As briefly as I could, I brought her up to date on the day’s events, including the explanation as to why Aahz and I had never said anything about the house’s mysterious back door. Being a seasoned dimension traveler herself, she grasped the concept of an unlisted dimension and its potential dangers much more rapidly than Guide and Nunzio.
“What I don’t understand is even if he didn’t want you along, why didn’t he take someone else as a backup?”
“Like who?” I said with a wry grimace. “We’ve already established that you’re my apprentice and he doesn’t give you orders without clearing them through me. He’s never been impressed with Guido and Nunzio. Tananda and Chumley are off on their own contracts and aren’t due back for several days. Even Gus is taking a well-earned vacation with Berfert. Besides, he knows good and well that if he started building a team and excluded me, there’d be some serious problems before the dust settled. I wouldn’t take something like that lying down!”
“Don’t look now, but you just did,” my apprentice pointed out dryly, “though I have to admit he sort of forced it on you.”
With that, she slid a hand under each of my armpits and picked me up, setting me gently on my feet.
“Well, now what? I supposed you’re going to go charging after him with blood in your eye. Mind if I tag along? Or are you bound and determined to be as stupid as he is?”
As a matter of fact, that was exactly what I had been planning to do. The undisguised sarcasm in her voice combined with the unsettling wobbliness of my legs, however, led me to reconsider.