"i'm glad you had fun," i was laughing at nenzi; he was talking as fast as he could while helping me carry plates to the dining hall.

when we arrived, teeg was talking with someone on his comp-vid. it was arvil, asking teeg to help him deal with a situation. someone had killed arvil's assistant and things were looking grim on campiaa for the moment. i think my heart stilled momentarily and nenzi stopped talking in midsentence. stellan was planning to take teeg away immediately, and then stay on campiaa in case teeg and arvil needed someone with power. somehow, i got the idea that arvil's four remaining wizards were implicated in all of this. i should have known better, thinking that they'd be too frightened to do anything after delvin and carthin were killed.

"reah, everything will be fine, sweetheart." teeg rose from his seat, as did stellan when teeg finished talking with arvil. both of them disappeared right before my eyes.

"reah, sit down and eat," astralan ordered as soon as his brother had taken teeg away. nenzi gave me a swift look and he and i sat down to eat. the reptanoids and i were stuck on zephili with wilffox and wilffin hardlow, plus three of their four warlocks. i had no idea how that was going to end, which left me frightened and feeling cold.

vice-director, tory and i are on campiaa with arvil san gerxon. teeg, reah's other mate is here too, since those four idiot wizards belonging to arvil killed his assistant and tried to get into arvil's main command-computer. tory got one of them when he tried to come after us; the other three got away. ry was sending mindspeech to lendill after a very busy and stressful afternoon.

where are the other three wizards and where is reah? lendill's voice seemed more concerned than usual.

we think the other three are holed up in one of arvil's casinos down the street-the situation is somewhat grim i believe, since they're holding guests hostage. when teeg gets here, we're supposed to go down there and take care of this. reah is still on zephili with the hardlows and three of their warlocks.

reah is with the hardlows? alone?

yes.

i'll send mindspeech to her. lendill cut off communication with ry.

what did he say, bro? tory was fretting over reah, that's why ry had contacted lendill to begin with. ry and tory both were belting on an assortment of weapons, preparing to go with arvil and his army of guards to do battle with arvil's three remaining wizards.

he said he'd send mindspeech to reah. come on, bro, teeg just got here with stellan. ry led the way out of his and tory's quarters.

"if you'll provide the distraction; none of these can carry themselves away, they don't hold the skills," stellan said to those gathered around the kitchen island in arvil's palace, "then i can get in there and take care of them while they're looking elsewhere."

"they can throw blasts at us," arvil appeared grim and angry. "so we should stay just outside their range while we shoot."

"what about the guests?" ry asked.

"fuck the guests," arvil growled. "they know campiaa is dangerous. they come here anyway."

"let me try to get inside from the roof," teeg suggested. "stellan can get in his way; i'll go through the hatch in the roof. i have a key, after all," teeg pulled an electronic key from his pocket and dangled it in his fingers. "this fits all the emergency exits in arvil's buildings, in case the builders and maintenance workers have to get in. those three only think they have all the keys." teeg's smile was grimly determined. he also patted the ranos pistol he had stuck in his belt. "between stellan and me, i think we can take them out if they're focused on your frontal assault."

"they stole the keys to the emergency exits?" tory was amazed there was enough brain cells between the three wizards to even think of that. of course, the one he'd killed couldn't fathom why his wizardry hadn't worked when tory grabbed him by the throat and tossed him through a plate-glass window from arvil's office on the third floor.

"the stole all the keys except the one teeg holds when they broke into my office," arvil growled. "they also got the codes to all the accounts from my casinos and were about to empty all my funds. i got that stopped before they could get too much out; i have the overriding code, after all. they were hoping i wouldn't discover this treachery until they were far from here. they had a shuttle waiting at the station. it's too bad tory, ry and i got back sooner than they expected from our trip up the mountain. no doubt that little emergency was hatched out by them as well." arvil checked the charge on his ranos pistol before jamming it into his gun belt.

