g someone in awe of me was not a circumstance that often happened. "Honestly," I said to her, "I'm not sure." "Why is that no surprise?" Aahz said, his eyes rolling in disgust. "Aahz said something about taking the magik out of the map," I said, going on, explaining to her what had happened while ignoring Aahz, "So I gave it a try. I tapped into its energy like I would a force line and just let it flow through me and into the ground. That's all I did. Honest." Tanda looked as if she understood, but was saying nothing. "The vortex dimensions are known to be powerful places for magik," Glenda said. "That's why no one lives here very long." "So while we're here," Aahz said, glaring at me, "be careful!" I pointed at the map. "What? Didn't I help?" "I think you did," Tanda said. "Glenda, do you know this Kowtow dimension? Or do we have to go back to the Shifter to get there?" Aahz moaned at the mention of the Shifter. "I've been there a number of times," Glenda said. "Never thought of it as a place with a great treasure, though." "Are there cattle there?" Aahz asked. "More than you could ever imagine," Glenda said. "So our next adventure," I said, smiling at Glenda, "is finding a single cow in a proverbial haystack of cows." A puzzled frown came over her face, telling me clearly she had no idea what I had just said, and since I had no idea what a cow looked like, I didn't want to try to explain a haystack of them to her. "What our young friend there was trying to say," Tanda added, "is that if there are a lot of cows, how are we going to find the one that gives golden milk?" Glenda shrugged. "I have no idea. No one has ever gotten this far with this map before. It would have never occurred to me that the map led to Kowtow." Aahz wasn't adding anything, so I figured it was safe to say what I was thinking. "Wouldn't a cow that gave golden milk live in a golden palace?" Again they just all three stared at me. "More than likely," Tanda said, nodding slowly. Silence again filled the small cabin. At that point I figured it was better to just eat more bread and leave the thinking up to them. After an hour of planning and talking, at Aahz's suggestion, Glenda dimension-hopped us to Kowtow, to a location isolated enough that we wouldn't be seen by anyone. He figured that way we would have time for me to get us in disguises so that we looked like the local residents. Before we hopped, Aahz made real sure that either Glenda or Tanda could hop back to this cabin. And he had Glenda help him set his D-Hopper so he could as well. It seemed I was the only one who didn't have an emergency getaway. I planned on making sure I was always close to one of them. Preferably Glenda. After the hop, we ended up standing near a large rock cliff face. The air was warm and dry, and the sun was high overhead at the moment. The area around us looked like desert, but the ground sloped away from us down to a lush, green valley. A road came over the hill beside the cliff, wound past where we were, and down the hill to what looked to be a small town built out of wood. From what I could tell there was no building over two stories tall. The buildings seemed to be centered around the main street. "That town is called Evade," Glenda said. "Mostly cowboys and bars." "Cowboys?" I asked. Since I had no idea what a cow looked like, I couldn't imagine what a boy cow would be, or why they would build a town. "Cowboys are men who take care of the cows," Glenda said. "For some reason they're called that in just about every dimension there are cows or cattle." I wanted to ask her what a woman who took care of cows was called. "In this dimension," Glenda said, "the cowboys are a strange bunch, let me tell you." Aahz stood, staring at the town in the valley below them. "In what way?" Glenda shrugged. "They seem to treat the cattle almost like they were sacred. They never hurt a cow, they never push a cow too hard, and they always talk nice to the cattle. And they protect them against anything." "Now that is weird," Tanda said. "Why?" I asked. Aahz looked at me with one of his looks that said I was asking too many questions. I knew that look well, since I saw it two or three times a day. "Because, in most dimensions, cows are nothing but food. Here, killing a cow is a hanging offense." "So what do these cowboys look like?" I asked. For once, courtesy of my earlier adventures, I knew what a hanging offense was. In fact, I knew about it intimately enough to not want to dwell on the memory. "Actually, in this dimension, they look a lot like the three of us." Glenda laughed. She glanced at Aahz. "We're going to have to do something about you, though, big boy. They don't know about demons here, let alone Pervects." Aahz said nothing. I think he was just glad she didn't call him a Pervert, as so