Myth Alliances

I crossed my fingers. The timing was very tricky. The second the last Pervect crossed the threshold, Gleep breathed out a long tongue of flame. It struck the big tub of flash powder Tanda and I had left on the Pervects' table. A vast cloud of smoke filled the room, accompanied by coughing and hacking. Gleep came lolloping out of the midst of it as if he hadn't a care in the world. He was largely immune to anything having to do with smoke and fire. I watched carefully as he exited. The little flames marked his passage, and turned their points inward. The Pervect Ten were trapped.

When the smoke cleared, I was sitting crosslegged on the air facing the door, my disguise dispelled.

"Greetings," I announced. "I am the Great Skeeve."

TWENTY-EIGHT

"When you have the upper hand, use it."

-M. JORDAN

Coughing, the Pervect Ten turned to face me. I had to admit I felt a little sorry for them. I'd made the mistake of being at ground zero more than once when using flash powder, and the effect was lung-searing. I preferred to be well away by the time it deployed. Gleep came trotting over to me, expecting a pat on the head for a job well done. He got it.

"Who the hell is the tot?" the eldest demanded, waving her arms to clear the air.

"Watch who you're calling a tot!" the little one grumbled. "Yeah, who are you?"

"Greetings, ladies," I repeated, spreading my hands and floating higher in the air on a wisp of thought. "I am Skeeve the Magnificent."

"You?" the angry one declared. "You're going to be Skeeve the Grease Spot when I get through with you!"

I threw a finger toward Bunny, who turned Bytina to face me. My face, magnified about sixty times, appeared on the wall of the chamber, and my voice echoed out of the computer on the desk.

"Halt!" I shouted. The very volume caused them to stop in their tracks.

"I serve the Wuhses, and they have empowered me to deal with you. So deal you shall!"

"I'll tear him apart," the heavy-browed one snarled.

"Me first," snarled the one in the leather skirt. They all started moving towards me, claws out.

"Don't!" I shouted, as they made towards me. "Look at the walls around you. My dragon reset the wards so the flames are facing you. I know that Pervects are vulnerable to fire. Do not try to cross the threshold."

"That's our spell!" the robed one protested.

"Formation, ladies!" the eldest one ordered. "Let's wipe this snotty little brat out of existence."

They all joined hands and closed their eyes. I braced myself. I had watched them send a crowd of a thousand Wuhses each back to their individual homes with a single spell. They were the most powerful magikal force I had ever encountered. If they could break through my preparations I was finished. I waited ... waited ... waited ... then ...

Each of them opened one eye and peered at the others.

"Someone is not concentrating!" the eldest chided them.

"Yes, we are," the elegant one complained. "Something's wrong!"

The leather-skirted Pervect pointed at me. "He ... he's dispelling our magik! All of it!"

"How could he?" the one in the bustier said. "He's a Klahd."

"A Klahd who knows one more trick than you," I replied, loftily. "That's all that it takes, really. While you were bumbling around in my obfuscation spell..."

"You mean choking on your flash powder, sonny," the elder interrupted me. "We may be impressed by your tenacity, but we've seen the sleight-of-hand tricks before." "Fine," I shrugged. "I don't mind if you see the mechanism of my trap now that you 're inside it. The anti-magik shell comes from the jail on Scamaroni. You can't blip out of there, because neither spells nor magik items work inside it."

They gawked at me. The skirt-suited one recovered her wits first. "It was your voice we heard that night. You were there!"

"Uh-huh," I acknowledged, pleased that they were finally starting to catch on.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to cease your unfair control over the Wuhses. They are tired of living under your yoke and having you rob them blind and make them work for you as slaves to make you rich. They want you to pack up and leave, and stop draining their treasury. Otherwise, you can stay here. We'll even shove food through the barriers for you, but won't take them down unless you meet certain conditions."

The one in the coverall gawked openly at me. "Making us rich? You've got the wrong slaves here, pal. We can't even collect our fee!"

It was my turn to goggle. "What fee?"