（外文电子版资料）sprin, Robert - (2001) License Invoked.docVIP

License Invoked Robert Asprin and Jody Lyn Nye This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright ? 2001 by Bill Fawcett Associates All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471 ISBN: 0-671-31978-7 Cover art by Gary Ruddell First printing, March 2001 Distributed by Simon Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH Printed in the United States of America  To Vilhelm,thanks for finding us eacha friend. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THINKOF EMPIRE... Fed by the anger building in the arena, monsters leaped forth from the steam pipes. Each new creation was larger and more fearsome looking than before. Each pulled angrily at its roots, achieving a little more distance from the curtain of vapor. Soon they would be able to sustain their reality without touching it. Fans near the stage retreated, shrieking, as the beasts struck out at them. The creatures were still insubstantial, but that could change any moment. Calm, Liz thought, opening her arms wide. Summoning Earth Power, she called upon the element of Earth to spread out among the crowd. Calm. Serenity. It was no easy thing soothing an audience of 80,000 people. Liz tapped all the way down into the bottom of her reservoir of magic to touch the outermost rows of the audience. She urged her mood of calm on the thousands of people, chivvying them to release their harmful emotions in a positive way. As if to field-test her enchantment, a new laser-born monster, more horrible than before, with glowing red eyes and huge tusks rose up out of the steam pipes, its claws reaching for fans in the first sixteen rows. Liz was rewarded then; instead of screaming in fear, the audience erupted with glee at the exquisite complexi