"Beats me!" my partner shouted back. "I guess none
of the normal citizenry want to tangle with an escaped
murderer. Better get us down fast before they figure out
how badly outnumbered we are."
I didn't have to be told twice. Our escape had just
gotten an unexpected blessing, but I wasn't about to
make book on how long it would last. I cut my magical
support, and we dropped swiftly toward the pavement.
"What was that that blew the whistle on us?" Massha
said, peering up into the darkness where our mysterious
saboteur had disappeared.
"I think it was that Vic character," Guido answered
from below me. "I got a pretty good look at him when
113
114 Robert Asprin
he bolted past me back at the Woof Writers."
"Really?" I asked, half to myself, twisting around to
look after the departed villain. "That's one more we
owe him."
"Later," Aahz commanded, touching down at last.
"Right now we've got to get out of here."
Guido was beside him in a second. I had to drop a
ways, as with the extra weight removed from the rope,
we had ceased to sink.
"C'mon, Massha!" I called. "Cut the power in that
thing. It's not that far to fall."
"I'm trying!" she snapped back, fiddling with the
belt buckle once more. "The flaming thing's malfunc-
tioning again!"
The belt setting had changed. Holding the rope, I
could feel that there was no longer an upward pull.
Unfortunately, Massha wasn't sinking, either. Instead,
she hovered in mid-air about fifteen feet up.
"Hey, Boss! We got company!"
I followed my bodyguard's gaze. There was a mob
forming down the street to our left, and it didn't look
happy. Of course, it was hard to tell for sure, but I had
the definite impression that their eyes were glowing red-
der than normal, which I was unable to convince myself
was a good sign.
"Maasshhhha!" I nagged, my voice rising uncon-
trollably as I tugged on the rope.
"It's jammed!" she whimpered. "Go on, take off,
Hot Stuff. No sense in all of us getting caught."
"We can't just leave you here," I argued.
"We don't have time for a debate," Aahz snarled.
"Guido! Get up there ahead of us and keep the street
open. We can't afford to get cut off. Okay, let's go!"
With that, he snatched the rope out of my hand and
took off running down the street away from the crowd
with Guido out front in point position and Massha
MYTH-ING PERSONS 115
floating over his head like a gaudy balloon. For once, I
didn't object to him giving orders to my bodyguard. I
was too busy sprinting to keep up with the rest of my
group.
If the watching mob was having any trouble deciding
what to do, the sight of us fleeing settled it. With a
howl, they swarmed down the street in pursuit.
When I say "with a howl," I'm not speaking figura-
tively. As they ran, some of the vampires transformed
into large, fierce-looking dogs, others into bats, pre-
sumably to gain more speed in the chase. While Aahz
and I had been chased by mobs before, this was the first
pack of pursuers who literally bayed at our heels. I must
say I didn't care much for the experience.
"Where are we going, Aahz?" I panted.
"Away from them!" he called back.
"I mean, eventually," I pressed. "We're heading the
wrong way to get back to our hideout."
"We can't hole up until we've shaken our fan club,"
my partner insisted. "Now shut up and run."
I had certain doubts about our ability to elude our
pursuers while towing Massha overhead to mark our
position, but I followed Aahz's instructions and
pumped the pavement for all I was worth. For one
thing, if I pointed out this obvious fact to my partner,
he might simply let go of the rope and leave my appren-
tice to fend for herself. Then again, the option to run-
ning was to stand firm and face the mob. All in all,
running seemed like a real good idea.
Guido was surprisingly good at clearing a path for us.
I had never really seen my bodyguard in action, but with
his constant carping and allergy problems throughout
this venture, I was tending to discount his usefulness.
Not so. The vampires we encountered in our flight had
not heard the alarm and were unprepared for the whirl-
wind that burst into their midst. Guido never seemed to
116 Robert Asprin MYTH-ING PERSONS 117
break stride as he barreled into victim after victim, but
whatever he did to them was effective. None of the
fallen bodies which marked his progress attempted to
interfere with Aahz or I ... heck, they didn't even
move.
"River ahead. Boss!" he called over his shoulder.
"What's that?" I puffed, realizing for the first time
how out of shape I had grown during my prosperous
stay at the Bazaar.
"A river!" he repeated. "The street we're on is going
to dead-end into a river in a few blocks. I can see it'from
here. We're going to have to change direction or we'll
get pinned against the water."
I wondered whether it wouldn't be a good idea for us
to just plunge into the river and put some moving water
between us and the vampires, as I seemed to recall a
legend that that was one of the things that could stop
them. Then it occurred to me that my bodyguard prob-
ably couldn't swim.
"Head right!" Aahz shouted. "There! Up that
alley."
Guido darted off on the indicated course with my
partner and I pounding along about fifteen paces
behind him. We had built up a bit of a lead on our pur-
suers, though we could still hear their cries and yelps a
block or so back, and for the first time I started to have
the hope that we might actually elude them. Now that
we were out of their line of sight....
"Lookout. ..."
There was a sudden cry from above, and Massha
came crashing to the ground, gaming the dubious
distinction of being the first person I've ever witnessed
doing a belly-flop on dry land. I'm sure the ground
didn't actually shake, but the impact was enough to
leave that impression. I experienced a quick flash of
guilt, realizing that my first thought was not for the
well-being of my apprentice, but rather unbridled relief
that she hadn't landed on one of us.
"I think the controls just came unstuck," Aahz said,
rather unnecessarily to my thinking.
"Are you all right, Massha?" I said, crouching over
her.
"Wha—ha ..." came the forced reply.
"Of course, she's not all right," Aahz snapped,
assuming translator duties. "At the very least she's got
the wind knocked out of her."
Whatever the exact extent of the damages suffered
from her fall, my apprentice wasn't even trying to rise. I
would have liked to give her a few minutes recovery
time, but already the sounds of our pursuers were draw-
ing closer.
"Can you carry her, Aahz?"
"Not on my best day," my partner admitted, eyeing
Massha's sizable bulk. "How about you? Have you got