"Well, well, well. If it isn't the watchdog. So starved you have to subsist on local wildlife now?"

Beezle glanced up from his catch, a tiny flutter of his miniature wings the only betrayal of surprise and irritation.

"Hullo, goatling!" he said in apparent cheer, plopping down on his sooty bottom. "Your watch gave you five minutes of alone time and you used it to come see me? I'm touched, really."

"How does it feel to have a couple of humans as the focal point of your miserable existence, anyway?"

"Oh, I think you have a pretty good idea yourself, all things considered," Beezle replied, delicately tearing the animal's front limb free and nibbling on it a moment before he popped it into his mouth, bone and all.

The other demon stepped forward, beady eyes flashing once in the dim light. He was, to all appearances, a small, ruffed goat, standing on his hind legs. "At least my ward is important to the battle, Beezle. I don't know that you can say the same."

"Important enough that I've been sitting on them for two years, Dynorae," he said pointedly, the opened his mouth in a wide grin. "But that's okay. His Lordship's lied to us all before. You'll get used to it."

The other bristled. "Watch your mouth, bat-spawn!"

"Meh." The dusky demon pondered his meal, finally deciding to partake of the animal's other leg.

"What kind of name is Beezle, anyway?" the other sneered. "I don't think I could live if a human gave me a stupid pet name like that."

"At least I didn't hand out my true name to the nearest stranger," Beezle replied pleasantly, and a heavy silence fell on the alley.

The silence stretched, air rent with indecision and anger. After a moment, Beezle spoke again.

"This conversation's taking a turn for the boring, goatling, and I'm getting hungry. Would you mind getting to the point?"

Dynorae gave him a dark stare, baring his most un-goatlike fangs in a gesture of irritation. "Papa sent a message. He says it's starting soon."

"I would hope so, after all these years of putzing around."

"So you'd better double your watch, he said," the goat demon added with apparent relish, after stifling a second wave of irritation. "Or you're going back on the front lines."

"Picture that." Beezle tore a fourth limb from his unwitting dinner, perhaps with a little more violence than he intended.

"Which means maybe you oughta be getting back to your job, instead of sitting around here eating housepets."

"That could be! Want a haunch?" Beezle thrust the bloodied limb at him, mouth gaping wide in another grin.

Dynorae lurched back, a sneer creeping onto his face. "Like I'd accept a gift from a deviruchi."

"Of course not, of course not." The demon withdrew his hand, still smiling. "Rude of me to offer."

The goat demon made a dismissive noise, starting away. "Damn right it was."

He was gone almost as soon as he spoke, and after a moment, Beezle rose to his stubby legs, sucking on the haunch he had offered. "'Like I'd accept a gift from a deviruchi.' Just like you snotty goats," he said, gazing at the spot where Dynorae had been standing moments before with dislike clouding his features. "His Lordship's little favorites. Che." He spat the remaining bones to the dirt. "Well, we'll see how the wheel spins this time, turdling."

Then he launched himself into the air, leaving the half-eaten cat in the dirt. Let the guards make of that what they would.