Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (10 page)

'Hello,' said Dodo. 'You've made it up
then.'

The Sergeant drew himself up to his
full height once again. 'Mrs Wiggs has too warm a heart to keep a
quarrel going.'

Mrs Wiggs giggled like a young girl.
'The Sergeant is going to take me to the ball.'

'The ball?' queried Dodo.

'Right in 'ere gel,' said the Sergeant.
'There's no lack of partners as you see.' He pointed over to the
waiting dolls. 'They never get tired of dancing, them dollies.'

Steven, meanwhile, had been walking
around the edge of the dance floor. The only way to reach the TARDIS
was by crossing it. Without waiting further, Steven started striding
across the floor. The music started. To his horror, Steven suddenly
found himself dancing around to the steps of a Viennese waltz.

'It's no time for a dance, Steven,'
said Dodo, laughing.

Steven looked back, his face stricken:
'I can't help myself.' Steven tried to get toward the edge of the
floor, but every time he got near, he found himself whisked away as though he were on some
invisible, moving turntable.

'Look out!' said Dodo anxiously. She
pointed behind Steven and as he twirled around, he saw the three
dolls move mechanically towards him.

The scene on the dance floor was being
watched by the Toymaker in his private office. The tally recorder now
read number 876 and the Doctor's hand was still visible, moving the
counters from one place to another.

'You're doing very well, Doctor,' said
the Toymaker. 'Let's hope you haven't made a mistake. But you'll find
that out when you reach your 1023rd move.'

The Toymaker waved his hand lazily
towards the screen. 'I see that Steven has taken some time off from
the quest to go dancing.'

The hand stopped as if the invisible
Doctor was watching the screen. 'Keep on playing,' said the Toymaker.
'Keep on playing.'

One of the ballerina dolls approached
Steven, grabbed him around the waist and held his hand. It started to
dance with him.

'Get away from it,' said Dodo. 'You
must. The riddle warned us that if you started dancing it would be
forever.'

Steven shook his head, sweat pouring
from his brow. 'I can't,' he said. 'It's holding me here like steel!
Don't come on to the floor, Dodo. Get back.'

'But then we can't reach the TARDIS,'
said Dodo anxiously.

'Perhaps I'll be able to move the doll
nearer to it,' he said.

And even as he spoke, the doll guided
Steven's feet effortlessly - further away from the TARDIS.

The Sergeant looked over at them: 'Not
a bad dancer. For a civilian that is! And not a bad-looking couple.'

Mrs Wiggs turned to Dodo. 'He'd make a
nicer partner for you, ducks.'

Dodo came to a sudden resolution. 'I'm
going to try and reach the TARDIS,' she said. She jumped onto the
dance floor and at once, she found herself dancing too.

Now the rhythm changed to a fast beat
number. The doll disengaged Steven and started gyrating in front of
him and Steven found himself tossing and turning on the dance floor
to some disco beat. He turned and to his horror saw Dodo also on the
floor dancing opposite a male ballet dancer doll. 'What are you
doing?' he cried. 'Get away Dodo. Get back.'

Dodo shook her head. 'I can't,' she
said.

Standing beside the dance floor, the
Sergeant turned to Mrs Wiggs. 'Now we got them both dancing,' he
said. 'What was it the Toymaker wanted us to do?'

Mrs Wiggs pointed over to the TARDIS:
'Reach that big cupboard before them.'

'And what about that other doll?' asked
the Sergeant.

'Well, that's the game, ducks, ain't
it? You dance with 'er and I'll run for the cupboard.'

'Begging your pardon, mum. This is
men's work. You dance and I'll run.' Mrs Wiggs shook her head
obstinately. The Sergeant continued. 'To be quite frank with you,
missus, soldiers don't dance well, officers perhaps, but never
sergeants! Now, why don't you try that floor?'

A little reluctantly, Mrs Wiggs stepped
onto the dance floor and, as she did, the dolls changed partners.
Steven's doll went to dance with Dodo; Dodo's doll went to dance with
Mrs Wiggs; and the third doll came over to dance with Steven.

Steven, this time swept up in a 1920s
tango rhythm and holding his partner around the waist, called to
Dodo. 'Try and keep near me,' he said.

'Why?' said Dodo.

Steven shook his head at her. 'Tell you
later.'

