Eighth Circle

He tapped the screen and fifty masked trolls rode into the arena on the backs of deer with huge spreading antlers. He allocated them to his right wing and the other side copied him. Tom sat back and left the rest to Balduur. The little man had caught on fast and was selecting some of the weirdest combinations imaginable.

His next choice was elves on eagles. They were armed with incendiary bombs. Balduur placed them at the rear. More selections followed. Tom sensed the growing excitement. The guardians were chattering loudly in their padded seats and the palace trolls were standing on their stone benches to get a better view.

Balduur's final choice was a flight of fifty vampire bats. A similar group appeared on the opposing side. Trumpets sounded and coloured powders rained down on the contestants. Tom's team turned pink and the opposing team turned blue.

'Guardians versus tourists,' Tom muttered.

'What?'

'Blue is the guardians' colour.'

'So you think ...'

Balduur got out no more than a few words before the contest began. Lightning raced around the dome, thunder filled the air and the opposing teams launched themselves at one another. Trumpets sounded, drums beat and fury gave way to chaos as terrified palace trolls were trampled underfoot.

Horned trolls scythed the legs off elks and sent their pig-faced riders to the ground. Naked trolls with clubs fought armoured trolls with tridents. Trolls with fish heads hacked at trolls with fins. Pink battled blue as both sides attempted to annihilate the another.

Tom expected the casualties to mount equally. But, despite the confusion, blue was getting the better of pink. His team was being pushed back. The opposing gladiators were better fighters and were acting together. His were a rabble.

Tom thought about brains in jars and how they could lead multiple lives through their surrogates. The jar was not a prison as he had, at first, imagined. A brain in a jar could perform surgery through one surrogate and take part in sex orgies through another. An aged female guardian could lose her virginity, time and time again, if that took her fancy. All she needed was a steady supply of surrogate virgins.

It occurred to him that the same could apply to fighting. Bloodthirsty guardians could kill and be killed, time and time again, so long as they could find enough surrogates to fight and die for them. After hundreds of years of fighting they would get very good at it. He suspected the death trolls were surrogates and that was why they were so greatly feared.

The prospect of the guardians travelling to other realms was appalling. They had to be stopped. If possible they had to be destroyed together with the trolls and all the other monstrosities. Tom decided to speak to Prince Crispin as soon as possible.