He paused to take another gulp of wine. Surprisingly, I felt no urge to interrupt with questions.
“Technology in different dimensions has progressed at different rates, as has magik. Some magicians use this to their own advantage. They aren’t showmen, they’re smugglers, buying and selling technology across the barriers for profit and power. Most of the inventors in any dimension are actually closet magicians.”
I must have frowned without realizing it, but Aahz noted it and acknowledged it with a wink and a smirk.
“I know what you’re thinking, Skeeve. It all sounds a little dishonest and unscrupulous. Actually, they’re a fairly ethical bunch. There’s a set of unwritten rules called the Smugglers Code they adhere to pretty closely.”
“Smugglers Code?” I asked, forgetting myself for a moment. Aahz didn’t seem to mind this time.
“It’s like the Mercenaries Code, but less violent and more profitable. Anyway, as an example, one item in that code states you cannot bring an ‘invention’ into a dimension that is too far in advance of that dimension’s technology, like bringing guided missiles into a longbow culture or lasers into a flint and powder era.”
I kept my silence with great difficulty.
“As I’ve said, most magicians adhere to the code fairly closely, but once in a while a bad one crops up. That brings us to Isstvan.”
I got a sudden chill at the sound of that name. Maybe there was something different in the way Aahz pronounced it.
“Some say Isstvan isn’t playing with a full deck. I think he’s been playing with his wand too much. But whatever the reason, somewhere he’s gotten it into his head he wants to rule the dimensions, all of them. He’s tried it before, but we got wind of it in time and a bunch of us teamed up to teach him a lesson in manners. As a matter of fact, that’s when I first met Garkin there.”