g about. The map had changed. I studied what was there now, comparing it to what had been there before. Now the lines from Vortex #1 were different, and the points at the end of each were labeled. And the upper corner of the map had Deva listed, with a direct line from Deva to Vortex #1. "Amazing," Aahz said, his voice just a whisper. "A true treasure map." "How did it do that?" I asked. Aahz laughed. "Just as everything is done," he said. "Magik." "It's a magik map, a true treasure map of the dimensions," Tanda said. "I've only heard of such things." She reached over and gave me a big hug, something I was more than willing to continue as long as she wanted it to. Finally, far too quickly, she let go and looked at me. "This was a great purchase on your part." I shrugged. "Not unless it leads somewhere." "True," Aahz said, not looking up from the map. I went back to studying the map as well. As far as I was concerned, it was just lines and points and a few names. I couldn't use it to find my way back to where we had appeared here on Vortex #1, let alone to jump dimensions. "So the map changes. What does that mean?" Tanda pointed at the point labeled Vortex #1. "Thanks to the Shifter, we're here. From this point we have five choices of dimension jumps." She pointed to the five names the lines lead to from this place. "The one called Bumppp looks the most promising." Aahz nodded. "And the straightest line through the map as well." "You know this Bumppp world?" I asked. "Or any of those places?" She slowly shook her head. "Aahz?" "No, I don't." I looked at him, then at Tanda, remembering what Aahz had told me about dimension hopping. You had to know exactly where you were going, or you couldn't jump. "So we're stuck here?" I asked. "That's the end of the trip?" "No," Aahz said, reaching into his belt pouch and pulling out a D-Hopper. He quickly scrolled through the listing of dimensions on the Hopper, checking them with the names on the map. Finally, he sighed and put it back. And with that sigh I knew we were done. The five possible places we could jump to from this place was not on the D-Hopper either. "Damn," Tanda said. "I was afraid this might happen." She pushed herself to her feet and brushed off her pants. "I hate this," Aahz said, standing. He carefully folded the map and put it in his belt pouch. "What are we doing now?" Tanda motioned that I should come closer. Then she reached up, and before I could stop her, she sealed my lips again. "Sorry," she said. "Can't take the chance." I tried to object, but the only thing that came out was "Wggghhh." This was getting old. Too much more of this kind of treatment and my lips were going to be sore for a week. A moment later, without a warning from either Tanda or Aahz, we were back standing in front of the Shifter in the big tent. Chapter Three "There's no such thing as a free ride." M.T.A. "Ten percent for your solution," the Shifter said, its voice deep and strong as it studied Tanda and scratched what seemed to be part of its neck. I stared at it, not really looking at what it was at the moment, but more studying how it was changing constantly. It was as if there was always a part of it moving, morphing into the next character. The hair shifted, the skin changed, the arms lengthened, nothing really staying complete for more than a few seconds before starting to change into the next shape or color. Its voice, its chair, its eyes all changed as well. That really impressed me. When I did a disguise spell, I could do clothing and size and shape, but never the quality of the eyes. From this Shifter's eyes it looked as if it was actually fifty or a hundred different beings all melding together. For all I knew, it was. I wanted to ask it how it did what it did, but then remembered my lips were again sealed. "Ten percent!" Aahz said through his teeth, his voice barely under control. "On top of the first five percent, bringing the total to fifteen percent." I thought I could see a blood vessel in Aahz's neck trying to break out from under the green scales. Any moment Tanda was going to have to seal his mouth as well, from the looks of it. I wanted to tell the Shifter how greedy it was being, but luckily I couldn't. "No," Tanda said. "We will give you another five percent, and five percent more for each time we require your help in this journey, but not one bit above that." The Shifter had become a tall creature with a very thin face and hundreds of tiny teeth crammed into a very ugly mouth. And at that moment the mouth smiled, or at least did something I thought was a smile. "Agreed," it said. Aahz looked like he might have a small fit right there, but somehow he managed to contain himself. I was impressed. It wasn't often that large percentages of a possible