“Just take it easy, partner,” I said soothingly, struggling to keep from snapping at him in my own nervous impatience. “There aren’t that many all-day stores in this dimension.”
“What do you expect, dealing with a bunch of vampires,” he snapped. “I still don’t like this idea. Nonmagical disguises seem unnatural somehow.”
I heaved a quiet sigh inside and leaned back to wait, propping my feet up on a chair. This particular quarrel was old before Vilhelm had left on his shopping trip, and I was tired going over it again and again.
“Be reasonable, Aahz,” Tananda said, taking up the slack for me. “You know we can’t wander around town like this . . . especially you with half the city looking for you. We need disguises, and without a decent power source, Skeeve here can’t handle disguises for all of us. Besides, it’s not like we’re using mechanical magic. We won’t be using magic at all.”
“That’s what everybody keeps telling me,” my partner growled. “We’re just going to alter our appearances without using spells. That sounds like mechanical magic to me. Do you know what’s going to happen to our reputations if word of this gets back to the Bazaar? Particularly with most of the competition looking for a chance to splash a little mud on the Great Skeeve’s name? Remember, we’re already getting complaints that our prices are too high, and if this gets out….”
The light dawned. I could finally see what was eating at Aahz. I should have known there was money at the bottom of this.
“But Aahz,” I chimed in, “our fees are overpriced. I’ve been saying that for months. I mean, it’s not like we need the money . . .”