many did. Suddenly, over the hill behind us, along the road, there was the sound of something coming. Glenda had us move back behind some rocks at the base of the cliff and watch. I made sure I had a pretty good view of the road so that I could disguise us all in the right clothes. A minute later, two men appeared at the top of the rise. They were on horses and were headed slowly down the hill toward the town below. They both were dressed pretty much the same. They had on plaid shirts, jeans-like pants, high boots, and wide belts. Their skin was tan from a long time in the sun, and they wore wide-brimmed brown hats on their heads. One was a little older than the other and both had short hair and mustaches. They rode side-by-side in silence. After they got a distance down the hill, Tanda turned to me. "Get what they look like?" "Easy," I said. Pulling in the energy I needed, I changed all of us into our local disguises. I gave us all black hats, and basically similar plaid shirts. Since I couldn't see beyond the clothes what my magik did when I disguised someone, I glanced at Glenda. "How do we look?" "Perfect," she said. "Even Aahz's tan is red instead of green." "Are we going to need horses?" I asked. "I can't do them." "We might," Glenda said, looking frustrated. "Especially if the golden cow isn't close by. We might have to do some traveling, and, from what I remember, horses are the only means of travel here." "Money?" Aahz asked. "We're going to need money as well." "I don't think so," Glenda said. "This place doesn't use money." I thought Aahz was going to have a heart attack. It was like telling him the sun would never come up again. "So what do they use to trade and buy things with?" Tanda asked, also shocked at the very idea. "Work," Glenda said. "Work is their capital." Now I was just as lost as Aahz and Tanda looked. Glenda went on. "You work for someone when you want something from them. They keep everything on IOU's. So if you want a drink or some food, you sign an IOU and then later you have to work off the debt." "This is a strange place." Glenda agreed and we started off down the hill, four strangers walking into a town full of cowboys. I just hope my disguises worked. Just in case, I stayed real close to Glenda. Not that that was a hardship or anything. The town of Evade was active and primitive. The only street was appropriately enough called Main Street. It was dirt and hardened mud and very rough. It split two rows of wooden buildings with covered wooden sidewalks in front of them. Outside the main street were houses scattered through the farmlands, tucked into groves of strange-looking trees. Music and laughter were coming from a number of the doors along Main Street. Bright-colored signs were over some of the doors, with names like Battlefield, Wild Horse, and Audry's. I had no idea what any of those names meant. Horse-drawn wagons and single horses were tied up on rails along the wooden sidewalks, and the entire town smelled like horse droppings, of which there were some pretty good-sized piles spaced along the road. A man with a white hat and a big shovel was slowly picking up fresh horse leavings and tossing them onto the piles. I wanted to ask him what debt he was trying to pay off, or what he was trying to buy, because whatever it was, the price was too high. When we reached the main area of town we stepped up on the sidewalk on the left side and into the shade. Suddenly I realized just how hot our walk from the cliff had been, and how lucky it was these people wore hats. The sun hadn't seemed that hot at first, after coming from Vortex #6, but now that we were in the shade, I realized how bad it was. We strolled along the wooden sidewalk, trying to look as if we belonged. Of course, in a town that couldn't have more than a few hundred full-time residents, four newcomers stood out like a bad blister in new shoes. "Howdy," the first man we passed said to us. He tipped his hat and just kept right on moving. By the time I tipped my hat back, he was past us. A woman in long skirts and a flower-patterned blouse walked past us a few moments later. "Howdy," she said. I tipped my hat, as did Aahz. She smiled at us, showing some pretty strange-looking teeth. After she was past us I glanced down at my neck to make sure the Translator Pendant that Tanda had given me was still there. It was, but it couldn't be working, because I had no idea what "howdy" meant. I glanced at Tanda who just shrugged. About a quarter of the way up the street into the town we stopped and leaned against a wooden wall and tried to look as if we were relaxed. No one was bothering us, or even paying us much attention. Across the street, high-energy music was coming out of the door labeled Audry's. I could see a number of people through the open