The bell rang softly. I rose to my feet. Bunny looked du?bious. “You don't suppose they've come back, do you?”
“I hope not,” I agreed. I wasn't in the mood for any more interruptions.
Before I reached the hall, the bell had sounded again twice more, but with only a mild jangle, as if the person had pulled the string gingerly. It had to be those tourists again, I thought, my ire rising. I didn't even bother to put on a dis?guise as I flung wide the door.
“We're not open!” I shouted. The man on the doorstep jumped back, flinging his hands up to protect his face. “Go away!”
He gawked at me, then vanished. I blinked. I hadn't used any magik to dispel him. I thought. Puzzled, I closed the door and turned around.
He was standing there looking at me. “Please,” he begged. “I need to speak to you.”
“No, you don't,” I stated. “The inn is closed.”
I noted that he had hazel eyes with horizontal slitted pupils, giving him the look of a herd sheep. He tilted his round head, which was topped by a mass of pale curls, adding to the ovine semblance. “But you are Skeeve the Magnificent, aren't you?”
“Yes! I mean, no!” The surprise of being recognized momentarily unsettled me. “I'm not magnificent. I mean, I'm on sabbatical.”
“But, we need your help.”
“Not mine,” I contradicted, firmly, walking toward him. He cowered until he was standing in a corner with me looming over him. “Go away. Scram.”
The sheep-man reached into his tunic. I readied a defen?sive spell, but I didn't need it. He disappeared. Relieved, I started toward my study.
He appeared in front of me again, hands out, beseech?ing. “Please, Master Skeeve, you must listen to me ...”
My hands went up automatically, spreading out a web of protection. The sheep-man rose in mid-air, his body twisting as the strands of power surrounded him. It was a spell Aahz had taught me to tangle up intruders. He looked so miserable and helpless I felt terrible for tying him up in it. I hurried to undo the enchantment, all the while listening to him babble.
"... They'd kill me if they knew I was here, but we can't take it much longer... I heard you were the only one who could, well, convince them that what they're doing is a
bad idea... I mean, I think it's a bad idea, but other people might think I'm wrong ... I mean, I'm willing to concede that I may be wrong ..."
By the time his feet touched the ground I was inter?ested in spite of myself. “Who would kill you?” I asked, curiously.
The sheep-man sputtered, as if embarrassed by his own choice of words. “Did I say that? Well, I mean they'd be unhappy with me. Really unhappy with me. Not that it would be unjustified, my questioning their judgment like this, but...”
Bunny swept in and took the man by the arm. “Why don't you just come and sit down and tell us all about it. Maybe Skeeve can recommend someone to help you with your problem if you talk it out with us. How do you like that idea?”
The sheep-man was almost bleatingly grateful. He turned his large eyes toward her. “Oh, I'd love to! But only if it's all right with you. I mean, I am so sorry to intrude on your privacy. I'd never dream of it normally ...”
Once Bunny had settled him in the inglenook with a hot cup of tea, our visitor was somewhat more composed. I sat in the big armchair between him and Bunny in case he seemed inclined to become hysterical again. He remained calm, if a little incoherent, as he outlined his mission.
“My name is Wensley. I represent the government of Pareley in the dimension of Wuh,” he began. “Well, it was the government before ... but I'm getting ahead of myself. My people have never been very worldly. It's terrible to have to admit it, and I don't want to speak ill of others, but I think, well, I think I think that it comes from our never having needed anything much from outsiders before. Our land is fertile, our animals and crops plentiful, our climate more than clement.”
“It sounds like a paradise,” Bunny put in.
Wensley laughed bitterly. “And well you might put it that way, dear lady. It was a pair of dice and a few other de?vices of the Deveels that landed us in the situation that led to our present plight Ñbut I'm being far too direct.” He looked abashed.
“Not at all,” I assured him. “Lots of beings have lost money to the Deveels. Does your problem have something to do with gambling?”
“Not exactly,” our visitor waffled, with an uncomfort?able wriggle. “If our leaders had in truth been gambling, but I think that perhaps in retrospect the games might have been a tiny bit tilted away from strictly fair?”
“If they were Deveel-run, there's no way they would have been fair at all,” Bunny stated firmly. “At least, not to anyone from outside their own dimension. Deveels are in business strictly to earn money Ñall of it, if they can.”
“Well,” Wensley hesitated, relieved that someone else had put it more strongly than he