fortune were taken from him and he didn't destroy something. Aahz and money were not easily parted, and if we did find this golden cow, there was no doubt in my mind that Aahz would not want to part with much of the golden milk. But now he would have no choice, for at least ten percent of the find. And I had no doubt we were going to be back here a number more times before this little venture was over. "What is your destination now?" it asked. "Bumppp," Tanda said. For a moment the creature hesitated, and I thought I saw the morphing hesitate as well. Then it said, almost sadly, "Very well." A moment later we ended up in the middle of a wide meadow filled with thick plants and orange flowers. The sky overhead was a faint blue and pink. Dark-green trees surrounded the meadow, and in the distance there were pink mountains. I had been ready to use my disguise spell on us to protect us from any storm, but the air was warm and humid, just the way I liked it. Actually, all in all, this was one of the most beautiful dimensions I had visited. I wondered what kind of lucky people lived here. Tanda turned a full circle, her sharp eyes taking in things I knew I didn't see. "Ten percent?" Aahz said, his teeth still grinding. Tanda put her finger to her mouth for Aahz to be silent. I instantly started searching the tree-line for any sign of danger. There was nothing that I could see. No natives with weapons, no crouching tigers, no charging bears. Nothing. But clearly from Tanda's actions and the attitude and hesitation of the Shifter, this wasn't a friendly place. Beautiful, but not friendly. "The map," she whispered to Aahz. "Quickly." Then she motioned that we should all crouch down. The weeds and flowers covering the meadow were no more than knee-high and would give us no cover at all. They smelled like my dragon when he got wet. I figured we should move to the edge of the trees. At least there we might have a fighting chance if something came at us. But Tanda was the ex-assassin among us. She knew what she was doing. Or at least I hoped she did. Aahz opened the map and laid it out carefully on top of the weeds. It was clear instantly that the map had again changed. Bumppp, the dimension we were in, showed clearly, with only one path leading from this world toward the dream of our very own golden cow. And that path led to Vortex #4. Not #2, as I would have expected, or even #3, but #4. Tanda nodded and motioned for Aahz to quickly fold up the parchment and put it away. Then she stood. I stood right with her, and the moment I did I saw movement. Not just some movement, but all around the edges of the meadow the weeds and flowers were jerking and swaying as if something was running under them at us. Then a head poked up about a hundred paces from us. A massive snake head that was larger than my head, with yellow, swirling slits for eyes and huge fangs. There was no telling how long the snake's body was, and I really didn't want to wait around and find out. And then another stuck its head up to the right of the first one. And another and another. I spun like a dancer. We were surrounded by giant snakes with very nasty-looking fangs. If we didn't do something quickly we were going to end up the main course for lunch. "Nice place," Aahz said as the moving grass got closer and closer around us. "Any time now," I tried to suggest, but the only thing that came out of my still sealed mouth was "Aggghhh tgggghhhh." . What's the matter?" Tanda asked, smiling at me. "Afraid Of a little snake?" I nodded vigorously as another monster snake head popped up not more than fifty paces from us. It looked not only hungry, but angry. "Yeah," she said, "me, too." With that we were back in the dust storm on Vortex #1. "Skeeve!" Aahz yelled as the dust pounded into us. Before I could even act, Tanda said, "Don't bother." Then we were back in the Shifter's tent, staring at the creature who now looked just a little too much like the snakes we had just left. "I am glad for my percentage to see that you have returned," it said. "I'll bet," Aahz said. "Vortex #4 please," Tanda said, getting right to business. "The total is now fifteen percent." "I understand our agreement," Tanda said before Aahz could say a word. "Vortex #4 please." The snakelike-shaped Shifter nodded, and again we were whisked through to another dimension. And right back into the same stupid dust storm. Okay, I have to admit that when we dimension-hopped back into the dust storm, I was shocked. Tanda motioned that we should follow her. It took me almost all the way to our destination before I realized where we were. Now granted, I had the excuse that it was blowing heavily. And to me, one dust storm looks just like another. But it wasn't until the old log cabin loomed up