Eighth Circle

'You mean the one you called Professor?'

'Yes. Balduur.'

I thought you knew. You seemed to be expecting him.

'Which realm does he come from?'

'I can only go on what he told me, Princess. There's not much I know about him. He made the passage from the Seventh Realm soon after me. He said they called him Sky Warrior there but his real name is Tom Carter and he comes from the Sixth Realm.'

Liala's head spun. They had made a terrible mistake. All the signs were there just as the prophecies foretold. The dolphins sensed movement along the sacred pathways and strange lights were seen on the island. But they should not have assumed that the Lord of light was coming. They should have realised that it could be someone else and he might be coming from an entirely different direction.

She and Crispin had got it badly wrong. The problem now was to work out what to do. She thought of Father. He said that when your plans go wrong you must take stock of the situation. He said there was no point in wishing things had gone differently. You must accept them as they are and proceed from that position.

Her position didn't look good. She was trapped on an island by a pack of orcas that had come close to killing her and seemed determined to have another try. Her sole companion was a smelly little man who admitted to being a head hunter in his former realm.

So far, he had behaved well towards her. But, she didn't relish the thought of spending the night with him. Her knowledge of men was confined to her brother, Crispin, and the other guys who worked with him in his laboratory. They were more interested in marine science than women.

She thought about Crispin. He was back on the mainland and there was no way of communicating with him unless the dolphins came up close enough to transmit a message. That seemed unlikely with the orcas patrolling the rocks.

A shout from Balduur caused her to look up.

'Over there ... a boat!'

She peered into the setting sun and saw the outline of a speedboat.

'By Bithras! It's going fast.'

The little man was evidently impressed. Compared with the vessels the guardians used it was going very slow. The boat was of the old-fashioned type that the villagers were allowed to own. They called them speedboats because that's what they were called hundreds of years ago when they were invented.

Balduur shielded his eyes.

'Dolphins. Can you see 'em?'