There would've been nothing left of you but a few bloody clumps of fur. Everybody knows you're a

tough guy, Gomez, but nobody'sthat tough."

There would've been nothing left of you but a few bloody clumps of fur. Everybody knows you're a

tough guy, Gomez, but nobody'sthat tough."

"Hey, come on. Don't blame yourself. You tried. We all did."

"Yeah, but we've been going about this thing all wrong," I told him. "And I should've realized that right

from the start, only I didn't and two people wound up getting killed for my mistake."

"What mistake?" asked Blaize, cocking his head at me.

"I put out the word to all our friends to watch the streets," I said. "Only I stupidly never realized that it

wouldn't do any good at all. As soon as the cavalry showed up, the killer simply disappeared.Poof ,

gone, like a puff of smoke. How the hell do you follow that?"

"You don't, I guess," said Blaize. "But how were you supposed to know that the killer would disappear

like that?"

"I'm a sorcerer's familiar," I replied, feeling like a fool. "An advanced adept can teleport. And a

necromancer capable of conjuring up a demon can just as easily allow the spell to dissipate and then

we're left with nothing. Not even a cold trail. Nothing. Just a whisper on the wind. And bodies in the

street."

"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Blaize.

"What we should have done in the first place," I replied. "What wewould have done, if my brain had

been working like it's supposed to. Pass the word. We all meet tomorrow, in the plaza. In front of the

obelisk, at sunset."

"You've got a plan?" asked Blaize.

"Yeah, I've got a plan. Let's just hope it works. Because if it doesn't, I'm fresh out of ideas."

"There 'as to be an easier way of doing this," said Billy plaintively. "Ole Merlin may know 'ow to ride all

right, but it's me bum what's gettin' sore."

"Stop complaining, you young whelp," Merlin replied, and instantly, Billy's entire manner and posture

changed. The tired expression left his face and he sat up straighter on the unicorn's back, instead of

slumping over like he was before. In an instant he went from looking like a small boy out for his first pony

ride to someone who rode as if he'd been born on horseback. "Small wonder you're getting sore, sitting

the way you are. Egad, you ride like a sack of turnips!"

"If you two would stop arguing and start concentrating on what we're supposed to be doing, maybe

we'd get somewhere," said Wyrdrune, his voice sounding weary. "I'm not exactly a cowboy myself, you

know. My body isn't used to this, either."

"You're both doing fine," said Champion, the unicorn Billy was riding. "Just relax, Billy, and let Merlin do

the riding. He knows what he's doing."