And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist, an incredible thing happened.

That's usually how they start, the young ones. Meaningless waffle.

That did it. I'd gone through a lot in the past few days. Everyone I met seemed to want a piece of me: djinn, magicians, humans...it made no difference.I'd been summoned, manhandled, shot at, captured, constricted, bossed about and generally taken for granted. And now, to cap it all, this bloke is joining in too, when all I'd been doing was quietly trying to kill him.

Burned and squashed to death in a silver vat of soup. There must be worst ways to go. But not many.

Watch where you leave your victims! I stubbed my toe on that.

The mercenary finished his coffee in a single gulp, It must have been piping hot, too. Boy, he was tough.

Besides, if you're going to die horribly, you might as well do it with style.