Iwas pleasantly surprised at the success of my companion's maneuver,but Aahz was never one to leave well enough alone.

"Well?"he demanded, advancing on them. "I'm waiting for anexplanation."

Fora moment the crowd gave ground before his approach. Then an angryvoice rang out from somewhere in the back.

"Wewant to know about our money!"

Thatopened the door.

"Yeah!What about our money?!"

Thecry was taken up by several other voices, and the crowd began togrowl and move forward again.

Aahzstood his ground and held up a hand commanding silence.

"Whatabout your money?" he demanded haughtily.

"Oh,no, you don't," came a particularly menacing voice. "Youaren't going to talk your way out of it this time!"

Amassive bald man brandishing a butcher's cleaver shouldered his waythrough the crowd to confront Aahz.

"Mygood man," Aahz sniffed. "If you're implying…."

"I'mimplying nothing!" The man growled. "I'm saying it flatout. You and that trollop of yours are crooks!"

"Now,aren't you being just a bit hasty in…."

"Hasty!"the man bellowed. "Hasty! Mister, we've already been too patientwith you. We should have run you out of town when you first showed upwith your phoney anti-demon charms. That's right, I said phoney! Someof us knew it from the start. Anyone with a little education knowsthere's no such things as demons."

Fora moment I was tempted to let Aahz's disguise drop. Then I looked atthe crowd again and decided against it. It wasn't a group to jokewith.

"Now,some folks bought the charms because they were gullible, some as agag, some of us because… well, because everyone else wasbuying them. But we all bought them, just like we bought your storythat they had to be individually made and you needed the money inadvance."

"Thatwas all explained at the time," Aahz protested.

"Sureit was. You're great at explanations. You explained it just like youexplained away those two times we caught you trying to leave town."

"Well…we… uh," Aahz began.

"Actually,"I interrupted, "we were only…."

"Well,we've had enough of your explanations. That's what we told you threedays ago when we gave you two days to either come up with the charmsor give us our money back."

"Butthese things take time…."

"You'veused up that excuse. Your time was up yesterday. Now do we get ourmoney, or…."

"Certainly,certainly," Aahz raised his hands soothingly.

"Justgive me a moment to speak with my colleague."

Hesmiled at the crowd as he took me by the arm and drew me away.

"Whatare we going to do, Aahz?"

"Nowwe run," he said calmly.

"Huh?"I asked intelligently.

Iwas talking to thin air. Aahz was already legging it speedily downthe street.

Imay be slow at times, but I'm not that slow. In a flash I was hot onhis heels.

Unfortunately,the crowd figured out what Aahz was up to about the same time I did.With a howl they were after us.

Surprisingly,I overtook Aahz. Either he was holding back so I could catch up, or Iwas more scared than I thought, which is impossible.

"Nowwhat?" I panted.

"Shutup and keep running, kid," Aahz barked, ducking around a knot ofpeople.

"They'regaining on us," I pointed out.

Actually,the group we had just passed had joined the pursuit, but it had thesame effect as if the crowd was gaining.

"Willyou knock it off and help me look?" Aahz growled.

"Sure.What are we looking for?"

"Acouple dressed roughly like us," he replied.

"Whatdo we do if we see them?"

"Simple,"Aahz replied. "We plow into them full tilt, you swap ourfeatures for theirs, and we let the mob tear them apart."

"Thatdoesn't sound right somehow," I said doubtfully.

"Kid,remember what I told you about situational ethics?"

"Yeah."

"Well,this is one of those situations."

Iwas convinced, though not so much by Aahz's logic as by the rock thatnarrowly missed my head. I don't know how the crowd managed to keepits speed and still pick up things to throw, but it did.

Ibegan watching for a couple dressed like us. It's harder than itsounds when you're at a dead run with a mob at your heels.

Unfortunately,there was no one in sight who came close to fitting the bill.Whomever it was we were impersonating seemed to be fairly unique intheir dress.

"Iwish I had a weapon with me," Aahz complained.

"We'vealready gone through that," I called back. "And besides,what would you do if you had one? The only thing we've got that mightstop them is the fire ring."

"Hey!I'd forgotten about that," Aahz gasped. "I've still got iton."

"Sowhat?" I asked. "We can't use it."

"Oh,yeah? Why not?"

"Becausethen they'd know we're magicians."

"Thatwon't make any difference if they're dead."

Situationalethics or not, my stomach turned at the thought of killing that manypeople.

"Wait,Aahz! "I shouted.

"Watchthis, kid." He grinned and pointed his hand at them.

Nothinghappened.

"C'MON,Aahz!" I shouted desperately, overturning a fruit stand in thepath of the crowd.

Nowthat it seemed my fellow-humans were safe from Aahz, my concernreturned to making sure he was safe from them.

"Idon't believe it!" Aahz shouted, as he darted past.

"What?"I called, sprinting after him.

"Inone day I believed both a Deveel and an Imp. Tell you what, kid. Ifwe get out of this, I give you my permission to kick me hard. Rightin the rump, twice."

"It'sa deal! "I panted.

Thisrunning was starting to tax my stamina. Unfortunately, the crowddidn't seem tired at all. That was enough to keep me running.

"Look,kid!" Aahz was pointing excitedly. "We're saved."

Ifollowed his finger. A uniformed patrol was marching… well,sauntering down the street ahead of us. "It's about time,"I grumbled, but I was relieved nonetheless.

Thecrowd saw the soldiers, too. Their cries increased in volume as theyredoubled their efforts to reach us.

"C'mon,kid! Step on it!" Aahz called. "We're not safe yet."

"Stepon what?" I asked, passing him.

Ourapproach to the patrol was noisy enough that by the time we gotthere, the soldiers had all stopped moving and were watching thechase. One of them, a bit less unkempt than the others, hadshouldered his way to the front of the group and stood sneering at uswith folded arms. From his manners, I guessed he was an officer.There was no other explanation for the others allowing him to act theway he was.

Iskidded to a stop in front of him.

"We'rebeing chased!" I panted.

"Really?"he smiled.

"Letme handle this, kid," Aahz mumbled, brushing me aside. "Areyou the officer in charge, sir?"

"I am," the man replied.

"Well,it seems that these… citizens," he pointed disdainfullyat our pursuers, "intend us bodily harm. A blatant disregard foryour authority… sir!"

Themob was some ten feet distant and stood glaring alternately at us andthe soldiers. I was gratified to observe that at least some of themwere breathing hard.

"Isuppose you're right," the officer yawned. "We should takea hand in this."

"Watchthis, kid," Aahz whispered, nudging me in the ribs as theofficer stepped forward to address the crowd.

"Allright. You all know it is against the law for citizens to inflictinjuries on each other," he began.

Thecrowd began to grumble darkly, but the officer waved them intosilence as he continued.

"Iknow, I know. We don't like it either. If it were up to us we'd letyou settle your own differences and spend our time drinking. But it'snot up to us. We have to follow the laws the same way you do, and thelaws say only the military can judge and punish the citizenry."