peppers, and grated cheese. Just looking at it made Wyrdrune's stomach churn.

"I saw that," Kira said, gesturing toward the imprisoned mime, who was

growing

more frantic by the minute. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Wyrdrune's lower lip dropped down in a sneer. "I hate mimes."

Among the crowd gathered to watch the mime was a skinny old man walking a

land

squid on a leash. The land squid was reaching out with its tentacles and

deftly

lifting wallets out of people's pockets, then handing them to the skinny old

man, who dropped them in his purse. Over by the arch, a group 'of young black

kids were street-dancing , with a rapper box. As it danced and spun around on

its chunky little legs, the box was improvising a fast-paced rap to the beat

booming from its speakers. One of the kids slipped a whooshboard underneath

the

box, and it took off on a wild, gyroscoping course, finally smacking into the

side of the arch, where it fell off the board and lay on its side, going,

"Uh-huh, Uh-huh! Uh-huh, Uh-huh!" Wyrdrune wondered if Merlin had ever

thought

that it would come to this when he'd brought back magic to the world.

Kira took the hot dog and bit into it with gusto. A great glob of condiment

slop

dripped down onto the sidewalk. "Mmm," she said.

Wyrdrune shook his head. "It beats me how you stay in such terrific shape

eating

that garbage," he said.

She turned to the hot-dog vendor. "Man's got no taste," she said.

"This from a woman who uses twelve-year-old Scotch to wash down nachos,"

Wyrdrune said.

Kira shrugged. "There wasn't any beer." She held her hand out for her change.

The hot-dog vendor froze, staring wide-eyed at the gleaming sapphire embedded

in

the palm of her right hand.

"Whatsa matter, you never seen jewelry before?" she said. She snapped her

fingers twice. "Come on, sometime today, all right?"

The vendor counted out her change, then did a double take as she suddenly

vanished into thin air. Wyrdrune had disappeared as well.

"Magic users," the vendor mumbled uneasily. He quickly made a warding gesture

with the forefingers and little fingers of both hands extended, crossing his

arms right over left, then left over right, then he quickly opened up his

cart

and checked his cash to make sure it was still there.

Wyrdrune reappeared in his railroad flat on East 4th Street with a pop of

displaced air. He took off his coat and slouch hat and threw them down on the

couch. He was wearing loose-fitting, multipocketed brown trousers, a light

brown

warlock's cassock, and high-topped red leather athletic shoes with blue