"C'MON.Gleep," I said.

"Gleep,"my dragon responded, falling in behind me.

Nowthat I was the not-so-proud owner of a permanently immature dragon, Iwas more eager than ever to find Aahz. At the moment, I was alone ina strange dimension, penniless, and now I had a dragon tagging afterme. The only way things could be worse would be if the situationbecame permanent, which could happen if Aahz decided to return toKlah without me.

Theplace previously occupied by the Pervish restaurant tent wasdefinitely empty, even at close examination, so I decided to ask theDeveel running the neighboring booth.

"Um…excuse me, sir."

Idecided I was going to be polite as possible for the duration of mystay on Deva. The last thing I needed was another dispute with aDeveel. It seemed, however, in this situation I needn't have worried.

"Noexcuses are necessary, young sahr." The proprietor smiledeagerly, displaying an impressive number of teeth.

"Youare interested in purchasing a stick?"

'Astick?"

"Ofcourse!" the Deveel gestured grandly around his stall. "Thefinest sticks in all the dimensions."

"Aah…thanks, but we have plenty of sticks in my home dimension."

"Notlike these sticks, young sahr. You are from Klah, are you not?"

"Yes,why?"

"Ican guarantee you, there are no such sticks as these in all of Klah.They come from a dimension only I have access to and I have not soldthem in Klah or to anyone who was going there."

Despitemyself, my curiosity was piqued. I looked again at the sticks liningthe walls of the stall. They looked like ordinary sticks such ascould be found anywhere.

"Whatdo they do?" I asked cautiously.

"Aah!Different ones do different things. Some control animals, otherscontrol plants. A few very rare ones allow you to summon an army ofwarriors from the stones themselves. Some of the most powerfulmagicians of any dimension wield staffs of the same wood as thesesticks, but for most people's purposes the Smaller model willsuffice."

"Gleep!"said the dragon, sniffing at one of the sticks.

"Leaveit alone!" I barked, shoving his head away from the display.

AllI needed was to have my dragon eat up the entire stock of one ofthese super-merchants.

"MayI inquire, is that your dragon, young sahr?"

"Well…sort of."

"Inthat case, you might find a particular use for a stick most magicianswouldn't."

"What'sthat?"

"Youcould use it to beat your dragon."

Gleep!"said the dragon, looking at me with his big blue eyes.

"Actually,I'm not really interested in a stick."

Ithought I'd better get to my original purpose before thisconversation got out of hand.

"Ridiculous,young sahr. Everybody should have a stick."

"Thereason I stopped here in the first place is I wondered if you knewwhat happened to that tent."

"Whattent, young sahr?"

Ihad a vague feeling of having had this conversation before.

"Thetent that was right there next to your stall."

"ThePervish restaurant?" The Deveel's voice was tinged with horror.

"Gleep,"said the dragon.

"Whywould you seek such place, young sahr? You seem well-bred andeducated."

"Ihad a friend who was inside the tent when it vanished."

"Youhave a Pervert for a friend?" His voice had lost its friendlytone.

"Wellactually… urn… it's a long story."

"Ican tell you this much, punk. It didn't disappear, it moved on,"the Deveel snarled, without the accent or politeness he had displayedearlier.

"Movedon?"

"Yeah.It's a new ordinance we passed. AU places serving Pervish food haveto migrate. They cannot be established permanently, or eventemporarily at any point in the Bazaar."

"Why?"I asked.

"Haveyou ever smelled Pervish food? It's enough to make a scavengernauseous. Would you want to man a stall downwind of that for a wholeday? In this heat?"

"Isee what you mean," I admitted.

"Eitherthey moved or the Bazaar did, and we have them outnumbered."

"Butwhat exactly do you mean, move?"

"Thetents! All that's involved is a simple spell or two. Either theyconstantly move at a slow pace, or they stay in one place for a shortperiod and then scuttle off to a new location, but they all move."

"Howdoes anyone find one, then, if they keep moving around?"

"That'seasy, just follow your nose."

Isniffed the air experimentally. Sure enough, the unmistakable odorwas still lingering in the air.

"Gleep!"the dragon had imitated my action and was now rubbing his nose withone paw.

"Well,thank you… for… your…."

Iwas talking to thin air. The Deveel was at the other end of thestall, baring his teeth at another customer. It occurred to me thatthe citizens of Deva were not particularly concerned with socialpleasantries beyond those necessary to transact a sale.

Iset out to follow the smell of the Pervish restaurant with the dragonfaithfully trailing along behind. Despite my growing desire toreunite with Aahz, my pace was considerably slower than that Aahz hadset when we first arrived. I was completely mesmerized by thisstrange Bazaar and wanted to see as much of it as I could.

Uponmore leisurely examination, there did seem to be a vague order to theBazaar. The various stalls and booths were generally grouped by typeof merchandise. This appeared to be more from circumstance than byplan. Apparently, if one Deveel set up a display, say, of invisiblecloaks, in no time at all he had a pack of competitors in residencearound him, each vying to top the other for quality of goods orprices. Most of the confused babble of voices were disputes betweenthe merchants over the location of their respective stalls or thespace occupied by the same.

Thesmell grew stronger as I wandered through an area specializing inexotic and magical jewelry, which I resisted the temptation toexamine more closely. The temptation was even stronger as I traversedan area which featured weaponry. It occurred to me that I might finda weapon here we could use against Isstvan, but the smell of thePervish food was even stronger now, and I steeled myself to finish mysearch. We could look for a weapon after I found Aahz. From theintensity of the stench, I was sure we would find our objective soon.

"C'mon,Gleep," I encouraged.

Thedragon was hanging back now and didn't respond except to speed hispace a bit.

Iexpectantly rounded one last corner and came 10 an abrupt halt. I hadfound the source of the odor.

Iwas looking at the back of a large display of some alien livestock.There was a large pile of some moist green and yellow substance infront of me. As I watched, a young Deveel emerged from the displayholding a shovel filled with the same substance. He glanced at mequizzically as he heaved the load onto the pile and returned to thedisplay.

Adung heap! I had been following the smell of a dung heap!

"Gleep!"said the dragon, looking at me quizzically.

Heseemed to be asking me what we were going to do next. That was a goodquestion.

Istood contemplating my next move. Probably the best chance would beto retrace our steps back to the stick seller and try again.

"Sparea girl a little time, handsome?"

Iwhirled around. A girl was standing there, a girl unlike any I hadever seen before. She was Klahdish in appearance and could havepassed for another of my dimension except for her complexion andhair. Her skin was a marvelous golden-olive hue, and her head wascrowned with a mane of light green hair that shimmered in the sun.She was a little taller than me and incredibly curvaceous, hergenerous figure straining against the confines of her clothes.