"Who are you?" she asked.
"Well, I'm a sorcerer," he said. "I was hiding in your mirror, as Ihave every night for a long while. I have this crush on you and Ilike to watch you as you go about your business."
"Peeping Tom--a voyeur!" she said.
"No," he said. "I think you're a really nice-looking lady, and Ilike watching you. That's all."
"There are many legitimate ways by which you could have gained anintroduction," she said.
"True, but that way might have led to horrible complications in mylife."
"Oh, you're married."
"Worse than that," he said.
"What, then?"
"No time now. I can feel its approach," he said.
"What's approach?"
"The guisel," he said. "I sent one to slay another sorcerer, but hedisposed of it and sent one of his own after me. Didn't know he wasthat good. I don't know how to dispose of the things, and it will beoozing through that mirror in a matter of minutes, to destroy us allmost nastily. So, this place being Amber and all, is there some heroavailable who might be anxious to earn another merit badge?"
"I think not," she replied. "Sorry."
Just then the mirror began to darken.
"Oh, it's coming!" he cried.
I had felt the menace it exuded some time before. But then, that ismy job.
Now I got a glimpse of the thing. It was big, and wormlike,eyeless, but possessed of a shark-like mouth, a multitude of short legs,and vestigial wings. It was twice again the length of a human, andblack, having crisscrossing red and yellow stripes. It slithered acrossour reflected room, rearing as it came on.
"You imply," Flora said, "in your quest for a hero, that it willmake it through that interface and attack us?"
"In a word," said the strange little man, "yes."