mouse, his relatives would come string me up. I’ll stick to
small lizards and snakishes. Listen,” he continued more
softly, “it’s hard working for this wizard. I need a lil’
lubrication now and then.”
“You get any more lubricated,” Jon-Tom observed
distastefully, “and your brains are going to slide out your
ass.”
“Nonshensh. I am in complete control of myself.” He
turned back toward the bench, staggered over to the edge,
and commenced a minute inspection of the surface with
eyes that should have been capable of spotting an ant from
a hundred yards away. At the moment, however, those
huge orbs were operating at less than maximum efficiency.
Jon-Tom shook his head in disgust and returned to the
wizard’s bedside.
THE DAY OF THK DISSONANCE 7
“Well,” asked Clothahump meaningfully, “what is your
opinion of my new famulus?”
“I think I see what you’re driving at. I didn’t notice any
of the qualities you said he possesses. I’m pretty sure he
was drunk.”
“Really?” said Clothahump dryly. “What a profound
observation. We’ll make a perceptive spellsinger out of
you yet. He is like that too much of the time, my boy. I am
blessed with a potentially brilliant famulus, a first-rate,
worthy assistant. Sadly, Sorbl is also a lush. Do you know
that I have to make him take a cart into town to buy
supplies because every time he tries to fly in he ends up by
running head-first into a tree and the local farmers have to
haul him back to me in a wagon? Do you have any idea
how embarrassing that is for the world’s greatest wizard?”