“Okay. Are we ready?” I asked, shrugging off my wandering thoughts. “Massha? Got your jewelry?”
“Wearing most of it, and the rest is right here,” she said, patting the pouch on her belt.
While I will occasionally make snide mental comments about my apprentice’s jewelry, it serves a dual purpose. Massha’s baubles are in reality a rather extensive collection of magical gimmicks she has accumulated over the years. How extensive? Well, before she signed on as my apprentice to learn real magic, she was holding down a steady job as the magician for the city-state of Ta-hoe on the dimension of Jahk solely on the strength of her collected mechanical “powers.” While I agreed with Aahz that real magic was preferable to mechanical in that it was less likely to malfunction (a lesson learned from first-hand experience) I sure didn’t mind having her arsenal along for back-up.
“You know that tracking ring? The one you used to find the king? Any chance there’s an extra tucked away in your pouch?”
“Only have the one,” she said, waggling the appropriate finger.
I cursed mentally, then made the first of what I feared would be many unpleasant decisions on this venture.
“Give it to Nunzio. Tananda and Chumley will need it to find us.”
“But if we leave it behind, how are we going to find your partner?”
“We’ll have to figure out something, but we can’t afford to divide our forces. Otherwise, even if we get Aahz, we could still end up wandering around out there trying to find the other half of the rescue team.”