“We're here,” Alder said. He plucked a handful of grass from the ground and held it out to me. It didn't look any different from the grass we'd been trudging over for the last three days. “We're in Celestia.”
“Are you sure?” I demanded.
“Sure as the sun coming up in the morning, sonny,” Alder said.
“All this forest in the midst of the capital city?”
“This is the Dreamland. Things change a lot. Why not a capital made of trees?”
I glanced around. I had to admit the trees themselves were more magnificent than I'd seen anywhere else, and more densely placed. The paths were regular in shape, meeting at square intersections. Elegant, slender trees with light coming out of the top must be the streetlights. Alder was right it looked like a city, but all made of trees!
“Now, this is my kind of place,” Alder said, pleased, rubbing his hands together. “Can't wait to see the palace. I bet the whole thing's one big tree house.”
Within a few hundred paces he pointed it out to me. What a structure! At least a thousand paces long, it was put together out of boards and balanced like a top on the single stem of one enormous oak tree. The vast door was accessible only by way of a rope ladder hung from the gate. A crudely-painted sign on the door was readable from the path: “Klubhse. Everywun welcm. The King.” In spite of its rough-hewn appearance there was still something regal about it.
“No matter what shape it takes, it's still a palace,” Alder said. “You ought to meet the king. Nice guy, they tell me. He'd like to know an influential man like you. Your friend has to be close by. I can feel it”
A powerful gale of changes prickled at the edge of my magikal sense. I fought with all my might to hold it back as Alder knelt and sniffed at the path.
“This way,” he said, not troubling to rise. Unable to help himself, he became an enormous, rangy, blood-red dog that kept its nose to the path. Overjoyed to have a new friend, Gleep romped around Alder, then helped him follow the tracks. The scent led them directly to two vast tree trunks in the middle of a very crowded copse. Alder rose to his feet, transforming back into a man as he did.
“We're here,” he said.
“But these are a couple of trees!” I exclaimed. Then I began to examine them more closely. The bark, though arrayed in long vertical folds, was smooth, almost as smooth as cloth. Then I spotted the roots peeking out from the ground. They were green. Scaly green. Like Aahz's feet. I looked up.
“Yup,” said Alder with satisfaction. “We've found your buddy, all right”
A vast statue of Aahz scratched the sky. Standing with hands on its hips, the statue had a huge smile that beamed out over the landscape, Aahz's array of knife-sharp teeth looking more terrifying than ever in twenty-times scale. I was so surprised I let go of the control I was holding over the winds of change. A whirlwind, more a state of mind than an actual wind, came rushing through. Trees melted away, leaving a smooth black road under my feet. White pathways appeared on each side of the pavement. People rushing back and forth on foot and in vehicles. Across the way the palace was now undisputedly a white marble building of exquisite beauty. But the statue of Aahz remained, looming over the landscape, grinning. I realized to my surprise that it was an office building. The eyes were windows.
With Alder's help I located a door in the leg and entered. People bustled busily around, unlike the rest of the Dreamland where I had seen mostly Klahds, here there were also Deveels, Imps, Gremlins, and others, burdened down with file folders and boxes or worried expressions. Just as I had thought, given infinite resources Aahz would have a sophisticated setup with half of everybody working for him, and the other half bringing him problems to solve. And as for riches, the walls were polished mahogany and ivory, inlaid with gold and precious stones. Not flashy — definitely stylish and screaming very loudly of money. I'd always wondered what Aahz could do with infinite resources, and now I was seeing it. A small cubicle at one end of the foot corridor swept me up all the way to the floor marked “Headquarters.”
A shapely woman who could have been Tananda's twin with pink skin sat at a curved wooden desk near the cubicle door. She spoke into a curved, black stick poking out of her ear. She poked buttons as buzzers sounded. “Aahz Unlimited. May I help you? I'm sorry. Can you hold? Aahz Unlimited. May I help you? I'm sorry. Can you hold?”
