Letief brushed the dust from his attire with the brim of his plumed hat. He longed for a bath and a change of clothes and a big mug of good beer to rid himself of the part of the road that had hitched its way along with him on his journey. He looked up above the crystal escarpment at the parapet.
     "I say, up there. Are the gates closed for a reason?"
     "The master wizard Hlayurvay has decreed that all visitors pass three tests before entering."
     "Is that why there are so many loiterers out here?"
     "Yes. None of them have the mettle to face the tests without building their courage first."
     "I see. Are the tests hard?"
     "Hard enough."
     "Might I inquire what the tests are?"
     "That the wizard must assign."
     "And he is, I take it, not currently present to administer the test."
     "That is correct."
     "Have you any idea when he will arrive?"
     "When he arrives. He sets his own schedule. The horns will sound."
     "Why the limited access?"
     "The city was becoming too popular. There were not the accommodations available for everyone that arrived, and the crowded conditions were getting on the wizard's nerves. Lots of pockets picked and pies plucked from the window sills. The residents had too many complaints. Thus the entrance exams for all comers to the gates."
     "Does this apply to everyone, including nobles, messengers, and knights as well?"
     "Everyone that can not find entrance on their own accord must wait."
     "I take it that attempts at wall scaling are discouraged."
     "Indeed. Many have tried, none succeeded. Crystal is very slick material."
     "Thank you, sir."
     "No sweat off of my back."
     Letief walked away from the gate and found the vendors in the crowd that had set up camp outside the city wall. He purchased a pint of beer and downed it quickly. He ordered another and then strolled about, seeing if there were any familiar faces among the throng. He wasn't really expecting any, but what he found surprised him, and not pleasantly.
     "Well, well, well. Look at what the hearse drug in. What brings you to the magic city, scum bag?"
     Letief stood motionless, looking at Karitha, trying not to be forced into a nasty response. He had reason to offer her plenty, but among a crowd where he had just arrived, he felt better not responding.
     "Cat got your tongue? Probably has your brain as well. Come to salvage your love life with one of the wizard's love potions? I'm sure that you need it."
     He surveyed those interested and calculated that she had five men with her in the crowd. He had known her long enough to recognize the response that men loyal to her made when she let into someone. They each smiled with a readiness to jump to action when she stuck a true nerve. He had seen enough men fall to her sharp tongue and wake up later without any possessions of value left to them. That he never fell to Karitha's affronts only made her pour it on thicker each time they met. She had learned that sending her men out on him while he was still composed was a mistake. She had lost too many men to Letief to try that trick again. She waited for the opportunity to get him to lose his temper and get careless. Letief was too careful to fall to her insults, taking them like a duck to water. She had never come close enough to the truth to get past his reserve.
     He scouted the area and saw the best route around her, and left without a gesture of farewell, insulting her with disregard. He'd have killed her long ago had it not held the chance of ruining his reputation as one that did not kill women. There had been plenty of female warriors that had tried taking advantage of him, knowing that they would not die at his hands. None had escaped unscathed, though, just alive. There were plenty who cared not what gender they killed, killing for killing sake, but he refused to be one of the masses who did. Not that he was by any measure a saint.
     Letief ignored the shouts to his back, listening instead for footsteps and watching the eyes of those before him. From them, he could read that no one was slipping up behind him. All eyes were focused upon him and far behind him. One set of eyes that were focused upon him were familiar and twinkling.
     "So, she nailed you again without a defense."
     "And here I thought that I would slip into the city anonymously."
     "You? Letief? Unnoticed? That will be the day of the devil."
     "So I'm beginning to comprehend."
     "You are not such a wall flower as you used to be, ever since you defeated Grelf. And you've done little to play the affair down since then. Hrectok, Nurvello, Sinjidar, Rector, Larz. Or are there any new ones? Not counting the hundreds of small fry, mind you. Anonymous? Ha!"
     "I survive the best I can, Tarnfolt."
     "So, I imagine that includes consulting the wizard, as well. I see nothing else that would draw you here. Who are you working for now?"
     "Myself, at the moment."
     "Unpapered? Well, I've heard it all now. Private business?"
     "A small score to settle."
     "Anyone I know?"
