The Queen and the Rose

Chapter 3

The 'secluded room' the Queen had discussed had not been the prison-like area Rose had been expecting.  It didn't seem like the people here believed in doors, only entryways, so their guards would stand outside the doorway, not giving them any room at all for escape. 

The Queen ushered them into a large, ornate room.  Rose was gobsmacked for a moment, and the Doctor ushered Rose into the room with a hand on her lower back.  She followed his gentle push and tried not to gawk too much at the room around them, no matter how beautiful it was. 

"Thank you, your highness," the Doctor said, his voice very business-like, matching the Queen's tone from earlier.  

"Stay here until you are retrieved by another servant," the Queen commanded, not acknowledging the Doctor's gratitude whatsoever before turning on her heel and walking away, leaving them with the guards who were with them.

The Doctor stepped into what appeared to be a throne room.  He looked at Rose and grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet.  "Well, what do you gather of that?"

His excitement was contagious, and she found herself grinning back at him.  "It's amazing," she breathed, moving to touch a lavish vase that sat on a small table next to one of the pillars in the room.  "Everything's so beautiful and intricate."

"We just met the Queen who's erased from history entirely and you want to talk about the architecture?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her.  "Rose, surely you've seen pictures of these things before."

Rose shrugged, "Yeah, but not up close.  Look at it, I mean really look.  You can see exactly where there's a brushstroke, or a stray hair from the brush got into the paint and no one noticed.  Can't see that in a book."

The Doctor donned his glasses and moved closer to the pillar she was inspecting, and Rose, for her part, tried to ignore the brainy specs.  She usually did, after all, they were a bit of a distraction.  He stuffed his hands in his pockets, in full observer-mode as his eyes followed the tracks of paint.  

"You're right," he said softly, pulling a hand from his pocket to touch the hair she'd been talking about.  "That's beautiful.  Someone would have to have very steady hands to paint this."

Rose nodded slightly, and then realized that it was a bit weird that they were studying the pillars of a room that was very normal to these people and backed away from it, only to hit the Doctor's shoulder.  His hand flew from the pillar to her back, as if anticipating she'd fall over.  

"S'bit weird we're staring at their walls," Rose whispered.  

"To be fair, we did say we were travelers," the Doctor replied.  "That's more normal than someone from their own time reading their walls."

At that, her gaze shot up to him.  "Do you think the TARDIS will translate hieroglyphics for us?" She asked excitedly.

The Doctor's lip twitched at her enthusiasm.  He shifted his gaze to the wall where there was a sheet of hieroglyphs.  "Yes, come here," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to it.  "Stand still and concentrate."  He moved to stand behind her and lifted his hands to her temples.  

Before her, Rose saw the pictures swim together and then move to form scrawly words that seemed to be forms of what handwriting would've looked like if the Egyptians had drawn words in that era.  She gasped softly.

"Sorry, am I hurting you?"

"No, it's just a bit...  It's insane," she said.  

He laughed.  "Go on then, read it."

Rose focused on what she was seeing and read aloud, "This is belonging to Surbia, Queen of the Nile, conqueror of Egypt, magician, temptress, and lover of those who are worth loving."  She squinted.  "Magician?  Could that-?" She looked back to where the guards were and turned so the Doctor's hands dropped from her temples.  "Is this before or after witchcraft-time?"  She asked in a hushed tone.