I gazed into the room, at the fanciest office suite I could imagine. I knew Aahz was a snazzy dresser, but I never realized what good taste he had in furniture. Every item was meant to impress. The beautifully paneled walls were full of framed letters and testimonials, and every object looked as though it cost a very quiet fortune. All kinds of people hurried back and forth among the small rooms. I found a woman in a trim suit-dress who looked like she knew what she was doing and asked to see Aahz.
“Ah, yes, Mr. Skeeve,” she said, peering at me over her pince-nez eyeglasses. “You are expected.”
“Gleep?” added my dragon, interrogatively.
“Yes, Mr. Gleep,” the woman smiled. “You, too.”
“Partner!” Aahz called as I entered. He swung his feet off the black marble-topped desk and came to slap me on the back. “Glad to see you're okay. No one I sent out has been able to locate you.”
“I had a guide …” I said, looking around for Alder. He must have turned his back and blended in with the paneling. I brought my attention back to Aahz. After all the worrying I had done over the last many days I was relieved to see that Aahz seemed to be in the very best of health and spirits. “I was worried about you, too.”
“Sorry about that,” Aahz said, looking concerned and a little sheepish. “I figured it was no good for both of us to wander blindly around a new dimension searching for one another. I decided to sit tight and wait for you to find me. I made it as easy as I possibly could. I knew once you spotted the building you'd find me. How do you like it?”
“It's great,” I said firmly. “A good resemblance. Almost uncanny. It doesn't… put people off, does it?” I asked, thinking of the seven-foot fangs.
“No,” Aahz said, puzzled. “Why should it?”
“Oh, Mr. Aahz!”
A small thin man hurried into the office with the efficient-looking woman behind him with a clipboard. “Please, Mr. Aahz, you have to help me,” the man said. “I'm being stalked by nightmares.”
Aahz threw himself into the big chair behind the desk and gestured me to sit down. The little man poured out a pathetic story of being haunted by the most horrible monsters that came to him at night.
“I'm so terrified I haven't been able to sleep for weeks. I heard about your marvelous talent for getting rid of problems, I thought…”
“What?” Aahz roared, sitting up and showing his teeth. “I've never heard such bunkum in my life,” Aahz said, his voice filling the room. The little man looked apprehensive. “Pal, you've got to come to me when you really need me, not for something minor like this.”
“What? What?” the little man sputtered.
“Miss Teddybear,” Aahz gestured to the efficient woman, who hustled closer. “Get this guy set up with Fazil the Mirrormaster. Have him surround this guy's bed with reflectors that reflect out. That'll scotch the nightmares. If they see themselves the way you've been seeing them they'll scare the heck out of themselves. You'll never see them again. Guaranteed. And I'll only take a … thirty percent commission on the job. Got that?”
“Of course, Mr. Aahz.” The efficient woman bowed herself out.
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Aahz!” the little man said. “I'm sorry. You're just like everyone said. You are absolutely amazing! Thank you, thank you!”
Aahz grinned, showing an acre or so of sharp teeth. “You're welcome. Stop by the receptionist's desk on the way out. She'll give you the bill.”
The little man scurried out, still spouting thanks. As soon as the door closed another testimonial popped into existence on the already crowded wall. Aahz threw himself back into his chair and lit a cigar.
&n
bsp; “This is the life, eh, partner?”
“What was that about?” I asked, outraged. “The guy was frightened out of his life. You gave him a solution without leaving your office. You could have gone to see what was really going on. He could have someone stalking him. someone with a contract out on him …”
Aahz waved the cigar and smoke wove itself into a complicated knot. “Psychology, partner, I keep telling you! Let him worry that he's wasting my time. He'll spread the word, so only people with real troubles will come looking for me. In the meantime, Fazil's an operative of mine. Hell check out the scene. If the guy just has some closet monsters that are getting above themselves, the mirrors will do the trick. If it's something worse, Fazil will take care of it” He pounded a hand down on a brown box on the desktop. “Miss Teddybear, would you send in some refreshments?” Aahz gestured at the wall. “Your invisible friend can have some, too. I owe him for getting you here safely.”
