Doctor Who PDA26 - Divided Loyalties (5th) by Gary Russell

Author:Gary Russell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-07-13T02:42:52+00:00

1

Then You Turn Away

Nyssa felt the warmth of the sun on her cheeks and rolled on to her back, distractedly waving her arm across her face. As if brushing away cobwebs. Outside, the birds were singing and a slight and pleasant breeze washed over her, entering from the tiny window above the bed-head.

She opened her tired eyes, feeling the softness of the grey silk nightdress she wore. At the foot of the chintz bedspread sat a row of her stuffed toys, guarding her during the night, as always. She smiled down at Big Bear, top guardian and leader of her pack.

‗Morning, BeeBee,‘ she said. ‗Thank you for another safe night.‘

‗Always our pleasure, Miss Nyssa,‘ Big Bear responded, with a salute.

‗I think today, BeeBee, I shall go and visit Melkur again. My mother-to-be took her role as its guardian as seriously as you take the way you guard me - I can do no more than that.‘

Nyssa climbed out of her bed, washed and dressed, adjusted her hair and, with a final look at her toys, left her room.

She took the yellow-stone staircase down to the ground floor, smiling at a couple of fosters and one of the proctors who was taking a message or delivery of some sort to the consuls.

She followed him at the last moment, hoping for a peek at her dear father and her mother-to-be at work. Sneaking in behind the proctor, she hovered at the back of the grand meeting-room, with its raised throne at one end encased in a glass chamber with gilded edges. In front of the throne room were some steps, and on either side of those a small array of electronic power banks. Further into the room was a large table, at which the consuls were seated.

‗Nyssa, my daughter,‘ Tremas beckoned her over, ‗you know you shouldn‘t be here. We have work to do.‘

‗Now then, Consul Tremas,‘ said an elderly woman to his right, Consul Katura, ‗it is always a delight to see your beautiful daughter amongst us.‘

‗Indeed, she keeps us feeling young,‘ said the eldest consul,

- Seron, their leader.

‗I‘m sorry, Father. Consuls. I just wanted to say good morning to you all.‘

Consul Kassia, Nyssa‘s mother-to-be, smiled at her. She was a lot younger than Tremas, barely old enough to be Nyssa‘s, or anyone‘s, natural mother, and was definitely the most beautiful lady in the Traken Union. ‗Have you visited poor Melkur this morning, my dear?‘

Nyssa shook her head. ‗Not yet, but I shall do so now.‘

A younger male consul, Luvic, laughed not unkindly.

‗Consul Kassia, if Nyssa serves our famous statue as lovingly as you have done over the years, I swear one day the statue will walk again and sit with her upon that throne. And with the Keeper‘s blessing, they shall be married.‘

The other consuls laughed as well.

The proctor whom Nyssa had followed approached the table.

‗My Lords, I have an important message for you all.‘

Nyssa looked at him. He was not anyone she recognised.

He was older than most proctors, with a deeply lined face that seemed built to wear a perpetual smile, yet was sad now.

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