"Ten percent!" Aahz said through his teeth, his voice barely under control.
"On top of the first five percent, bringing the total to fif teen 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 num ber 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 di mensions 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 hesi tation 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 move ment. 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 hun gry, 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 crea ture 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 num bered like this?"