting. “I’m just not fit enough.”
Grasp looked around anxiously and then hefted his captain up to her feet. “I’ll have to carry you.”
“What!”
But Grasp didn’t listen to her protests, picked up the bulky woman and slung her over his shoulder. He broke into a struggling run again with the protesting Nivere over his shoulder.
Back a few metres was Slavin and Yentob. The two had been tracking Nivere and Grasp for sometime.
“They’re on the move again,” said Yentob.
“Well done, lad, yes, they are,” replied the old man.
“We could use our magic to get ahead.”
“We mustn’t rely on magic all the time, Yentob. We shouldn’t flaunt it. It was a gift from God and not something to be used without thought.”
“I understand, Slavin.” But in his head Yentob couldn’t work out why they had to do all this running.
Further up the path Grasp was beginning to struggle with Nivere. She demanded that he put her down, but he wasn’t listening.
“We must carry on, Captain.”
“Then let me go.”
“You can’t manage it.”
“I can!”
Grasp stopped, thought, and then put his captain down. She straightened out her clothes and stood up. ‘
“Thank you, Grasp.”
“Do not mention it, Captain.”
A spear whizzed straight past Grasp‘s head, amazingly, not killing him.
“Down!” shouted Nivere.
The two hid behind some bushes as their attackers, Slavin and Yentob, pushed their way through the trees.
Yentob stood as still as a stone, narrowing his eyes and listening for any sign of movement. He was like an animal on the prowl and Nivere and Grasp were his prey. Slavin simply stood and watched the younger man, admiring him and nodding in approval at his hunting skills.
“I can hear something,” whispered Yentob.
“Where are they?” asked the older man, hoping to get a response.
“I am not sure. I can hear breathing.”
Grasp and Nivere were crouched as low as possible behind the thick jungle leaves. Grasp was breathing heavily and Nivere was trying to stop him. And then they saw the two savages advance on their position.
“Get it off me!” screamed Dennington as the huge metal hand of the robot tried to strangle the life out of him.
“I can’t. He is too strong!” said Dunjan in despair as he rammed his staff into the things body. The spear wasn’t even denting it.
Dennington tried to splutter a few words but it didn’t work. His hand reached out and grabbed at a gold necklace that hung from Dunjan’s neck. He snatched it away and thrust it as hard as he could into the robots chest plate. The thing recoiled back, screaming in horror and hid itself in a corner.
“What on Theen is it?” asked Dunjan, wide-eyed.
“A Cyberman. Part organic and part cybernetic. Gold is lethal to them,” said Dennington coughing and rubbing his soar neck. “Well, at least to some Cybermen it is. It clogs up their breathing apparatus.” He moved closer to the strange robotic man and examined it’s still form. “Yes this appears to be a Telosian Cyberman. We went to war with them a few centuries ago.”
“I don’t understand,’ said Dunjan, feeling rather confused.”
“Cybermen were once like you or I, Dunjan. Flesh and blood. But they gradually replaced their human body parts with cybernetic organs, metal and plastic until most of what was human was gone. The result was this - a Cyberman.”
“But what’s it doing on Theen?”
“Obviously the same reason my Captain is here – looking for the Eye.”
“Yes. Many have come to our planet, but never fully passed the test.”
Dennington brushed the gold pieces from the Cyberman’s chest plate. “Yes. This one must have been with a larger group. Tressure must be very powerful if he can stop the Cybermen.”
Dunjan nodded grimly. “What do we do now?”
“We get out of here.”
“Through the hole in the ceiling?”
But when they looked up they noticed, to their horror, that the hole had gone. They were now fully enclosed in.
“Stop!” shouted the Doctor, running up to Slavin and Yentob.
“We passed your dead bodies,” said Yentob suspiciously.
“Only stunned, boys,” said Ivy. “We’re alive and kicking again.”
“No thanks to her,” grumbled Caroline, pointing to the Captain and Grasp who were now emerging from behind the buses.
“We should kill them all - now!” said Yentob fiercely.
“Killing us won’t achieve anything,” said the Doctor, looking hard into Slavin’s eyes.
“Listen to the Doctor, he knows what he‘s talking about,” encouraged Nivere.
“Is that why you shot him?” said Caroline.
“Okay, Caroline, let’s forget about the blame for now.” The Doctor circled Slavin and examined him closely. “You don’t really want to kill us, do you?”
“I must…”
“What did your God ask you to do?” asked the Doctor.
“He...he told us that he was only interested in you, Doctor, and Captain April Nivere.”
“Me?” spluttered Nivere. “Why me?”
“I don’t know…”
“Perhaps he wants to give me the power of the Gods.” Nivere’s heart had leapt and visions of the future were whipping up around her head. Visions of her sat on a throne surrounded by all the treasures she could think of.
“I think I can guess why,” said the Doctor. “I’m a Time Lord so he’s possibly interested in me for that reason. But Nivere…hmm, I don’t know about her.”
Caroline turned around, suddenly feeling the unnerving chill of something watching her. “Doctor,” she said uneasily. “Doctor can you feel that?”
“What?” The Doctor looked at his young companion. A green cloud was beginning to form close to the travellers. But it was low down and small. After a while it became thicker and soon an odd, cloud-like face began to form.
“What the hell is that?” asked Caroline.
Slavin smiled. “That is our God”
The mouth opened on the face and it spoke. “I am indeed their God.”
“God?” spluttered the Doctor. “I doubt that you’re a God.”
“You doubt it?”
“Yes,” continued the Doctor. “There are many powerful beings out there and I believe that you’re one of them, but you are not a God”
The face chuckled. “So I am given power over this entire planet. I even structured the planet and created these people. Does that not make me a God?”
“No it does not.”
The face twisted into a look of sneering anger and then a vapour was released from it’s mouth. The vapour floated past the Doctor and engulfed Ivy, Caroline and Grasp, leaving the Doctor, Nivere, Yentob and Slavin. It then cleared and the three stood motionless. Paralysed. Frozen in one spot.
“What have you done to them?”
“Taken them out of the picture for a while. Slavin -”
Slavin raised his staff and crashed it down onto the ground. In a flash of green light the savages and the motionless ones disappeared leaving just Nivere, the Doctor and the cloud in the jungle.
“Where have they gone?”
“They are with me now, and if you want to see them alive you’ll continue your expedition to my fortress.”
“Why?” asked Nivere. “Why take them?”
‘Because you two, I believe, are worthy for the task of joining me in ultimate power. If you can make it to me in one piece then I will consider releasing some of that power to you.”
Nivere smiled as the face disappeared.
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