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.We are pilgrims, taking the holy path to G’chun duss Ssethiissi.Why would we harm fellow travellers?’ She stood.‘That would be an affront to our order.’‘You must admit, though,’ said the Doctor, stepping forward and staring up into the female’s face, half a metre above him, ‘a mysterious death and your sudden appearance would seem to be a remarkable coincidence.’The largest of the three Ice Warriors waved a clamp at the body.‘Had he faced us in combat, his head would have been cleaved from his neck.This trifling wound would be an insult.’‘Be quiet, Cleece,’ snapped the female.‘Your posturing will not help this situation.’ She turned back to the Doctor.‘Are you the leader of this group?’The Doctor shook his head and nodded at McGuire.‘That honour goes to Antony McGuire over there.’ McGuire gave an inward sigh of relief; given the Doctor’s previous behaviour and knowledge of the Greenies – not to mention his friend’s arm round his neck – McGuire had briefly entertained the possibility of some sort of arranged ambush, engineered by the Doctor to deliver them to his allies.The Ice Lord executed a deep bow in McGuire’s direction.‘I am Abbot Aklaar, spiritual guardian of these children.’Returning to his full height, he pointed his staff at each of the Ice Warriors in turn.‘Cleece, Esstar and Sstaal.’ McGuire noticed the final Martian, a decidedly small specimen who lurked nervously in the background.A nervous Ice Warrior?That was a first.‘If you are from a religious nest,’ said the Doctor suspiciously, ‘why are you all wearing Warrior armour?’‘During our pilgrimage, we have faced many dangers – the wilds of our home planet are brutal and unforgiving.Without the protection of Warrior armour, we would have perished,’explained Aklaar.Roz released her grip, and McGuire rubbed his bruised throat.‘Can you prove this?’ she asked.Aklaar looked round the group of humans.‘We have been observing you; your actions – and your success in reaching Ikk-ett-Saleth – suggest that you have an expert in our culture in your party.’‘He’s the stiff,’ Madrigal pointed out with her usual lack of tact.‘What are you getting at?’ But McGuire couldn’t help looking at the Doctor; if anyone in the expedition could be considered an expert, it was him.‘A student of our ways would recognize this.’ Aklaar reached into his hide cloak and pulled out a small silver-blue object, not dissimilar to a melted treble clef symbol.‘This lies at the heart of our faith.’The Doctor snatched it from the Abbot’s clamp and held it up to the light of the artificial morning.He raised an eyebrow.‘Utet-Sak-Oras.the Divine Sight of Horus.Then again.’He leant down and irreverently snatched the tablette from Esteban’s death grip.With a brief tap on its keyboard, he held the symbol up to its sensor port and examined the readings.Clearly satisfied, he pocketed the object and replaced the tablette in Esteban’s unfeeling fingers.‘The metallurgy readings show it as genuine – hand-drawn from an Osirian star-sapphire.I believe you.’ But McGuire couldn’t help but notice a worried tone in his voice.The Doctor unexpectedly voiced McGuire’s own concerns.‘But if you didn’t kill the Professor here.who did?’ Then again, the Doctor couched it in considerably friendlier terms than McGuire would have done.‘Just because these ones are pacifists, it doesn’t mean that their relatives aren’t around here somewhere,’ said Carmen Santacosta nervously.‘This horrid vile city could be crawling with them, hissing away with their nasty sinister voices.’‘This city is under the Interdict of Oras,’ intoned the Abbot, ignoring the singer’s insult.‘No Martian, be they pilgrim or warrior, builder or serf, would dare to transgress its holy boundaries.’‘But you’re here,’ Roz pointed out.Sstaal raised his clamp.‘The – the importance of our holy mission is such that the Abbot was able to obtain permission from the Parliament of Seers,’ he stammered.‘No interdict can prevent our holy passage.’McGuire suddenly noticed the Doctor’s expression.He was staring at Sstaal, or rather, at Sstaal’s backpack.Sstaal and Cleece were both carrying large backpacks, fastened across their chests with two black leather straps.But Sstaal’s was different: a large serrated sword with an ornate hilt was strapped to the top.‘So what is a group of pilgrims doing with the Sword of Tuburr?’ the Doctor whispered.‘Unless I’ve mistaken Pilgrim Sstaal’s sword for the legendary symbol of the Martian military ethic.’ He raised an eyebrow.‘Or has the law forbidding the forging of copies been revoked in the last few years?’The chamber was about five hundred metres across, with a circular floor enclosed by a hemispherical bowl of similarly polished light brown rock, brightly lit by a knot of fluorescent fungus at its summit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]