my home dimension of Klah after a practical joke gone awry
robbed him of his magikal powers, and how he took me on
as an apprentice after we stymied Isstvan’s plan to take over
the dimensions. I told him about how Aahz had convinced
me to try out for the position of Court Magician for the
kingdom of Possiltum, and how that had led to our confron-
tation with Big Julie’s army as well as introducing me to
the joys of bureaucratic in-fighting. He clucked sympathet-
ically when I told him about how Tananda and I had tried
to steal the trophy from the Big Game as a birthday present
for Aahz. and how we had had to put together a team to
challenge the two existing teams after Tananda got caught.
He was amused by my rendition of how I got stuck mas-
querading as Roderick, the king, and how I got Massha as
an apprentice, though he seemed most interested in the part
about how we broke up the Mob’s efforts to move into the
Bazaar at Deva and ended up working for both sides of the
same brawl. I even told him about our brief sortie into
Limbo when Aahz got framed for murdering a vampire, and
my even briefer career into the arena of professional Dragon
Poker which pitted my friends and me against the Sen-Sen
Ante Kid and the Ax. Finally, I tried to explain how we
expanded our operation into a corporation, ending with how
Aahz had walked out, leaving a note behind stating that,
98
Robert Asprin
without his powers, he felt he was needless baggage to the
group.
The Butterfly listened to it all, and, when I finally ground