Eighth Circle

Dinner at high table was much as Tom expected. Guardians over the age of a hundred-and-fifty had an aversion to solid food. There was no alternative menu and everyone was obliged to eat the same awful stuff. He chose liquidised tropical fruit as entree, followed by a nourishing gruel of liquidized steak and liquidized vegetables. Desert was a substance resembling ice cream and the meal was rounded off with a drink resembling coffee. He noticed that nothing resembling alcohol appeared on the menu.

The meal was served by palace trolls who emerged from the central hub and walked out along the spokes to attend to the needs of diners. Tom ran his eyes around the huge circular table and noticed that, apart from the guardians, there wasn't a single human present. The guardians evidently had an aversion to normal people.

It struck him that Prince Crispin and his young friend were the only normal people he had met since his arrival at the palace. All the rest were surrogates of one form or another. The sirens and the surgeon were undoubtedly surrogates and it was reasonable to assume that the wild-eyed furies were too. He guessed they were former sirens whose ordeal had left them totally deranged and they became easy prey for aged female guardians who derived pleasure from tearing males apart.

At the age of thirty-five Tom was younger than any of the other diners by at least a hundred years. He felt lonely and was contemplating his bad luck when the podium rose and Balduur appeared. He was pleased to see him. The scruffy little man wouldn't have been his first choice as a companion but he was a normal human being which was more than could be said for the rest of the company.

The chancellor announced that Balduur came from the Seventh Realm and had arrived on the island at the same time as their new colleague, Professor Carter. Their heroic security forces had thwarted an attempt to capture the professor but Balduur had fallen into the hands of the Plaid Koerno terrorists. The chancellor was pleased to report that Balduur had since been rescued.

Tom noted that security forces was a blanket term for creatures as diverse as orcas and death trolls. All they needed was a brain implant and a voracious appetite for killing. He listened as the chancellor went on to say that Balduur had agreed to assist in the invasion of the Seventh Realm and would assume the title of paramount chief when the security forces had taken control.

The podium rotated and Balduur was asked questions. The guardians listened attentively as he described the land where he lived and were pleased to learn that much of it was still in its natural state. Balduur explained that his people lived in fortified villages, wolves and bears abounded in the forests and the most advanced weapon was a chariot with blades fitted to its wheels. The guardians were fascinated by his account of military tactics and the need to collect the heads of a defeated enemy so that their soul lights would not return to the Void and be reborn.