"She's powerful and can help. Let her, or we might never get out of here."

My mentor looked like he was about to explode. He hated doing anything he didn't want to do, and taking Glenda along was something he really didn't want to do. But Tanda was right; maybe Glenda could help.

"All right," Aahz said, taking a deep breath and letting it slowly out.

He stepped past Tanda and looked down at Glenda.

"You work with us or we dump you faster than you dumped my apprentice in that bar. Understand?"

She nodded, clearly very weak. "Let me help Tanda with the cover spell," she said. "I'm good at them."

"I'm an ex-assassin," Tanda shot back. "I'm better."

"I know you are," Glenda said. "I can just add some depth on the cover. And help support Skeeve's disguises. We're dealing with some good magicians here. Let's make sure they don't see us coming, or leaving as the case may be."

For a moment Tanda stared at Glenda, then she nodded. "Follow my lead."

"Completely," Glenda said. She took a deep, shudder ing breath and braced herself against the wall, her eyes closed.

I glanced around. The other three prisoners hadn't woken up. They looked to be in much worse shape than Glenda.

Aahz turned to me. "Get ready. On Tanda's count, one at a time, disguise the four bunks."

I took a deep breath and reached out for the energy it was going to take.

Energy here wasn't a problem. It flowed all around us like a massive river, wider and stronger than I had ever experienced. I let it flow inside me, giving me strength.

"Aahz first," Tanda said. "Now."

On the farthest empty bunk I pictured Aahz lying there, sleeping, his mouth open.

On the bunk Aahz appeared, just as I had pictured.

I gathered more energy.

"Glenda now," Tanda said.

I imagined Glenda on the second bunk, sleeping in the same way we had seen her sleeping when we came in, red mark on her neck and all.

Glenda appeared there.

"Now me," Tanda said.

I reached out and took the energy and put the image of Tanda sleeping in the next bunk

"Now you," Tanda said.

I did the same, although I had never seen myself asleep, I had an image of what I must look like, and I used that.

It was strange to see myself sleeping there. Really strange.

"All shielded," Tanda said.

Glenda nodded. "Very strong. It should hold. And good job, Skeeve."

I just nodded. I didn't need compliments from a woman who left me to rot in a town full of cow food.

"Okay, Skeeve," Tanda said, "see if you can find that opening."

I got down on my stomach and crawled partway under the bunk next to where Glenda sat. It looked like a stone wall, just like all the rest of the room. But when I went to touch the wall, my hand went through as if nothing was there.

"A disguised opening," I said.

I crawled under the bunk and right on through the wall, coming out on the other side. It was pitch black, so I tore a little piece off the bottom of my shirt and used a magik spell to light it. I was in a tunnel that had been cut out of stone. It was just tall enough for me to stand, and not much wider than my shoulders. It clearly hadn't been used in a long time, if ever. There was an unused torch stuck in a crack in the rocks, so I lit it, tossing to one side my burning piece of shirt.

A moment later Aahz followed, coming through what looked to be solid stone near the floor of the tunnel. Then Glenda, breathing hard, pulled herself into the tunnel and sat with her back against the sidewall, followed almost instantly by Tanda.

"This tunnel is shielded as well," Tanda said, looking around as she stood. "A shield so old, it might have been here before the castle."

"I'm impressed," Glenda said, still sitting on the floor. "How'd you know this was here?"

I pulled the map out of my pouch and held it up in the faint torchlight. She saw it and nodded. "Of course."

I opened the map and Aahz, Tanda, and I stood under the torch studying it.

It now showed the tunnel we were in as center, and the location of the golden cow had changed. Now it was in a dining room ten floors above us. I didn't believe it for a mo ment.

The map showed that we had to follow the tunnel for as far as we could, then climb up a ladder and through the floor of what was called a morgue.

"Seems we don't have much choice," Aahz said, staring at the map. He pointed to the fact that the map didn't show a way back into the room we had just left.

I moved over and touched the wall we had just crawled through. It was solid rock. Weird.

I moved back over to where they were standing under the l ight.

"We're going to be chasing the cow until we find an exit," Aahz said.

"We could always kill the magik in the map one more time," I said.

"No," Tanda said. "We may end up in a room that we need the map to help us get out of."

"She's right," Glenda said. "For all we know, the map may be the magik source that created this tunnel. From the looks of how that wall turned back to stone, it just might be."

I stared at the paper in my hand, then at Glenda sitting on the floor. If she was right, and I had killed the magik in the map again, we might have ended up trapped in stone. I didn't want to think about that at all.

"So we follow the magik," Aahz said.

I folded the map and put it away in my pouch, then took the torch out of the crack and held it in front of me so that I could see where I was going. Then, doing my brave routine, I started off down a tunnel so old, or so magical, that it didn't look as if anyone had ever been in here.

The tunnel sloped upward like a fairly steep ramp. I moved at a steady pace, making sure that each step was on solid ground. I didn't trust my eyes at this point, after crawling through solid rock.

After about a hundred paces I looked back. Tanda was right behind me, Aahz behind her, and Glenda was managing to stay up with us, only because I was moving so slowly. I didn't feel the slightest bit sorry for her. She had left me to die, and gotten herself into the mess she faced last night. And without us, she wouldn't have this chance to escape. As far as I was concerned, she would either keep up or go out on her own again.

I went back to working my way up the tunnel, testing each step, until finally I reached the end. A rock ladder had been carved into the stone, leading straight up through a very narrow hole.

As Aahz stopped beside me I pointed up at the hole.

"Can you squeeze through there?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"I suppose not," I said. I handed him the torch. "Let me get up through the opening so I can brace my back against the wall, then hand me the torch."

Without waiting for another idea from my mentor, I started up. The hole in the roof of the tunnel was big enough that my shoulders touched on both sides, but not so small that I had to squeeze. Aahz might be able to make it, but it was going to take some work.

Once I got through the hole, the space got bigger. I stopped and Aahz handed me the torch, passing it up past me quickly so I wouldn't get burned.

Above I could see the ladder climbing at least twenty or so of my body lengths before reaching what looked to be a wooden trapdoor in a floor.

"Send Tanda up second," I whispered down to Aahz below me. "We need to make sure no one is in the room above the trap door up here."

"Good thinking," Tanda said, climbing up under me as I went higher. She got up just under me, paused, and then nodded. "No one up there at the moment."

"Good," I said.

"You go next," I heard Aahz say to Glenda down in the tunnel.