door sitting at tables. It looked like a bar or restaurant of some sort. "Now what?" Glenda asked, studying the man in the street who was picking up horse droppings. "We're going to need information," Tanda said. "And we just can't come out and ask for it," I said. Everyone agreed. "We're also going to need horses," Glenda said. "Unless you want to do more walking in this heat." I glanced down the street at the open countryside beyond the limits of the small town. Walking back out into that for any distance would be a very bad idea. We all agreed that we didn't want to do that as well. "Well, we need two things," I said. "Information about the golden cow, and horses to get us to the treasure." "Skeeve and I will try the place across the street," Glenda said. "You two head for another one farther along." "All right," Aahz said, surprising me by agreeing to Glenda's plan. "We meet back in the cabin on Vortex #6 in one hour." I made sure Glenda understood, since she was my ride out of here. Then we stepped into the street, making a wide turn around one of the large piles of horsepoop the guy was collecting. He just smiled at us and said, "Howdy." I tipped my hat at him and he seemed satisfied enough to go back to work. I was right in all fashions about Audry's Place. It was clear as we went through the door that it was both a restaurant and a bar. The bar was wooden and long, stretching the entire length of the left wall as we entered. A hatless guy wearing a white apron stood behind the bar, a rag in his hands. Three of the tables were occupied with a total of ten patrons, all of them eating what looked to be large plates of vegetables. The music was loud and had a pretty good beat to it. It seemed like it was coming from a piano in the back, only there was no one sitting at the piano. Every person in the place glanced up at us as we entered, then went back to eating and talking as if they saw strangers every day and just didn't care. I considered that a good sign. "Howdy, folks," the guy behind the bar said, wiping a spot off the wood surface in front of him. "What's your pleasure?" I had no idea what the guy meant. I sort of understood the words, but standing in the middle of a bar, I sure didn't understand why he was asking me about pleasure. Just a little too personal a question for someone I didn't know. I glanced at Glenda, who seemed confused for a moment as well. Then she indicated I should follow her lead as she stepped toward the guy. Glenda nodded her head at the bartender, sort of like tipping her hat as we reached the wide bar. "A little something to drink, a little food, and a decent way to work off the debt." Clearly it had been the right thing to say, since the guy smiled like he had just hit the jackpot. "Strangers are always welcome in my place," he said, reaching behind him and getting two glasses off the counter on the back wall. He put them on the bar and looked at Glenda, then me. "What'll wet your whistle?" At that moment I was really glad that Glenda was doing the talking. I was fairly certain he was asking what we wanted to drink, but I wasn't totally certain, and I had no idea what he had to offer that could do that to a whistle. "Oh," she said, "whatever you have will be fine with us." The guy grabbed a large bottle of orange liquid and filled both glasses to the top. Then he slid them to the edge of the bar in front of us. "Thank you, kind sir," Glenda said. Again the guy. beamed. "Just grab a seat and I'll rustle you up some of my best grub." At that moment I wanted to bang my translator pendant on the bar to make it work right. "Nothing special," she said, smiling at the guy and winking. He beamed again, his face red as he turned and headed for a back room. It seemed Glenda could charm just about any guy, no matter what dimension. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. She picked up her orange drink, indicated that I do the same, and then headed for a table in the corner, a little ways away from the rest of the patrons. I followed her, taking a chair with my back to the wall so I could see everything going on. After we were both seated I whispered to her, "You can understand him?" She shrugged. "Mostly going with the flow." "So we're going to have to eat grubs," I whispered, "to go with the flow?" I had never eaten a grub, and wasn't excited about having my first now. She laughed and patted my hand. "I think 'grub' means food in this dimension." "Well, that's a relief." "Yeah, isn't it." I took a tentative sip of my drink and damn near spat it all over the table. It wasn't orange juice at all. It tasted like pulped carrots. Sour-tasting carrots. "Interesting," Glenda said after taking a drink. Then she turned to me and made a face that only I could see. She didn't much like it either. I glanced