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“It worked!’ Rytlock exulted.

“Yeah,” Snaff replied emptily. “I just wish I didn’t have to tell Klab.”

Rytlock arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean? He’ll be pleased.”

“Exactly.”

Whether Klab was pleased or not, the rest of Rata Sum was. It was a heroes’ welcome. The walkways of the city were lined with shouting and laughing asura, and children rushed out to drape them with necklaces fashioned from discarded ether crystals.

The Arcane Council stood on one side of Snaff’s ziggurat and cheered more loudly than even the children.

Walking in the midst of his friends, Snaff said dourly, “Oh, no.”

Zojja turned to him. “What do you mean, ‘Oh, no’?”

“Those are the councilors, my dear.”

“Of course they are.”

“What do the councilors do?”

“They run the city.”

“Yes, but the other thing they do is try to rope other people into being councilors so they can go back to inventing.”

Zojja laughed. “You think they’ll appoint you to a position?”

“I know they will! Just the sort of spiteful creatures they are!”

Zojja tried to look serious. “Too bad we don’t have Big Snaff. You could attack.”

“Too bad,” he echoed darkly.

The companions came to a stop before the Arcane Council.

Councilor Thud waddled forward and lifted his hands, calling for silence. “On behalf of the Arcane Council and empowered as I am by the Arcane Council, I, Councilor Thud—”

“They’re going to stick me with pest control,” Snaff hissed to Zojja. “I just know it. Thud’s been looking for a patsy for months.”

“—do hereby welcome the genius Snaff and his apprentice, Zojja—”

“I built those cockpits!” she whispered peevishly.

“—and their allies from lands far removed—”

“He can’t find the end of this sentence,” Snaff noted.

“—to Rata Sum and confer upon such genius the highest honor—”

“Wait just a moment!” shouted Master Klab, inventor of the flying puffball and, most recently, the caldera plug. “What did Snaff do to deserve this honor?”

Councilor Thud’s eyebrows fluttered like moths. “He . . . well, he designed a golem and marched it out to defeat the Destroyer of Life before his destroyers could attack Rata Sum.”

“Yes, yes, all that. But in a matter of weeks, perhaps days, another army would have spilled from that hole in the ground. Whose invention stopped that? Whose invention ensured peace for years to come?” When Councilor Thud mistook this for a rhetorical question, Master Klab exasperatedly said, “Mine! That’s whose!”

“I thought you were working on a magic icebox,” Snaff offered innocently.

Master Klab whirled on him. “Not the icebox, but the cold-stone crystals that drive it—the bundle of cold-stone crystals that I gave you to solidify the volcano—the caldera plug!”

“Oh, that,” Snaff averred. He turned to a nonplussed Councilor Thud and said, “He’s quite right. His volcano stopper—”

“Caldera plug!”

“Yes, that thing—it really did save the day. Whatever honor you were about to bestow on me should instead go to genius Klab.”

Master Klab shot a look of astonished suspicion at Snaff.

A moment later, the suspicion was vindicated when Councilor Thud reached up to the mantle that draped his shoulders, lifted it, and said, “On behalf of the Arcane Council, I hereby appoint Master Klab to the role of director of pest control.”

“And iceboxes,” added Snaff.

“No. That would just be silly.” Thud said as he lowered the mantle around Master Klab’s neck.

Klab’s red face went green, and he suddenly realized he’d been had—a fact made obvious when Thud and Snaff heartily shook hands, congratulating each other.

The new director of pest control swayed unsteadily.

But the one who actually swooned was Caithe. She grabbed her heart and fell to the ground.

Logan knelt down, seeing that her face looked as white as paper. A cold sweat dappled her skin. “Heat exhaustion! We need water!”

As asura scrambled to get water, Caithe blinked at Logan and shook her head. “No. It’s not the heat. It’s Faolain. She’s poisoned me.”

“What?”

“She serves the Nightmare Court, and her touch has poisoned me.” She reached