Mrs Wiggs, being swept around by her
doll in long sweeping tango steps, was getting out of breath. 'I
can't keep this up for long Sergeant,' she said. 'Go on, run for the
cupboard.'

The Sergeant, who seemed reluctant to
step on the dance floor, braced himself. 'Just on my way, Mrs W,' he
said. He took a big stride onto the dance floor only to find that his
feet weren't his own. He started to dance too. The music changed
again - this time it was a snappy fox trot of the 1930s.

Once again the dolls changed partners.
One of the ballerinas attached herself to the Sergeant. The male doll
left Mrs Wiggs and took Dodo in his arms and Steven's doll approached
Mrs Wiggs and started dancing. Just as Steven had hoped, he found
himself unattached.

'Help,' said the Sergeant. 'What's
happening?'

'I'm surprised at you, Sergeant Rugg,'
said Mrs Wiggs. 'Put that hussy down and get to the cupboard.'

'I can't!' shouted the Sergeant.

Meanwhile, Steven said to Dodo. 'Keep
going. Try to get as near as you can to the TARDIS. We're almost
there, now concentrate. Now! Quick!'

By a great effort of will, Steven
managed to steer himself as close as he could to the TARDIS. He
reached forward, grabbed the door, pulled it open, turned, and as
Dodo and her partner came past, grabbed her by the arm and pulled.
Both of them shot inside and the door shut behind them.

For a moment, Dodo and Steven were too
busy trying to catch their breath to take in their surroundings. Then
they realised that they were in yet another police box.

'Another fake! I wonder how many of
these things the Toy maker has.'

'Far too many,' said Dodo. I'm
beginning to wonder if we'll ever find the real one at all.'

'Of course we will,' said Steven.
'Don't lose heart. We've been through too much.'

'I wonder if we'll ever see the
sergeant and the cook again. They were rather nice you know,' said
Dodo.

Steven shook his head in disbelief.
'You still believe in these creations of the Toymaker, don't you?' he
said. 'You can't see that they are just phantoms - things created in
his mind.'

'If that's so,' said Dodo. 'Why do they
lose to us? And always through something silly and, yes, human, and
in a way rather touching.'

Steven shook his head puzzled. 'I don't
know,' he said. 'Perhaps they get out of his control.'

'There,' she said. Dodo always liked
winning the argument when she could. 'That's what I meant.'

'Come again?' said Steven.

'He can bring them to life,' she
explained. 'But they have wills and minds of their own. I'll never be
able to look at a doll or a playing card again with an easy mind.
They really live a secret life.'

Steven looked at her with concern as
though she had flipped her lid this time, as he would have put it.
'We'd better get you out of this - and quickly.'

'What do you mean?' said Dodo, a bit
annoyed.

'This place is beginning to get to you,
isn't it?'

'Rubbish,' said Dodo, really annoyed
now. 'Just because you can't see ...'

'Oh, come on,' said Steven. 'We'd
better find the next clue.'

Back in the study, the Toymaker was
watching the screen. He saw the Sergeant and Mrs Wiggs, now dancing
together, get smaller and smaller, reverting to their doll's size.
The Toymaker waved his arm angrily and the screen became blank. He
then turned to the Doctor.

'You dare to laugh at me, do you,
Doctor? You forget I can see you when no-one else can. You laugh too
soon. The game is not yet over - either for you or your clever
friends. They still have another game or two to play, and they
mustn't win this next game.'

The Toymaker strode quickly over to the
doll's house and surveyed a small row of dolls. There were the
clowns, the playing cards, and the Sergeant and Cook dolls laid out.

'I was foolish to trust you to play my
games,' said the Toymaker. He turned and opened a chest and threw the dolls inside carelessly. 'Clowns!
Playing cards! Nursery characters! All too human and too kind. No.
This time I must find a more deadly opponent.' He turned around and,
from the doll's house, brought out the figure of a round, rather fat,
English schoolboy in school uniform -cap, blazer, short trousers,
long socks and leather shoes.

He held it up and looked at it. 'The
most deadly opponent of all,' he said, 'because he appears the most
innocent. A fat, jolly, school boy: who could suspect him? My friend
Cyril!' He laughed. 'I wonder what your friends will make of him,
Doctor?'

He looked over at the tally recorder
which now registered 899. As he watched, it clicked on to 900. 'You
only have 123 moves to go, Doctor,' he said. 'I think we've got you
this time.'

