I stopped and waited as Tanda caught up. Then, ten steps behind her, came Aahz helping Glenda. He sure was being nice, for some reason, to a woman who had betrayed him. That wasn’t like Aahz at all. Clearly he needed her for something, and I was never far enough away from Glenda to ask what it was.
When they caught up, Glenda slumped to the ground and closed her eyes and I pulled out the map and looked at where it was taking us. It showed the end of the secret passageway where we were standing, and a secret door into a giant ballroom was right in front of me. I glanced at the wall. I couldn’t see where it was, but I assumed that when I needed it, it would be there.
I went back to studying the map again. We had to go into the ballroom and to the far wall where there was another panel into another passageway. The golden cow treasure was now marked as being in the throne room a number of floors above us.
“Looks like we get to go out in the open for the first time,” Aahz said, studying the map.
“There’s no one out there at the moment,” Tanda said.
“So we need to do it and quickly,” I said, folding up the map.
“Keep the map handy,” Aahz said. “When we get into the ballroom, you need to check it again.”
“Of course,” I said, nodding and acting as if I had known that, even though I hadn’t yet thought of it.
“Can you make it a little farther, Glenda?” Aahz asked.
Glenda jerked and pushed herself to her feet, leaning against the wall.
“I can make it as far as I need to make it.”
Aahz just nodded. “Then let’s go.”