Horrors of the Dancing Gods

journey will be easier. Even the invader can be influenced by him to a degree. No, it is unthinkable that we try this without him.'

Irving shrugged. 'Okay, okay, you're the boss for now. I take your word for it. Killin' two days in this creepy town won't be fun, though.'

'Oh, it is not so terrible in the daytime,' Thebes assured him. 'You just have to watch your step, as in any big city. There is quite a lot to see, actually. Basilisk Park, the Miskatonic University branch library, the Carnival of Souls, the Illuminati Museum, the Phantom of the Opry, lots of things.'

Literally lots of things, Irving thought. 'No, I think I'll stick close to the hotel. It seems pretty safe. It might be good, though, to visit some shops and pick up a few spare things for the trip. We packed awfully light.'

'Two blocks over to the right as you exit,' Thebes told 'Quite a lot of shops and specialty stores.'

'I can exchange an ingot for some local currency,' Poquah told him. 'Perhaps, later, if she is up to it, you might wish to take your young lady with you. I do not think that the several white cotton dresses and those sandals will be sufficient.'

Things were agreed on, then, and with handshakes all around — Joel Thebes had a shake like a limp, dead fish — they agreed to consult and meet regularly for dinner at the hotel and to prepare to go inland with the expedition in two days' time.

As Poquah and Irving walked up to the desk, the boy whispered, 'You got ingots?'

'Yes, of course. You never know when they are useful. I carry them in a sorcerer's pouch. Do not worry. We will not lack for resources.'

That was certainly clear when, at the cashier, Poquah produced a heretofore invisible leather purse of not very impressive size and reached into it. Although it wasn't much larger than his hand to the wrist, he pulled out a complete bar of unmistakable processed gold and put it on the counter, then made the purse vanish. Good trick, Irving thought approvingly.

The money for it was considerable, and Poquah peeled off several large bills and handed them to Irving. 'Do not lose them or have them stolen from you,' the Imir warned. 'I am not going to budget for incompetence.'

'I'll be careful,' Irving assured him. He looked at the notes, which were all sorts of oddball denominations. Each one had a demon on its face and a scene from one of the circles of Hell on the back. 'So what does the big prince get?' he asked Poquah. 'A thousand?'

'Of course not. He's on one of the most common bills here — the three.'

Irving fished one out and looked at it. 'Looks like pictures of the angels in churches, only bigger and better,' he remarked.

'Well, that's how he started out, anyway, and how he probably still sees himself. You never know. He may not be a god, but with that kind of power and those legions, he's about the closest thing you'll ever see to one.'

Larae had not joined them for breakfast but was up and changed, sort of, when they got back. She was wearing a shorter dress, which hung on the hips and went to just be low the knees, but nothing else. She had a very nice figure, Irving noted, just as he had known she would.

'Does this bother you?' she asked them. 'I couldn't manage the full dress, and this is quite traditional and casual in my homeland, although I know that not all cultures are comfortable with it. When this sort of temperature is normal all year, we feel there is no reason to hide ourselves in false modesty.'

'N — no, it's fine with me,' Irving responded. 'After all, I just got this loincloth and stuff on. By all means be comfortable. I–I think they are shutting down the breakfast by now, but we might be able to get something if you want it.'

'That is all right. I can wait. I have not had much of an appetite of late.'

'I thought I'd go shopping, since we'll need to pick up some things, and if you want to come along, it's fine with me.'

She smiled. 'I'd like that a lot, so long as it remains daylight and we stay out of that dreadful dockside district.' Irving buckled on his short sword and belt. 'Well, I'll take along something for the unexpected, but I think this area right around here should be fine.'

And indeed it was — for Yuggoth, anyway.

It was something of a shock to be hit with that blanket of heat and humidity as they exited the hotel. While it had been humid all along, the hotel's ventilation system had kept the temperature pretty comfortable. Now, out in the beating tropical sun shining down from a cloudless sky, the full impact hit them.

'Feels very much like my home,' she told him. 'Very different land, but that sun and temperature are familiar. Do not be surprised if around midday there is a sudden gathering of clouds and a torrent of rain for at least a brief period. It is common in my land.'

He felt far less comfortable than she, but, worse, he was soon sweating like a stuck pig and she seemed dry and hardly affected. It was embarrassing.

The row of shops and stores was also easy to spot, and as they walked along, they saw that in the midst of the expected there was always the Yuggoth touch, with potion stores and shops with all sorts of voodoolike paraphernalia intermixed with clothing and shoe and food and sundry shops, some of which seemed downright conventional but all of which had at least one item that was questionable, from the type of skin on a leather handbag to the small shrunken-head necklaces.

Overall, though, it was kind of a fun day. He really liked being with Larae, and he'd never quite felt this way or this comfortable with any girl before. He was feeling things in his head and in other parts of his anatomy that the spell had long blocked and that were totally new to him for that reason. Clearly, though, the warning about his spells had been right, and the farther he was from their source and the closer to the spirits of Yuggoth and its atmosphere, the less effect the spell would have, possibly even dissolving.

There were some skimpy leather bands that passed for an outfit he wouldn't have minded seeing her in, but she seemed partial to slit skirts, although now of darker and more complex colors and patterns. She bought only a couple of tops, mostly matching the more numerous skirts, for formal occasions, dinner, and perhaps the potentially cool evening they hadn't yet experienced.

For Irving it was easier. He needed some support for and protection of his genitals, of course, but beyond that he felt most comfortable outdoors in heat like this when wearing the least. He did, however, invest in a pair of solid low-top boots. Walking on the hot stone pavement was frying his feet something awful, and it was either that or admit to Larae that he couldn't take it. She liked sandals and also found a comfortable pair of boots for when they would be necessary, but for now she preferred being barefoot and seemed almost oblivious to the fact that the same surface that she was walking on would, Irving was absolutely certain, fry bacon and eggs without any added help.

The most unusual thing overall about the city, though, was that it wasn't all that unusual. This was a city not all that different from the ones on the great northern continent, nor did the people or the dangers seem to be nearly as horrible as their billing. Okay, there was that strip of nasty joints, but you could find neighborhoods perhaps only slightly milder in the City-States, ignoring, of course, the self-cleaning sidewalks. And the back-alley dangers and random violence didn't seem all that different from the cities of Husaquahr or, in fact, from those of Irving's native land, either. What was bent here was not much more bent than the 'good' places, even if it was more consistently bent in the same direction.

In the main, people went to work here, did their jobs, went home, raised their kids, and tried to mind their own business.

It was not, of course, a democracy, but neither was any place in Husaquahr he could think of.

Yuggoth was positively routine so far, and in a sense that disturbed him. Did it mean that it wasn't so evil, after all, or that evil places weren't really all that different from home, whether home was the lands around Terindell or the more distant land of Philadelphia?

Joel Thebes certainly thought there were more woes here. 'Forms, forms, and more forms,' he wailed. 'All this just to go anywhere at all here, as if anyone out there really cared.'

'You mean they won't collect these papers?' Marge asked him.

'Oh, these forms will be examined over and over again, and if there is one teensy