Myth Alliances

"W-w-who, dear lady?" he panted. "I d-d-don't know who you're talking about."

Vergetta, in her seat next to Caitlin's computer, groaned. That was all they had managed to get out of him: evasions and bad grammar. Apart from his name, of course, which was Wensley. "That's whom, bubalah. I don't know about whom."

"Shut up," Loorna snarled at her senior. She turned back to the prisoner. "Answer the question!" She grabbed the chattering male by his shirt front and shook him. "Where do they come from? What do they want?"

"They've got some kind of chutzpah, walking right into our place without a by-your-leave," Vergetta declared. "Must be pretty confident, or pretty dumb. I'll take votes either way."

"So?" Loorna demanded, as designated interrogator, "Who are they? Industrial spies? What's your co

"What makes you think this sorry little sheep has anything to do with transdimensional travelers?" Oshleen asked, in a bored voice, filing her nails with a twelve-inch rasp. "Plenty of people know we're here. When we started having to seek out venture capital to try and recoup our losses we had to let them know where we were. Niki's intruders could be industrial spies who are taking advantage of the fact that we are having some unrest to rip us off."

"It could be bill collectors," Tenobia grumbled. "I told you these stupid Wuhses would spend us out of house and home."

"They usually send a notice before showing up," Osh- leen reminded her, "and I've been keeping them placated with small payments. It has to be that wizard."

"It's a coincidence! It's snoops from some other concern on Perv."

'The timing's suspicious," Loorna retorted, dropping her prisoner to confront Oshleen. "I've been around a long time, and I don't believe in coincidences."

"What were they looking for?" Paldine asked. "I've kept my research hush-hush. The dimensions where we're pla

"It's probably this Great Skeeve," Charilor interjected. "He's the one who got us locked up on Scamaroni. Well?" she turned to the Wuhs, who cowered in the corner.

"It's bill collectors," Tenobia insisted. "Who knows what the Wuhses bought in the last week? With the treasury empty there's no money for the Wuhses to steal to pay for their purchases. They're looking for saleable assets or collateral."

Loorna lost her patience. She jumped at Wensley and held him high in the air by his collar.

'Talk!" she shrieked. "Where is that damned D-hopper?"

"I don't care if you torment me, foul green viragoes," Wensley choked out, drawing up his narrow chest as far as he could over his little round belly. "I will not betray my friends."

"Oh, now it sounds like he read a book," Charilor sneered.

Caitlin laughed. "What would you know about reading books, you rave queen?"

"Girls!" Nedira snapped. "He's confessing, and you won't even let him speak."

"I am not confessing," the Wuhs protested, then clamped his plump lips shut. The Pervects looked at each other in disbelief. "A Wuhs with a backbone," Vergetta hooted. "I never believed such a thing existed."

"Threaten to tear his legs off," Caitlin suggested.

"Talk, or I'll tear your legs off!" Loorna shouted.

"Now shake him until his teeth rattle."

Loorna shook her fist, and the Wuhs's limbs flailed like those of a rag doll.

"Wait a minute!" she demanded, looking at the youngest Pervect. "Who's conducting this interrogation? You or me?"

"Oh, you can, if you really want to," Caitlin yawned, leaning back in her chair. "I figured as long as you were going by the book I could just coach you. It saves time."

"Why isn't anyone taking this seriously?" Paldine asked. "Our future is at stake here."

"I am. You're pretty brave for a sheep," Loorna hissed right in Wensley's face, "keeping your mouth shut. Got some Dutch courage from somewhere? I don't smell any alcohol on you."

"I need no alcohol. I know I don't have to tell you anything!"

Loorna gri

TWENTY-TWO

"What does this have to do with assembling the Death Star?"

"Whew!" I whistled, as we emerged in the tidy gardens of Kobol. Zol stood up from the marble bench where he had been waiting for us. "Do you think that Pervect got a good look at us?"

"I think we must assume," Zol replied, "that she did see us as we were, undisguised. And if she did not, there were plenty of witnesses to our tour. I think you must assume that she will have a full description of us very soon. The Wuhses are more adept at self-preservation than they are at maintaining discreet silence."

"You mean they'll save their own skins," Tananda translated.

"More than that: the odd behavior that we all witnessed among a segment of the workers indicates to me that they are engaged upon an enterprise of which even they are unaware. You saw the look of stupefaction on the faces of those males. They all believe that they make handcrafts, but it is clear from the involuntary re-creation of the repet- itive motions they went through that it could be nothing of the sort. Since Wuhses ca

"The situation is worse than I thought—worse than Wensley thought," I stated grimly. "Not only are the Pervects in total control of the country, they're bending the minds of the inhabitants. It's inhumane."

"What do you suppose it is that they're making?" Bu

"Some kind of armaments?" Tananda guessed. "But it's nothing I've seen anywhere, in or out of the Assassins Guild."

"It does rather look like a weapon of some kind," Zol suggested. "How curious. There must be a spell on some part of the process to fool the conscious mind into believing that they are still performing their usual functions."

"That would be why we never found out who was making those glasses," I mused, thoughtfully. "Nobody would remember doing it. Do they plan to take over another dimension?"

"Or to sell to one," Zol suggested. "These are enterprising women, and you will have observed that they did not need arms to take over Wuh or Scamaroni. In one they are already successful, and in the other they would have been, if not for your intervention."

"Next time I'm going to make sure they're captured and stay under lock and key," I asserted, pounding my fist into my palm. "All of them. We have to get back into the castle to figure out where they're going and head them off."

"Oh, we don't need to do that," Zol informed me. "Now that my notebook has been in contact with their computer, we can access their drive remotely." To my puzzled expression he explained, "We can see what they see in their magik mirror."

"I thought you couldn't get through their encoding," Bu