around at the other patrons in the place. Everyone had a glass of the carrot drink in front of them. It looked as if it was the only drink the place served. At that moment the guy came out of the back room carrying two plates. With a smile and a flourish he slid them in front of us. Vegetables. Asparagus, carrots, celery, a few sliced tomatoes, and part of a cucumber, artfully arranged on a bed of what looked like grass. "Wonderful," Glenda said, smiling at the man with her biggest and most alluring smile. "I hope we can find a way to repay you for this feast." The guy had the common decency to blush. "I'm sure we will work something out." At that he beat a hasty retreat to the bar. Fingers seemed to be the preferred method of getting the food from the plate to the mouth, so I picked up one piece of celery and bit into it. It was soft, not fresh, and had a faint taste of horsedung. I hope I managed to swallow it without looking too insulting to anyone who could see me. Glenda tried a piece of cucumber. I could tell it wasn't good either from how slowly she chewed and then forced herself to swallow. "We're in a vegetarian dimension," I whispered as Glenda gave the bartender an okay sign that the food was good. "What do they do with all the cattle you claim are here?" "I have no idea," Glenda whispered. "But if I have to eat or drink any more of this garbage I think I'm going to be sick." "Yeah, me too." "Pretend to eat and I'll see if I can get some answers" she said. She stood and moved over to where the man stood behind bar. I couldn't tell what she was saying, but after a moment he laughed and looked at me as if I were the brunt of a joke. I pretended to bite and chew on a asparagus spear and just smiled back. At that moment Aahz and Tanda came in. They glanced first at Glenda, then saw me and came over and sat down in the other two chairs, their backs to the main part of the room. "Started without us, I see," Tanda said. "Couldn't resist," I said loud enough for the bartender guy to hear. Then I whispered, "This stuff is awful." "What is she doing?" Aahz asked, his voice a barely audible whisper. I pretended to eat a tiny bit of grass, covering my mouth as I answered him. "Getting information. And for heaven's sake, don't order the food. You have any luck?" "None," Tanda said. A few seconds later the bartender pointed down the street in the opposite direction from where we had entered the town. Glenda smiled and came back over. "Horses are sold down at a stable just outside the edge of town," she said. "I told him we'd clean the kitchen for our food and drink." "I wonder what we'll have to do for horses?" Aahz asked, shaking his head. Glenda shrugged and kept pretending to eat. "Besides,", I said. "We don't know where we're going yet." "True," she said. "That's our biggest problem," Aahz said. Suddenly it dawned on me that we should know where we were going. What kind of magik map would simply lead to a dimension without giving directions to the location of the treasure in the dimension? After all, a world was a very large place to be looking for one cow. I had taken the magik out of the map as far as getting to this crazy dimension. But it hadn't occurred to us to check the map once we were here. "Aahz," I whispered. "Check the map." He frowned at me. "Why would I-" He must have had the same thought I had. Maybe, just maybe, the magik was back for local directions. He reached into his pouch and pulled out the parchment Since his back was to the bar, he kept the map in front of him so no one else in the place could see it. Then, slowly, he opened it It was instantly clear to me, as I pretended to love a hunk of cucumber, that the map had again changed. It was no longer a dimension map, but now a map of Kowtow. The customers closest to us finished off their veggie plate and got up to leave. That left only two other tables and the guy behind the bar. And at the moment he wasn't looking. "Open it all the way and see where we are," Glenda said. "It's clear." Aahz, much to his credit, didn't turn around to check to see if she was right. He simply opened the map and spread it out over our plates of bad food. No one paid any attention. The golden cow palace was marked on the map. Well, at least we knew where that was. Evade, the town we were in now was also marked. The road between them was marked as the lines between dimensions had been marked. There were a lot of other towns along the way, and one thing was very, very clear. We were still a long way from the golden cow. Glenda studied the map hard, almost as if she were memorizing it. "See anything that will help?" Tanda asked. "If we go back to Vortex #6 I can get us a lot closer." "Thank heavens," I said. "Don't be thanking anyone yet," she said, staring at the map. "It's still going