Doctor Who by Jacqueline Rayner

Author:Jacqueline Rayner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

TEN

The Doctor's hearts sank as he gazed on the petrified Tiro. Gloomily, he called out to the man by the statue, 'Excuse me – isn't Ursus himself here to see his work take its place?'

The man shrugged. 'Nah. He's not even in Rome. We had to send a cart to fetch this from some country villa where he's staying.'

'He's not in Rome at all?' persisted the Doctor. 'You don't know of any other new statues of his that are being unveiled or anything? Something a bit more feminine perhaps. More Fortuna-y.'

'You can take my word for it,' said the man. 'Trust me, I'd know about it.'

'What do we do now?' asked Gracilis as the Doctor turned away. 'Back to the villa?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'No,' he said, 'there's work to do here first. Starting with this very statue. Don't want to cause a panic, so we'd better wait till nightfall...' He looked up at the sun, checking its position. 'Oh, who am I kidding? I can't wait that long. Let's start a panic. Oh – and let's hope this does what I think it does, or there might be a lynching instead!'

He turned back and hurried towards the statue, bounding on to a plinth to stand beside it. The people, who had begun to drift away, sensed there was more entertainment afoot and reversed their steps. If any of them recognised this sideburned showman as the arena escapee from earlier, however, they held their tongues – and as the citizens of Rome were not well known for their taciturnity or benevolence, chances were good that he hadn't been identified.

The Doctor took a bow, careful not to fall off the plinth. 'Ladies and gentlemen!' he cried, in imitation of the earlier announcement. 'I give you – the god Mercury!' No one seemed disposed to cheer at this repetition, so he carried on. 'As you know, this is a time of festivity. We have celebrated the divine Minerva, she of the shield and spear. Born fully grown and armoured out of the head of her father, believe it or not. Can't tell me that didn't hurt. Now we're carrying on the celebrations for the just as divine and even more warlike Mars. And d'you know what? They're really very grateful for your celebrations – not to mention your offerings and your getting very drunk in their names. And who better to bring their message of thanks to you than Mercury, messenger of the gods!'

The Doctor surreptitiously brought out the phial and carefully removed the stopper. He let a tiny drop of the jade-coloured liquid fall on to the marble of the statue.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' he said again, 'boys and girls, I give you Mercury!'

For a moment, the crowd looked on in bemusement. One or two turned away.

And then a woman screamed. And another.

Where there had been white marble, there was now a blush of pink. It spread over the statue, the stone being eaten away by the stain of flesh. The painted lips became soft and pouting, the gilded eyes replaced by bright green orbs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.