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to be said here.”
    Only Gulth, the lizardman, disdained a stool, curling up on the floor, his crocodile-snouted head supported on his hands, with never a blink of his eyelids, so that he might have been a grotesque statue. But the rest laid their weapons down and satin a semicircle facing the wizard, as if they were a class of novices about to learn the rudiments of a charm.
    Hystaspes settled himself in a chair Karl dragged forward, to watch as they drank from goblets fashioned in the form of queer and fabulous beasts and ate a dark, tough bread spread with strong-smelling, but good-tasting cheese.
    Though Milo’s head still ached, he had lost that terrible sense of inner conflict, and for that he was glad. Still he remembered, as if that were the dream, that once he had been someone else in another and very different world. Only that did not matter so much now, for this was Milo’s world and the more he let Milo’s memory rule him the safer he was.
    â€œThe dreams of men, some men,” the wizard began, smoothing his robe across his knees, “can be very strong. We know this, we seekers out of knowledge that has been found, lost, hidden, and found again, many times over. For man has always been a dreamer. And it is when he begins to build upon his dreams that he achieves that which is his greatest of gifts.
    â€œWe have discovered that it may be entirely possible that what a man dreams in one world may be created and given substance in another. And if more than one dream the same dreams, strive to bring them to life, then the more solid and permanent becomes that other world. Also dreams seep from one space-time level of a world to another, taking root in new soil and there growing—perhaps even to great permanence.
    â€œYou have all played what you call a war game, building a world you believe imaginary in which to stage your adventures and exploits. Well enough, you say, what harm lies in that? You know it is a game. When it is done, you put aside your playthings for another time. Only—what if the first dreamer, who‘invented’ this world according to your conception, gathered, unknowingly, dream knowledge of one that did and does exist in another time and space? Have you ever thought of that—ha?” He leaned forward, a fierceness in his eyes.
    â€œMore and more does this dream world enchant you. Why should it not? If it really is a pale, conscious-filtered bit of another reality, therefore it gains in substance in your minds and in a measure is drawn closer to your own world. The more players who think about it—the stronger the pull between them will be.”
    â€œDo you mean,” Yevele asked, “that what we imagine can become real?”
    â€œWas not playing the game very real to you when you played it?” countered Hystaspes.
    Milo nodded without thought and saw that even the lizard head of Gulth echoed that gesture.
    â€œSo. But in this there is little harm—for you play but in a shadow of our world and what you do there does not influence events that happen. Well and good. But suppose someone—something—outside both of our spaces and times sees a chance to meddle—what then?”
    â€œYou tell us,” Naile growled. “You tell us! Tell us why we are here, and what you—or this other thing you do not seem to know very much about—really wants of us!”

3

Geas Bound
    IN SO FAR AS I HAVE LEARNED, IT IS SIMPLE ENOUGH.” THE WIZARD waved his hand in the air. His fingers curved about a slender-stemmed goblet that appeared out of nowhere. “You have been imported from your own time and space to exist here as characters out of those games you have delighted in. The why of your so coming—that is only half clear to me. It would seem that he—or it—who meddles seeks thus to tie together our two worlds in some manner. The drawing of you hither may be the first part of such a