What?!?” gasped Gregory.

“I stumbled onto the Game when I was traveling around the world, after my parents died. I was in Crete, walking along the beach, when a centaur approached me and showed me the way to the Labyrinth. I won there. I decided to come back and see the ruins where the Norumbegans had originally lived, and I found the Ceremonial Mound out there, and the rock with the carving all over it. Finally, the remaining Norumbegans agreed to show me the City of Gargoyles. So I decided to do the five-hundredth anniversary match here, like Mr. Grendle just explained. I moved into a house nearby—the house you found—and I started to make creatures and obstacles with them. Like Mr. Grendle—we made him first. I had always liked Victorian novels, Gothic novels especially. So that was what my Game was like. I got the Norumbegan craftsmen to make the things I needed, the servants and so on. You’ll have to do it, too, Brian. It’s one of the privileges of winning. The winner of your Game will determine who gets these mountains. Then the Game will end, I guess. The spirits can wait.”

Gregory said, “So you knew about it all along?”

“Yes, of course. Mr. Grendle and the Speculant took care of watching how things were going, and I just relaxed—oh, please, Gregory, did you really think I was as sweet and boring as I pretended to be?” She laughed.

“Well…I guess…um, when I’d seen you before, years ago, I’d sort of gotten that impression…”

Prudence laughed once again. “What did you expect me to do, my dear? We only met at Thanksgivings and Christmases—uncomfortable times of the year for someone whose parents have died. If you were faced with some eight-year-old who kept making dumb jokes and hitting you with his Tinkertoys, I don’t think you’d exactly be dazzling and charming…”

“But—” Brian protested, “But how about the way the Thusser were threatening you when we came back to the house to get the perfume?”

“They’re not nice, if that’s what you’re asking. But mainly, that was all a show for your benefit. We were anxious it was taking you so long. You were running out of time. The two of you refused to separate. You wouldn’t play against each other. We wanted to speed things up, and we decided that if you thought I was in danger, you’d take the whole thing more seriously.”

Gregory was shocked. “You knew we were coming? How did you know?”

Prudence reached out and cupped her hand over his knee. “Honey, honey, you walked across an acre of lawn in broad daylight.”

“You weren’t really crying?” said Gregory.

She smiled. “Sweetie, you were already so frightened and confused, I could have said, ‘Boo hoo, boo hoo,’ and you would have believed me.”

“So we were supposed to be competing against each other the whole time?” asked Brian.

“Your friendship,” said Prudence, “was a real obstacle. But now the whole thing’s over.”

Uncle Max turned from the fire and stolidly sat. With a soft screech of metal on metal, he screwed the top of his head back on.

“Well, dears,” said Prudence, “you’ve won. Congratulations! Now it’s time that we cleared out. Why don’t you go up and see if there’s anything you want out of your room. I shipped my things off earlier. I’m going to change out of this dress.”

The two nodded and stood. They went upstairs to the nursery as if in a daze. The beds were stripped bare. The toys were gone. Brian looked out the window at the woods. There was nothing unusual there.

Below, in the front hall, Prudence, now dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a heavy sweater, sorted through the things in the boys’ backpacks until she found the Game board. She rose and took it into the parlor. She stood before the fire, Uncle Max staring blankly past her, and cradled the board in her slim arms. She brought it briefly up to her lips. “Good-bye,” she whispered. “It has been fun.” Her arms went slack. She opened the board up, glancing across the bright colors of the completed paths…the Dark Wood, the Troll Bridge, the Club of Snarth, the Ceremonial Mound, the City of Gargoyles itself. She closed the board slowly and let it slide from her cool fingers into the flames. For a moment, it squelched them, but then they recovered. They licked the edges and, finally, they grabbed hold of one corner of the board and blackened it, and began the slow crawl across the surface.

The boys were at the foot of the steps, their hands dangling at their sides. “Wrap up warmly,” she said softly. “It’s snowing very hard, and it will be a long way to the station.”

She darted back and kissed her uncle Max on the forehead before she left. “Good-bye, Mr. Grendle. Thank you for all of your help.”

He patted her lightly on the shoulder and nodded. He could not speak. She left him sitting by the fire.

She opened the door. Outside, the snow was falling thickly but slowly, drifting down to settle on every edge, to cover every branch. “Out now, you two.” The boys stepped out onto the veranda. Prudence called back in, “Burk, will you extinguish the lights and lock everything up? Thanks, you’re a sweetie. Good-bye.”

She pulled on her coat and put on her gloves. “Come on,” she said. She closed the doors, and they walked down the steps.

The troll was leaning against one of the pillars by the front porch.

“Kalgrash!” exclaimed Brian.

“Hiya. The Speculant mentioned that you’d won the Game. Hey, congratulations.” He blew a bugle noise through his fist. “And sorry to hear about you, Gregory.”

Gregory dipped his head. “No sweat.” He extended his hand. “Well, it was nice knowing you.”

“Yeah. Nice knowing you, too.” He shook the boy’s hand.

Brian said, “We’re sorry. Again. About.”

The troll shrugged. “Oh. No. Well. Had to happen sometime. Now I know. That’s it.”

There was a silence. Finally, Gregory asked, “So…so what will you do now?”

“Oh, lots of things. There are leaves to rake…croquet to play, and tea cozies to knit…and there are dams to build downriver, and trees to plant near the highways. There are always a lot of chores to do in the wintertime. Maybe someday I’ll go on a trip. I’m thinking about it.” He smiled. “I’ll get along. I know the worst now. I know I’m not alive. So now I can start to live.”

“Well…we’ll write sometime,” said Brian.

“Okay. That’d be nice. I’d make up what the words mean.” The troll grinned. “See, it’s much better if you don’t know how to read. Then you can make the letter say a different thing every day. It’s like a whole lot of letters.” They stood in silence, the snow falling all around them.

“Well, bye then,” said Brian, shaking the troll’s claw.

“G’bye.”

“Good-bye,” said Gregory again.

“G’bye.”

The troll waved, turned, and walked behind the house, his great feet crunching through the thick snow. His dark green skin faded into the night itself as he wandered back out through the woods to his warm home beneath the bridge.

Prudence, Brian, and Gregory continued to walk out toward the road. The sleigh was waiting for them. They got in and sat side by side. Prudence pulled a blanket over their legs.

The house was dark behind them, snow piling on the peaked roofs and shingled turrets. Brian looked back toward it. Prudence said quietly, “The house will fade soon. It’s not real. None of it’s real.” The horses pulled, and the sleigh started off toward the road.

“I feel horrible about Kalgrash,” whispered Brian.

“Yeah,” agreed Gregory.

“Now, now,” Prudence said softly. “Don’t worry yourselves about it. It’s just a silly game. Just a silly game.” Prudence stroked Gregory’s cheek and bent to kiss him gently on his head.

The house was falling to pieces silently behind them, as if the walls were soaked toilet paper, ripping and sagging beneath their own drenched weight. The snow tumbled in to bury the remains.

They turned for the last time from the house. Prudence put her arms around the boys’ shoulders and shook the reins, and the three of them started along the road back into town.

After a time, she started singing, and for a long while, her carols drifted back through the leagues and leagues of dark forest, and of softly falling snow.