Myth-ion Improbable Read online

  “Close enough,” she said. “Actually, I had it on at a lower strength when I was working with you, and had it vectored so the others wouldn’t feel it and guess what was going on. I didn’t think you had enough experience to realize what was going on. My mistake.”

  “I’ll say it is,” Tanda said. “Nice work, Skeeve.”

  “Well, as I was saying, I guess it’s time for me to take off.”

  “Not so fast,” Aahz said. “First, are we all in agreement that your failure to deal with us in good faith negates any and all deals we have together?”

  “Sure.” Glenda shrugged. “Like I say, one or two or no shares of nothing is still nothing”

  ‘Then, too,” Aahz smiled, “I’m sure you wouldn’t like to have it bandied about the Bazaar that you’ve been poaching on your clients expeditions, would you? That wouldn’t do your reputation much good, or the reputation of Shifters in general.”

  Glenda’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Not at all.” Aahz said, showing his teeth again. “In fact, you can count on our silence and discretion. We will not men­tion this adventure or your role in it ever again, even amongst ourselves.”

  “Really?”

  “. . .For a price.”

  “I knew it.” Glenda said, rolling her eyes. “Perverts!”

  “That’s Per-vects,” I said, “and that little slip of the tongue is going to cost you extra.”

  Aahz positively beamed at me before turning his attention to Tanda.

  “Tanda, dear?” he said. “How would you like to accom­pany Glenda here home and settle the details of our agree­ment while Skeeve and I finish up here? The Bazaar is a much better atmosphere for negotiating. We’ll use the D-Hopper and catch up with you at Posseltum.”

  “Love to.” Tanda smiled. “Come along, sweetheart. We have a long talk ahead of us.”

  The two ladies stood close, then disappeared with a soft BAMF. Glenda hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye. I can’t say I was heartbroken.

  “I say, that was nice of you,” Bovine said. “You could have ruined her reputation.”

  “Her reputation?” Aahz snarled. “What do you think it would do to our reputations if it got out that we went though all this without anything to show for our efforts?”

  “That’s not necessarily the case, Aahz,” I said.

  “Oh really? We’re in a dimension with no money and we just turned all the gold to lead.” Aahz said. “I’m not seeing much profit in that.”

  “Well, there’s whatever Tananda shakes out of Glenda in return for our silence.”

  “That’s payment for what she did. Not for our efforts.”

  I turned to, Count Bovine.

  “Check me on this.” I said. “The deal was that I return for our help, we could have as much treasure as we could carry. Treasure, not specifically gold. Gold was just the obvious choice. Right?”

  “That is correct,” Bovine said.

  “So how about one of the cow skulls from the energy room?”

  “A cow skull?” Aahz frowned.

  “Like, maybe, the one hanging on the wall with all the jewels on it?”

  “That old dust-catcher? Is it still around?” Bovine seemed genuinely surprised. “Certainly. That seems fair. If you’ll wait here a moment I’ll fetch it for you.”

  He headed off in the direction of the skull room.

  “You know, kid,” Aahz said draping an arm. across my shoulders, “there are times you show real promise.”

  “It’s not much, but it’s something” I said. “It seemed bet­ter that the other idea I had.”

  “What was that?”

  “Turning the lead back into gold. The thing is, I don’t know if anybody’s ever tried that before.”

  Aahz was silent for a few moments.

  “Apprentice,” he said finally, his voice heavy, “it occurs to me you still have a lot to learn about magik.”