magician.'
'No one? How come?'
'No one,' the girl said firmly. 'No way, no how.' She pointed toward the shimmering floor that we had
swum through. 'Please go and do not return.'
Aahz and I shrugged at one another. We weren't going to insist. As far as we could tell, everything was running smoothly in Diksen's domain. Aahz wasn't going to leave as though he had been chased away.
'I can tell when a guy's too busy,' Aahz said. 'Tell him if he can get over the snit, we'd still like to buy him a drink sometime. See you around, babe.'
Now for a smooth exit.
As Aahz stepped off the edge of the office floor, I stretched out a small magical platform underneath his feet to lower him elegantly through the building's outer shell.
Just as I did so, something large flashed by in the water. It was too fast for me to pick out more than just its streamlined shape. I was so surprised that I was distracted from my spell. Aahz plunged in feet first. With an irritated look at me, he plummeted out of sight. The girl laughed musically. I blushed, hoping that Aahz couldn't hear her. 'Excuse me,' I sputtered.
The girl kept laughing as I dove in to follow my partner.
'What's good in theory doesn't necessarily work in practice.'
'I said I was sorry,' I protested once more. Aahz glared at me and stuck his nose back into the bucket-sized mug of beer.
' 'Sorry' doesn't clear the water out of my ears,' he said.
'C'mon, Aahz,' Tananda said, scooting closer to him on the wooden bench of our new favorite bar in the Bazaar at Deva, the Over Easy. 'He was a little surprised, that's all. It's happened to all of us.'
While most of the others at the table with us weren't magicians, everybody nodded. Mistakes were just that: mistakes.
'I am sure the Boss didn't mean to inconvenience you,' Guido said, keeping his voice neutral. Beside him, Nunzio nodded. Gus the Gargoyle, off duty that evening from the Golden Crescent Inn waved his cup of molten lava. Bunny and Tananda agreed.
'It was a bad time for an enchantus interruptus,' Aahz said, his eyebrows down. 'Here we were, trying to convince the secretary that we were master magicians to be taken seriously, in spite of our connection with a former employee who left a bad impression behind him, and we ended up acting like a couple of comedians from Vodville.'
'Where's that?' I asked, before I could stop myself. Aahz turned the glare up another notch. 'I'm sorry! I saw something in the water.'
'It was me,' Aahz growled. 'There was nothing else there. It must have been a trick of the light. You should have kept your mind on your spell. I fell out of the sky like a rock. The only reason Balu didn't laugh when I dropped onto his back was that he was scared about being there in the first place.'
By contrast, I had floated down from the giant bubble like a snowflake, and Aahz still resented it. I offered to buy his beer that evening to make up for it. He was on his third. I nursed my single glass of
wine, which I really needed after a day like that.
'How's your mother?' I asked, eager to get the scrutiny of the group off me and onto something else.
'She's fine,' Bunny said.
'Nothing wrong at home?' I urged, seeing her hesitate.
'Not really.' She sat erect and settled her back against the wall. Something else was bothering her, but she fended off any attempts I made to get her to talk about it. Maybe she would open up on her own later. But she smiled at me. 'What's going on in Aegis?'
Three pails of beer were finally mellowing Aahz.
'Just a little wonderworking to amaze the locals,' Aahz said, very casually. 'Today, part of the building's foundation fell apart.'
Bunny's eyebrows went up. 'That's bad. Does that mean delays?'
'Not with us there,' Aahz said with a grin that stretched from one ear to the other. 'Samwise was right to bring us in.
'What did you do?'
'It wasn't me—it was Skeeve, here.' He brought a palm around and smacked me on the back so hard I almost went face down in my wine. 'I've never seen a Klahd channel magik better. He picked the whole damned pyramid up all by himself!'
'Wow!' Bunny squealed. 'That's amazing!' She leaned over the table and gave me a big kiss. I felt proud of myself. 'Felicitations,' Guido said. 'That was a mighty feat.' 'Truly historic,' Nunzio agreed.
Their words were more than encouraging, but their faces told a different story. They were worried.
When I thought about it, I realized that I was worried, too. It wasn't like Aahz not to add some self- aggrandizement to a story if at all possible. Instead, he launched into a detailed narration of how when the project management got bogged down in bureaucracy, I had come through with a never-before-seen exhibition of magikal expertise. I was shocked. Then I realized everybody was looking at me.
'It was nothing,' I mumbled into my drink, embarrassed to look up at the admiring scrutiny of the others.
'It was good work,' Aahz said. He accepted another bucketful from the barmaid and raised it. 'Slainte, partner.'
He took a deep draught, then spat it out all over everyone on the table. I jumped back, wiping noxious liquid off my face.
'What the hell is this?' Aahz bellowed. 'This tastes like ammonia!' The barmaid ran back to him.
'Oh, Mr. Aahz, I am so sorry!' she exclaimed. 'I picked up the wrong pail! This is the mop water.'
'I know the beer here is weak, but you think I wouldn't be able to tell the difference?'
'I didn't mean to,' the barmaid said, blotting all of us with the edge of her apron.
Tananda did her best to contain the smile that tried to crease her lips. She and Bunny affected innocent expressions when Aahz turned his glare on the rest of us.
'Bad luck, Aahz,' Guido said. 'You must admit that it is an honest mistake.'
'I'm getting tired of mistakes!' Aahz growled.
The barmaid returned with the manager, Lucanzi.
'Mr. Aahz, I can't tell you how sorry we are,' he said, twisting his hands together. 'We prize your custom. We are very proud that M.Y.T.H., Inc., visits our establishment.'
'Are you feeling sorry enough to comp the refill?' Aahz asked, sourly. 'How about a round for the table?'
'Well, yours, sure, Aahz,' Lucanzi said. Deveels weren't any better about compensating customers than Pervects were.
'What about the ladies here? They got all dressed up to come to this pigsty, and they end up decorated with floor squeezings! Look at the stains on their nice evening wear.'
Lucanzi eyed Tananda and Bunny. I could have gotten the dirt out with a twitch of magik, and Lucanzi knew that, too, but it was the thrill of the chase for Aahz and the manager. Tananda had her knife out of her sheath and was cleaning her nails with it. Bunny somehow managed to look innocent and formidable at the same time, a combination that I could never have achieved in a million years.
'Well, all right,' Lucanzi began.
'And my friends here?' Aahz waved a hand to indicate the rest of us.
