Eighth Circle

The pod reminded Tom of spaceships in sci-fi movies. It was big enough to carry a hundred people and some of the guardians had come along for the ride. They took his claims seriously. The others had stayed behind to enjoy the festivities at the palace and watch the trip to Stonehenge on their tablets.

The chancellor sat beside him and asked questions about the terrain below. The general shape was visible in the moonlight. Tom recognised the Bristol Channel but couldn't see any signs of a city where Bristol was located in his former realm.

The vast expanse of Salisbury Plains came into view and familiar features, from the long distant past, appeared on his monitor screen. Tom recognised avenues of standing stones and huge earthworks erected in the Megalithic Age. That was encouraging but it didn't mean the dig would succeed.

He wondered what would happen if it failed and was thinking about Dafne and the furies when Stonehenge appeared, lit by a powerful beam from the pod. The site was overgrown with trees and the stones were scarcely visible.

The chancellor nudged his arm.

'Where do you want to excavate, Professor?'

Tom tried to identify the stone where he wanted to dig. It was somewhere in the outer circle. Years earlier he had been present during the excavation of a nearby burial. A male skeleton with distinctive grave goods had been uncovered.

He took sightings and pointed to one of the stones.

'What will we find when we dig there, Professor?'

Tom described the intricately worked gold ornaments that once adorned the dead man's clothes and mentioned other grave goods including arrow heads.

'Are you prepared to stake your life on it?'

'Only if the grave has not already been excavated.'

'Any other caveats?'

'It's difficult to be sure that I've got the right stone.'

'Let's hope you have, Professor.'

There was a nasty ring to the chancellor's voice. Tom watched as a second pod landed and a troll with an excavator started to rip trees from the site. He saw a stone topple and recognised it as the one he wanted to excavate.

'Hey! That was my stone.'

The chancellor was unperturbed.

'I thought you wanted to dig there, Professor.'

'Not like that ... you go in with a spade.'

'We do not have time for such niceties.'

'You will destroy the evidence.'

'You told us we shall find golden ornaments.'

'Not if that big oaf smashes them up with his blade.'

'I'm sure enough will survive, Professor.'

'Gold!'

A cry went up from the guardians.