to be too far to walk." Aahz folded up the map, put it back in his pouch, and stood. "Tanda and I will go find a secluded place to hop back," he whispered, leaning forward so only the three of us could hear him. "Think you two can get out of here without being noticed?" "Easy," Glenda said. "See you there," Tanda said, standing and moving toward the front door. After we had pretended to eat more of our lunch, pushing the stuff into a pile on one side of the plate like I used to do as a kid, Glenda got up and went back over to the guy behind the bar. I kept pretending, wishing the stuff tasted good, since the idea of eating had made me hungry. After a moment the guy in charge nodded to Glenda, smiling as if she had promised him more than I wanted to think about. She motioned that I should join her and I did, carrying our plates. The guy led us through the door and into what might be called a kitchen. There were barrels of the different veggies against one wall, and some dirty plates and glasses stacked near a water barrel. No wonder everything tasted so bad. I didn't want to even think about the fact that I had eaten a bite of some of the stuff from this room. "Wash water is in the barrel," he said. He tossed me a dirty towel. "Dry the dishes before wiping down everything else." Glenda put her hand on his shoulder and eased him around toward the door. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll get everything all cleaned up." "I know you will," he said. The guy was more putty in her hands than I was, and for some reason that thought just annoyed me. He went back out through the door and Glenda turned to face me. "Well, handsome, my father was right. You are special." I could feel myself blushing. "Thanks." "No, thank you," she said, "for everything. In all the years of trying to find the silly treasure on that map, I never thought I'd know exactly where it was at." "Well, now we do, and we can get there pretty soon," I said. "Jump us back to Vortex #6." She smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, my prince in a white hat. Maybe next time." With a slight wave and a kiss motion, she vanished in a slight POOF! "That's not funny," I shouted, staring at where she had been. The guy came in, looking puzzled. "What's not funny? And where is your beautiful friend?" I glanced around, then pointed at the back door. "I told her I'd get started on the dishes. She'll be right back, I'm sure." "Good," he said. "Let me know when she returns. She said she had a surprise for me." He headed back out into the main room, leaving me standing there alone in a strange kitchen. In a strange dimension. It seemed he wasn't the only one Glenda had planned a surprise for. Chapter Six "Alone again...naturally." R. CRUSOE Now I have to admit that my first reaction after Glenda left me standing there in that restaurant kitchen was to scream and shout and call out her name, along with Aahz and Tanda's names. Screaming would have covered up the panic I felt, but I knew for a fact that screaming would have done no good. But I still wanted to, more than anything. I didn't. My second reaction was to run like crazy out the back door, but then I would be a wanted man for skipping out on the lunch bill, and considering I might be stuck here for some time, I managed to not run either. But I sure wanted to. The third reaction I had was to go into automatic to give my poor mind time to sort through what had just happened. That was as good as anything I could do, so I turned and started washing off the dishes, dumping the garbage in a big pail, and dipping the plates enough in the dirty barrel water that they pretended to be clean. I could imagine that on the outside I looked calm and collected, but on the inside I was a mess. "Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic," I kept saying to myself, timing the phrase with deep breaths and the dipping of the dishes in the water. Finally I got myself under enough control to ask a few questions. Why had she left me? No easy answer. At least none that I wanted to really admit, yet there was nothing else that made sense. She had left. That simple. She had seen the location of the golden cow treasure and that was the last thing she needed from me or Aahz or Tanda. On the first opportunity she had headed off on her own. Leaving me alone in a kitchen in a strange dimension. "Don't panic," I said to myself, dipping more dishes. I dumped more half-eaten food into the bucket, dipped another plate, and asked the next question. Had I been a fool? The answer to that one came clearly in Aahz's voice. Yes. He would also say it was nothing new or unusual. She had played me, and Aahz and Tanda, like a finely tuned musical instrument, using my heart and my emotions as the strings. "What a fool," I said