     "No one you'd call a friend."
     The trumpets sounded, and a large portion of the crowd began to gather belongings and head for the main gates of the city.
     "Well, Letief, are you going to seek admittance?" Tarnfolt bowed and gestured for him to take the lead. Letief did so and headed for the gates. As soon as he reached the circle, the wizard pointed him out.
     "Letief, your tests. What color is the sky?"
     "The color the weather speaks."
     "How many legs has a horse?"
     "As many as he needs to run."
     "What is the last word in the last portion of the night?"
     "Night."
     "You may enter."
     The gates opened and the guards came out to form a corridor. Letief walked between the lines of weaponed men. As he entered the threshold of the city, the wizard vanished from the buttresses and the gate closed again. A disgruntled growl rose from the crowd, but there was little that they could do but wait until the wizard returned. The wizard was too busy falling in beside Letief.
     "So, brave warrior, you have come to consult me after all."
     "Yes. But I really don't think that you made any friends out there by giving me such simple questions to answer."
     "I wanted to speak to you. I didn't wish to speak to them."
     "I see."
     "Not completely. Come. We'll speak in my private chambers. There are too many who would sell our words for profit."
     They walked through the streets of crystal towers that shed prismatic light everywhere within the city. They passed through bands of color, leaving fragmented shadows of saturated hues, giving the streets a romantic delicate atmosphere. It did not match the mood that passed beneath the surface between them.
     They quickly reached the wizard's quarters, a small palace made of crystal that was close to the gates in case there was a need for defense. Letief sat in the offered chair and made himself comfortable, taking fruit from the table to fill his empty stomach.
     "Some would call you foolish for eating from a wizard's table without warning of what might be tools of the trade and not just ordinary food."
     "Did I grab something doctored?"
     "No, that is ordinary fare. But you have a sense about you. Its success is evident in your still surviving. And that is the reason that I asked for your audience. I'll come to the point. Bricardi has set loose a spell that will ravage all the lands on this part of the world. I need your help in diffusing it. It won't be easy."
     "What would you want me to do?"
     "I need for you to gain audience with him and deliver a message."
     "You're right. That won't be easy."
     "You'll have my help. I can streamline your arrival somewhat. That would save you many perils and conserve your strength."
     "Am I expected to be charitable in my efforts?"
     "I take that as an inquiry as to how much I'm willing to pay. I can see that you will not come cheap. I am willing to reward you amply, though I will also be taxing myself in the process."
     "You are the one to gain from the action, I take it. What do I have to do to Bricardi?"
     "You need to give him a device in his presence unknowingly. It's not very big and quite easy to hide under your flesh. Don't worry, I will make you a pocket. You won't have to rend your flesh to get at it. That would draw attention to you. Dropping it deftly into his palm would be ideal. But he must not know about it until he touches it. That is imperative. If it's discovered, it must be broken immediately. Are you game?"
     "How much support do I get after he has it in his possession?"
     "As much as you need."
     "If it's not there, I will be honked."
     "It will be there. I will do all I can to insure your safe return."
     "Meaning that I'd better be sharp in response with a sword."
     "It may not be called for. That only the event can tell."
     "What odds do you give me?"
     "Too early to tell."
     "The reward based accordingly."
     "But of course."
     "I have little time to consider, I surmise."
     "You need to leave as quickly as possible."
     "Okay. I'll do it, but you will owe me."
     "According to your trouble that you don't stir up on your own. That is on your time, not mine."
     "Agreed."
     "I've prepared a spell for you to take you to his castle straight away. You will land past the primary guard."
     Before Letief could ask further, a wind took hold of him and spun him around. When he stopped spinning, he was no longer in the wizard's quarters, but in some place he had never seen before. Almost immediately, he was challenged by the present guard that quickly converged on him from all directions. He cleared his head and thought for a moment. He knew he didn't have much time.
     "I bear a message for the wizard Bricardi. I am instructed to deliver it to him personally. Would you be so kind as to show the way?"
     While it did nothing to keep the guard from completely surrounding him at spearpoint, it did postpone his demise.
     "No message gets through to the wizard without previous inspection."
     "My message is a verbal one, committed to memory."
     "You come armed."
