Neeshan strode into the middle of the circle. Rhn, the village chief, looked up from his drumming.
"Go away," he said. "You'll spoil the charm."
"What charm? Can't you see by now, Rhn, that it isn't going to work?"
"Of course it will. It just takes time."
"Hell it will. Hell it does. Watch."
Neeshan pushed Rhn to one side and squatted down in the center of the circle. From the pockets of his black robe he produced stylus, dragon's blood, oil of anointing, and salt.
He drew a design on the ground with the stylus, dropped dragon's blood at the corners of the parallelogram, and touched the inner cusps with the oil. Then, sighting carefully at the double red and white sun, which was just coming up, he touched the outer cusps with salt. An intense smoke sprang up.
When the smoke died away, a small lizardlike creature was visible in the parallelogram.
"Tell the demon what you want," Neeshan ordered the Free'l.