"You've forgotten your hat," Tananda shouted after her, waving a straw round-crowned chapeau pierced twice in the crown to allow the Imp's horns to protrude through. The Imp did not turn back, but undulated faster up the way, becoming lost in the crowd. Tananda, annoyed, spun and bent an annoyed eye upon the two remaining visitors. Thanks. You've just lost us our profit for the afternoon. A few days like this and you'll put us out of business."

"Oh, we would never do a thing like that on purpose," the elderly Pervect said, grinning so that her yellow teeth looked like a chestful of knives. "They must all have misunderstood. We want you to stay in business. Don't we, Charilor?"

The other Pervect, shorter and stockier, resembling a female Aahz, smiled, her own dentition gleaming like sheet lightning. "But of course, Vergetta. That way everyone makes a profit."

"That's what I like to hear," Tananda said.

"Including us," Vergetta added, with emphasis.

"I beg your pardon?" my little sister asked, putting steel into her voice.

"Not at all, darling," the elder Pervect said, taking her hand in a grip that caused Tananda to wince. I moved forward, but the shorter Charilor moved in between me and them. "You're setting out on a difficult enterprise, you little dears, and that involves risks. Now, you may not be aware of how many risks, but an old lady like me, I've seen a lot in my life. I want you to stop worrying about outside pressures and succeed. To do that, you have to minimize disruptions."

"Like this visit of yours," Tananda said, pointedly.

"Exactly. Now," said Vergetta as she settled heavily into one of our chairs and put her feet up on the foot rest, "you wouldn't believe how far I've walked today, darlings. Would you have a glass of tea somewhere? No? You will next time."

"What makes you think there's gonna be a next time?" Guido asked. He didn't pat his breast pocket for emphasis; one only did that to underline a threat, and we were meant to look harmless. Besides, to indicate to a stronger enemy such as Charilor where his weapon was located was only to provide an extra one for her.

"Oh, of course there's going to be a next time, you muzhik. Here's the proposition." Vergetta slapped her scaly knees. "We keep disruptions out of your way. You do business. You're grateful, so you give us a present..."

"Like ... a cut of our profits?" Tananda finished. "No way, grandma. We just barely made enough in the last few days to pay rent on our equipment."

"This trash? You may also need our friends in the moving ... I mean, furniture trade. Not a cut of the profits; a flat fee is what we have in mind. A fixed expense, like rent. Five gold coins. So you always know how much you have to clear every week, because that's when we'll be back."

"Week? Five coins a lot! Bad week, no money," I interposed. "What if no money?"

"What if you have a bad week?" Vergetta asked, looking up at me. "Oh, my darling, you don't want to find out what happens."

"We're only getting started," Tananda said, looking alarmed. "If you take our profits this week, there won't be a next week."

"All right," Vergetta said, getting to her feet. She patted Tananda's cheek. "So maybe we give you a freebie this time. But we will be back. We are watching you."

"And don't get cute," Charilor grunted. "The Bazaar is big, but if you fold up tent here and start up somewhere else, we will find you."

"They are new in town," Tananda said, once we'd sealed the tent and put a spy-eye on it to make sure no one was listening in magickally. "Birkli!"

"Ye-es!" The Shutterbug flitted down from his concealed perch. "Scary green ladies! But I managed to get all the others before they ran away. I'm good! I'm the best!" He landed on Tananda's shoulder and handed her a coil of underwing cells.

"Of course you are," Tananda said indulgently as she unreeled the Shutterbug's images and held them up to the magik lantern. "Subtlety is dead, gentlemen. I thought we'd have to uncover their identities from a crowd of subjects, but they just marched in here and made their proposition on the first visit"

"Dat means," Guido said, raising his eyebrows, "dat dey're in a hurry."

"Yes," I added thoughtfully. "I wonder why."

"Well have to learn more about them," my little sister said.

"Should I take the images to Percy?" I asked.

"No. No sense in frightening him. We're sure who they are. We'll just have to play along for a week or two, and hope they don't hop before we figure out their angle and close it up for good. I'd hate to have them think they can just march in and use the Bazaar for an ATM " She looked around. "I miss Skeeve. He'd have asked what that is."

I'd have been hard pressed to put my finger on the difference between the days before the two Pervects made their visit and the time after, but I sensed an uneasiness in our clientele that had not been there before. Not that I ever anticipated that Deveels, Imps, and the like would ever have become comfortable, nay, eager, to have a Troll anywhere near them with an eyelash curler, but palpable fear began to percolate through the tent. I didn't like it. During the subsequent days I found myself growling quietly while mixing cosmetics, provoked by I know not what unknown pressures. Guido kept casting his eyes around suspiciously, his hand never far away from the weapon concealed underneath his green smock. Tananda also was more highly strung than usual, pushing back cuticles with heartless precision, only snapping out of her trance when a customer yelped in pain.

"I don't like this," she whispered, when she stopped near my chair to toss a basin of water out the tent flap. "I sense depressing magik surrounding us like a cone. I've felt all over the place, but I can't find the source—no live magician within range, not even a handy line of force."

"It may be purely technological," I remarked. "A remote installation that makes use of a stored source of power. Perv is known to be comfortable with both technology and magik."

"Well, so are we," Tananda said. "We had better do something, or by the end of the week we won't have a single client"

That night we took the place apart, quite literally. I wrenched up the chairs one at a time so that Guido and Tanda could look underneath them. We unstitched the tent panels, tested every jar, vase, bottle, and container that might conceal a device. We checked the lamps and rugs for disgruntled Djinni or Efreets, both known to inhabit such items. Little Sister even employed Assassin techniques to find footprints or airprints of every being that had been anywhere near us since the Pervects' visit.

"Anyone who's been here has come in on foot except Birkli," Tananda said, after our searches proved fruitless. "See the wing prints?" Guido and I looked at the feathery traces on the air that her magik had brought out.

"Wait a minute," Guido said, pointing at two different lines of flutter marks. "Dese ain't the same as dose. I've tracked a lotta fly-by-nights, and I know my wing prints."

"By heavens, you're right," I declared, after a quick inspection. "What can that mean?"

"I don't know, but I know who can tell us," Tananda said, tapping her foot impatiently. "Birkli!"

"Coming right this minute, lovely lady! Ready when you are!" The gaudy Shutterbug dropped out of the ceiling. "Here are today's ladies, one and all! Are they perfect? Are they beautiful?"

Tananda held out a hand and he lit upon it. She drew him close to her face, her voice purring. "But you're leaving one out, aren't you, Birkli?"

"Not one, not one, fair green girl!" Birkli protested, his antenna drawing down over his multiple-lensed eyes. But he seemed a bit put out.

"Who is she?" Tananda asked.

"Who?" I interrupted.

"The flitter who made those other wing prints," she said, without breaking eye contact with the Bug. "You were supposed to take an exposure of every being who came into this tent except us. Why didn't you take one of her?"