AN EXTRACT
‘We are the little people, brother,’ he replied. His dignified response struck right to the heart of all I was trying to fight. He cocked his head on one side and said sympathetically: ‘Haven’t found your sea legs yet, old man, eh? That’s what it is, isn’t it?’

‘You what?’ I exclaimed.

‘Tell you what,’ he said, ‘suppose I start by telling you what happened to me?’

That sounded more reassuring, so I nodded. ‘Go on.’

‘I’ve only been here a week, so I can remember more than most of the half born – that’s what we call the new arrivals. It began with Simmonds watering down my whisky.The fool thought I wouldn’t notice! And I didn’t until I’d taken a couple of sips. Too late then, of course; the damage was done. Simple as that, you see. Though how the stuff got in, I don’t know.’

‘Hang on! What stuff?’

‘Wizard’s Woe. You wouldn’t know about that, of course, but it got into my whisky, same as it must have got into something you ate or drank recently –’

‘What does it –?’

‘No, just a minute, old boy, please don’t interrupt. I’m explaining it, aren’t I? Now, Wizard’s a tiny plant – so small that botanists haven’t even discovered it yet. Trouble is, it has a fatal effect on certain human constitutions, with the result that these people not only pass out, they also pass on … to this sort of extra-dimensional existence. You follow me?’