"I mean- how did you get here?"

"I could give you a technical explanation, of course," he said, and the smile that briefly illuminated his face turned it suddenly very young. "But would it matter? I crossed the Void to find you, because I need your help."

"Huhh?"

It was not the kind of response best suited to what she'd read of dealing with wizards, but Ingold's eyes twinkled with fleeting amusement. "I would not have sought you out," he told her gently, "if I didn't."

"Uh- " Gil said profoundly. "I don't understand." She started to sit down opposite him, which involved clearing two textbooks and the calendar section of the Times off the chair, then paused in a tardy outburst of hospitality. "Would you like a beer?"

"Thank you." He smiled, and gravely studied the opening instructions inscribed on the top of the can. For a first time, he didn't do badly.

"How could you see me?" she asked, sliding into her chair as he shook the foam off his fingers. "Even when it was a dream, even when no one else could-King Eldor and the Guards at the gate-you could. Why was that?"

"It's because I understand the nature of the Void," the wizard said gravely. He folded his hands on the table, the blunt, scarred fingers idly caressing the gaudy aluminum of the can, as if memorizing its shape and feel. "You understand, Gil, that there exists an infinite number of parallel universes, meshed in the matrix of the Void. In my world, in my time, I am the only one who understands the nature of the Void-one of a bare handful who even suspects its existence."

"And how did you learn about it, much less how to cross it, if no one else in your world knows?" Gil asked curiously.

The wizard smiled again. "That, Gil, is a story that would take all night to do justice to, without advancing the present situation. Suffice it to say that I am the only man in perhaps five hundred years who has been able to cross the curtain that separates universe from universe-and having done so, I was able to recognize the imprint of your thoughts, your personality, that had been drawn across the Void by the mass vibration of worldwide panic and terror.