the appearance of a chauffeur must have been placed around the cab! The

moment

he had left it, everyone saw him exactly as he really was.

"Ah, never mind," he said, backing away. "I wasn't really thirsty, anyway."

He turned and plunged into the garden shrubbery. Damn it all, he thought,

that-wizard might've told me it only worked while I was in the bloody cab!

Then

he heard a moan coming from close by. He stepped out of the bushes onto a

garden

path and saw a man dressed in neo-medieval costume sitting doubled over on a

stone bench.

"Here, are you all right?" said Liam.

The man turned an unfocused gaze up to him and moaned. His eyes and his

breath

told the complete story.

"Too much to drink, eh?" Liam said. "Some fellas just can't hold it."

As if in agreement, the drunk moaned again, then pitched forward off the

bench

and onto his face. Liam prodded him gently with his toe. There was no

response.

Liam turned him over on his back. The drunk had passed out.

"Well, I guess you've had your partyin' for this night," Liam said. "Too bad.

Looks like things are just warmin' up in there." He glanced back toward the

castle, then looked down at the unconscious man, who was just about his size.

"An' I'll bet they serve a good drink too," he said thoughtfully.

He glanced down at the unconscious drunk again. "Ah, well, my dear ol' Dad

always told me, 'Liam, never waste an opportunity to advance yourself. An' if

this here isn't an opportunity starin' me straight in the face, I just don't

know what is."

He bent down and started to remove the drunken man's clothes.

Royce had never seen anything like it. The corridor they passed through

opened

out into an underground chamber designed to resemble a small cavern. The

floor

was gleaming black veined marble, but the ceiling looked like the rock roof of

a

cave, complete with small stalactites hanging down. There was a carved stone

dais at the back, flanked by huge stone idols that looked like ancient

Egyptian

deities, human figures with the heads of beasts. In the center of the floor

was

a round, gold-inlaid circle with a golden pentagram inside it. Placed around

the

perimeter of the circular room were Roman-style couches and floor cushions.

Bronze braziers stood evenly interspersed around the room, with two large

ones

on either side of the stone dais. Behind the dais, carved in relief on the

wall