I considered her first gesture again. She appeared to be stabbing herself in the forehead. Something had hit her in the stables? She had killed something in the stables?
I shook my head again. She bared her teeth at me in frustration.
"Innkeep!"
I jumped a foot at the bellow.
Aahz and Quigley had just walked through the door. Whatever Tanda was trying to tell me would just have to wait. Our attack had begun.
"Two flagons of your best wine... and send someone to see to my unicorn."
Aahz was doing all the talking, of course. It had been agreed that he would take the lead in the conversation. Quigley hadn't been too happy about that, but in the end had consented to speaking only when absolutely necessary.
Their entrance had had surprisingly little impact on the assemblage below. In fact, Isstvan was the only one to even look in their direction.
"Come in. Come in, gentlemen," he smiled, spreading his arms wide in welcome. "We've been expecting you!"
"You have?" blurted Quigley, echoing my thoughts.
"Of course, of course. You shouldn't try to fool old Isstvan." He shook a finger at them in mock sternness. "Word was just brought to us by ... oh, I'm sorry. I haven't introduced you to my new purchasing agent yet."
"We've met," came the voice of the hunched figure as he turned to face them.
Frumple!
That's what Tanda had been trying to tell me! The war unicorn, Quigley's unicorn, was down in the stable. For all our speed, Frumple had gotten here ahead of us.
"Who are you?" asked Quigley, peering at the Deveel.
For some reason this seemed to set Isstvan off into peals of laughter from his eyes. "We are going to have such fun this afternoon!"
He gestured absently and the inn door slammed shut. There was a sudden ripple of dull clunks behind me, and I realized the room doors were locking themselves. We were sealed in! All of us.
"I don't believe I've had such a good time since I made love to my week-dead sister."
Isstvan's voice was still jovial, but it struck an icy note of fear within me. I realized that not only was he a powerful magician, he was quite insane.
Chapter Twenty-Four:
"Ya gotta be subtle!"
-M. HAMMER
THERE was a tense, expectant silence as the foursome leaned forward to study their captives. It was as if two songbirds had tried to edge through a crowd of vultures to steal a snack only to find they were the intended meal.
I knelt, watching in frozen horror, fully expecting to witness the immediate demise of my two allies.
"Since Frumple's already announced us," Aahz said smoothly, "I guess there's no need to maintain this disguise."
The confident tone of his voice steadied my shattered nerve. We were in it now, and win or lose we'd just have to keep going.
Quickly, I shut my eyes and removed Aahz's Garkin disguise.
"Aahz!" cried Isstvan in delight. "I should have known it was you."
"He's the one who...." Brockhurst began.
"Do you two know each other?" Frumple asked, ignoring the Imp.
"Know each other?" Isstvan chortled. "We're old enemies. He and a couple other scalawags nearly destroyed me the last time we met."
"Well it's our turn now, right Isstvan?" smiled Higgens, leisurely reaching for his crossbow.
"Now, now!" said Isstvan, picking.the Imp up by his head and shaking him gently. "Mustn't rush things."
"Seems to me," Aahz sneered, "that you're having trouble finding decent allies, Isstvan."
"Oh, Aahz," Isstvan laughed. "Still the sharp tongue,eh?"
"Imps?" Aahz's voice was scornful. "C'mon, Isstvan. Even you can do better than that."
Isstvan sighed and dropped Higgens back in his chair.
"Well, one does what one can. Inflation, you know."
He shook his head sadly, then brightened again.
"Oh you don't know how glad I am to see you, Aahz. I thought I was going to have to wait until we conquered Perv before I got my revenge, and here you just walk in. Now don't you dare pop off before we've settled our score."
"I told you before," Frumple interrupted. "He's lost his powers."
"Powers. Hmph! He never had any powers," Quigley chimed in, baited from his frightened silence at the insult of having been ignored.
"Well, who do we have here?" Isstvan smiled, looking at Quigley for the first time. "Have we met?"
"Say Isstvan," interrupted Aahz. "Mind if I have some of that wine? No reason to be barbaric about this."
"Certainly. Aahz." Isstvan waved him forward. "Help yourself."
It was eerie listening to the conversation: apparently civilized and friendly, it had a cat-and-mouse undercurrent which belied the casual tones.
"Watch him!" Frumple hissed, glaring at Aahz.
"Oh Frumple! You are such a wart," isstvan scolded. "Why you were the one who assured me that he had lost his powers."
"Well, I think he makes sense," Brockhurst grumbled, rising and backing away as Aahz approached the table. "If you don't mind, Isstvan, I'll watch from over here."
He sat on the bottom steps of the flight of stairs heading up to the mezzanine where Tanda and I were hidden. His tone was conversational, but it was clear he was only waiting for Isstvan's signal to loose him on the helpless pair.
"Oh, you Imps are worse than the Deveels!" Isstvan scowled.
"That's a given," Frumple commented dryly.
"Now look, Frumple...." Higgens began angrily.
"As to who this figure is," Frumple pointed to Quigley. ignoring the Imps. "That is Garkin's apprentice. He's the one who's been handling the magik for our Pervert since he lost his powers."
"Really?" asked Isstvan eagerly. "Can you do the cups and balls trick? I love the cups and balls trick."
"I don't understand," mumbled Quigley vacantly, backing away from the assemblage.
Well, if we were ever going to have a diversion, it would have to be now. Closing my eyes, I changed Quigley's features. The obvious choice for his disguise was... me!
"See," said Frumple pointing proudly. "I told you so."
"Throckwoddle!" exclaimed the two Imps simultaneously. "What?" said Frumple narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
I was ready for them. As the exclamations rose, I changed Quigley again. This time, I gave him Throckwoddle features.
"Why, it is Throckwoddle," cried Isstvan. "Oh that's funny."
"Wait a minute!" Brockhurst hissed. "How could you be Throckwoddle when we turned you into a statue before we caught up with Throckwoddle?"
This set Isstvan off into even greater peals of laughter.
"Stop," he called breathless. "Oh stop. Oh! My ribs hurt. Aahz, you've outdone yourself this time."
"It's nothing really," Aahz acknowledged modestly.
"There's something wrong here!" Frumple declared. He plunged a hand deep into his robe, never taking his eyes from Quigley. Almost too late I realized what he was doing. He was going for his crystal, the one that let him detect disguises. As the glittering bauble emerged, I swung into action.
A simple levitation, a small flick with my mind, and the crystal popped out of Frumple's grasp and plopped into the wine jug.
"Framitz!" Frumple swore, starting to fish for his possession.
"Get your hands out of the wine, Frumple!" Aahz chided slapping his wrist. "You'll get your toy when we finish the jug!"
As if to illustrate his point, he hefted the jug and began refilling the flagons around the table.
"Enough of this insanity!" Quigley exploded.
I winced at the use of the word "insanity," but Isstvan didn't seem to mind. He merely leaned forward to watch Quigley.
"I am neither Skeeve nor Throckwoddle," Quigley continued, "I am Quigley, demon hunter extraordinaire! Let any dispute who dare, and man or demon I'll show him who I am!"