Triplet

And without even pausing to regain her balance, she turned and sprinted all-out for the door.

She almost made it. She actually had a hand on the knob when the demon finally recovered and again dove in front of her. She pushed hard against him, trying to force her way past—

And without warning, a scream of rage split the air.

With a gasp, Danae fell back, her whole body tingling with the afterclap of that scream. Slowly, the tingling faded, and as it did so, she suddenly noticed that her entire left side was numb. A stroke!

was her first, awful fear... but a second later she realized the symptoms weren't quite right for that.

More likely, it was an effect of her close encounter with the demon.

The demon. He was still hovering in front of the door when she turned her attention back to him. For a moment they stared at each other... and then, abruptly, there was a second green shape in the room.

"So one paltry human is too much for one demon to handle—is that it?" she commented sarcastically, the words from her half numb mouth coming out oddly slurred. "Good idea—send for help. Not that it'll do you any good; I'm still going to get out of here."

Neither demon replied. Swallowing hard, Danae turned awkwardly back to the window, noting without surprise that the demon had closed it. Well, you got what you wanted, she reminded herself.

They've doubled the guard on you. Let's just hope that this whole crazy idea actually works.

And hope, too, that the numbness in her left side was only temporary. Listening to her heart pounding in her ears, she gazed out the window and waited.

Chapter 24

The dazzler usually situated in one of the conversation area's back corners was absent when Melentha and Ravagin arrived downstairs. The fireplate, too, was empty, leaving the room completely dark except for the faint light coming from outside through the uncurtained floor-toceiling windows. The effect was almost certainly intended to be u

Ravagin did so. "You have something against light?"

"Does the darkness bother you?" she countered.

"Not really," he said, looking around. Somewhere along the way, he noted with mild surprise, they'd lost all but one of their demon escorts. The rest had probably been released to other duties, he knew, and could be called back at a moment's notice. Still, their absence gave him a badly needed psychological lift. An error on Melentha's part. "I just thought you might worry about me slipping out in the dark," he added.

Melentha snorted. "Demons don't see things the way humans do."

"And since you have a set of demon eyes to see through, you're all set. Right?"

"Something like that." She leaned forward slightly. "Now. What exactly are we going to do with you?"

"It's certainly going to be a problem for you," Ravagin agreed. "Danae and I disappear here, and the minute we show up overdue you'll have people crawling all over Karyx looking for us. If I were you, I'd turn us loose and hope that no one will pay any serious attention to us."

Even in the dimness he could see the mockery in her smile. "Oh, certainly. I'd prefer something that requires a little less trust, if you don't mind."

He shrugged. "Well, you could always try turning us into demon-possessed zombies like you are."

Her eyes flashed and she half stood up before sinking back into her cushion. "Nice try, but you won't bait me that easily," she said coldly. "I also happen to know that you can't take even a symbiont spirit through the telefold, but nice try there, too. You have any other suggestions?"

"Not really," he admitted. "If you had the equipment and the skill you could easily play brain games with us—set up a psychological fence or maybe dub in selective amnesia; that sort of thing."

"And if the effects don't last past the telefold?"

"Then you're out of luck." And they probably wouldn't, he knew. Like the spirits themselves, spirit effects usually disappeared once the person reached Shamsheer. "I don't suppose you've bothered to study the local pharmacology for anything that might work that way."

"Pharmacology?" she snorted. "There isn't any pharmacology on Karyx. Nobody here has even the slightest idea of how the physical universe is put together."

And of course you who should have known better didn't bother to do any such studies yourself. She was right, of course: anything physics or chemistry could do, spirithandling could do faster and easier. Clearly, Melentha had slipped into that philosophy... and it was now costing her. "Well, in that case I guess we're back to letting us go and hoping for the best. Aren't we."

"Or else we're back to killing you both and hoping for the best," Melentha retorted. "I still haven't decided which would be the riskier—"

She broke off as a patch of green haze abruptly shot in through one of the windows and entered her.

"... what?" she whispered. "Damn... yes, of course let him in."

The green patch reappeared and went back outside. "Trouble?" Ravagin asked.

Melentha eyed him, what little he could see of her face looking very inhuman. "... no, he'd better stay. The other may know he's here, and if so it'll look suspicious if I didn't wake him up... oh, he certainly will behave. Or else."

Ravagin cleared his throat. "You know, talking to yourself is a bad habit to get into—"

"Shut up," she cut him off. "We've got company. I'm going to have to let you stay here; and you will behave yourself as the situation requires. Or Danae will pay heavily."

"I understand," Ravagin nodded, fighting against a sudden surge of adrenaline. Here it was: the chance he'd hoped for but hadn't really expected to get. An unpla

Melentha took a deep breath and made a placement gesture toward the fireplate. "Sa-trahist rassh!" she commanded, and a firebrat burst into existence, flooding the room with a flickering glow.

Ravagin squinted against the sudden light... and when he could see again, he almost gasped at the change that had taken place in Melentha. The cold hardness was gone, replaced by a softer, more human, demeanor.

It was the Melentha he'd once known, and for a second he wondered if the demon had pulled out completely in order to avoid their visitor. "Melentha—?"

"Shut up," she said calmly. "I'm still in charge here, and you're still covered." She nodded toward the fireplate... and Ravagin saw that, almost hidden in the glare of the firebrat, the green form of his guard demon was lurking there.

Which meant it wasn't just the demon who was ru

Across the room a door swung open and a travel-stained man strode in... and Ravagin felt his jaw drop. He'd expected it would be some local person— "Nordis!" he blurted.

"Yeah, hi, Ravagin," the other said with a tired nod. "Glad you're still here—I'm going to need your help. Hi, Melentha," he added, turning to her. "You're both really go

"Calm down and tell us what's wrong," Melentha said coolly. "Where are your clients, still outside?"

"Yeah, in a way." Nordis's lip twisted into a grimace. "I—ah—appear to have misplaced him."

"You what?" Melentha frowned. "What do you mean, misplaced him?"

"Just what I said. One minute we were in Besak, watching the booths closing down for the night, and the next minute he was gone. I don't know whether he made a wrong turn in the excitement and got lost or whether someone took advantage of all the crowds and kidnapped him, but somehow he just vanished."