out of the dust like a ship in the fog that it dawned on me that we were back in the same place. Only it wasn't the same place. This was supposed to be Vortex #4, not Vortex #1. Inside the old building it became clear that we were in a slightly different place. This time, instead of being bare, the inside of the log cabin was filled with branches and some old furniture, and there was no sign of the fire I had built. "Did you see them this time?" Tanda demanded. "See what?" Aahz frowned. "Out there in the storm." she said. "This time I got a good look at them." "What was it?" "Dust bunnies. A whole pack of them." She wrapped her arms tightly around herself and shuddered. Aahz and I looked at each other and shrugged. Again we seemed to be oblivious to whatever it was that was setting Tanda on edge. By the time I got a new fire going and Tanda had put a containment protection around the cabin to keep the wind out, my lips had unsealed. They were chapped and sore, but at least they were loose. "So Vortex #4 is a lot like Vortex #1," I said. "Makes sense," Tanda said. "Otherwise, why give them the same names with only different numbers?" "Any other dimensions so similar that they could be numbered like this?" "More than likely," Tanda said, "but I've never seen or heard about any." "So we paid another five percent to that thief for this?" Aahz said, dearly disgusted. "We could have found this on our own." I had no idea how he thought we could have done that, but since I didn't know much about dimension-hopping, I said nothing. "Not likely," Tanda said. "We are a long, long way from Vortex #1. We're farther away in number of dimensions from the Bazaar at Deva than I have ever been before." "Oh," Aahz said. "And you know that how?" I asked. "Is there some sort of mileage marker I keep missing in the blink of eye it takes to hop to a new dimension?" Tanda laughed. "Don't we wish." "When a person is dimension-hopping," Aahz said, "and they have powers to do it, like Tanda does, you get a sense of how many dimensions away you have jumped. Not precise, but just a sense of distance." Tanda nodded. "And the farther away in number of dimensions, the harder the jump. And the greater the chance of missing the target and getting lost." "So that's why you took us back through Vortex #1 from Bumppp?" "Safer that way," she said. "And each of our jumps following this map is getting us farther and farther away from home?" I didn't much like the idea of that happening. My job as the Royal Court Magician wasn't much, but at the moment it was better than this place. "So far," Tanda said. "But this is a treasure map we're following. It isn't supposed to be so easy that just anyone could do it." I didn't like the sound of that, either. Aahz pulled off his gloves and took out the map, spreading it on the floor so we could all see it by the light of the fire. As expected, the map had changed again. There were now six lines leading from Vortex #4, all to points that now had names. All six lines headed in the general direction of the point marked as the treasure, but none directly. This map wasn't making anything easy, that was for sure. The names on each dimension this time were stranger than normal. All were combinations of the same five letters. Starting from the left, the names were Et, Cet, Era, Etc, Etc, and Ra. "You know any of those dimensions?" Aahz asked. "No," Tanda said. "You?" "No," Aahz said. "There goes another five percent." Tanda shrugged. "Can't be helped. I suggest we head for the center one." "Etc it is, then," I said. All Aahz did was growl deep inside his throat as he stood and put the map away. "I hope this means we're going back to Vortex #1 again." I said. "Tell me we're not visiting the snakes again." "It would be safer if we hit Bumppp again," she said. "No point in taking the chance." "You can't be serious," I said. Just at the mention of those snakes my stomach clamped up into a knot. She laughed. "Don't worry. From here I can hit Vortex #1. No snakes needed." She made sure Aahz was ready, then we hopped. The dust pounded at me for all of five seconds while Tanda made sure we were there and all right, then she hopped us again right back into the tent of the Shifter. He was now shaped like a sofa with eyes on the arms and pillows where the ears would be. A massive, orange tongue hung out of the face, forming the seating area. From that moment onward, sitting on a sofa was going to take on a whole new meaning for me. "We need the Etc dimension," Tanda said. "Your total is now twenty percent," the creature said, its massive tongue moving as if someone was fluffing the pillows. "We are aware of that," Tanda said. The next moment we found ourselves standing on a wide and, mercifully, empty street. Plain-looking