"Ah, now I understand." Omago glanced at the half-dozen or so gold blocks lying on Rabbit's anvil. "Those aren't really very big, are they?"

"Four ounces each," Rabbit said. "That was Tori's idea. Those great big blocks Lady Zelana gave us are pretty enough, but they're too big to use for money—unless you're buying ships—or maybe a house in Kormo or Weros. Torl told the cap'n that we needed smaller blocks if we wanted to buy food. We don't have coins over in the Land of Maag. We use plain gold blocks instead, and Torl was right when he said that bags and bags of these four-ounce blocks could be very useful." Then he grinned at Omago. "The size and shape suggest something different, wouldn't you say?"

"I didn't quite follow you there," Omago admitted.

"They don't have any spots on them, but they're exactly the same shape and same size as dice. Maags are very familiar with dice, but I've never heard of a dice-game played with gold dice. The cap'n came up with the idea all by himself. These gold dice will be the Maag version of money if the idea gets spread around."

"Clever," Omago said. "Longbow sent me here to fetch you. He and Keselo need you."

"I don't know if I can get away, Omago," Rabbit said a bit dubiously. "The cap'n really wants me to convert a lot of the gold bricks our people are stealing out of Lady Aracia's temple into these dice-shaped blocks. If I try to sneak off, he'll have a lot of men out there trying to chase me down."

"I'll see to it that they don't catch you, Rabbit."

"Really? Just how do you plan to do that?"

Omago was fairly certain that Rabbit wouldn't believe him if he were to answer that question, so he went off in a different direction. "Sleep, Rabbit," he said quite calmly. Then he caught the suddenly comatose little Maag and carried him several hundred feet up into the air above the temple harbor. "You look sort of tired anyway, Rabbit," he murmured. Then he turned slightly and returned to Gunda's fort at the head of Long-Pass.

"That was quick!" Keselo declared, sounding more than a little astonished.

"I cheated just a little," Omago admitted. "I don't know if you'll believe this, but Sorgan Hook-Beak has filched a lot of gold from Aracia's temple. Then he put Rabbit to work melting gold and pouring it into molds the size and shape of the dice some people use when they're gambling. Rabbit told me that Sorgan planned to use those gold dice as money when he returns to the Land of Maag."

Keselo blinked. "Now that's something that never would have occurred to me," he said.

"Sorgan's very good at doing things that other people would never think of doing," Longbow said. Then he looked rather closely at the sleeping little Maag. "He is all right, isn't he, Omago?" he asked.

"He's just fine," Omago replied, "and he'll be well rested come morning."

"I don't really think we should wait until daylight before we leave," Keselo said. "Too many people are likely to start asking us questions if they see us going down that snowy slope after the sun comes up."

"That raises another question, Omago," Longbow said. "If we start walking across the Wasteland in broad daylight, the bug-people are likely to be all over us."

"Only if they can see us, friend Longbow," Omago replied. "And I can guarantee that they won't see us."

"You're going to make us invisible?" Keselo asked.

"Not really invisible," Omago replied. " 'Unnoticeable' might describe it better. The bug-people will look at us, but they won't see us."

"You can do that?" Keselo exclaimed.

Omago shrugged. "Zelana does it all the time," he said, "and if she can do it, so can I. Shall we go?"

"Let's see if I've got this straight," Rabbit said after Omago had roused him from his sleep and Longbow had told him just exactly where they were going and what they were going to do when they got there. "Are you saying that just the four of us are going to hike out across the Wasteland, break into the palace of the Vlagh, and then persuade her children to run off and leave her there all by herself?"

"Approximately, yes," Omago replied. "It's probably going to be quite a bit more complicated than what you just suggested, but that pretty much sums it up, yes."

"Have you people been drinking grog or something?" Rabbit demanded. "The bug-people have killed thousands and thousands of people-people, and you three seem to think that you can walk right through them with no problems at all."

Keselo stepped in at that point. "You're going to have to adjust your thinking, Rabbit," he told the little smith. "Omago might look like an ordinary farmer, but he has at least as much power as his mate, and we've all seen the sort of things Ara can do. The bug-people won't be able to see us when we cross the Wasteland and enter the nest of the Vlagh. They won't even know that we're there, so we'll be able to do anything we want to do."

"Butcher the Vlagh, maybe?" Rabbit asked in a voice dripping with skepticism.

"You're going to have to show him what you can do, Omago," Longbow said. "Rabbit needs to see things before he'll accept them."

"And just for the fun of it, you might want to show us that 'unnoticeable' trick that's supposed to get us safely across the Wasteland," Keselo added.

Omago shrugged. "Whatever makes you gentlemen happy," he said. He rose up through the chill winter air until he was standing about forty feet above his friends. "Does this answer any of your questions, Rabbit?" he asked the little Maag. "Now then, I want all of you to watch me very closely." Then he reached out and touched their minds.

"Where did he go?" Rabbit demanded.

"I'm still here, Rabbit," Omago called. "You just can't see me anymore, that's all."

"Are you saying that you're invisible?"

"No. You're just not paying any attention to me is all. Here, watch this." He brushed away their insensibility, and they all seemed to be startled by his sudden reappearance.

"Are you sure that you can include us in this little game?" Keselo asked a bit dubiously.

Omago laughed. "I can make a mountain range disappear if I really want to," he replied. "It'll still be there, but nobody will be able to see it. This isn't really all that unusual, you know. Zelana does it all the time."

"Are you saying that you're as powerful as Lady Zelana is?" Rabbit demanded.