a hundred other corruption-sniffing projects we turned down every day. 'Bunny gets the final vote on whether we take a job or not.'
Aahz waved a hand. 'We'll let her know after we see the place, partner,' he said.
I could see that he was hooked. All I could do was tag along and hope I could spot pitfalls before we both fell in them.
'Watch the office,' I told my dragon.
'Gleep!' he said. It was both farewell and warning.
'You always have to read the fine print.'
We transferred silently from the dusty, sunlit office into instant and total blackness. In my mind's eye, I could see plenty of force lines arching overhead and deep underground, below my feet. They were all shapes and sizes, from thin and spindly threads of lilac up to a surging, shining black torrents. I reached tentatively toward a long, snaky blue force line. When it didn't burn me, I drew some power from it. I had learned through bitter experience that if you didn't grab every opportunity to refill your internal magikal supply, you'd find yourself short at the most inconvenient moment. I took some of the power into my hand and formed it into a ball of light. I held up my impromptu torch and looked around.
We were in a narrow chamber of pale tan stone with a flat tan ceiling. Each wall had been deeply carved with tiny pictures that seemed to dance in the wavering light of my spell. The air smelled musty but cool.
'Where are we?' Aahz asked.
'This is the tomb of Waycross,' Samwise explained, pointing to a large image incised into the wall just above our heads. 'All visitors have to come through here the first time.
And ... they like me to enter the dimension this way. I don't exactly know why.—There's the old boy himself.'
I lifted the light to illuminate the portrait. Waycross had the face of a turtle. The beady eyes looked disapproving. When I shifted to get away from its gaze, the eyes seemed to follow me, even though they were pointed toward each other.
'He originated that phrase about looking at someone cross-eyed,' Samwise explained. 'He's reputed to have had a really bad temper, so no one ever did anything without his oversight. And he overlooked a lot, I gotta tell you. Shoddy construction in most of his projects, especially this one. This was supposed to be on a gridwork pattern, six storeys high, but it isn't. Don't worry. We'll get out eventually.'
'Don't you have a map?' I asked.
Samwise shrugged. 'It doesn't help. The rooms move around by themselves. No one anchored them where they were. Cost-cutting. You won't find that on my projects. You just keep on walking toward the light.' That startled me. Samwise waved a hand. 'It's not like a near-death experience. If you see the light, you're actually getting closer to the outside. When you find an open window or a door, hang onto it.
That's the easiest way out. No one ever died in here unless they panicked. Well, almost no one. Come on. There's almost always an opening off the Grand Gallery.'
Just a few feet beyond the looming portrait, a long corridor stretched off into blackness. The walls here, too, were covered with incised designs.
'What's all this?' I pointed to the carvings.
'Tourist rules,' Samwise explained. 'Ghordon has strict regulations. 'Don't cheat the Ghords, lest you suffer a dire curse. Don't spit on public roads, or a dire curse will follow you. Do not make unwelcome advances to fellow guests in drinking establishments, under pain of dire curse.' You know. Don't worry about reading them. I've been here for years, and no one has ever tried to enforce any of them on me. I get along great with everybody. Come on.'
I peered closely at the minute figures of men in skirts, birds, dogs, lions, and deer and frowned. My facility with spoken languages didn't stretch to written lingo. If I had to, we could hire a local interpreter to translate the rules.
We trudged along. The corridor was wide enough for us to walk abreast. The smell of cool stone and ancient sweat made my nostrils twitch.
'Say, Samwise, where'd you get the name?' Aahz asked suddenly.
The Imp waved a hand. 'My mother read the classics.'
'Tough break,' Aahz said sympathetically, but there was a big grin on his face. 'Hope you don't feel hobbited by it.' I didn't know why the name struck him as funny. I made a mental note to ask later.
'There's one,' Samwise said, ignoring Aahz's jibe. I looked up. A square of brilliant blue light beckoned. 'Hurry. It's already shifting sideways.'
Indeed it was. The blue square started to narrow as the room to which it was attached ground to the left. I rushed toward it, my long legs eating up the distance faster than my two shorter companions.
By the time I reached it, the portal had narrowed to a rectangle.
'What do I do?' I shouted.
'Hang onto it!' Samwise shouted back.
I braced my hands against either side of the open window. The heat from outside slammed into me like a charging bull. I gasped. The wall continued to shift sideways, carrying the window and the room with it toward the corner. I hopped up into the casement and shoved my feet against the oncoming wall. The room didn't like having an obstruction in its way. It slammed against the bottoms of my feet a few times, trying to dislodge me so it could move. Samwise and Aahz hurried toward me.
'Hurry!' I yelled.
'Hang in there, partner,' Aahz called.
I summoned up all the magik force I was carrying, but I wasn't strong enough to argue with an ancient stone wall. It kicked me loose. I landed on the ground, groaning. The room shifted out of sight, leaving us in darkness. I summoned up another ball of light.
'Well, you know what they say,' Samwise said gamely. 'Where a window closes, a door opens.'
'If I find one, I'll throw you out of it first,' Aahz said. 'Do you have to go through that every time?'
'It's where my transference spell lands me,' Samwise said. 'So, yes.'
Aahz looked disgusted. 'I knew we should have let the kid here do the transporting. He'd have popped us right into the middle of the action.'
'Why not you?' Samwise asked, with a curious look at my partner. 'Or are the rumors about the great Aahz losing his powers true?'
Aahz waved a hand airily. 'C'mon, I've been in the business for centuries. I don't do the penny-ante stuff. That's for apprentices and, er, junior partners.'
I was still so glad to be back with M.Y.T.H., Inc., that I didn't mind Aahz saving face in front of clients—once, anyhow. At least this time he didn't suggest he would step in if I couldn't handle things.
'I'm pretty good now,' I said modestly. 'Aahz taught me everything I know.'
'Well, that and a two copper pieces will get you a can of warm ale,' Samwise said. Just before Aahz grunted out a retort, we spotted another opening, a door, as the Imp had predicted. Almost as soon as it appeared, it started to head for the floor, and the ceiling of the new room with it.
My wits were back where they belonged. Instead of running for the gap, I gathered up a large quantity of magik from the deep-rooted black force line and built a nice little frame inside the bright square. It was as strong as I could manage. I could hear the groaning of the stones as they fought against the obstruction. Sparks of magik broke away from the master spell with a ping! I threw more and more force into the gap. Waycross must have been one powerful magician. We ran for the opening, I nursing my bruises and the others panting behind me.
'It's going to break,' I said, gritting my teeth as I rebuilt the spell one more time. I ran toward the
