“Wait a minute. The Butterfly?”
“That’s what he calls himself. It’s even on his business cards. Anyway, if he hadn’t come in on the bid, you’d be spending a couple chapters talking to some guy’s winsome but sexy wife instead of . . .”
At that point I was listening with only half an ear as Edvik prattled on. A financier named Butterfly who backs cabbies’ bids at auctions. I didn’t have to look at Kalvin to tell the Djin was rolling his eyes in an anguished “I told you so.” Still, the more I thought about it, the more hopeful I became. This Butterfly just might be offbeat enough to know something about Aahz. I figured it was at least worth a try.
Strange as it may sound, I was as nervous about meeting the Butterfly as Edvik claimed to be about dealing with magicians. Magicians I had been dealing with for several years and knew what to expect . . . or if my experiences were an accurate sample, what not to expect. Financiers, on the other hand, were a whole different kettle of fish. I had no idea what I was getting into or how to act. I tried to reassure myself by remembering that this particular financier had dealt with Edvik in the past, and so could not be too stuffy. Still, I found myself straightening my disguise spell nervously as the cabbie called up to the Butterfly from the lobby. I was still traveling as a Klahd, but had used my disguise spell to upgrade my wardrobe a bit so that I at least looked like I was comfortable in monied circles. I needn’t have worried.
The Butterfly did not live up to any of my preconceived notions or fears about what a financier was like. First of all, instead of an imposing office lined with shelves full of leatherbound books and incomprehensible charts, it seemed he worked out of his apartment, which proved to be smaller than my own office, though much more tastefully furnished, Secondly, he was dressed quite casually in a pair of slacks and a pastel-colored sweater, that actually made me feel uncomfortably overdressed in my disguise-spell generated suit. Fortunately, his manner itself was warm and friendly enough to put me at my ease almost immediately. “Pleased to meet you . . . Skeeve, isn’t it?” he said, extending a hand for a handshake.
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