aloud. There was no one in there to agree with me, but I didn't need anyone to agree. I knew I had been a fool. I scraped, dipped, and went on to the next question. What do I do now? I had no idea. Nothing. I was stuck here for the moment. Maybe forever if something happened to Aahz and Tanda, or if they couldn't find me. The thought made me panic, so I kept washing dishes. After a few minutes the guy came back in with more dirty plates. He was clearly disappointed that Glenda was not back yet, but he said nothing. He put the plates down and then left. I dumped the awful food and dipped the plates, doing my best to keep calm. But pretty soon I was out of dishes to wash. I used the dirty rag to wipe off all the plates and stack them, then I wiped off the counter as well. After I was done I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I went back out to the bar. "My friend came in a few minutes ago," I said. He looked as if he might cry, so I went quickly on with my lie. "She said she will be back in about an hour with your surprise." That brightened him right up again. "You want to check what I have done back there?" "Nope," he said, smiling. "Everything is even with you as far as I'm concerned." "Great grub you got here," I said, patting my stomach and then tipping my hat. "Thanks, partner," he said, smiling and showing me the same ugly-looking teeth the woman had. "Anytime. You come back now, ya hear?" "Sure will," I said, and headed out into the street. The sun was still cooking the hard center of the street, so I stayed on the sidewalk, tipping my hat and saying "Howdy" to anyone who passed me. The guy with the shovel must have finished cleaning up the street, leaving only the big piles of horse droppings as evidence of his work. It hadn't been much longer than fifteen minutes since Glenda had left me, even though it felt like an eternity. There was no sign of her or Aahz or Tanda. I kept moving, fighting down the desire to shout out Aahz's name. And the desire to just run. I didn't know where I would run, but for some reason running was a massive desire. I reached the edge of town and stood on the last board of the covered sidewalk looking up the road that wound toward the cliff where we had hopped into this dimension. I was sure Tanda and Aahz would come back for me. Unless, of course, Glenda had done something to them on Vortex #6. I didn't want to think about that. If that happened, I was going to be stuck right here for a very long time. There was no sign of anyone on the road coming down the hill. I turned and headed back up the sidewalk, doing my "Howdy" bit to anyone who passed, with the hit-tipping routine added in. When I reached the other end of town and the end of the shaded sidewalk, I stared off into the distance to where the road vanished into some low hills. Then I turned around and started back. At the moment there was nothing else left for me to do. I managed to walk the entire length of the town six times before I decided that my behavior might attract attention I didn't want. When I reached the end of the sidewalk again, on the end of town where we had first entered, I sat down with my back to the wall. Overhead the sun was slowly dropping. It didn't look like it would be more than a few hours before it set. Then what would I do? I didn't have a clue. The question as to why Aahz and Tanda hadn't come back for me yet bothered me a lot. I figured that with my washing dishes and pacing the length of the town, a good two hours had gone by. The pacing had helped me some, allowing me to work off some of the panic and fear. For the moment it felt as if my mind was working pretty clear again, and I was proud of myself for how well I had done so far. I just hoped I would have a chance to tell Aahz and Tanda and let them be proud of me. I stared out at the empty road. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck on a vegetarian planet with some weird, hat-tipping people who didn't believe in money. Down the street a couple people looked at me, seeming almost shocked because I was sitting on the sidewalk. I stood, tipped my hat at them, and leaned against the building instead. They smiled as if I were now suddenly all right, and went about their business. For the next few minutes I stared out at the empty road leading off toward the rock cliffs, trying to decide what to do. Should I walk back up there or stay right where I was? What would I do if I got to the cliff face and they weren't there, which was likely? It would be almost dark by then and I would have to spend the night out in the wild. And, for some reason, that idea didn't sit well. And what would I do if they never came back here? Should I head for the city with the golden cow in it? I remembered enough from the map that the city's name was Dodge. I