"THEYaren't going to Deva?"

Iwas having a rough time dealing with the concept.

"That'sright, kid," Aahz said, pouring himself some more wine.

"ButIsstvan set the D-Hopper himself."

"Yeah!"Aahz grinned smugly. "But last night I made one extrapreparation for this sortie. I changed the markings on the dials."

"Thenwhere are they going?"

"Beatsme!" Aahz shrugged, taking a deep draught of the wine. "ButI'm betting it'll take 'em a long time to find their way back. Thereare a lot of settings on a D-Hopper."

"Butwhat about Tanda and Quigley?"

"Tandacan take care of Quigley," Aahz assured me. "Besides, shehas the powers to pull them out anytime she wants."

"Shedoes?"

"Sure.But she'll probably have a few laughs just tagging along for a while.Can't say as I blame her. I'd love to see Quigley deal with a fewdimensions myself."

Hetook another generous gulp of the wine.

"Aahz!"I cried in sudden realization. "The wine!"

"Whatabout it? Oh. Don't worry kid," he smiled. "I've alreadylost my powers, remember? Besides, you don't think I'd drug my ownwine, do you?"

"Youdrugged the wine?"

"Yeah.That was my secret weapon. You didn't really . believe all that bunkabout Frumple, did you?"

"Ahh…of course not," I said, offended.

Actually,even though I knew Frumple hadn't done it, I had completely losttrack of actually who had done what and to whom.

"Here,kid." Aahz handed me his flagon and picked up the jug. "Havesome yourself. You did pretty good this afternoon."

Itook the flagon, but somehow couldn't bring myself to drink any.

"Whatdid you put in the wine, anyway?" I asked.

"Jokepowder," Aahz replied. "As near as I can tell, it's thesame stuff Garkin used on me. You can put it in a drink, sprinkle itover food, or burn it and have your victim inhale the smoke."

Ihad a sudden flash recollection of the brazier billowing smoke asAahz materialized.

"Whatdoes it do?"

"Weren'tyou paying attention, kid?" Aahz cocked his head at me. "Ittakes away your powers."

"Permanently?"

"Ofcourse not!" Aahz scoffed. "Only for a century."

"What'sthe antidote?"

"Thereisn't one… at least I couldn't get the stall proprietor toadmit to having one. Maybe when you get a little better with themagik, we'll go back to Deva and beat an answer out of him."

Ithought for a few minutes. That seemed to answer all my questions…except one.

"Say…urn, Aahz?"

"Yeah,kid?"

"Whatdo we do now?"

"Aboutwhat?" Aahz asked.

"Imean, what do we do? We've been spending all the time since we metgetting ready to fight Isstvan. Well, it's over. Now what do we do?"

"Whatyou do, apprentice," Aahz said sternly, "is devote yourtime to your magik. You've still got a long way to go before you'reeven close to Master status. As for me… well, I guess most ofmy time will be spent teaching you."

Hepoured a little more wine down his throat. "Actually, we're inpretty good shape," he stated. "We've got a magik crystalcourtesy of Frumple… and that crummy sword if we search hisgear."

"Anda malfunctioning fire-ring," I prompted.

"Urn…."said Aahz. "Actually, I… ahh… well, I gave thering to Tanda."

"Gave?"I asked. "You gave something away?" Aahz shrugged.

"I'ma soft touch. Ask anybody."

"Hmm…."I said.

"We've,um, also got a war unicorn if we want to go anywhere," Aahzhastened on, "and that stupid dragon of yours."

"Gleepisn't stupid!" I insisted hotly.

"Okay,okay," Aahz amended, "… your intelligent, personabledragon."

"That'sbetter," I mumbled.

"….Even though it beats me why we'd want to go anyplace," Aahzcommented, looking around him. "This place seems sound enough.You'd have some good force lines to play with, and the wine cellarwill be well stocked if I know Isstvan. We could do lots worse for abase of operations."

Anotherquestion occurred to me.

"Say,Aahz?"

"Yeah,kid?"

"Afew minutes ago you said you wanted to see Quigley when he visitedother dimensions… and you seem to have a weak spot forTanda…."

"Yeah?"Aahz growled. "So?"

"Sowhy didn't you go along with them? You didn't have to get stranded inthis dimension."

"Isstvan'sa fruitcake," Aahz declared pointedly, "and I don't likeImps. You think I'd like having them for traveling companions?"

"Butyou said Tanda could travel the dimensions by herself. Couldn't youand she have…."

"Allright, all right," interrupted Aahz. "You want me to sayit? I stayed here because of you."

"Why?"

"Becauseyou're not up to traveling the dimensions yet. Not until you…."

"Imean, why stay with me at all?"

"Why?Because you're my apprentice! That's why."

Aahzseemed genuinely angry. "We made a deal, remember? You help meagainst Isstvan and I teach you magik. Well, you did your part andnow I'm going to do mine. I'm going to teach you magik if it killsyou… or me, which is more probable!"

"Yes,Aahz!" I agreed hastily.

"Besides,"he mumbled, taking another drink. "I like you."

"Excuseme?" I said. "I didn't quite hear that."

"Thenpay attention!" Aahz barked. "I said drink your wine, andgive some to that stupid dragon of yours. I will allow you one…count it, one… night of celebration. Then bright and earlytomorrow, we start working in earnest."

"Yes,Aahz," I said obediently.

"Andkid," Aahz grinned, "don't worry about it being boring. Wedon't have to go looking for adventure. In our profession, it usuallycomes looking for us."

Ihad an ugly feeling he was right.

The End