wooden buildings framed both sides of the street. The sky overhead was cloudy and gray, the air was cold and crisp, but at least it wasn't blowing. I was glad I still had our heavy coats and hats on as disguises. I turned slowly around. There was no doubt there were some strange dimensions in this universe. The road seemed to go off into the distance in both directions from where we were standing, framed by exactly the same types of buildings on both sides, all the same height. Each building had a strange shape to it as well, with two doors, and matching windows. There was no way to tell what was on the other side of the buildings, since it was like we were standing in a canyon. I had no idea how anyone living in this place found his or her way home. Every building was exactly like the one it butted against, with no numbers or colors or any kind of distinguishing marks. "Wonder where the people are?" I asked. "Let's check the map and not wait to find out the answer to that," Aahz said as he headed for the side of the street. "Yeah," Tanda said as she looked around, dearly on guard. "I don't like the looks of this." Aahz pulled the map out as he got near the edge of the road and opened it. On the map the dimension we were in was now marked clearly, with only one path leading away from it. Vortex #6 was our next stop. At least we had jumped over Vortex #5 just like we had over #2 and #3. Tanda glanced at the map and shook her head. For a moment I thought Aahz was going to wad the thing up and toss it away, but then he folded it and put it back in his jacket. Suddenly, in the window of the building closest to us, a creature appeared. "We have company," I said softly. Tanda and Aahz both looked up as another creature appeared in the window beside the first one. I glanced around. Every window of every building now had someone standing in it. And every one of them looked exactly alike. Gray suit, gray hair, gray face, two arms. They were all the same shape and same height. And when one of them moved, every other creature I could see moved the same way. "This is creeping me out," Tanda said. The next instant the dust smashed into my face. "Warning next time," Aahz said. "This is Vortex #4," she shouted over the wind. "We're hopping again before the bunnies find us." For an instant there was no dust, then it hit again. I knew this had to be Vortex #1. I mean, with the dust and all, what else could it be? Then we were back in the tent with the Shifter. And right at that moment what I really wanted to do more than anything else was just walk out of the tent and forget this entire thing. "Vortex #6 please," Tanda said to the Shifter, who had lost his couch shape and now looked more like a cross between a cat and a table. "Twenty-five percent." Aahz ground his teeth, the sound filling the tent. "You're making my friend angry by repeating that," I said. Then I realized I had spoken my mind. Tanda hadn't sealed my lips for this visit. Aahz glared at me and I shrugged. "It is a bargain at twice the price," the Shifter said. I was about to tell him that dealing with a Deveel was a bargain as well, but Tananda put her hand over my mouth and spoke to the Shifter. "Vortex #6 please. We have agreed to twenty-five percent total to this point." The Shifter nodded, which looked a lot like a table lifting its leg, then we were back in the dust storm. It seemed like the same dust, and was as hard to walk in as the last two Vortex dimensions. But as we got near the old cabin, I noticed a very large and very important difference. This time there was a light in the window. Someone was home. Chapter Four "Don't pick up hitchhikers!" D. ADAMS The yellow light coming from the cabin window was like a warning sign. We all stopped about twenty paces short of the door and stared through the blowing dust at the light. I know I was annoyed. After using the cabin in two other dimensions, I was starting to feel like it was an extension of home. How dare anyone actually live in it? "Now what do we do?" I shouted to Aahz over the sound of the storm whipping around us. "Anything else close by?" Aahz asked Tanda. His green scales on his face were plastered in dust. I knew for a fact he hated being dirty, and after giving away so much of an as-yet-unfound fortune to a travel guide, or agent, or whatever he had called the Shifter, the dust and wind couldn't be helping his mood any. Tanda shook her head. "No dust bunnies and nothing else I know of. The Shifter only put directions to this place in my mind on the first hop." "So we knock," I said over the wind. Tanda and Aahz seemed to have no other idea, so I slogged through the deep dust to the door and rapped on it. Tanda moved over to my left and Aahz stayed five steps away in the background, his face covered. If I had to, I would disguise him quickly. His green scales and looks tended to frighten a lot of people. The door opened suddenly and I found myself facing a girl. