Brandos shrugged, then realized it wasn’t time for a jape; it had been a serious question. “No, you occasionally become convinced of your own brilliance, but you are hardly rash.” He paused, then added to Jim, “He’s gotten us almost killed several times through miscalculation, but that’s the point; he was wrong, not unconsidered. If he says he’s on the edge of understanding something larger than is apparent, I’d believe him.”

“Well, then,” said Jim Dasher. “Is there any way I can help?”

“Only if you can supply more information than I’ve been privy to lately.”

Jim was silent a long moment, staring out into the fading light.

Brandos cleared his throat and said, “I’m going to be inside; I should ask Samantha to hustle up something for you to eat. I imagine you’re hungry.”

Jim smiled. “Thank you, Brandos. That would be fine.” After the old fighter had left, Jim said, “He should be a diplomat.”

Amirantha laughed. “Hardly, but he can be discreet at times.”

Jim paused, then said, “Very well. I expect that Pug will ask you in to listen to my report anyway, as you are the expert in demons.”

Amirantha nodded. “That elf, Gulamendis, is the only being I’ve met who knows as much or more.”

Jim looked uncomfortable. “Those Star Elves make my skin itch. But they’re a matter for another time.” Jim told the Warlock what he had witnessed in the distant Jal-Pur desert, and when he was finished he asked, “What do you think?”

Amirantha said, “I think we need to find a way to fetch Pug back here as soon as possible.”

“Why?”

Turning toward the keep, Amirantha said, “Come with me.”

He didn’t wait to see if Jim followed, but hurried inside the keep. He glanced around the common room and asked the four younger magicians there, “Where is Jason?”

One of them pointed toward a door that led to a small room Pug had occasionally used as a private office. Amirantha went to the door and knocked once, then opened it. Jason sat behind the tiny desk that Pug had installed in this former storage room and was squinting at a paper under the dim glow of a single candle. The tiny window above hardly admitted any light on the brightest of days, and on a day such as this, it might as well be midnight. “Yes?” he asked, apparently untroubled by the sudden entrance.

“Pug,” said Amirantha. “You need to summon him at once.”

Jason sat back. “And how am I supposed to do that, given I have no idea where he is?”

Amirantha glanced sidelong at Jim, then said, “I count Pug many things, but fool is not one of them. Even if you don’t know where he is, I’m certain he’s left you means to contact or summon him, should the need arise. The need has arisen.”