“That’s wonderful!” exclaimed Quigley.
“No. That’s terrible,” corrected Aahz. “You see, in the process, your animal has formed a strong attachment for my squire … stronger, I fear, than his attachment for you.”
“Hah! Ridiculous,” Quigley proclaimed. “But I do feel I owe you an additional debt of gratitude, lad. If there’s ever anything I can …”
He began to advance on me with his hand extended. In a flash, Gleep was between us, head down and hissing.
Quigley froze, his eyes bulging with surprise.
“Stop that!” I ordered, cuffing the dragon.
“Gleep!” said the dragon, slinking back to his place behind me.
“See what I mean?” Aahz said pointedly.
“Hmm. . . .” Quigley mumbled thoughtfully. “That’s strange, he never defended me that way.”
“I guess we’ll just have to buy him from you,” I said eagerly.
“Buy him?” Quigley turned his attention to me again.
Aahz tried to catch my eye, shaking his head emphatically, but I ignored him.
“That’s right,” I continued. “He’s no good to you this way, and since we’re sort of to blame for what happened to him. …”
“Think nothing of it, lad.” Quigley drew himself up proudly. “I give him to you as a gift. After all, if it weren’t for you he’d be dead anyway, and so would I, for that matter.”
“ButL…”
“No! I will hear nothing more.” The demon hunter held up a restraining hand. “The matter is closed. Treat him well, lad. He’s a good animal.”
“Terrific,” muttered Aahz.
“Gleep,” said the dragon.
I felt miserable. It had occurred to me that our plans involved taking shameless advantage of Quigley’s gullibility. As he was my only fellow Klahd in this adventure, I had wanted to force Aahz into giving him some money under the guise of buying the “war unicorn.” It would have salved my conscience a bit, but Quigley’s generosity and sense of fair play had ruined my plan. Now I felt worse than before.