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become.
    â€œNorth, east, south, west!” exploded Naile. “Where does your delving into the Old Knowledge suggest we begin, wizard? Must we wander over half the world, perhaps, to find this menace of yours in whatever fortress it has made for itself?”
    The wizard produced a staff of ivory so old that it was a dull yellow and the carving on it worn by much handling to unidentifiable indentations. With its point he indicated the map.
    â€œI have those who supply me with information,” he returned. “It is only when there is a silence from some such that I turn to other methods. Here—” The point of the staff aimed a quick, vicious thrust at the southwestern portion of the map, beyondthe last trace of civilization (if one might term it that) represented by the Grand Duchy of Geofp, a place the prudent avoided since civil warfare between two rivals for the rule had been going on now for more than a year, and both lords were well known to have formally accepted the rulership of Chaos.
    The Duchy lay in the foothills of the mountain chain and from its borders, always providing one could find the proper passes, one might emerge either into the Dry Steppes or the Sea of Dust, depending upon whether one turned either north or south.
    â€œGeofp?” Deav Dyne spat it out as if he found the very name vile, as indeed he must since it was a stronghold of Chaos.
    â€œChaos rules there, yes. But this is not of Chaos. Or at least such an alliance has not yet come into being. . . .” Hystaspes moved the pointer to the south. “I have some skill, cleric, in my own learning. What I have found is literally—nothing.”
    â€œNothing?” Ingrge glanced up sharply. “So, you mean a void.” The elf’s nostrils expanded as if, like any animal of those woods his people knew better than Hystaspes might know his spells, he scented something.
    â€œYes,
nothing
. My seekings meet with only a befogged nothingness. The enemy has screens and protections that answer with a barrier not even a geas-burdened demon of the Fourth Level can penetrate.”
    Deav Dyne spun his chain of prayer beads more swiftly, muttering as he did so. The wizard served Law, but he was certainly admitting now to using demons in his service, which made that claim a little equivocal.
    Hystaspes was swift to catch the cleric’s reaction and shrugged as he replied. “In a time of stress one uses the weapon to hand and the best weapon for the battle that one can produce, is thatnot so? Yes, I have called upon certain ones whose very breath is a pollution in this room—because I feared. Do you understand that?” He thumped the point of his staff on the map. “I feared! That which is native to this world I can understand, this menace I cannot. All non-knowledge brings with it an aura of fear.
    â€œThe thing you seek was a little careless at first. The unknown powers it called upon troubled the ways of the Great Knowledge, enough for me to learn what I have already told you. But when I went searching for it, defenses had been erected. I think, though this is supposition only, that it did not expect to find those here who could detect its influences. I have but recently come into possession of certain scrolls, rumored to have once been in the hands of Han-gra-dan—”
    There was an exclamation from both the elf and the cleric at that name.
    â€œA thousand years gone!” Deav Dyne spoke as if he doubted such a find.
    Hystaspes nodded. “More or less. I know not if these came directly from a cache left by that mightiest of the northern adepts. But they are indeed redolent of power and, taking such precautions as I might, I used one of the formulas. The result”—his rod stabbed again on the map—“being that I learned what I learned. Now this much I can tell you: there is a barrier existing somewhere here, in or about the Sea of Dust.”
    For the first time the