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, dark pants, and had her hair pulled back off her face. She had a smile that lit up her deep brown eyes and warmed every nerve in my body. I figured her to be about my age. Her face brightened when she saw me. "You must be Skeeve," she said. "Come on in. My dad said you'd be along eventually." I stood in the dust, staring at her. In all my life I had never been so surprised at anything anyone said. She knew my name. She had been expecting me. God knew how many dimensions from home and in the middle of a raging dust storm, she had been expecting me! My first thought was to back slowly away before turning and running into the storm. But my legs remained frozen in place, my mind too stunned to even try to reason out anything. "Come on," the girl said. "It's windy out there!" Nothing on me was moving. Tanda finally pushed me forward and the girl stepped back, holding the door for all of us to go inside. If I hadn't known this was the same cabin as we had seen in the other dimensions, I would have never have recognized it. Now it had a wooden floor, the cracks in the walls were all filled, and it was warm and comfortable. There was a table with a bowl of fruit on it, four chairs, and kitchen counter with cabinets on one side of the room. A fire was burning in a baking stove, keeping the cabin comfortable. A bed was against the far wall, with a beautiful blue and gold quilt neatly covering it and a pillow. The young lady didn't seem to be at all surprised to see Aahz, which worried me even more. Pervects tended to scare people, either by their looks or their reputations. I finally managed to find the words I needed to ask. "How do you know me?" "She knows you?" Aahz asked. Clearly he had been too far out in the dust storm to hear her over the blowing wind. The girl laughed and I got even more afraid of her. The laugh was perfect, sort of gentle, yet free and high, like a soft breeze on a summer's afternoon. The exact laugh I would expect from a young lady as beautiful as she was, yet never got, at least from the few I had met. "I doesn't really know him," she said, again laughing. "At least not in the traditional sense, or any other sense for that matter. Although I must say, I wouldn't mind, if you know what I mean." I had no idea what she meant. I wanted to ask just how many senses of 'know' there were, but figured I'd wait to do that later. Aahz snorted and Tanda laughed. She went on. "My father said I should expect a young, good-looking man named Skeeve to come here. I just assumed you were Skeeve, since you are the first person to visit this place in the two weeks I've been here." I think I was staring at her, stunned. At least that was how it felt. I didn't know her and I had no idea who her father might be. She smiled at me and then turned to Tananda. "You must be the one Skeeve was traveling with before," she said. "Don't worry. I've taken care of the dust bunnies. You know, don't you, that they're completely invisible to guys." Then she glanced at Aahz and frowned slightly. "But I don't know you and your connection to this, big guy" I was so shocked, I couldn't say anything. She had called Aahz 'big guy,' and knew I had traveled with Tanda. No one said anything. Clearly Tanda and Aahz were shocked as well. From what Tanda had said, we were a lot of dimensions away from our homes. Yet in the middle of a dust storm, in a strange dimension, we had found someone waiting for us. Someone who knew my name. "Cat's got your tongues, I see," she said, laughing. She turned around and motioned that we should sit down at the table. "I bet you're getting hungry by now, after all the dimension-hopping you've been doing." I wanted to ask why she thought a cat had my tongue, and how she knew what we had been doing, then decided against asking that, in exchange for what I thought was a better question. "Are you a Shifter?" Again she laughed, the wonderful sound filling the cabin and blending in with the faint crackling of the fire in the oven. "Not hardly. But my father said you might be getting a little tired of their costs by now. How much of the treasure have you given away so far? Thirty-five percent? Forty percent?" "Only twenty-five percent," I said. Then it dawned on me that she knew about the treasure as well. And that we had been negotiating with the Shifters. How much did she know, and how did she know it? Aahz gave me a stern look and I shrugged. He always thought I talked too much, and clearly this was one of those times he just might be right. "Wow, you must be a great