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impossible to detect by normal means. It's interesting. He
    may greet me warmly, then buy me a drink—or I might buy
    him one. All the time he'll know, while I'll just wonder at
    each and every one of them. But, no matter, some slip, some
    slight thing, might be betrayed in such an atmosphere, and we
    must be on the watch for it."
    "We?" both of them echoed.
    "Oh, yes. I certainly want you there as my guests and part
    of my entourage. Poquah will also be there, along with other
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    Chalker, Jack L - Demons of the Dancing Gods
    interested members of the household, but they'll all have been
    there before. You two will be fresh, unknown to other attendees
    and they to you; you might pick up something that familiarity
    misses. If you leave tomorrow, you can make Mohr Jerahl,
    then take the old road through the Firehills and get there in
    plenty of time."
    Joe frowned. "Now, one of you want to tell me what this
    is all about?"
    Marge laughed and turned to the big man. "Poor Joe! I'm
    sorry! I'm going to the home of—well, my people, I guess I
    could say. I want to complete the transformation quickly, just
    get it over with."
    "The way is possibly dangerous, Joe," the sorcerer added,
    "although probably no more than any place else in Husaquahr.
    The perils are more likely thieves and the like than any really
    magical dangers, though there might be some. You must remember
    by experience what sort of things might lurk off every
    trail. Going, Marge will be extremely vulnerable to such dangers,
    which is why I'm asking you to go. Once you get there,
    you'll be in more danger than she, so when you reach the edge
    of Mohr Jerahl you'll have to camp and wait for her. The kind
    of magic the fairy folk have on their own home turf is beyond
    you or most others, Joe, and I don't want to lose you. I'm
    going to need you when the time comes again for sword and
    spear."
    "Well, I don't know..."
    "Trust me, Joe," Ruddygore urged sincerely. "Even I would
    think twice about going in there without all the armaments of
    the magical art, and you have none. The Kauri are particularly
    powerful, which is why, once the transformation is completed,
    you and Marge will make the perfect team. You will complement
    each other almost absolutely, and that will make the two
    of you among the most dangerous pair in all of Husaquahr."
    Joe thought that over. "The most dangerous pair... I kind
    of like that. And I've been bored stiff, anyway."
    "Then go with my blessings and heed my warnings," the
    sorcerer told them. "We will meet again three weeks hence at
    the Imperial Grand Hotel in Sachalin."
    Much to Joe's disgust, the journey was without incident and
    through rolling farm country. They decided to skip the long
    and treacherous trollbridge near Terdiera and made their way
    along the Rossignol and its good trading road to the much
    larger town of Machang, which, being at a particularly sharp
    and inward angle of the river, was a convergence of many
    roads and trade routes and had a bridge there built and run by
    the government.
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    DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS
    JACK L. CHALKER
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    Chalker, Jack L - Demons of the Dancing Gods
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    The Rossignol at this point was barely a hundred yards wide,
    but the channel was still more than ten feet deep, hardly fordable.
    The falls to the east of the town offered too risky and
    slippery a crossing on horseback; beyond that, the river was
    heavily patrolled and the border strongly fenced, as the water
    was shallow enough for anybody to walk across.
    The formalities on the Valisandran side of the border were
    few; a small shack contained an official and a sorry-looking
    soldier who barely seemed interested in checking anybody going
    out. On the other side, though, was the tiny Marquewood town
    ofZabeet, a poor and rundown little place that seemed to subsist
    on cheap tourist trinkets sold to those who, coming along the
    trade routes for one reason or another, wanted to say they'd
    been to Marquewood without