"Sorry to disagree with you," I said, sounding more calm than I felt. "They're my friends, and I am taking them with me. Or you can try and put me down there. But look what I've done to your pet." I gestured toward the squid, which struggled furiously against its bonds. It was tied to various tree limbs.

The deep voice sounded aghast. "What have you done to Baby?'"

"Baby?" I asked. That gigantic thing was a baby? "That wasn't nice of you, son."

A tenor-voiced Old Folk joined him. "I guess he wasn't big enough to handle all of them. I'd better summon Daddy. He'll wind them up good, and this one into the bargain."

"Bring him on! I can take him, too," I vowed.

"And Granddaddy," suggested another one of the hovering flames, a woman with a long, sharp nose.

Uh-oh, I thought. I had just dropped out of their league. I didn't stand a chance against two of them.

"Stand back," I warned, igniting the power in my hands to a ball of red fire, "or I'll burn all of you back to life!"

"Didn't your mother ever show you any manners?" the female asked. She clapped a hand down on my palm. The fire went out. I was out of magik. I backed away. "I think we'll just have to sink you first and send your friends down after you!"

Plants began to wind themselves around my feet. I tugged at them.

"Now, Great-grandmother Clarissa, what are you doing?" Hermalaya was at my shoulder. She had her hands on her hips. The long-nosed female ghost looked at her.

"Hermalaya, honey, is that you?" The blue flames surrounded her.

"Hello, baby," said the tenor-voiced ghost.

"Daddy, what are you doing trying to drown my prime minister?"

"Well, baby girl, he overstepped his bounds by telling you to go away."

Hermalaya glanced back toward Matfany. Her eyes were bright, but she held her head high. "I left willingly.

He was just doing what he thought was right. I'd just appreciate it if you stopped interfering with those folks from out of town? For now, anyhow."

A female ghost with a sweet face came to hover beside the tenor. "Well, if you are all right, sweetheart, that's all that matters. And this is your little friend?"

"Yes, Mama. This is Skeeve the Magnificent."

"It's an honor, your majesty," I said, bowing low.

"Well, aren't you sweet?" the late queen said, beaming with pleasure. "You just go on taking care of my daughter. She's a good girl."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll do my best."

Matfany came up to touch my sleeve. "Sir, I don't want you to think that all of us are ungrateful wretches. You have saved our lives, and I will be forever in your debt. How can I repay you?"

"A life for a life," I said. "Repeal the death sentence on Hermalaya. And while you're at it, maybe you should get out of town for good yourself. She won't need you anymore."

Matfany bowed. "Very well, sir. I am a man of my word. I will depart at once. I will go back to my quarters for my possessions, if you will allow that."

"I don't see why not," I said. I could be magnanimous. Inwardly I was jubilant. Just like that. I had gotten Hermalaya her throne back and gotten rid of her archenemy!

"Now, wait a minute!" Aahz protested, pushing in between us. "You can't do that!"

I turned to him calmly. "I just did."

"I want a ruling from the judge."

"What ruling? Matfany agreed. I saved his life, so he's leaving the country." The prime minister nodded gravely. Aahz goggled.

"If you exile my client, I can't win."

"You can't win anyhow," I said, trying not to gloat and failing. "We beat you six ways from feastday. I just won. My client's got her job back, and yours has just lost his. Besides, we have the moral victory."

"Moral? This is purely a numbers game, pal." Aahz stuck his face in mine.

I didn't back down. I thrust my chin forward.

"Then we'll take it back to Bunny, and ask her," I said. "All right?"

"All right!"

Aahz and Tananda burst into the office not more than three seconds after I did. They had both had a chance to clean up and put on fresh clothes, as I had.

"Aahz, are you all right?" Bunny asked. "We were so worried!"

"I'm fine," he said. "It was sticky, but not insurmountable. You know Pervects. We always come out on top."

"Huh," I said. So he wasn't going to tell her how I rescued him and the others. I was disgusted. I flopped down in a chair and put my head on my hand. Gleep came galloping over to greet me. I scratched his chin. Bunny looked from one of us to the other.

"Where are the clients?"

"I took Hermalaya someplace safe," I said. I didn't want to say any more than that. She had protested when I took her back to Massha's cottage in Possiltum, but I didn't want to take a chance with her well-being, not when we were about to return her triumphantly to Foxe-Swampburg.

Aahz growled. "Matfany is in an undisclosed location until I get a ruling from you on inappropriate behavior from my opponent over there."

Bunny's eyebrows rose sky-high. "Inappropriate behavior from Skeeve? What happened? Didn't he just pull all of you out of a swamp?"

"That's not the point," Aahz said. He leaned over the desk and aimed a finger at me. "He just exiled MY client from his homeland. He can't do that!"

"Why not?" Bunny asked, not at all cowed. "It's fair. Yours did it to his."

Aahz threw up his hands. "But that's a matter of internal politics. Skeeve's an outsider. What about the Prime Directive?"

"What's that?" I asked.

"I'm not here to complete your education anymore." Aahz said sourly. "What about it? Can he do that?"

Bunny turned to me. "How did you exile him?"

"Matfany asked me how he could repay me for saving his life. I told him he could get out of town. It's not my problem what it does to Aahz's mission, is it?"

"Would you have done it if Aahz hadn't been working for him?" Chumley asked. *

"Yes! He deposed a sitting ruler! It's not like she can pull up stakes and go get a job somewhere. She's royalty. She belongs back home."

Aahz snorted. "Big deal. The descendant of someone else who moved in and decided that he was in charge. But does it stand?"

"I don't see why not," Bunny said. "Sounds like he made a fair deal."

"Then the contest's over," I said. "He can't earn any more for his client."

"You're right about that," Bunny agreed. "The contest as we agreed to it is over."

"Then let's see who won?" I pulled the ledger around to look at my total. "Fifteen thousand, six hundred gold coins!

Wow!" With a total like that I had to have won. I was going to be president of M.Y.T.H., Inc. again!

"Lemme see that." Aahz yanked the book away from me. "Fifteen thousand, six hundred ... ? From serving a few lousy little pieces of cake?"

"That's Cake," I corrected him.

"No problem. I have you beaten on numbers."

"You couldn't"

"I could and I do." Aahz turned to the page with his name on it. His face fell. "Fifteen thousand, six hundred." "What?" I asked. "You're tied," Nunzio said.

Aahz gawked at the ledger. "Wait a minute! How could you do that? I put names on almost everything in the country!"

I held up the little clay pot. "We had a Leprechaun." "So neither of you won," Tananda said. "You tied." "We need a tiebreaker," I said.

"Sudden death," Aahz said. I looked blank. He looked disgusted at my ignorance. "One contest, winner take all." "Oh! Okay. I agree."

We turned to Bunny. "What can we do?" I asked.

Bunny looked from me to Aahz and back again with a look of absolute exasperation. I was surprised to see that all the others had the same expression.