"everybody ready?" teeg asked. they nodded. "let's go," he said and stellan folded them to the casino down the street.

reah? lendill's voice came to me as i was preparing for bed.

vice-director? i know, my mental voice sounded sullen. i wasn't in the best of moods and frightened didn't begin to describe how i felt.

i hear you're there by yourself, with the hardlows and three of their warlocks.

i am. it's such a happy place to be, i returned.

reah, i don't think they'll hurt you, they're still too far into this with arvil san gerxon. i think you'll be safe, breah-mul. don't do anything foolish, but stand up for yourself. these people will exploit any weakness they see. don't show it to them.

i wanted to tell him it was easy for him to say that; he was light-years away and most likely in a safe place at the moment. i had no idea what the hardlows might be like with nobody else around. fine, i sent instead. anything else you want, vice-director?

nothing for now, keep me informed. lendill cut off the communication. i finished brushing my teeth and walked out of my bathroom. farzi and nenzi were already in my bed as lion snakes. their brothers were guarding the door into my suite. i think if anyone had walked in that first night while i was so frightened, they would have bitten first and questioned later, while their victims were dying, of course.

"come out and i may let you live!" arvil shouted from behind a temporary barrier set up in front of the moontide casino.

"you're crazy if you think we'll believe anything you say," one of the wizards shouted back. "we have hostages. we'll let them live if you'll stand back and give us safe passage to the space station."

"no deal," arvil shouted back. "you think i care about any of them?"

true to his word, teeg went through the emergency exit on top of the moontide while arvil shouted at the wizards below. pocketing the electronic key, teeg stealthily made his way through the crawlspace next to the electrical conduits. he knew where all the connections were. if he wanted to plunge the entire casino into darkness, it would only take the flip of a few switches. he was heading swiftly toward the control panel to do exactly that.

stellan folded inside one of the casino restrooms. any remaining security inside the casino had moved the guests toward the back of the building. all the casino's doors were electronically locked, thanks to the keys the rogue wizards held. the windows couldn't be penetrated by the weapons the guards held either-arvil had ordered special glass because he didn't want attacks from rivals to come in that way.

"no casualties if you can prevent it," teeg had instructed stellan. stellan nodded at teeg and went to do his job.

teeg held the knife he'd brought with him-it was the best he could find and quite sharp. he still could hear arvil shouting at the wizards from outside as he crept toward the overturned gaming table the rogue wizards had hidden behind while holding three female hostages. teeg knew arvil didn't give a damn about the hostages, male or female. he would attempt to get them out alive. teeg could see stellan on the other side of the darkened casino-the warlock had taken short folding jumps from place to place, in order to sneak up on their prey. teeg nodded to stellan to stay where he was; he was about to take care of this himself.

"i'm about to start shooting," arvil shouted. "you think those glass windows will hold up against a ranos pistol? do you?" arvil knew they wouldn't, just as the wizards did. their hostages would only survive one direct blast and then they'd be useless. "fuck you, answer me!" arvil screamed.

"stand down!" teeg yelled from inside the casino. "we've got them, they're all dead." to prove his point, teeg walked out of the casino, dragging one of the dead wizards one-handed. the wizard had been nearly decapitated. teeg's clothing bore bloodstains and he carried a bloodied hunting knife in his other hand. stellan followed, dragging the burned and blackened corpses of the other two wizards, dumping them on the decorative flagstones that fronted the moontide. teeg dropped his burden and wiped his brow with a sleeve.

"how is everything inside?" arvil almost hissed the words as he kicked the body teeg dropped at his feet.

"there's a blood trail on the marble, but that should clean up," teeg said. "all the guests are alive. your wizards killed four security guards before the others got out of the way. i've called for medical personnel to come and tend to the hostages."

"how did you manage to do this?" arvil was quite pleased with teeg and stellan's efforts.

"they were too occupied with you, master san gerxon," stellan nodded toward arvil. "that allowed us to sneak up on them. it was easy."

"they were too stupid for words," arvil muttered, aiming another kick at the dead wizard. "well, teeg, this means i need a few more personal guards. we'll put out notices tomorrow. send my apologies to reah, but i'll be keeping tory and ry as my personal guards. tory managed to get one of those fuckers by himself. i like that kind of fearlessness."

"i'll let reah know," teeg nodded. "now, with your permission, i think i'd like to clean up. stellan may want to do the same." teeg nodded toward stellan, who also had bloodstains on his shirt.

"you're right, i would. i'll take us back to arvil's palace." stellan disappeared with teeg, when arvil gave his approval.