negotiator," she said, smiling at me. "Not hardly," Tanda said, moving over and sitting down at the table. Aahz and I did the same. "So you know our friend Skeeve here," Tanda said. "Could you please tell us what your name is, and how you know him?" The girl smiled at me, holding my gaze in her beautiful brown eyes. "My name is Glenda. My father sold Skeeve the map you are using to search for the golden cow." Glenda turned back to the counter and opened a cabinet that contained what looked to be a freshly baked loaf of bread. Tanda glared and me and I just shrugged. I had told her and Aahz everything that had happened when I bought the map. This young lady had been nowhere around That much I was sure of. I would have remembered seeing her. Now I was even more confused. Why had the guy who sold me the map sent his daughter here to meet us? For what reason? "So the map was a scam after all," Aahz said, scowling at her, "and you've been waiting here to collect something from us. Is that it?" Glenda laughed and smiled at Aahz. "The cynic of the group, I see." Then she smiled at me again. I smiled right back at her. "He does tend to look at what could go wrong a lot." "He would make a great lawyer," she said. I wanted to ask what a lawyer was, but just nodded instead. She turned to look directly at Aahz. "No, I assure you that, as far as I know, or anyone knows, the map is real." "So what are you doing here, then?" Tanda asked. Glenda shrugged. "My father thought you might need some help about now. And when my father told me about Skeeve after he bought the map, I thought he might be cute. I was right." I think I blushed from the ends of my toes to the top of my head. Luckily the only thing visible to her was my face. Aahz snorted even louder, an ugly sound that seemed to just hang in the warm cabin like a bad smell. "Why would your father think we need help?" Tanda asked. Glenda went back to cutting the fresh bread as she answered. "Because no one has ever made it past this point before, and returned alive." "Ohhhhh," Aahz said, "now I understand. Your father keeps selling the map over and over and your job is to get it back." "Actually, he's tired of selling it," Glenda said. "And getting it back has never been a problem. He usually just pops in here every spring and takes it off the bodies." The faint crackling of the fire and the wind against the eaves of the cabin were the only noises. I didn't want to think about the fact that a map I had carried around for a week had been on dead bodies. "Why does that happen?" Tanda asked, but I noticed that she wasn't really putting as much anger into her voice as before. Glenda smiled at her. "You're the one with the ability to dimension-hop. You tell me." Tanda's eyes seemed to fade out for a moment, then she looked up at Glenda and said softly, "We're too far away from any place I know, including the last place we jumped to." "Exactly," Glenda said, putting the cut bread on the table in front of us. "The Shifters have done that to six groups of treasure-seekers that my father sold the map to. Vortex #6, this place, is just too far from any known dimension, and any other dimension on the map, for almost anyone but the most traveled dimension-hopper. And until I fixed this cabin up a few weeks ago, there was nothing here but a shell of old logs." "We would have starved to death," I said. "Given time, you would have starved, or jumped to some other dimension and gotten lost," Glenda said, pulling out the chair and sitting down beside me. "My father tracked two groups with the map who did that. Both met very ugly ends at the hands of creatures they never should have faced." My memory of the snakes was clear enough to understand exactly what she was saying. She took a piece of the wonderful-smelling fresh bread and bit into it, never taking her gaze from mine. "And your price to rescue us is...?" Aahz asked. I glanced at him. Typical Aahz, always leading with the pocketbook first. Glenda smiled at my green-scaled mentor. "What's your name?" she asked. "Aahz," he said. "And you haven't answered my question yet." "I want to go with you," she said. "And for helping you find the golden cow and getting us all back to a dimension near the Bazaar at Deva, I want the same share as each of you are getting, after paying off the Shifter." It still wasn't making sense. "So why haven't you just gone after the cow on your own, before now?" "Honestly," she said, looking directly into my eyes while answering, "my father thought you, Skeeve, were the first one he had ever sold the map to that had a chance of actually getting to the cow." "You didn't answer his question either," Aahz said. "And why should we give you such a large share of the treasure?" She laughed. "Besides getting you