The Second Book of Lankhmar

know. Or woman for that matter," Rill chimed in.
           The Mouser shrugged apologetically. The comic gesture caused him to really look at himself and his garments for the first time since coming out of the wall.
           His reaction caused Cif and Rill to do the same thing.
           His gray jerkin, which had been stout, thick cloth when last observed by any of them, had somehow grown fine as gossamer and quite translucent, while his exposed skin looked as if it had been pumiced.
           As if on his journey underground he had endured for hours a blasting sandstorm, suffering such wear and tear as might be accounted for by a trip to Quarmall. The strangeness of it all gripped their minds.
           At that long moment Fafhrd appeared in the tunnel, followed closely by Fingers and Afreyt, with a wide-eyed Gale bringing up the rear. He was wearing a winter jacket with attached hood fallen away behind, revealing his close-shaven pate.
           "I knew you had been found," he said excitedly. "I read it in Skor's face when he returned with Cif's summons. Though he's fooled the rest, I think. Make no mistake, it was a good idea to keep it a secret for a bit. There are things to be said before we face a celebration. It appears that I owe you my life, old friend — and my child her memory as well. Look here, you rogue, however did you learn old Quarmal's finger-snapping dodge?"
           "Why, by traveling underground to his buried city, of course, and spying on him," the Mouser replied airily. "And studying his maps," he added. "Either I did that in the body or else my ka did in horn-gate dreams. If his boreworms got to me, and I believe they did, it argues for the former."
           "Oh well," Fafhrd said philosophically, "boreworms don't kill, only excruciate."
           "And then only if you're awake while they're entering you," Fingers piped up consolingly. "But truly, Uncle Mouser, I'm grateful to you beyond words for saving my father's life and me from parricide and madness."
           "Tut, tut, child! No need for melodrama. I believe you," the Mouser said, "and entreat your pardon for my earlier doubts. You are the daughter of your mother Friska, truly, who resisted all my efforts to seduce her, which were neither few nor unskillful, to my recollection."
           "I believe you," Fingers assured him. "As she's oft told me, your seduction attempts were responsible for her friend (and your lover, Uncle Mouser) Ivivis quitting the escape party at Tovilyis and persuading my mother to quit with her and have me there."
           "I truly planned to get gold and return to Tovilyis and rejoin her," Fafhrd apologized. "But something always intervened, generally the absence of gold."
           "Friska never blamed you," Fingers assured him. "She always came to your defense when Aunt Ivivis made you the target of one of her tirades. Aunty would say, 'He should have stayed with you and let the little jackanapes go on alone,' and Mother would answer, 'That would have been too much to hope for. Remember, they're lifelong comrades.'"
           "Friska was always most forgiving," Fafhrd averred. "Just as Fingers is to you, Mouser," he added, shaking his middle digit under the Gray One's nose. "Do you realize that that terrible treble fingersnap that saved my life almost slew Fingers at the same time? Stretching her senseless and unconscious across the bench where we'd sat watching you emerge from earth like a pale vengeful mole — was knocked out myself as well, stretched out across my daughter on the bench. As Afreyt here can attest, who was a full quarter hour eliciting from either of us the least sign of life."
           "That's most true, masters," the tall blonde averred, her violet eyes flashing. "I breathed for Fafhrd fully that long before his wits returned. Meanwhile Gale, who'd awakened and come downstairs fortuitously, performed a like service for Fingers."
           "Yes, I did that," the child confirmed, "and when you came to, you beast, you bit my nose, like an ungrateful and confused kitten."
           "You should have spanked me," the girl from Ilthmar told her piously.
           "I'll remember that at the first opportunity," Gale threatened darkly.
           "For that matter, I lost consciousness myself completely at the climax," the Mouser asserted, getting back into the game. "So much depended on getting those fingersnaps of