MA11-12 Myth-ion Improbable Something Myth-Inc by Robert Asprin Read Free Book Online Page B

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 Tananda.
    “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 Tananda 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.
    Tananda 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 Tananda. 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.
    Tananda 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, and 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,” Tananda 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 contains 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,” Tananda 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 Tananda had a good point