out of this place? This is only one of the problems you face. My father tried a number of times to go the distance before he sold the map the first time, but he always had to turn back. There are many problems ahead. I know what they are. You need me." "And your father thinks Skeeve can make it?" Tanda asked. I would have been unhappy with the sound of disbelief in Tanda's voice if I didn't feel exactly the same way. Glenda reached over and touched my hand on the table. Electric shocks went up my arm and I am sure my face again turned a bright shade of red. I couldn't even begin to think about moving my hand away from hers. And I didn't want to. She was doing things to me I had only dreamed about, all with a single touch of her hand. "My father has the ability to see the true nature of people," Glenda said, "and their true strengths." She rubbed the top of my hand and it was everything I could do to not let out a long, loud sigh. "If he thinks Skeeve can get to the golden cow and win over the problems that lie ahead, then I believe in Skeeve as well." I just smiled at Aahz, giving him my widest grin. In all our time together, I had never seen him look so disgusted. It felt wonderful. And so did Glenda's hand on mine. Okay, so there was tension in the small cabin. Lots of it, of all kinds. I have to admit that having a girl my age along on this crazy quest sounded just fine by me. Especially one that thought I was special without really knowing me, and could make my entire body tingle at the touch of a hand. I liked the advantage of that. With her, I didn't have any past mistakes to climb over or make up for. Aahz and Tanda, on the other hand, weren't so certain about taking Glenda along and cutting her in on the possible prize. And that wasn't good tension at all. And since none of us knew her, there was that tension as well. But the way I figured it, there really wasn't much choice. Tanda couldn't hop us back to any dimension she knew of. It was just too far, and we didn't dare just risk hopping dimensions trying to get close enough. We would end up lost, or more likely dead from something like those snakes or creepy identical-people on that street. We needed Glenda. And besides, I wanted her along. It would be fun getting to know her. "So now there's four of us," I said, smiling across the table at Glenda and ignoring the scowls coming from my mentor. "Great," Glenda said. "You won't regret it." I doubted I would either. "We split the treasure four ways," Aahz said, making the deal clear. "After the Shifter's part is taken out," I reminded him. "Yeah, after the Shifter's twenty-five percent." He almost spat the last few words of the sentence as he glared at Tanda. "There'll still be more than enough for everyone," Glenda said as she offered everyone some fresh bread. "If we can get to the golden cow and make it ours." I took a large piece and them some of the wonderful apple jelly she had on the table. After one bite I knew that fresh bread and jelly was the best-tasting thing I remembered having in a long, long time. It more than melted in my mouth as it turned my taste-buds into a wonderful world of flavors. Man, if Glenda could make all the food she cooked do that, I was never leaving her side. After we were all eating-and I noticed that even Tanda and Aahz enjoyed the bread-Glenda looked at me. "Dig out the map and let's figure out where we're headed next." I pointed to Aahz. "I'm letting the big guy carry it." I thought Aahz would choke on the bread. Tanda laughed, and the tension in the room eased a little. Aahz took out the map and unfolded it on the table. Glenda moved around so that she stood beside Tanda. I scooted over to get a better look as well. Again the map had changed. No surprise there. We were on Vortex #6, which was now clearly highlighted on the map. There were four lines from our dimension headed to four different places. I didn't like the sounds of the four dimensions at all. Febrile was the one on the right, Hostile the next one, Durst the next, and Molder the farthest left. Tanda shook her head. "I don't know any of them." "Neither do I," Aahz said. "No way that you could," Glenda said. "They are even farther removed from Deva than this place." She glanced at me to make sure I was listening, then pointed to Febrile. "That place's coolest temperature is over one hundred and twenty. We wouldn't last five minutes there." "Nice that the map designer put it on the map," I said. "Traps," she said. "The Cartograms loved to make these sorts of things." "Cartograms?" I asked. She gave me another of her wonderful smiles. "They are an entire race who explore and map dimensions, and any time they find a treasure, they do one of these treasure maps to the location of the treasure, and