open. A rather odd-looking little person sat
in a low armchair immediately inside it. She had lifted a thin,
green-sleeved arm in a greeting or beckoning gesture as Trigger turned.

She repeated the gesture now. "Come here, girl!" she called amiably in a
quavery old-woman voice.

Well, it couldn't do any harm. Trigger put on her polite smile and
walked down the hall toward the open door. A quite tiny old woman it
was, with a head either shaved or naturally bald, dressed in a kind of
dark-green pajamas. Long glassy earrings of the same color pulled down
the lobes of her small ears. The oddness of the face was due mainly to
the fact that she wore a great deal of make-up, and that the make-up was
a matching green.

She twisted her head to the left as Trigger came up, and chirped
something. Another woman appeared behind the door, almost a duplicate of
the first, except that this one had gone all out for pink. Tiny things.
They both beamed up at her.

Trigger beamed back. She stopped just outside the door.

"Greetings," said the pink one.

"Greetings," Trigger replied, wondering what world they came from. The
style wasn't exactly like anything she'd seen before.

"We," the green lady informed her with a not unkindly touch of
condescension, "are with the Askab of Elfkund."

"Oh!" said Trigger in the tone of one who is impressed. Elfkund hadn't
rung any bells.

"And with whom are you, girl?" the pink one inquired.

"Well," Trigger said, "I'm not actually _with_ anybody."

The smiles faded abruptly. They glanced at each other, then looked back
at Trigger. Rather severely, it seemed.

"Did you mean," the green one asked carefully, "that you are _not_ a
retainer?"

Trigger nodded. "I'm from Maccadon," she explained. "The name is Birna
Drellgannoth."

"Maccadon," the pink one repeated. "You are a commoner then, young
Birna?"

"Of course she is!" The green one looked offended. "Maccadon!" She got
out of her chair with remarkable spryness and moved to the door. "It's
quite drafty," she said, looking pointedly past Trigger. The door closed
on Trigger's face. A second later, she heard the lock snap shut. A
moment after that, the don't-disturb sign appeared.

Well, she thought, wandering back to her cabin, it didn't look as if she
were going to be bothered with excessively friendly neighbors on this
trip.

She had a bath and then discovered a mechanical stylist in a recess
beside the bathroom mirror. She swung th