"Hi, guys." I pretended to be totally unaware of
what was going on. "Anyone want a bagel?"
"No, I don't want a bagel!" came the sneering re-
sponse from one combatant. "What I want is some de-
cent help."
"... and while you're at it see what you can do about
getting me a little respect!" the other countered.
The latter comment came from Guido, senior of my
two bodyguards. If anything, he's bigger and nastier
than his cousin Nunzio.
The former contribution came from Aahz. Aahz is
my partner. He's also a demon, a Pervect to be exact,
and even though he's slightly shorter than I am, he's
easily twice as nasty as my two bodyguards put together.
My strategy had worked in that I now had their an-
noyance focused on me instead of each other. Now,
realizing the potential devastation of their respective
8 Robert Asprin
temperaments individually, much less collectively, I had
cause to doubt the wisdom of my strategy.
"What seems to be the trouble?"
"The trouble," Aahz snarled, "is that your ace ;
bodyguard here just lost us a couple of clients."
My heart sank. I mentioned earlier that Aahz and I
have more money than we know what to do with, but
old habits die hard. Aahz is the tightest being I've ever
met when it comes to money, and, living at the Bazaar |
at Deva, that's saying something! If Guido had really :
lost a potential customer, we'd be hearing about it for a i
long time. I
"Ease up a minute, partner," I said more to stall for
time than anything else. "I just got here, remember?
Could you fill me in on a few of the details?"
Aahz favored Guido with one more dark stare. I
"There's not all that much to tell," he said. "I was in