     "Do you think it's safe to go out unarmed these days? Of course I'm armed. I'll remove them if need be to gain the wizard's audience. Please announce me. I await the wizard's beckoning. I assume that he is more than powerful enough to handle whatever little threat I pose."
     Letief waited and became aware of an itch in the scar on his shoulder. He intuitively knew that there the item to be given Bricardi was stored. He scratched to verify the opening in his flesh. The spears jumped in more closely.
     "You guys sure are jumpy. I'm just scratching an old scar. I'm not stupid enough to try and pull something. I lose my head if I don't make the delivery. I'm not in any hurry to die."
     "Then you came to the wrong place." quipped one of the guards. The others started laughing, but they backed off their spears. Letief kept his nerve, but he started perspiring heavily. But to his amazement, a guard officer approached and ordered an escort for Letief to the wizard's business office. When they arrived, Letief found the word office a bit understated. He had seen kings' throne rooms smaller than this. He'd also seen smaller and less ornate thrones.
     Bricardi descended onto the throne from a large hidden section of the ceiling. He settled standing before his throne and dismissed the guard.
     "So, you have a message for me?"
     "Yes. One my master bid me tell you in the utmost of privacy."
     "And who is your master?"
     "I would rather tell in more privacy, wizard."
     "Very well. Come forward." said Bricardi as Letief scratched the old wound and palmed the device. He walked forward until he could touch the wizard. He bowed, and the wizard reflexively lifted his hands to avoid a collision. Letief dropped the small devise directly on his palm.
     Bricardi was startled for a movement, pushing Letief back, who started drawing his sword as Bricardi started laughing.
     "You won't need that." roared Bricardi. "Just tell Hlayurvey that a seventeen letter word for 'a table on a date' is two words. 'Perpetual calendar.' Off you go."
     Letief felt the wind grab and spin him again. When he settled back on the ground at the gates before the crystal city, Hlayurvay was atop the battlements above.
     "Well, what did he say?"
     "He said it was two words. 'Perpetual calendar.' Does that make sense to you?"
     "Yes, it does. Let's see. Ah, it fits. Wonderful. Thank you, Letief. I truly appreciate it."
     "Uh, didn't we say something about a reward?"
     "Oh, yes. We did, at that. Well, here's a bag of gold." He threw one off the battlement down to Letief. He picked it up and saw very little gold in the pouch.
     "This isn't what I'd call adequate."
     "Oh, good heavens. Okay. Here is a love slave potion. You need it more than you need money. Just squeeze the bulb in the face from whomever you want everlasting devotion, and they'll never be able to get enough of your body. Uh, just make sure that she loves you to start with. It doesn't control all aspects of love. Just the physical side. But it's potent, so be careful."
     Letief caught it. "How about letting me back in the city?"
     "You've been inside once today. I can't have people littering up the streets. I've grow to enjoy the quietness. Call me if you need me." The wizard turned and vanished. He was just getting to feeling truly cheated when he spotted Karitha closing the gap between them. He realized that he was still standing there holding two of the iridescent bags that the wizard used to dispense rewards. She was too close for him to get more than the gold tucked away.
     "What did you do for the wizard, hot shot?"
     "Nothing that concerns you."
     "What did you get in return?"
     "Compensation for my troubles. Want to see?" Suddenly Letief didn't feel quite so cheated. He unwrapped the potion vial before her eyes, then squeezed it. A cloud of fumes surrounded Karitha's head, and she started spasming below the neck, with a hacking sound accompanying it from within the cloud. Then suddenly the fumes vanished, and Karitha sobbed in deep breaths of air. She finally caught her wind, then looked at Letief with a look of pure hate and melted passionately into his arms.
     He broke her grip and walked away laughing wildly in the utmost glee. Letief didn't feel cheated at all. He used the gold to buy a cask of ale and a room for the night, one with a good strong lock on the door that not even Karitha's boys could break down. He spent the evening getting drunk and listening to Karitha plead through the door to let her in. He broke into giggling fits every time she got furious and ordered her boys to try the door again. After awhile, he was too drunk to stay awake.
