Fae'th Friday

Here is the next installment. Truely hope you like and continue to read. Again feedback, as along as its constructive, is appreciated.

The Doctor slowly moved towards the cage door and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. The Noc did not notice or care about the Doctor’s actions.

“So have you ever been there before?” She asked.

“What Draconis’ Palace I….”

Shade’s sentence was interrupted by a loud bang on the cage.

“It’s the Royal Premier Palace Draconis…” The Noc on the right said. Shade spoke with him in unison, and then added “I know I know.”

The Doctor smiled at sound of English coming from the Noc. I knew you would figure it out old girl he thought to himself. His smile quickly faded as the Noc grunted back and forth to each other. He continued to examine the lock.

“To answer your question beautiful, yesss….” Shades sentence was interrupted again but this time by the Doctor who bent over and whispered something to Julie. She nodded and then moved over next to Shade.

“We are getting out of here and would like you to help us get back to the TARDIS.” She whispered.

“Really, as much as I would love to spend more time with you sweetheart cause I like the way you smell, I will have to take a rain check. Beside I don’t think finding your TARDIS is going to be all that difficult.” Shade said as he pointed toward the back of the cage.
The Doctor stared out the back of the cage and realized things had gotten a bit more difficult. A wagon came up fast behind them and as it passed, the Doctor and Julie followed it with their eyes. In the back of the wagon was the TARDIS, strapped down and guarded by three Noc. Julie stood up and went to the side of the cage as the wagon with the TARDIS pull ahead of them. The wagon then turned toward the right to head towards a stone structure in the distance. The Doctor came up behind her and put his hand on Julie’s shoulder. With a hint of sorrow in his voice he commented.

“It appears we will be staying for a while after all.”

The Noc chuckled at the Doctor’s comment. The Doctor stared at the stone structure and thought it looked awfully familiar. There were a series of rectangular stones around 20 feet tall and two feet thick that stood on end. Laid across the top of the ends of every two stones was a stone of equal length and thickness. They formed a square arch. Each arch touched the other at angle to eventually for a circle.
Julie expressed what the Doctor had been thinking.
“It looks like Stonehedge. Are you sure we aren’t in some like alternate Earth Doctor.”

“I am quite sure this is not Earth, you should know better than anyone that just because such a structure resides on Earth does not mean it couldn’t also exist somewhere else in the Universe. It does beg the question on if they are related at all.”
They saw the wagon with the TARDIS ride into the center of the circle of stones and then in a flash of light it was gone.

“ DOCTOR THE TARDIS!” Julie exclaimed in spite of her self.

“Oh they took it through a fairy gate. I was wondering how long it would be before we got to one. No worries, we’re all going to the same place. You’ll see it again.” Shade said, “It’s the only way to get to the Palace. Its one of the many magical gates designed by the Ancients. They infused it with a permanent transport spell. Magic users use to use them to travel across the land to various other gates rather than walking. When Draconis moved in he re-enchanted them so that the gates all went to the same place…His”

“I should like to meet this Draconis and find out what he intends to do with the TARDIS”

“Don’t get your knickers in a bunch Chief, he will probably put it in his treasure room aka his throne room. Dragons can’t stand to be away from their treasure. Draconis sure loves the shiny.” Shade informed the irritated Doctor., “Now I suggest you grab hold of something cause this filly will buck once we go into the gate.”
Shade took hold of the nearest bar with both hands. The Doctor and Julie sat next to each other and took hold of one of the bars of their cage as the wagon passed through one of the stone archways. Julie saw a strange series of markings lined in a row down the center of the top stone. The markings were of three large swirls with 6 pointed star on each side of the middle star. The Doctor searched the large library of his brain for any patterns that matched the ones on the stone. When his mind found the book it had been looking for, the Doctor snapped his fingers.

“I’ve got it.”

The Wagon lurched forward and back and side to side as they were enveloped in a flash of multi colored light. A moment later they were on solid ground and headed down a torch lit path.
“Just what I thought, a temporal matter transporter, technology that is far above the level this planet appears to be at. I must take a look at it before we leave. I have never seen one that’s made of stone before. Must be a camoflauge of some kind. That would explain the Valdsudian markings. I…”
The Doctor realized he was thinking out loud. Julie stared at him with the smile he loved to see on her face which triggered him to return with a smile of his own. Julie shivered as she stared at the high black slate walls that sat on either side of the path. The sky was filled with low lying black clouds where a occasional flash of lightening would reveal itself followed by a thunderous rumble. The Doctor noticed his companion shivered and slid his coat off and put it over her shoulders.

“Oh, thank you Doctor”

“Not a problem,” The Doctor replied with a half smile as he fought back the shiver that tried to travel up his body.

“How chivalrous of you, all you need now is a white horse.” Shade quipped.

“All you need is some manners” Julie snapped back. She then turned to the Doctor as he involuntarily let out a shiver in spite of himself, “Oh Doctor. Now your cold here take your jacket back.”

