A Shard of Ice ( audio story ) A Shard of Ice was the third story in the Demon Quest arc , a series of five audio dramas featuring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor alongside Richard Franklin as Mike Yates . Publisher ' s summary . In the icy wastes of the Murgin Pass , the Doctor and Mike take refuge in a remote lodge alongside Albert Tiermann , storyteller to the king . But the owner ' s hospitality is repaid with a grisly attack , and suddenly death is amongst the small party . What is the significance of a book of fairy tales , one of which prophesies the Doctor ' s encounter with an Ice Queen monster ? What long - held secret is Albert Tiermann holding back ? And what dark figure stalks the snowy mountainside ? The answers to these questions add up to a terrifying encounter with a strangely familiar foe . Plot . This story is narrated by an incidental character , Albert Tiermann , who is the author and editor of the book of fairy tales which the Doctor received in the church sale bag two episodes ago . He also is the official storyteller for the local king . We open with his narration regarding his starting circumstances , in which he is snowed in at Germany ' s Murgin Pass in the year 1847 ; and he is afraid for his life . He has been interrupted in his rushed journey to the palace , where he fears retribution from the king that he has failed ; he had been ordered by the king , who is too blind to read , to bring a new story . He is interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS , bearing the Doctor and Mike Yates . The Doctor shows him the book , which he is unwilling to believe , and offers to help him by telling him new stories for the king . They turn back and find lodging for the night . They take up temporary residence at a mountain lodge owned and operated by one Frau Herz , and Tiermann goes to bed early . The Doctor and Mike reminisce and bring each other up to speed on the current situation , until the Doctor sees a strange batlike creature out the window ; unknown to them , Tiermann eavesdrops on them , and believes the Doctor insane . Plagued with nightmares , he prays for a visit from a woman who visited him in his youth , whom he calls an angel and credits with the seeds of all his stories — and he gets what he asks , when the mysterious Ice Queen visits him . She is aware of the Doctor , but not the book of fairy tales . She claims a debt on Albert , and claims to have worked hard to bring the book into his life … she orders him to keep the Doctor from leaving and pursuing his search . She then vanishes . At breakfast the next morning , the travellers are still snowed in . Tiermann ' s footman bursts in and finds that the coachman has been attacked , and is lying in the snow , nearly frozen to death . As they try to save him , the footman says that the coachman had run out of the stable during the night , claiming to see a woman in the snow . Mike suggests it may be the same thing the Doctor saw , but the Doctor is sceptical . Yates and the Doctor believe Tiermann knows more than he is letting on . Tiermann goes to the Doctor ’ s room and searches his coat pockets for the book ; he finds a note that says , " Look behind you , " and turns around . The Doctor and Mike confront Albert , having anticipated this move . Albert becomes frantic , and insists he needs the book ; the Doctor sends Mike to check on Frau Herz . The Doctor challenges Albert regarding his actions and thoughts ; Albert admits that he considers the book , and the legacy it represents , more important than the lives in danger around him . The Doctor hypnotises Albert , and pushes for answers . They argue over the book , and the Doctor insists he will not give it up . Mike returns , and says that Frau Herz is missing . The kitchen door is wrenched off its hinges ; but Herz , outside , is okay . She says that a creature tried to take her , but instead got the footman , Hans , and took him to the mountain . The Doctor orders Mike to fortify the house and takes Albert with him to follow the creature . A trail of blood leads the way ; the Doctor comments that Hans is probably dead , and grows angry at Albert ' s lack of care . The Doctor chides him for consorting with monsters , commenting that sometimes they appear as angels . They hear something go past , possibly the creature . They come upon a cave with a strange green glow inside ; the Doctor compares the whole ordeal to a fairy tale . Inside the cave , they find the Ice Queen , unconscious on a throne . She awakens and is shocked to see them there ; but she admits a connection with Albert . He explains his past with her ; the Doctor calls her a goblin , and asks what she demanded of Albert in exchange . He explains that she placed a shard of ice in him , preventing him from feeling any love or sympathy for anyone — he only loves his stories . The Doctor calls him her slave , and derides her magic as cheap tricks ; he tells Albert that she is the Demon , the monster that killed the others . She accuses Albert of failing in his final task . The Doctor shows him the book , with an illustration of the Ice Queen becoming the Demon , and says that she has manipulated him all his life so as to produce the book , which lured the Doctor here . The Ice Queen confirms it . The Doctor explains that she has had to recharge her energies to maintain her human form ; the form he saw outside last night was her true form . She flees the cavern and flies toward the lodge ; the Doctor and Albert follow , finding a cache of desiccated bodies along the way . The Doctor tells Albert that the book is a fake — the Demon wrote it , not Albert — and he gives him the book . They find the lodge in shambles . The Queen dominates the kitchen , transforming into its true form ; she has a battered Mike Yates in her arms . Frau Herz is out of commission with the coachman , possibly dead . Albert feels the ice inside him break as the Queen releases him from her control ; he is outraged at her actions . The Doctor concludes she wants to take him somewhere ; and the room transforms into the dematerialisation chamber with the mosaic floor . Having acquired the Doctor , she releases Mike ; the Doctor sends him out . Albert flees the building , taking Frau Herz with him , then looks back and finds it to be a plain box with one door ; he slips back and watches as the chamber builds up to dematerialisation . The creature claims that she originates from a place called Sepulchre , which the Doctor denies knowing anything about ; she wants him to go there with her . The Doctor darts out the door just as the box dematerialises , leaving the creature howling in fury . The Doctor and Mike drop off Albert and Frau Herz near the palace . Yates reveals that he picked up a strange item in the lodge , which the Doctor is happy to note is another piece of the spatial geometer . They then receive a message from Mrs Wibbsey , who calls them home , and tells them that the final item in the bag , a 1970s - era comic book , features all three of them — and the message cuts off mid - word . It seems they will be making a side trip to New York . Albert ' s narration winds up as he explains that the Doctor asked him never to write down their story — but he had no problem speaking it aloud to the king . References . " to be added "