King had ever beheld, and he asked them the name of the village and who
they were; and one of them answered, "This is the City of the Aged in
the Territory of Time."

And the King said, "Is Time then here?"

And one of the old men pointed to a great castle standing on a steep
hill and said: "Therein dwells Time, and we are his people;" and they
all looked curiously at King Karnith Zo, and the eldest of the
villagers spoke again and said: "Whence do you come, you that are so
young?" and Karnith Zo told him how he had come to conquer Time to save
the world and the gods, and asked them whence they came.

And the villagers said:

"We are older than always, and know not whence we came, but we are the
people of Time, and here from the Edge of Everything he sends out his
hours to assail the world, and you may never conquer Time." But the
King went back to his armies, and pointed towards the castle on the
hill and told them that at last they had found the Enemy of the Earth;
and they that were older than always went back slowly into their houses
with the creaking of olden doors. And there they went across the fields
and passed the village. From one of his towers Time eyed them all the
while, and in battle order they closed in on the steep hill as Time sat
still in his great tower and watched.

But as the feet of the foremost touched the edge of the hill Time
hurled five years against them, and the years passed over their heads
and the army still came on, an army of older men. But the slope seemed
steeper to the King and to every man in his army, and they breathed