“No its quite alright dear. Its not the first or last time I shall be cold.”
Shade let out a long, loud sigh as he pulled out an object wrapped in white cloth that seemed to shimmer in the torch light. Shade unwrapped the item to reveal 5 long thin black stones.
Shade laid out the cloth in the area between him and his two fellow captives. He then placed the stones in the shape of a pentagram, as he went about doing this he explained.

“The cloth is an enchanted piece of cloth I…acquired from a rather talented magician who will not be missing it anytime soon. The black rocks I found actually while exploring the tomb of the first noble of the Badlends. They will help contain the fire to ensure it stays on the cloth and not make our us into barbeque on wheels, I think that would definitely turn the light out on all our plans. Make yourself useful would you sugar doll. Grab that twig with the needles on it next to you and place it in the center of the stone pentagram please.”

Julie’s mouth opened for a moment as if to say something but instead she grabbed the twig and threw it at the center of the stones. Surprisingly it landed directly where Shade needed it to be. Julie and the Doctor stared at it for a few beats as if they expected a flame to magically appear.

“Now what?”

“Well now we just need to start the twig on fire.”

“I think I can handle that” the Doctor said as he snuck his sonic screwdriver out and adjusted it to the setting it needed to be. He pointed it at the twig and activated it. The twig ignited in a bright flash and burned out as quickly as it had caught fire. The Doctor and Julie both looked at Shade.

“That worked well. Looks like you were ripped off by your rip off” Julie said.

“Yeah see the cloth only works when the flame is ignited magically. Now could you please put another pine twig in the middle darling?” Shade replied. Julie sighed and put another small twig on top of the ash of the first twig.

“How do you intend to light it ?” The Doctor inquired as he shivered.
Shade just looked at the Doctor and smiled. They watched as Shade put his finger on the twig and then turned to the Noc guard on the left side of the cart.

“So tell me Noc, when did you come to the realization that your ass looked better than your face? arrrrrgh”
A blue bolt of lightening shot out from the Noc’s wand. When the bolt hit Shade he was enveloped in a spider web of little electrical bolts. Sparks flew out from Shade’s hand and one of the sparks landed on the twig. The twig caught fire and after it burned up the flame turned a blue green color but remained in place. Shade fell in a slump to the floor. The Doctor was about to give the Noc a piece of his mind but the giggles that came from under Shade’s smoking cloak made the Doctor change his mind. Shade righted himself up the best he could and stared out the side of the wagon. The Doctor and Julie huddled around the fire and the shivers soon tapered off.

“Thank you” Julie said quietly as she rubbed her hands over the fire. Shade just waved his hand as if saying ‘it was nothing’. The wagon soon came around a small bend and Shade smiled.

“It’s about time. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Royal Premier Palace Draconis.” Shade motioned with his had towards the left side of the wagon like a Circus Ring Master.
The Doctor and Julie stood up at the sight of massive stone structure in front of their eyes. The structure seemed to stretch for a mile in both directions. Most of it resembled a castle wall with stone towers extending from it every 100 feet. In the exact middle was a large building Julie thought looked similar to US Capital building in Washington DC. There was a large stone stair case that lead up to the foot of the building. A dome rose from the middle of the building and appeared to be the highest point of the building. At the top of the dome was an iron statue of a dragon. There were seven seventy foot tall stone pillars that extended from the top of the stair case to a small stone over hang. Chained to six of the seven pillars were large hyena looking beasts the size of rhinos. All of them barked and pulled against their chains as the Wagon passed by. Flying above the Palace was a large blob of winged creatures that moved similarly to a flock of sparrows.
“Oh my now that is an impressive palace. Built by magic was it?” The Doctor did not take his eyes off the front of the pillared section as he asked the question. Something suddenly made him feel a bit uneasy but he wasn’t quite sure what it was yet.

“Not this prime example of real-estate. Magic could not build a structure like this, but men could and women and children too, as the story goes.”

“Slaves?” Julie asked reluctantly.

“Largest group of slaves history has ever seen in one place. Most were common folk before Draconis ‘volunteered’ them for the task of building his palace.”
Bitterness seemed to drip from Shade as he spoke. It was the first time Julie had the feeling there was more to Shade then he let on.

“All I see here are Noc and those dogs up there. A structure like that had to have taken thousands, tens of thousands to build. Where are they now?”
Julie feared what the answer to her question would be but she had to ask it.

“What do you think this road we’re on is made of sweetheart? It ain’t exactly a smooth surface.”
Shade pointed down as he replied. Everyone looked down. What Julie saw made her gasp and the Doctor felt the rage begin to boil in his blood though he did not show it. Human bones had been imbedded in the path the wagon had been riding on. Every few feet a skull stared up at the sky as if it were searching for a better place to be. Julie turned her face away trying to hide a small tear that had escaped her eye.