"Hm?Relax, kid. Like I said. Imps are gullible. If they were reallythinking, they would have shot us down without talking. I haven't metan Imp yet I couldn't talk circles around."

Hecocked his head, listening.

"They'recoming back now. Just follow my lead. Oh yes… I almost forgot.Drop the disguise on my features when I give you the cue."

"Butyou said they couldn't catch…."

Ibroke off as the two Imps reappeared. They were leading a war unicornbetween them. The hoods of the cloaks were back now, revealing theirfeatures. I was moderately surprised to see they looked human, seedyperhaps, but human nonetheless. Then I saw Quigley.

Hewas sitting woodenly astride the unicorn, lurching back and forthwith the beast's stride. His eyes were staring fixedly straight aheadand his right arm was raised as if in salutation. The light of thefire reflected off his face as if it were glass, and I realized withhorror he was no longer alive, but a statue of some unidentifiedsubstance.

Anyconfidence I might have gained from Aahz's assurances left me in arush. Gullible or not, the Imps played for keeps, and any mistake wemade would in all likelihood be our last.

"Who'sthat?" Aahz asked, interrupting my thoughts.

Irealized I had been dangerously close to showing a betraying sign ofrecognition of the statue.

"Therewill be time for that later, if indeed there is a later," saidHiggens, grimly dropping the unicorn's reins and raising hiscrossbow.

"Yes,"echoed Brockhurst, imitating Higgens's move with his own weapon."First there is a matter of an explanation to be settled.Throckwoddle?"

"Gentlemen,gentlemen," said Aahz soothingly, stepping between me and thecross-bows. "Before you proceed I must insist on introducingmyself properly. If you will but allow me a moment while I remove mydisguise."

Thesight of the two weapons had rattled me so badly I almost missed mycue. Fortunately, I managed to gather my scattered senses and closedmy eyes, shakily executing the change features spell to convert Aahzback to his normal dubious appearance.

I'mnot sure what reaction I had expected from the Imps at thetransformation, but the one I got surpassed any possibleexpectations.

"Bythe Gods below!" gasped Brockhurst.

"APervert!" gasped Higgens.

"That'sPervect!" smiled Aahz, showing all his pointed teeth. "Anddon't ever forget it, friend Imps."

"Yessir!"they chorused in unison.

Theywere both standing in slack-jawed amazement, cross-bows danglingforgotten in their hands. From their terrified reactions, I began tosuspect that despite all his bragging, Aahz had perhaps not told meeverything about his dimension or the reputation of its inhabitants.

Aahzignored their stares and plopped down again at his place by the fire.

"Nowthat that's established, why don't you put away those sillycross-bows and sit down so we can chat like civilized folk. eh?"

Hegestured impatiently and they hastened to comply.

Ialso resumed a sitting position, not wishing to be the only one leftstanding.

"But…what are… why are you here… sir… if you don'tmind my asking?" Brockhurst finally managed to get the wholequestion out.

Howeverincompetent he might be as a demon, he sure knew how to grovel.

"Ah!"smiled Aahz. "Therein lies the story."

Isettled back. This could take a while.

"Iwas summoned across the dimensions barrier by one Garkin, a magicianI have never cared much for. It seems he was expecting some troublefrom a rival and was eager to enlist my aid for the upcoming fracas.Now, as I said before, I had never been fond of Garkin and was notparticularly wild about joining him. He began growing unpleasant inhis insistence to the point that I considered swaying from my normaleasygoing nature to take action against him, when who should appearbut Throckwoddle here who did me the favor of putting a quarrel intothe old slime-stirrer."

Aahzacknowledged me with an airy wave. I tried to look modest.

"Naturallywe fell to chatting afterward, and he mentioned he was in theemployment of one Isstvan and that his action against Garkin had beenpart of an assignment."

"Youanswered questions about an assignment?" Higgens turned to meaghast.

"YesI did," I snarled at him. "Wouldn't you. considering thecircumstances?"

"Oh,yes… of course…." He darted a nervous glance atAahz and lapsed into respectful silence again.

"Anyway,"Aahz continued, "it occurred to me I owed this fellow Isstvan afavor for ridding me of a nagging nuisance, so I suggested Iaccompany Throckwoddle back to his employer that I might offer him myservices, on a limited basis, of course."

"Youcould have waited for us." Brockhurst glowered at me.

"Well…I wanted… you see… I…."

"Iinsisted," Aahz smiled. "You see, my time is quite valuableand I had no desire to waste it waiting around."

"Oh,"said Brockhurst.

Higgenswas not so easily swayed.

"Youcould have left us a message," he muttered.

"Wedid," Aahz replied. "My ring, in full view on the table. Isee you found it."

Hepointed an accusing finger at Brockhurst. I noticed for the firsttime the Imp was wearing Garkin's ring.

"Thisring?" Brockhurst started. "Is it yours? I thought it waspart of Garkin's loot that had been overlooked.

"Yes,it's mine." Aahz bared his teeth. "I'm surprised you didn'trecognize it. But now that we're united, you will, of course, returnit."

"Certainly!"the Imp fumbled in his haste to remove the ring.

"Carefulthere," Aahz cautioned. "You know how to operate it, don'tyou? It can be dangerous in ignorant hands."

"Ofcourse I know how to operate it," Brockhurst replied in aninjured tone. "You press against the ring with the fingers oneither side of it. I saw one like it at the Bazaar on Deva once."

Hetossed the ring to Aahz who caught it neatly and slipped it on hisfinger. Fortunately it fit. I made a mental note to ask Aahz to letme try using the ring sometime, now that we knew how it worked.

"Nowthat I've explained about me, how about answering my question,"Aahz said, leveling a finger at the Quigley statue. "Who isthat?"

"Wearen't sure ourselves," Higgens admitted.

"It'sall quite puzzling, really," Brockhurst added.

"Wouldyou care to elaborate on that?" Aahz prompted.

"Well,it happened about three days back. We were following your trail to…um… with hopes of reuniting our group. Suddenly this warriorgallops out of the brush ahead of us and bars our path. It was as ifhe knew we were coming and was waiting for us. 'Isstvan was right!'he shouts, 'This region does abound with demons!' "

"Isstvan?"I said, doing my best to look puzzled.

"That'swhat he said. It surprised us, too. I mean, here we are working forIsstvan, and were set upon by a man claiming to be sent by the sameemployer. Anyway, then he says, 'Behold the weapon of your doom!' anddraws a sword."

"Whatkind of sword was it?" Aahz asked innocently.

"Nothingspecial. Actually a little substandard from all we could see. Well,it put us in a predicament. We had to defend ourselves, but wereafraid to harm him on the off-chance he really was working forIsstvan."

"Whatdid you do?" I asked.

"Frankly,we said 'to heck with it' and took the easy way out. Higgens herebounced one of his stone balls off the guy's forehead and froze himin place. We've been dragging him along ever since. We figure we'lldump him in Isstvan's lap and let him sort it out."

"Awise solution," commented Aahz.

Theyinclined their heads graciously at the compliment.

"Onequestion I'd like to ask," I interjected. "How were youable to overtake us, encumbered as you were?"

"Well,it was no small problem. We had little hope of overtaking you as itwas, and with our new burden, it appeared it would be impossible,"Brockhurst began.