“Well, it is and it isn’t,” Tanda said. “No one knows where the Shifters come from. They are masters of disguise, and if you try to double-cross them you will disappear, never to be seen again.”
“More than likely off to some deadly dimension,” Aahz said, shaking his head.
“So we make sure they get their five percent of the golden cow if we find it.”
That seemed logical enough to me.
“I hope that’s all it will take,” Aahz said.
Tanda just nodded.
I didn’t like that at all. Disappearing was not something I considered in my possible future. I had plans. Better, bigger plans. Yet now I was risking my life chasing a cow. Not smart at all as far as I was concerned. I tried to think about something else besides a future where someone made me vanish.
“How do the Shifters keep changing like that one did?”
“Disguise spells, maybe. I don’t know.” Tanda shrugged. “I’ve never seen one really stay the same for very long.”
I considered myself good at disguises, but I was a long way from being able to do what that Shifter had been doing. Which meant that if they were that good, it was possible that one of the shifters was with us right now, disguised as something around the room.
The thought almost made me jump. I glanced around, trying to see anything odd about the old log cabin. There was nothing but a dirt-littered floor and old logs. Yet I now had a feeling we were being watched.
“So let’s see if we can figure out where we are and how to take the next step,” Tanda said, scooting over beside Aahz.
I walked once around the small room, then moved over to where Aahz had pulled out the map and spread it on the floor.