Eighth Circle

'You think he doesn't know why he's up there?'

'Dafne wouldn't have told him,' Crispin said. 'That's how the guardians operate. They could tell their victims that they are part of the evening's entertainment but that would spoil their fun. So they let them think they are honoured guests. That way they can play with them. It's like baiting a hook and catching a fish.'

'Baiting a hook?'

'The sirens are the bait.'

'You mean they lured him?'

'No. I think he was fed up a passage to their den.'

'So he wasn't lured ...'

'Ssh!'

The Lord of Light was saying something. It sounded like he was introducing himself. Peter was appalled. For an awful moment he thought the noble man would tell them who he was. Then, to his immense relief, he announced that his name was Tom Carter and he came from the Sixth Realm.

'That was clever.'

'Very clever,' Crispin agreed. 'He's putting them off the scent. Look how he's prancing around and playing the fool with all that bowing. You really could believe that he is a harmless idiot, from the Sixth Realm, with a stupid name like Tom Carter. The guardians won't suspect he is a vastly superior being, from the Ninth Realm, who has come to destroy them.'

They watched as the podium stopped rotating and came to a halt facing a gaunt figure in a curled blue wig and dark-blue gown trimmed with light-blue fur. He was the Lord High Chancellor, the most senior of the guardians and an enthusiast for the festivities of the full moon. His penetrating questions were guaranteed to cause pain and anxiety.

He leant forward and spoke in his menacing tone.

'We are informed that you come from a place called the Ninth Realm where you are known as the Professor. Is that correct?'

The Lord of Light bowed politely.

'Your information is partly correct, my lord.'

'Partly correct?' the chancellor bellowed.

'I was a professor of archaeology in the Sixth Realm.'

'The Sixth Realm ... where is that?'

'I thought you knew, my lord'

'Answer my question, Professor.'

'It is in another dimension ...'

'Another what?'

'Dimension, my lord. A person of your immense intellect and knowledge must be aware that there are multiple dimensions and it is possible to travel between them.'

A smile developed on the chancellor's scrawny face.

'And how does one make these journeys?'

'One enters a gateway in one realm and emerges in another.'

'And that is what you did, Professor?'