“It's nothing, friend,” the backwoodsman said. He had been disguised as a section of ornamental veneer. He turned around and waddled over to shake hands. “You've made yourself right at home here.”
“You bet I have,” Aahz said, looking around him with satisfaction. “I've been busy nonstop since I got here, making connections and doing jobs for people.”
The efficient aide returned pushing a tray of dishes. She set before Gleep a bowl of something that looked disgusting but was evidently what every dragon wishes he was served every day. My pet lolloped over and began to slurp his way through the wriggling contents. My stomach lurched, but it was soon soothed by the fantastic food that Aahz's assistant served me.
“This is absolutely terrific,” I said. “With all the information you've gathered, have you figured out a way to get us back to Deva?”
Aahz shook his head.
“I'm not going back.”
“Well tell everyone about this place, and … What?” I stopped short to stare at him. “What do you mean you're not going back?”
“For what?” Aahz asked, sneering. “So I can be the magik-free Pervert again?”
“You've always been Pervect without them,” I said, hopefully trying to raise his spirits with a bad joke.
It didn't work. Aahz's expression was grim. “You don't have a clue how humiliating it is when I can't do the smallest thing. I relied on those abilities for centuries. It's been like having my arm cut off to be without them. I don't blame Garkin. I'd have done the same thing to him for a joke. It was just my bad luck that Isstvan's assassin happened to have picked that day to put in the hit. But now I've found a place I can do everything I used to.”
“Except D-hop,” I pointed out, slyly, I hoped. “You're stuck in one dimension for good.”
“So what?” Aahz demanded. “Most people live out their whole lives in one dimension.”
“Or hang out with your old buddies.”
Aahz made a sour face. “They know me the way I was before I went through the mirror. Powerless.” He straightened his back. “I won't miss 'em.”
I could tell he was lying. I pushed. “You won't? What about Tanda and Chumley? And Massha? What about the other people wholl miss you? Like me?”
“You can visit me in here,” Aahz said. “Get the mirror from Bezel, and don't let anyone else know you've got it”
“You'll get bored.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I've got a long time to get over being powerless. I can't do anything out there without magikal devices or help from apprentices. I'm tired of having people feel sorry for me. Here no one pities me. They respect what I can do.”
“But you don't belong here. This is the world of dreams.”
“My dream, as you pointed out, apprentice!” “Partner,” I said stiffly. “Unless you're breaking up the partnership.”
Aahz looked a little hurt for the moment. “This can be a new branch office,” he suggested. “You can run the one on Deva. You already do, for all practical purposes.”
“Well, sure, we can do that, but you won't get much outside business,” I said. “Only customers with access to Bezel's mirror will ever come looking for you, and you already said not to let anyone know we've got it”
“I can stand it,” Aahz assured me. “I'm pretty busy already. I'm important here. I like it The king and I — we're buddies.” Aahz grinned, tipping me a wink. “He said I was an asset to the community. I solve a few little problems for him now and then.” The efficient aide leaned in the door. “'Scuse me, partner.” He picked up a curved horn made of metal and held it to his ear. “Hey, your majesty! How's it going?”
If there was ever a Frustration dream, I was living it. For every reason I presented as to why Aahz should return to Deva, Aahz had a counter-argument. I didn't believe for a moment he didn't care about the people he would be leaving behind, but I did understand how he felt about having his powers restored to him. He'd get over the novelty in time.
Or would he? He'd been a powerful magician for centuries before Garkin's unluckily timed gag. Would I be able to stand the thought of losing my talents twice? He did seem so happy here. He was talking with the local royalty like an old friend. Could I pull him away from that? But I had to. This was wrong.
“I'd better leave, sonny,” Alder said, standing up. “This sounds like an argument between friends.”
