posed to mean, a bellhop had materialized at my side . . .
a different one than before.
“Room 242,” the desk clerk declared, handing the bell-
hop my key.
“Yessir. Is this your luggage?”
“Well, yes. It’s …”
Without waiting for me to finish, the bellhop snatched
up my bag and started for the stairs, beckoning me to follow.
I trailed along in his wake. At this point, I had had it with
Pervects and hotels and tips. If this clown thought I was …
“Going to tip him?” Kalvin asked, floating around to
hang in the air in front of me. Fortunately, he was translucent
enough for me to see through him.
I gave him my toothiest smile.
“If that means ‘No’ like I think it does, you’d better
reconsider.”
Whether I needed to hear this or not, I definitely didn’t
want to. I deliberately let my gaze wander to the ceiling
and promptly tripped over a step.
“Remember what Edvik said,” the Djin continued insis-
tently. “You need all the allies you can get. You can’t
afford to get vindictive with this guy.”
Slowly, my irritation began to give way to common sense.
Kalvin was right. If nothing else, I had heard that bellhops
were prime sources of local information, and if being nice
MYTH-NOMERS AND IM-PERVECTIONS 57
to this character would speed my search for Aahz, thereby
shortening my stay on Perv, then it would definitely be
worth at least a decent tip. Taking a deep breath, I caught
the Djin’s eye and gave a curt nod, whereupon he subsided.
It occurred to me it was nice to deal with someone who
would let an argument drop once he’d won it.