If the rest of the demons in attendance were upset I disrupted dinner, they made no show of it. In fact, their eagerness - that of my own court mixed with the small and slightly nervous one Ipshinatithis kept around him - told me they were looking forward to seeing what it was he wished to hide from me.

The elevator took the first large group of us, Mabel at my right side, Sequoia on my left with Sassafras in my arms again despite his continuing snit, down to street level and ...