be on your guard.”
“No more frightening than you are, Juffin,” Lady Sotofa laughed. “Let’s go, gentlemen. You and Nuflin have some problems on your hands, Juffin. That’s for sure. And you must come with me and have something to eat, my dear,” she added for my benefit.
“What a good idea,” Juffin said drily.
“No matter what, you’re always ready to eat,” she remarked to Juffin. “I know you. But I love you all the same. Where have you been lately? You stopped visiting me. Maybe you think you bore me? Well, listen here, you old coot. You are tiresome, but my heart goes its own way, and it’s always glad to see you. And one must listen to one’s heart.”
Lady Sotofa scurried ahead, showing us the way and looking back now and then with a comical expression to illustrate her running commentary. Her little hands gestured wildly, her looxi fluttered in the breeze, and her dimples became ever more pronounced. I simply couldn’t credit her with great magical powers, however hard I tried.
Finally we arrived at a cozy garden pavilion that seemed to serve as Lady Sotofa’s office. There we were greeted by another sweet lady, somewhat younger than Lady Sotofa. With age she promised to become an exact replica of her elder associate. She already had the soft plumpness and the charming dimples.
“Oh, Sotofa! You’re always entertaining men! Don’t you want to take a rest?”
Her laughter rang out like tinkling bells.
“Of course I entertain them, Reniva. Don’t you remember? We agreed that I’d bring the menfolk around, but you would feed them. Now scoot! Off to the kitchen with you! The silly youngsters that pass as our chefs will never be able to cook as well as you can.”
“Are you suggesting that the food should be tasty?” Lady Reniva asked, arching her brows. “I thought men didn’t care what they ate as long as it filled their bellies. Fine, I’ll feed your swains, but you’ll have to reckon with them in the meantime.”
She disappeared behind a partition, and the three of us were alone.
“Well, Sir Max, were you frightened?” Lady Sotofa giggled. “Did you think that this daft Juffin had brought you here to see some crazy old biddies? You don’t have to reply. I can see in your eyes that that’s what you thought. Well, give me your fist. Come on, come on—don’t be timid.”
I stared at Juffin in confusion. He looked at me sternly, and nodded. I extended my sweaty left hand to Sotofa, the one in which Mr. Agon, the no-good Tasherian merchant, had been languishing for the last dozen hours. The merry old lady stroked my fingers cautiously, lingered a moment, frowned, and then broke into a smile again, displaying her enchanting dimples.
“Easy as pie, Juffin! I’m surprised you didn’t manage to do it.”
“You know I could have,” the Venerable Head of the Secret Investigative Force muttered. “It’s just that everything comes to you so naturally.”
Lady Sotofa shook her head reproachfully and applied a sudden sharp pressure at the base of my palm. I yelped in surprise and pain, and opened my fingers. The unfortunate merchant tumbled onto the carpet, and Lady Sotofa triumphantly displayed the marvelous mother-of-pearl belt, which, by some miracle, she was left holding.
“There you are, Juffin! Are you starting to regret that nature has rewarded you with this old crone you’re still so proud of?”
“Don’t exaggerate, my lady,” he murmured. “I still have a few tricks up my sleeve you haven’t yet learned.”
“What do I need those for? Your tricks don’t put bread on the table.” She turned to me, “How did you like that, my dear?”
I nodded in astonishment and stared at my recent captive.
“Is he alive, Lady Sotofa?”
She waved her hand with a flippant air.
“Why wouldn’t he be? I could revive him right now, but it makes more sense to do it just before you leave. I don’t intend to feed this blockhead, and if we eat while he looks on—well, it wouldn’t be very polite, would it?”
After dinner, which affected me like a dose of horse tranquilizers, Lady Sotofa leaned over the immobile body of the merchant Agon.
“How long can you just loll around like that, you no-count?” she roared in an alien, shrieking voice. The unfortunate chap began to stir.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret, Juffin,” said Sotofa, beaming. “It’s possible to return any person to life if you shout in his ear the same thing he was used to waking up to in childhood. As you see, the mother of this gentleman couldn’t control her emotions. Just like my own mother, in fact. Do you remember my mamma, Juffin, may she rest in peace? I think she was what turned us into such good sorcerers: we had to save our skins somehow. Well, collect this dolt, boys, and clear out! You have work to do, and so do we. Life’s not just for pleasure.”
We loaded the gradually reviving merchant whose life we had just saved into the amobiler. I was so taken aback by what I had seen that I didn’t even ask any questions.
“Well, what do you think of her?”
I had never known Juffin’s voice to sound so tender.
“Oh . . . I can’t even imagine what all the others are like.”
“You can take it from me that the others are no match for her. Sotofa is the cream of the crop. Even Grand Magician Nuflin is scared of her. Has this shaken your faith in me, Sir Max?”
“Not at all, but she’s really something.”
“Sotofa hails from the same place I do. Did you catch that?” Juffin smiled. “She’s my closest friend from those parts, although we see each other rarely, and mostly on official matters. About five hundred years or so ago we had a very stormy romance. The people of Kettari were tickled to death when, after the latest in a long chain of quarrels, I arrested her in the ‘name of the law’ and escorted her to the House on the Road. That’s what the local Ministry of Perfect Public Order is called. Five hundred years ago, can you believe it? Then Sotofa got it into her head that she had to enter some Order, and she tripped off to the capital. I was devastated by her little escapade. But life proved the girl right—there was a place in the Order for her.”
I stared at Juffin.
“Are you telling me this for a particular reason?”
“Naturally—you need to know why she treats me with such a lack of decorum,” the chief said, winking at me. “Otherwise you might start thinking that any woman older than three hundred can wrap me around her little finger.”
At the House by the Bridge Melifaro dashed out to meet us.
“Juffin,” he said in a mournful whisper. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Melamori has locked herself in my office, and she won’t let me in. I think she’s crying.”
“Well, let her have a good cry,” the boss advised him. “Why shouldn’t a good person cry when times are bad? Everything will be all right, just don’t try to comfort her. She’ll kill you on the spot, and I won’t be able to jump in and set things right. I’ll be too busy. Find Lonli-Lokli. Let him drop whatever he’s doing and wait for us here. And don’t you go anywhere, either. Tell Melamori that in half an hour we’ll be working to beat the band. She can join us if she wishes. Let’s go, Max.”
Without giving me time to reconsider, Juffin gripped the unfortunate merchant Agon under his arms and dragged him into his office. I shuffled after them.
“Now then, Max,” the chief addressed me in a clipped, energetic tone, seating our captive in an armchair. “I hate interfering in other people’s affairs, but sometimes one must. This is one of those times. Don’t even think of pursuing this affair of the heart—it will only make matters worse. Lady Melamori is feeling as miserable as you are, if not more so. But she is under no illusions about what happened this morning. She knows something that you don’t know. For example, she knows what happens to people who fly in the face of tradition and try to fool