could work my way there, given time. I'd make that decision if Aahz and Tanda didn't come back, Right now I just needed to make sure Aahz and Tanda could find me when they did get here. This little town was where they had left me; this was where I was going to stay. At least for the immediate future, however long that might be. If Glenda had managed to do something awful to Aahz and Tanda, I would face that problem later. Much later. And somehow make sure Glenda paid for her sins. With one last look at the empty road, I turned and headed back to Audry's. At least there I could sit in the window and watch the street without being obvious. The music was still coming from what looked like a piano, even though the place was empty. The guy behind the bar smiled at me, then frowned when Glenda didn't follow me in the door. I decided I needed to have him on my side. I walked up to the bar. "Has my friend been back here yet?" "No," he said. "You ain't found her?" There was instant worry in his question. "Haven't seen her since I left here earlier," I said. "Been walking the length of your fine town looking for her." "I was a wonderin' what you were doin'," he said. "Can't imagine what might have happened to her, though. The full moon is still a few days off, so the round-up couldn't have taken her. At least not yet." I desperately wanted to ask him what the full moon had to do with anything, and what a round-up was, but he said both so matter-of-factly that I knew I would blow my cover if I asked. "Yeah, couldn't be that." I said instead. "She was askin' about horses," he said. "Maybe she got one and headed down the road?" I shook my head. "I checked. She didn't. Mind if I just sit over there and wait?" "Not at all," he said, reaching down and grabbing a glass. Before I could think of a reason to stop him that sounded good, he poured me another glass of the carrot juice. "On me," he said, sliding the glass toward me across the bar. "Just tell your friend when you see her that she still owes me a surprise." "Oh, trust me," I said. "When she promises a surprise, she always pays off." He didn't know how truthful that statement was. He beamed at that and I took my glass of juiced carrots and went over and sat down so I could see out the window. The shadows were growing long and the heat was leaving the main street of Evade. It looked as if the nights in this area were pretty chilly. I was glad I hadn't decided to go up to the cliffs just for that reason. Let alone whatever a round-up was. I took a sip of the carrot juice just to quench my thirst, than sat back and watched the few people still out on the street. They all seemed to have tasks and walked purposefully, tipping their hats to each other. An hour later I had managed to sip down almost half a glass of the juice. My bartender friend was looking a little worried, and the shadows were almost completely across the street. I figured there wasn't much more than a half-hour until sunset. "I'm afraid I got to close up, you know," he said finally after pacing back and forth a few times near the bar. "You got a place to bunk for the night?" I assumed bunk meant sleep, so I said, "No, haven't given it much thought." He looked shocked. It was as if I'd told him I'd killed his mother. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, but no words came out. One of the main buildings right in the center of town had a sign on it that said Hotel Evade, so I tried to cover. "Just figuring on stopping in the hotel. Sure hope they got rooms, now that you mention it." He looked relieved. "I'm sure they do," he said. "That's the law." He laughed and I laughed with him, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. "Thanks for the drink," I said, sliding the glass across the table to him and standing. "I guess it is getting dark enough for me to get going." The promise of me leaving had him back to his old happy self. "I'm sure your friend will get inside all right," he said, "Maybe she's already at the hotel. When you see her tomorrow, bring her by here for breakfast." "It'll be my pleasure," I said. "And your surprise." He laughed. I laughed. Then I stepped out onto the sidewalk. He slammed and latched the door behind me, bolting it as if a thousand thugs were going to try to break it down. Then the shutters on the inside of the window closed. The shadows were long on the street and there wasn't a person in sight anywhere. Every window was shuttered, every door closed. The sound of music that had come from a few different establishments was now replaced by the silence of the coming darkness. My stomach started to clamp up, not from the little bit of carrot juice, but from worry. Something very major happened at night on this dimension. I didn't know what it might be, but it was something that made