Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Lynn Asprin

“I feel like I’m getting stronger the farther we come,” I said.

“Let him try,” Tanda said. “Might save us a lot of back-tracking.”

Aahz looked at me, then nodded. “Give it a shot.”

I took a deep breath and let my mind search out the power in the map. For an instant I didn’t think anything was going to happen. Then I felt it. The power rushed through me from the map as I hastily directed it into the ground. My head spun for a second, and it was done. The power was gone and the map was normal…for now. I took a deep breath, again feeling the strain. I needed more carrot juice.

“It worked,” Aahz said. “Nice job, Skeeve.”

It wasn’t often that I got a compliment from my mentor, so I savored the moment. Tanda patted me on the arm and gave me a kiss on the cheek for a reward. Nothing like doing a job and doing it well.

I took her glass of carrot juice and sipped from it while we studied the map.

Only one road led from Biscuit where we were, through Bethel and then to Donner. Donner actually was the place with the golden cow. We had been closer than we thought.

But from the look of the map, it was a long way to Bethel, and even farther to Donner. Just getting to the first place was going to take to the middle of the night. I just hoped the cows didn’t watch us.

“You rested enough to get going?” Aahz asked me.

I downed half of the glass of carrot juice and nodded.

“Put this in one of our water containers, would you?”

Tanda nodded as I stood and moved to the door into the back room. I knocked and the guy came out.