The Lion Game

'What's the Lion Game?' asked Telzey of her captors. 'You're engaged in it now,' was their answer. It was a game of mental chess played on the intricate closed transit circuits of an entire world by a race of giant mentalists who acknowledged no allegiance to the civilized planets. Talzey was a human and, as such, a test piece either a pawn to be sacrificed or a wild queen who could make her own decisions, she was never sure which. Either way the loser would not be just one talented Earthling: the loser would be a whole civilization, and possibly a few peaceful planets as well...