     He used the peep hole in the morning while nursing a hangover to determine that Karitha and her boys had fallen asleep at his door, blocking his exit with their coverage of the floor. He unlocked the bars on the window and made a precarious exit from the room, having prepaid for it. He went directly to the gate and yelled for the guard, though it hurt to do so from the hangover.
     "What do you want?"
     "I have a message for the wizard."
     "Weren't you here yesterday?"
     "That I was. But this is the second part of the answer I was supposed to give him. Tell him that seventeen letter word for 'a table on a date' is three words. 'First string, center.' That's the only way to impress a date. Any other table is inferior in relationship to the stage."
     "Is that it?"
     "Yes." He turned and headed out of town before Karitha could have a chance to waken and get on his trail. He laughed at the thought of Karitha with the burning desire for his body. "If she were the very last woman on Earth. . . . Wizards, bah. Why do I waste my time for such pranks?"
     Hlayurvay appeared before him.
     "Speak of the devil."
     "Which was it that he told you? Perpetual calendar, or first string center?"
     "And here I thought that you liked jokes."
     "This is not funny."
     "My thoughts, exactly."
     "You feel that I cheated you?"
     "Your words verbatim are 'I am willing to reward you amply.' To me, amply means more than one can spend in a single evening. That I call bird feed."
     "Okay. I'll give you a better reward."
     "Much better."
     "What do you want?"
     "I want residence in the magic city with an unlimited expense account. I want to be able to come and go however I please, without being questioned at the gate, and live in reasonable luxury."
     "What do you call reasonable?"
     "Whatever I want. I won't be greedy for treasure. Just a comfortable existence without worry of work. That way, I might find it in my heart to do you more errands."
     "But why in the city?"
     "I have a feeling that you would never allow Karitha inside the gates. I used the potion on her last night. I think it would be a fitting cap to be able to walk the battlements of the wall and let her get a daily look at me where she can't possibly reach me."
     "You fouled up and used the potion on Karitha?"
     "Oh, it was fully intentional."
     "You know, Letief, I like the way you think."
     "Do you, now?"
     "Yes. You have more savvy than what I accredited to you. Okay. It was a dirty trick, I admit. We play jokes on each other like that from time to time just to keep each other on our toes. But which was the right answer?"
     "I'll tell you when I'm comfortably inside my new quarters and finding them agreeable."
     "What is agreeable to you?"
     "Oversized, tastefully furnished rooms with lots of good looking and willing female servants will do for starters. Just everything the noble creature of comfort would expect if he were living alone."
     "You blackmailer."
     "Watch your tongue, wizard."
     "Do not push too hard, Letief. I will only give so much ground."
     "You won't even notice me, once I get settled."
     "I'd better not. Understanding that, it's a deal."
     Letief was caught by the wind for a third time and found himself in luxurious accommodations within the magic city.
     "Will this suffice?"
     "It shall do most nicely, as long as it's properly equipped."
     A snap of the fingers brought in the staff, all very attractive women. "I do hope that you treat them with respect."
     "I shall be most kind."
     "Now, if you feel content. . . ."
     "Bricardi said that it was perpetual calendar. I fit the other into the space when I realized what it was that you were doing."
     "Very clever of you, since you gave me the right answer, and it was Bricardi that was trying to throw me off."
     "Well, if you can't trust a wizard, who can you trust?"
     They both broke into laughter. Hlayurvay vanished. "Girls, back to duties. I'll get together with you later on in the day, and I'll take the time to explain what I like. I think that we will find ourselves enjoying each other's company. I'm not what you'd call entirely proper."
     They left with a giggle.
     "I guess it pays to be imaginative, if you know the right people."
     He walked to the battlement at the gate, and as he half expected, Karitha was there petitioning entrance and audience with the wizard for an antidote for the potion, since it was of his manufacture. She went weak and steamy at his appearance, panting to keep her breath.
     "Trying to cut me from your life? I've already gone and done you the service already by placing myself here in the city where you can't enter. By the way, the wizard is quite busy and can't be disturbed."
     She screamed curses while begging him to satisfy her. He laughed back at her in return. "You can see me here most everyday as I take my daily walks. Don't want you to get lonesome." He walked off, returning to his apartment to begin a joyous life inside the magic city. Little did he know into what he had gotten himself. But that is another story for another time.