“No, don't go,” I pleaded, following him out into the hallway. “This isn't the Aahz I know. I have got to get him through the portal again, but I don't know how to find it”
Alder cocked his shaggy head at me. “If he's half the investigator he seems to be, he already knows where it is, friend. The problem you're going to have is not getting him to the water, but making him drink. Right now, things are too cushy for him. He's got no reason to leave.”
I felt as though a light had come on. “You mean, he hasn't had enough nuisances?”
Alder's rough-skinned face creased a million times in a sly grin. “I think that's just what I do mean, youngster. Best of luck to you.” He turned his back and vanished.
“Thanks!” I called out. Using every bit of influence that was in me, I sent roots down into the deepest wells of magikal force I could find, spreading them out all over the Dreamland. I didn't try to dampen Aahz's light I brightened it I made every scale on the building gleam with power, both actual and perceived. Anyone with a problem to solve would know that this was the guy to come to. Aahz would be inundated with cases, important, unimportant, and trivially banal. There would be people looking for lost keychains. There'd be little girls with kittens up trees. There'd be old ladies coming to Aahz to help them find the eye of a needle they were trying to thread. Most important, unless I had missed something on my journey here, with that much influence flying around, every nuisance in the kingdom would converge on the building. If there was one thing my partner hated, and had lectured me on over and over again, it was wasting time. If I couldn't persuade Aahz to leave the Dreamland, maybe nuisances could.
My gigantic injection of magik took effect almost immediately While I watched, things started to go wrong with the running of Aahz Unlimited. The files the efficient employees were carrying to and fro grew so top-heavy that they collapsed on the floor, growing into haystacks of paper. Some of the employees got buried in the mass. Others ran for shovels to get them out, and ended up tangled with dozens of other people who came in to help. Framed letters began to pop off the wall, falling to the floor in a crash of glass.
Then the entire building seemed to sway slightly to the right.
“What's going on here?” I could hear Aahz bellow. He emerged from his office, and clutched the door frame as the building took a mighty lurch to the left I grabbed for the nearest support, which happened to be Gleep. He had become a giant green bird with a striped head and a flat beak and curved talons, which he drove deep into the wooden parquet floor. “Why is everything swaying?”
Miss Teddybear flew to the eye-windows and looked down.
“Sir, giant beavers are eating the leg of the
building!”
“What?” Aahz ran to join her, with Gleep and me in close pursuit. We stared down out of the huge yellow oval.
Sure enough, enormous brown-black creatures with flat tails and huge square front teeth were gnawing away at the left leg of Aahz Unlimited. As each support in the pylon snapped, the building teetered further.
Aahz leaned out of the window. “SCRAM!” he shouted. The attackers ignored him.
“Everyone get down there and stop them!” Aahz commanded. Miss Teddybear hurried away, following the flood of employees into the moving-box chamber.
As Aahz and I watched, his people poured out of the building. They climbed the leg, clinging to it in an effort to keep the monsters from burrowing any further. The beavers turned, and swatted them off with flips of their flat tails. Wailing, the employees whirled out of sight like playing cards on the wind. The monsters went on chewing. I felt bad about the people, though Alder has assured me that Dreamlanders were not easily hurt or killed.
“Call for reinforcements!” Aahz bellowed. I stared in amazement as white circles whirled out of the air, plastering themselves all over the leg, but the beavers chewed right through them. In no time they'd whittled the leg down to a green stick. The building was going to fall. Aahz's empire was crumbling before our eyes. Gleep seized each of us in one mighty claw and flew with us to the elevator. The floor split under us as we crowded into the small cabinet.
The ride down seemed to take forever and ever. Aahz paced up and back in irritation, dying to get out there and do something to stop the destruction. I could tell he was trying to focus his magik on driving the monsters away and keeping his newfounded empire intact. I concentrated all my magik on keeping us from getting hurt. The forces I had stirred up scared me. I didn't know if I'd get us killed trying to bring Aahz home.
“Come on,” he snarled, leaping out of the chamber as it ground to a stop. “We've got to hurry.”
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