Back in the fake TARDIS, Steven was
beginning to get frustrated. 'Can you see any way out of this?' he
asked. 'We can't go back in on the dance floor.' He started to push
at one of the walls but nothing happened.

'What do you think that is?' said Dodo.
She pointed to one of the three walls on which was marked a large
arrow pointing up to the roof of the police box. The words Start Here
were written alongside the arrow. Steven reached up and started
examining the wall on which the arrow was painted. Further up, there
was a piece of paper at the tip of the arrow. He reached up and got
it.

'This must be the next riddle,' he
said. As soon as he had ripped the paper off the wall, the wall
slowly descended until it was flat upon the ground and revealed a
passageway - dark at the entrance but with a distant glimmer of light
at the end.

'I don't like the look of it,' said
Steven.

'Nevertheless,' said Dodo, 'we'd better
go down there.'

'Hold on,' said Steven. 'Just a minute.
Let's see what this says.' He opened up the piece of paper and read
the words written on it: Lady luck will show the way; win the game,
or here you'll stay.

'That's much shorter than the others
were,' said Dodo.

'That doesn't mean it will be any
easier,' said Steven. 'Come on.' He started to lead the way down the
passage. As they walked down towards the end, the light became
gradually brighter and brighter until it almost dazzled them.

'I can hardly see,' said Dodo.

'Wait a for a minute before we enter
this,' said Steven.

Dodo slowly opened her eyes against the
glare, then screamed. There was a strange figure standing in front of
them.

Cryil was standing in school boy's
uniform but with the knave's hat on. As they watched, he took it off,
then put on the kitchen boy's chefs hat. Then he took the chefs hat
off and replaced it with a school cap. He leered at them out of the
corner of his mouth.

'Who are you?' said Steven. 'We've seen
you before, haven't we?'

'I'm Cyril. I was the Knave and the
kitchen boy, so we're old friends, aren't we? Huh, I had you that
time. Did I scare you?'

'You certainly did, Cyril,' said Dodo
indignantly.

'Let's be friends,' said Cyril. He
offered his gloved hand to Steven who shook it and jumped back.

'Oh!' cried Steven. He shook his hand.
'I got a shock. He must have some sort of a electrical device there.'
Cyril's fat body was shaking with laughter.

'You should see your face,' said Cyril.

'You'll feel my hand in a moment,' said
Steven. 'What have you got there?' he grabbed Cyril's arm and dragged
back his sleeve to reveal two wires and a small battery strapped to
his wrist.

'I say,' said Cyril. 'Careful! I'll
show you.' He stripped his glove off and showed the rubber-backed
electrode which gave Steven the shock.

'Take that thing off,' said Steven.
Cyril took the glove off and untaped the battery on his wrist.

'There you are,' said Cyril.

'Have you any more of these silly
schoolboy jokes on you?' queried Steven.

Cyril looked sulky. 'No,' he said. 'I
don't know why you're taking on like this. I've come to be friends
with you.'

'Charming way you have to make
friends,' said Steven.

Dodo was always ready to be
sympathetic, 'He didn't mean any harm,' she said. 'Did you?'

Cyril nodded eagerly. 'Oh no,' he said.
He pulled a somewhat grubby bag of sweets from his pocket and offered
them to her. 'Have one of these,' he said.

Dodo shook her head. 'No, thanks,' she
said.

'Oh go on,' he said. 'They're quite
harmless. They're humbugs.' Again, Dodo shook her head but Steven
nudged her.

'Take them, Dodo, or we'll be here all
day.' Dodo took the sweets and put them away in her pocket.

'Thank you,' said Cyril. 'If I eat any
more, I'll be sick, I suspect.' He turned to Steven. 'You're my hero,
you know,' he said. 'I want to grow up just like you.'

'When you grow up?' said Steven
puzzled. Cyril nodded his head. 'You look pretty grown up already to
me.'

Dodo, meanwhile, had been looking off
at the Doctor's tally screen. 'Steven!' she interjected. 'The
Doctor's reached move 902.'

Steven nodded. 'We'd better hurry then.
Where's the game we have to play?' he asked Cyril.

'Oh, right over there,' said Cyril.
'You won't have such an easy time of it for your next game, because
you're going to be playing against me.'

He turned to face them and for a
moment, his round face with big blue eyes showed an expression of
almost devilish cunning that made Steven and Dodo draw back from him.