The curtain swished open. Head held high, the Court Magician of Possiltum swished into the room, followed by yards and yards of marine blue silk. The bodice was cut low over her bosom, full sleeves encased her arms, opening to a smooth flare at the wrists, and the skirts, flat in the front and full in the back, swirled all around her legs.
"Oh, I say!" Chumley exclaimed, overcome.
"Gorgeous," Eskina declared.
Massha beamed. "Thanks. I feel great. What do you think, Aahz?"
"Very nice," I said, honestly.
The color of the silk went well with her mop of orange hair, and the fabric flowed over her more-than-generous curves like water over smooth rocks. Massha stared into the glass almost in a dream, turning this way and that.
Rimbaldi was beside himself with delight. The Djinni tailor floated around her several feet off the floor, declaiming, "It's you! It's you!"
Bemused, Massha turned to me. "But who am I?"
"What do you mean, who are you?" I asked, puzzled by the expression on her face.
Her pupils had disappeared into her irises. "Who am I?"
"Uh-oh," Eskina groaned. "Massha, look at me."
The tiny female climbed onto a chair so she was face-to-face with the puzzled magician. She took Massha's face between her hands. Massha tried to bat her away, but she kept staring blankly at her own reflection.
"She's been issued," Eskina explained. "Somewhere in this Mall they're using up her essence. Probably pretty fast. Rattila must have his shapechangers shopping everywhere, and likely for very expensive items."
"Rot!" Chumley declared. "How could they have gotten to her? We have been near her every minute."
"I do not know," the Ratislavan spat. "But they have."
"How come we haven't heard from any of the people she's been ripping off, then?" I demanded. "She's a store owner now. They'd probably have shown up by now wanting to cosponsor advertising throughout The Mall."
"That is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about," Rimbaldi replied, popping back with his arms full of brightly colored clothes. "Madama, she shops here every day. I thought perhaps I could say that Massha's other secret is that she loves The Volcano! Alas for the beautiful store." He kissed his hand to her. "And such a good customer. She always pays cash, every moment. That is why we are making this gift to her."
We all looked at each other. I shook my head.
'The sneaky bastard. He's been keeping the Massha impostors off the radar by having them buy things legitimately."
At that moment I hated Rattila more than I'd ever hated a living being, but I had to give him credit, so to speak.
"Rattila would love to get his hands on someone like her," Eskina agreed. "He wants her power. With it he might actually make it to full magician status. We've got to stop him very, very soon."
"How?" Chumley asked, wrinkling his brow.
I smacked one fist into the other palm. "We're going to have to put out an APB on her. Rimbaldi, you've got a communications spell to the guards?"
"Yes, of course I do," Rimbaldi averred, glad to have something to do at last. "I can also alert the shopkeepers to prevent her—however many of her there are—from making any more purchases."
"Better than that," I began, with a raised hand, as a thought struck me, "if anyone's masquerading as her, tell the shopkeepers to hold them, keep them busy, or just sit on them until we get there."
Rimbaldi pulled out his little globe to inform his many relatives of the new development.
Before Rimbaldi had finished speaking, Parvattani and a quintet of guards appeared in the store and surrounded us.
"This is-a terrible!" he announced. "I have just heard the news. All eyes are watching out for Madama Massha."
I gave him the rundown that Rimbaldi had just given me, of Rattila's latest dodge. "It's clever," I admitted. "We've been concentrating on fraudulent purchases to gather energy. He kept it on the up and up, and no one paid attention."
"He is a true adversary," Parvattani stated, shaking his head. "Madama Eskina, if I have denigrated your efforts in the past, I apologize with all my heart."
In spite of her worry, Eskina was touched by the handsome apology.
"I understand your skepticism. The important thing now is to save Massha as well as the friend Skeeve."
"I obey," Parvattani acknowledged.
He brought out his own crystal globe. Tiny images of uniformed guards deep inside it turned to look out at him.
"Now hear this, now hear this," he intoned into it. "Be on the lookout for this Jahk, name of Massha." He held the orb up to her face, and her image appeared inside it. "If found, apprehend. The suspect will be using magik. Approach with caution. I repeat, approach with caution."
He nodded to me, then shook the globe. Particles flew within, then re-formed as the faces of Djinns, Deveels, mermaids, and countless other species.
"This is Captain Parvattani. Fraud alert. Do not allow this female Jahk to make a purchase in your establ—" His voice was cut off suddenly. He clutched his throat.
I spun. Massha, her eyes fixed on nothing, was squeezing an invisible object between her hands. I marched up to her.
"Stop that!" I bellowed. Startled, her hands flew open. Her eyes changed.
"What's the problem, Green Stuff?" she asked, pursing her big lips in a grin.
"Nothing, Massha," I assured her. I looked back over my shoulder at Par. "Go on. Hurry up."
"Right, sir—Repeat, do not allow this female to make a purchase in your establishment. Notify a guard as soon as you can, preferably before she exits the store. That is all." He shook the globe once more and put it back in his pocket. "That was me in there," Massha whispered, aghast, pointing at the little sphere in Par's hands. "Why?"
"They've got your facts," I stated bluntly. "You fell into a trance for a minute."
She fumbled for her magik detector. The red jewel was glowing.
"How'd they get through my defenses?"
"You must have let them," Eskina explained. "Think! Did you talk to anyone? Give anyone personal details?"
"Beyond shooting the usual bull at the inns, no," Massha mused. "No, wait! I answered a couple of questions the clerk asked me when I bought that bracelet, the one I gave away."
She held up one thick wrist. I remembered the blue stone-encrusted bangle.
"You took a consumer survey?" Eskina demanded, horrified.
"I was just chatting with the clerk—who was a shapechanger. Right." Massha's broad face turned scarlet. "That's it," she stated. "When I get home I'm quitting my job. I am not fit to be a court magician, or any other kind of magician. I knew we were under attack from every direction, and what do I do? I walk right into the enemy's hands. Me and my big mouth."
"Stop that!" I ordered. "You can hold a pity party when you get home, but in the meantime, if you haven't noticed, we have a job to do. Skeeve's still in danger!"
Massha was so embarrassed that she wanted to turn down the gown Rimbaldi had had made for her. I insisted that he wrap it up and hold on to it for her, along with all our other gifts.
"We don't need the excess baggage right now," I reminded them both. "We need an intervention. Can you direct us to the nearest witch doctor?" "It's a case of possession," the female Flibberite explained, taking the tubes of her diagnostic device out of her double-pointed ears, "but the manifestation is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's more like repossession, where someone's taken you over like a thing."