“Affendi?”
“Sure. You’re the Affendi, I’m the Offender. It’stradition among Djins. But that’s beside the point. You haven’t answered my question. How did an intelligent lad such as yourself end up in this godforsaken dimension?”
“Do you know Perv? Have you been here before?” I said, my hopes rising for the first time since I opened the bottle.
“No, but I’ve heard of it. Most Djins I know avoid it like the plague.”
So much for getting my hopes up. Still, at least I had Kalvin talking seriously for a change.
“Well, to answer your question, I’m here looking for a friend of mine. He . . . well, you might say he ran away from home, and I want to find him and bring him back. The trouble is, he’s . . . a bit upset at the moment.”
“A bit upset?” The Djin grimaced. “Sahib, he sounds positively suicidal. Nobody in their right mind comes to Perv voluntarily . . . present company excepted, of course. Do you have any idea why he headed this way?”
I shrugged carelessly.
“It’s not that hard to understand. He’s a Pervect, so it’s only natural that when things go wrong, he’d head for. . .”
“A Pervect?”
Kalvin was looking at me as if I’d just grown another head. “You have one of these goons for a friend? And you admit it? And when he leaves you try to get him back?”
Now, I couldn’t speak for any of the other citizens of Perv, but I knew Aahz was no goon. That’s fact, not idle speculation. I knew the difference because I had two goons, Guido and Nunzio, working for me. I was about to point this out when it occurred to me that I wasn’t required to give Kalvin any kind of explanation. I was the owner, and he was my servant.