then sell the map." "I'd heard about them," Tanda said. "Never bothered to buy a map from one of them, though." "They have booths in the Bazaar at Deva," Aahz said. "Never had the need to use their services." "Did they do the map on the wall in the Shifter's tent?" I asked. Glenda nodded. "I'd bet that any kind of map that shows different dimensions was done by a Cartogram. Every treasure map they do is magik and often contain puzzles and traps just like this one." "Good to know," I said, glancing at Aahz. It was clear he hadn't known about the traps when we started out after this golden cow. My mentor just frowned at me. Glenda went on. She pointed at the dimension with the name Hostile. "We don't even want to think about going there. Makes Febrile look cool." Aahz nodded. Glenda pointed to the next one. "Durst no longer exists. Something destroyed the entire dimension thousands of years ago." "That leaves Molder," I said. "What's it like?" "Only been there for a few moments with my father, tracking what happened to this map three buyers ago," Glenda said, shaking her head. "It's a dark, damp place where everything always seems to be changing. Even the ground seems to grow and move under your feet." "So tell me," Tanda said to Glenda. "You've gone after this treasure with your father, and seen others do it. You must know the path at least a few steps ahead. Why can't we just jump over this step. Don't you know where the map will lead us?" I had to admit that Tanda had a good point there. It would sure be a lot easier. Glenda sighed, and even the sigh was a wonderful sound to my ears. She could sigh at me all she wanted. "I wish I could," Glenda said. "The map is magik," Aahz said. "It's never the same. Right?" "Exactly," Glenda said. "Except for going through these Vortex locations at one point or another, the map changes the correct path with every user, and every attempt." "Hmmm." Aahz said, staring at the piece of parchment. "Too bad we can't just take the magik out of the map and have it tell us the only true path to the dimension with the golden cow." That gave me an idea. It was so simple it was probably stupid, so I didn't say anything aloud. Still, the thought kept rattling around in my head as the others continued their conversation. What if I tapped into the magikal energy of the map, just like I did with the energy lines when I was casting a spell? Wouldn't that draw off the magik? I made myself relax, then reached out with my mind and touched the map Aahz was holding, working at absorbing energy as I did. At first nothing happened. Then the parchment began to tremble and an energy line sprang into being, running from the map to me. It was a cool, tingly sensation, but strong, almost too strong, and getting stronger and stronger. I quickly opened up, letting the energy channel through me and into the ground, just as Aahz had taught me in some of our earliest lessons. "What the..." Aahz exclaimed, letting go of the map. Instead of falling, it hovered in midair. "Skeeve!" Tanda shouted, but I ignored her, keeping my attention on what I wanted to happen. Finally the energy flow slowed and ebbed until it was merely a trickle. I released my mental contact, and the parchment fluttered to the floor. "Try looking at it now," I said. All three of them were looking at me as if I had suddenly grown another head. "Someone want to explain to me what just happened?" Glenda said, taking her gaze away from me to look back at the map. Aahz frowned as he did the same. Tanda laughed. "Master Magician Skeeve here just solved a whole bunch of our problems." I stared at the map, not believing what I was seeing. Now there was only one line from Vortex #6 to Molder, then a line from Molder to Vortex #5, then a line to a dimension called Baasss, then a line back to here, Vortex #6, then one final line to our cow dimension. And the cow dimension now had a name. Kowtow. We could jump directly from here to Kowtow. Glenda laughed and gave me the best hug I could ever remember. Her entire body pressed into mine, and I tingled in more places than I ever wanted to admit. "My father was right," she said as she squeezed me even harder. "You really are special." The sound of Aahz snorting didn't take away one bit of my enjoyment of the moment. Chapter Five "That's wild!" J. WEST "What kind of name is Kowtow?" I asked, pointing at our destination on the map after Glenda released me from the hug of the century. No one answered me. "How did you do that?" Glenda asked, staring at me. "I've never heard of anyone taking the magik out of a treasure map before." Her beautiful brown eyes were huge and there was a look of what I took to be slight worry. Then I realized that what I was seeing wasn't worry. She was in awe of me. And havin