I still couldn’t bring myself to respond.
“Heck, kid.” He gave my shoulder a gentle shake. “Right now you can do more magik than I can.”
“But you know more.”
“But I can’t use it. You know, kid, that gives me an idea. With old Garkin dead there, you’re kind of cut off. What say you sign on as my apprentice for a while. We’ll take it from the top with me teaching you as if you were a new student who didn’t know a thing. We’ll take it step by step from the beginning. What da ya say?”
In spite of my gloom I felt my spirits lift. Like he said, I’m not stupid. I could recognize a golden opportunity when I saw one.
“Gee, that sounds great, Aahz.”
“Then it’s a deal?”
“It’s a deal,” I answered and stuck out my hand.
“What’s that?” he snarled. “Isn’t my word good enough for you?”
“But you said….”
“That’s right. You’re my apprentice now, and I don’t go around shaking apprentices’ hands.”
I withdrew my hand. It occurred to me this alliance might not be all roses and song.
“Now as I was saying, here’s what we’ve got to do about the current situation….”
“But I haven’t had any lessons yet!”
“That’s right. Here’s your first lesson. When a crisis shapes up, you don’t waste energy wishing for information or skills you haven’t got. You dig in and handle it as best you can with what you’ve got. Now shut up while I fill you in on the situation… apprentice.”
I shut up and listened. He studied me for a moment, then gave a small satisfied nod, took another gulp from the brazier and began.
“Now, you have a vague idea about other dimensions because I told you about them earlier. You also have firsthand experience that magicians can open passages in the barriers between those dimensions. Well, different magicians use that power in different ways. Some of them, like Garkin, only use it to impress the yokels; summon a demon, visions of other worlds, that kind of schtick. But there are others whose motives are not so pure.”