Eighth Circle

Two men were looking at Elsa. They wore old-fashioned clothes and one was much bigger than the other. He seemed to be speaking to Elsa. That was puzzling. Then Peter realised that Liala was up on the dolphin's back and the big man was talking to her.

He watched him frown. Then everything went crazy again. A confusion of spray and bubbles appeared on the screen. Peter guessed that Elsa had crashed back down under the water. Blurred images of kelp flashed by. Rocks appeared on either side as Elsa raced along a narrow gully.

The orcas must have returned. That could be the only explanation. Elsa wouldn't panic unless something like that had happened. Peter could feel her agony. The images pulsated with terror. It was like hearing someone scream. They flashed back and forth before exploding in a terrifying vision of a gapping mouth and dagger-like teeth. Then the screen went blank.

Peter's heart sank.

'Elsa is dead!'

The colour drained from his face.

'The orcas got her.'

Crispin hardly heard his cousin. His mind was on Liala. A jumble of faint images remained on the screen but none were of his sister. The dolphins had scattered and were sending out warning signals. Or they were just scared. He didn't know. It was impossible to tell.

If they followed the rules Liala had taught them during training they would come together under a new leader. To Crispin's relief that seemed to be happening. The frantic chatter died down and a single image appeared. One of the dolphins had her head out of the water and was looking towards the island.

Her images left nothing to the imagination. His sister was stark naked and limping over the rocks towards the smaller of the two men. The big man was in the boat and the orcas were towing it away.

Crispin's mind went into a spin. He had never seen his sister naked before. That came as a shock. And the circumstances couldn't possibly be worse. Normally he would have shown Peter the tablet. He deleted the images and turned to him.

'Liala is safe but the orcas have got the big man.'

'You mean they've killed him?'

'No. They are towing him away in the boat.'

'That's awful.'

'It is,' Crispin agreed. 'The orcas are servants of the guardians.'

'Nothing could be worse.' Peter slumped in his chair. 'We've waited so long for the Lord of Light and this has happened. The guardians have captured him.'

'We don't know it's him. It could be the other one.'