this town bolt its doors and get off the street before the sun went down. And if I was smart, I would do the same thing. I walked to the end of town and looked up the road toward the rock cliffs. In the fading light there wasn't a soul on the road. Finding Aahz and Tanda would have to wait until tomorrow. But I had a feeling that, with every hour, finding them was going to become less and less likely. I turned and headed down the sidewalk toward the hotel. The door was closed and shutters were covering the windows, but when I pounded a very nice woman behind the desk let me in. She didn't ask for anything, or even suggest something I could do to pay for my room. She just said it was lucky I got it when I did, then showed me a comfortable room on the second floor with a window that was bolted dosed and the shutters drawn tight. There was a bed, a small water basin on a dresser, and an indoor toilet down the hall. I thanked her and she went away. I checked to see if I could open the shutters, but they were secured solidly. Whatever was going to happen tonight, I wasn't going to be able to see it from this window. I lay down on the fairly comfortable bed, not even bothering to take off my clothes. Images of Tanda and Aahz floated through my mind. If Glenda had done something to them on Vortex #6 there wasn't a darn thing I could do to help. I was stuck here, without the ability to hop dimensions, in a world where everyone ate vegetables and was afraid to go out at night. Even though there wasn't a sound from outside, it was a very long and sleepless night in that little room. Chapter Seven "You can't go home again." PRINCESS LEIA At the first sign of light through the shutters, I went downstairs. The sun was barely up, the shadows still long in the street, yet the front door to the hotel was wide open and all the shutters on the windows had been retracted. These people didn't like the night, that was for sure. I desperately wanted to ask them what they were afraid of, but there just wasn't a way to ask the question without giving away the fact that I didn't belong here, in this dimension. And at the moment I had enough problems to face without bringing more down on my head. Aahz had always told me to solve one thing at a time. The problem I had right now was that I wasn't sure I could solve any of my problems. I went down the street to Audry's, tipping my hat to the guy with the shovel who was back in the street picking up after the horses. My old bartender friend and employer from yesterday had the door to Audry's open and the shutters retracted. I was the first customer. "Didn't find her, huh?" he asked as I entered. "She must have got sidetracked and stayed with a friend," I said. "She'll show up pretty soon, I bet." He winked. "Yeah, pretty women can lose track of time." I didn't want to think about how he came up with that. I had decided about halfway through the night that I was so hungry, I could even eat old veggies. "Mind if I have a small breakfast and a glass of your wonderful beverage?" "You bet," he said, pouring me some of the carrot juice. I looked at the glass of orange liquid. Given enough time I might actually only loathe the stuff. "You're lucky this morning," he said. "Just got a fresh wagon-load of the best from the fields." "Terrific," I said. He vanished back into the kitchen and I took up my seat at the window, taking a sip of the juice. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it from yesterday, but I was sure that was because I was another day hungry. From my seat at the table I could see the entire street and all the activity along a part of it. If Aahz and Tanda came down the Main Street, I'd know it. The bartender brought me a small plate of veggies that were actually hard and fresh. I was shocked and managed to eat them all over the next three hours, plus finish the entire glass of carrot juice. Surprisingly enough, after that I was no longer hungry. But I was a lot more worried about ever seeing Aahz and Tanda again. After another hour I decided that I was going to head back up to the cliffs. I offered to wash the plates and clean up the kitchen to pay for my breakfast, but my bartender friend told me to come back later, have some dinner, and do it then. I agreed, hoping I'd never see him or his kitchen again. It took just over an hour in the mid-day heat to walk up the road to where we had first arrived in this dimension. I didn't meet anyone on the road, and the air was so hot and silent near the cliffs, it felt as if I was walking through my own tomb. I shook myself off and tried not to let my thoughts go to the dark side of this. I moved over to the rocks where we had hidden to watch the two guys go by. My head was sweating under my hat so that when I reached the shade near the cliff I took