“We would have starved to death,” I said.
“Given time, you would have starved, or jumped to some other dimension and gotten lost,” Glenda said, pulling out the chair and sitting down beside me. “My father tracked two groups with the map who did that. Both met very ugly ends at the hands of creatures they never should have faced.”
My memory of the snakes was clear enough to understand exactly what she was saying.
She took a piece of the wonderful-smelling fresh bread and bit into it, never taking her gaze from mine.
“And your price to rescue us is…?” Aahz asked.
I glanced at him. Typical Aahz, always leading with the pocketbook first.
Glenda smiled at my green-scaled mentor.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Aahz,” he said. “And you haven’t answered my question yet.”
“I want to go with you,” she said. “And for helping you find the golden cow and getting us all back to a dimension near the Bazaar at Deva, I want the same share as each of you are getting, after paying off the Shifter.”
It still wasn’t making sense.
“So why haven’t you just gone after the cow on your own, before now?”
“Honestly,” she said, looking directly into my eyes while answering, “my father thought you, Skeeve, were the first one he had ever sold the map to that had a chance of actually getting to the cow.”
“You didn’t answer his question either,” Aahz said. “And why should we give you such a large share of the treasure?”
She laughed. “Besides getting you out of this place? This is only one of the problems you face. My father tried a number of times to go the distance before he sold the map the first time, but he always had to turn back. There are many problems ahead. I know what they are. You need me.”