“Me?” Aahz asked innocently.
“Even you couldn’t have caused this much havoc without assistance. Now where is it coming from?”
He closed his eyes and turned his face toward the ceiling for a moment.
“Aah!” he suddenly proclaimed. “Here it is.”
There was a squawk from the other end of the mezzanine and Tanda was suddenly lifted into view by unseen hands.
“Higgens!” exclaimed Isstvan, “Another one! Well, well, the day is full of surprises.”
Tanda held her silence as she was floated down to a chair on a level with the others.
“Now let’s see.” Isstvan mumbled to himself. “Have we missed anybody?”
I felt the sudden pressure of invisible forces and realized I was next. I tried desperately to think of a disguise, but the only thing that came to mind was Gleep … so I tried it.
“A dragon!” cried Brockhurst as I floated into view.
“Gleep!” I said, rolling my eyes desperately.
“Oh now that’s too much,” Isstvan pouted. “I want to see who I’m dealing with.”
He gave a vacant wave of his hand, and the disguises disappeared . . . all of them. I was me, Quigley was Quigley, Tanda was Tanda, the Imps were Imps, and the Deveel was a Deveel. Aahz, of course, was Aahz. Apparently a moratorium had been declared on disguises … by a majority of one … Isstvan.
I came drifting down to join the others, but my entrance was generally ignored in the other proceedings.
“Tanda!” Isstvan cried enthusiastically. “Well, well. This is a reunion, isn’t it?”
“Bark at the moon, Isstvan,” Tanda snarled defiantly.
Quigley was looking at everyone else with such speed I thought his head would fall off.