'When did he say that?' I asked. 'Right after you told him how much you've missed him and still need his praise and approval.' I shook my head. 'Now, I know i didn't say that.' She looked at me.
'No. You didn't,' she said, and walked out.
'I've always believed in 'winner take all.''
The first client to walk in the door. I sat at my desk, drumming my fingertips. I was still kind of smarting from the confrontation but more determined to succeed than I could ever remember. So much was at stake: my reputation, my friendship—especially my pride. Gleep lay on the floor with his chin on my lap. He rolled his big blue eyes up toward me. I scratched his ears with my fingertips.
'What if the client doesn't have the kind of problem that can be solved with money?' I asked Bunny, who stood holding up the door frame with her hip. She wrinkled her upturned nose at me.
'Really, Skeeve, how many people would that cover? Most problems have something to do with money in the long run. I'll be fair. If it really is something nonfinancial, I'll wave them off for now. Otherwise, you take what I give you. The same goes for Aahz.'
'We'll see to it that he sticks to the terms, what?' Chumley said. He and Nunzio had moved a couple of
chairs from the waiting room into my office to keep me company. 'Little sister is sitting with Aahz to ensure his compliance. Should be an interesting competition, eh?' Interesting. I shrugged.
'What about some three-handed Demon Pinochle to pass the time?' Nunzio asked in his high voice.
'Thanks, but I couldn't concentrate,' I said.
'Oh, don't fret, Skeeve,' Chumley said. 'We're all rooting for you, you know.'
I brightened. 'You want me to win9'
After Aahz had left, I spent a lot of time trying to reconstruct our conversation. It was a muddle, i should have known better than to drink more than one glass of wine— but it had been so easy to fall back into bad habits—like going along with whatever Aahz wanted. I had been very nervous about what the others thought about the contest. When Aahz showed up at our tent flap this morning, most of my old friends had been with him. They'd agreed who would stay with each of us. and offer help or just observe. I realized too late that they all had plenty riding on the outcome of our competition, but was relieved that they didn't seem to mind that the challenge had been offered.
Chumley shook a linger at me.
'I say I'm not committing to a victor in this contest. You and Aahz made the terms: who wins, wins. My friendship is still yours. I do not mind either way as long as the contest is fairly run and fairly won. If you succeed, I know what to expect after years as your partner. I would not cavil at a return to those days—with some exceptions, of course.'
'Of course,' I echoed.
'If Aahz wins, then there may be some changes because he has a different way of doing business, but I don't think it is incompatible with our previous customs.'
'Maybe not.' I sighed. 'I guess I never really admitted to myself that I wanted to be in charge again when I came back. I suppose that's because I didn't know where else I would fit in the organization.'
'Don't sell yourself short, Boss,' Nunzio squeaked. Gleep moved his chin from my lap to Nunzio's and made a hopeful noise. The Mob enforcer had a way of scratching my dragon's ears that made him purr like a cat. 'You'd do tine. You always called us partners. I mean, then you should have no trouble no matter what happens.'
'Yeah,' I said. 'I guess so.'
That pretty much summed up my mental geography lesson, I had to figure out where I really fit, whether I won this bet or not, and if I really meant it when I called them all my partners.
I heard a murmur from the front room, then Bunny raised her voice.
'Of course, Princess Hermalaya. I'll show you in to Mr. Skeeve's office.'
A princess! If that wasn't a big-ticket case, I didn't know what was. I shot to my feet. Chumley followed suit somewhat more slowly for the sake of the furniture and the ceiling, which was a trifle low for someone of his stature.
'Okay, Boss,' Nunzio said, standing up and straightening his knife-sharp lapels, 'it's showtime!'
Bunny held open the carpet and an elegant creature sashayed into the room. She had long white fur from
muzzle to the black tip of her bushy tail. She unwrapped a silken stole from around her slender shoulders and presented me with a long, slim hand.
'Hi, there,' she said. 'The kindly lady there in the office told me you might be able to help?'
'That's what we do here,' I said, bowing gallantly over her hand. 'May I introduce myself? I'm Skeeve. These are my associates, Nunzio and Chumley.'
'Well, I'm charmed,' the lovely lady said. 'I'll just return the favor? I'm Hermalaya, princess of Foxe- Swampburg in the dimension of Reynardo—or I was?'
I raised my eyebrows. 'Welcome. Will you sit down and tell us all about it?'
'Well,' Hermalaya said, breathlessly, sinking into the client chair, 'I shoulda known that something was gonna happen after Mama and Daddy died. I'm the firstborn in my family, so of course they put me on the throne. We're the oldest family in Foxe-Swampburg, the first Swamp Foxes to put down roots there? I'm proud of my heritage, and I love my people. One thing Daddy always told me was trust the folks who know what they're doing? So I did. We got a real smart prime minister and a bunch of other people who ran things for Daddy? I just left everything in their hands. My subjects came to me when they had troubles. I passed them along to the prime minister? 'Cause I don't have a whole lot of experience yet? I learned other things suitable for a princess, of course. I'm a good listener. I'm a pretty darned good cook. I mean, sooner or later I gotta think about ensuring the succession, so I want to get married and have kits? But in the meantime, I'm trying to catch on to what's going on? Except I just didn't have a chance?'
'Why not?' I asked.
Hermalaya acquired an indignant pout.
'Well, because that darned prime minister just up and usurped me last week!'
I frowned. 'He threw you off the throne? Why?'
The Swamp Fox princess shook her head in bemusement. 'Well, I'm sure I don't know. We had us some hard times in Foxe-Swampburg, that's for sure. We had these nasty bugs? They were just everywhere, and we couldn't get rid of them. They bored holes through everything? I mean, my subjects were just going broke trying to fix things. The cisterns all sprang leaks, and people were running out of clean water? So I told the chancellor of the exchequer to open up the treasury? I mean, we all woulda been bored full of holes, too, if it wasn't for the Old Folks protecting us.'
'I know what you mean' I said, as a Humbee buzzed over our heads like a vulture swooping down. Gleep made a leap for it and settled down to chew noisily. Hermalaya stared in amazement at the invasion and capture. I cleared my throat. 'Uh, please go on.'
'Well, not much to tell, except I tried to help my people, because that's what I'm supposed to do? Mama and Daddy always instilled in us the deepest sense of responsibility toward those who depend upon us.'
'Most admirable,' Chumley said, then lowered his heavy brow as Hermalaya turned to stare at him. 'Big Crunch mean, 'good foxy'!'
I frowned. 'So what do you need from us? We're not an army.'
'Well, what do you think?' Hermalaya asked. 'My people need me. They can't just have an old prime minister as their leader? You can see what kind of chaos that would lead to. I mean, how can he make unpopular decisions if there's no one for them to love when he's being mean? He's got no one to explain to the people in a friendly way that that's the way it's got to be. Of course,' she added reflectively, 'I mean unpopular decisions that
