Rali Ribhu slowly rolled the translucent golden sphere back and forth across the table before the eyes of the fascinated young farmer.
"You see before you the most powerful aphrodisiac known to man," he crooned, "smuggled under threat of death out of the harems of M'nath. With the aid of this potent distillate, the terrible cannibal king of that island is known to service ten or twelve concubines in an evening."
There was an audible snort from the bartender. At Rali's furious look he turned it into a cough. The farmer, a burly fellow of perhaps twenty summers, with long, straw-colored hair and an appealingly vacant look in his eyes, did not seem to have heard. His gaze followed every movement of the oil-filled ball, and he licked his leathery lips once or twice as Rali spoke.
Meanwhile, Rali's pet rooner, Seffriet, capered about the table in the dimly lit, smoky dive. The rooner, a six-legged beast whose ancestry spoke more of cephalopod than of primate, clacked her beak and performed merry little dances. Seffriet's antics had attracted the farmer to Rali's table in the first place, as they were meant to.
"I, of course," Rali lied smoothly, "as a eunuch, have no use for such a trifle and am therefore willing to part with it for a reasonable sum." He smiled in a friendly way at the farm boy. "There was a certain tavern girl you mentioned?"
"Yes, Gaylyna is her name," said the mark. "The most beautiful woman in all the province." He touched a finger lightly to the polished globe. "This certainly seems like a bargain, right enough."
"Then let me stand you to a tankard of ale, that we might finalize the deal," Rali said, standing. He stepped over to the bar. "Two of your finest, innkeeper," he said bluffly.
"And keep your snorts to yourself, lest you queer this for me," he added in a hiss. "If this bumpkin walks out the door, your cut goes with him."
The bartender set the mugs before Rali with somewhat undue force, favoring the grifter with a sardonic grin that Rali chose to ignore. At the far end of the bar, an old man clad in the ragged garb of a tribesman--an apothecary, by the look of him--sat glowering over a smeared glass of absinthe, apparently heedless of his surroundings.
"And now," Rali said as he slid into his seat, "what say you to the purchase?"
"Done," the farmer said firmly as he reached for his wallet. "I--eh? Hold: I'm robbed!" Paling, he stood so quickly his chair fell over with a crash. None of the other patrons gave him so much as a glance.
Rali professed shock. "Cutpurses and pickpockets abound in our city," he said in dismay. "Doubtless one such relieved you of your valuables! Did I not notice you bump into a disreputable-looking cripple as you entered?"
The farmer stared at him with jaw agape. "To be sure!" he said angrily. "He cannot have gone far with that game leg."
"Then allow me to demonstrate that good citizens also dwell here," said Rali, standing and placing a friendly hand on the youth's roughly woven sleeve. "Let us give chase. But first..." He handed the golden ball to the youth. "Hold this until we find our thief."
The farmer took the sphere after a moment's hesitation. "You are truly a man of character," he said.
With a slight incline of his head, Rali scooped up Seffriet and followed the seething agriculturist out into the waning daylight.
The pub was in the basement of a dilapidated mercantile exchange in the heart of Ileranth, a city near the northern wastes of Phlandaire. Far from being a center of cosmopolitan activities, Ileranth played host to members of wandering tribes, farmers from the surrounding fertile regions, and a large number of individuals who earned their livings by doubtful means.
Rali and the farmer stood casting about for the miscreant's trail. At either end of the street of buildings were transverse avenues.
"If you go that way," Rali said, pointing north, "I'll go this, and we'll meet around the block."
"Right!" The farm boy galloped away.
Rali watched his broad back recede. Chuckling, he turned in the other direction and sauntered off.
)
Rali the galactic grifter rolls through the seedy inns and alleys of one alien city after another leaving a trail of deception and theft. Then he meets the sorcerer Xaglun and his seductive niece, and in no time the fate of the entire world is in the scheming hands of these three and an elemental demon they summon from the depths of space and time.
