“Um . . . is it time to say ‘I told you so’ yet?” the Djin smirked.
Ignoring him, I intercepted the second salesman.
“Excuse me, how far is it to the storeroom?”
“Why do you ask?” he blinked.
“Well, your partner was checking on something for me, and it’s been a while.”
The salesman grimaced.
“Who? Him? He’s gone on break. He should be back in an hour or so if you’d like to wait.”
“What??”
“I suppose I could go look for you, if you’d like. What was it you wanted?”
As I’ve said before, I may be slow, but I do learn. This was the last salesman in the section and I wasn’t about to let him out of my sight.
“Forget it. I’ll take the small green magik bag over there. The one in canvas.”
“Okay. That’ll be 125 in gold. Do you want to carry it or shall I give you a sack?”
Before I could think, my Bazaar reflexes cut in. “Just a second. That’s 125 for a new bag. How much will you knock off the price for one that’s been used for a floor display?”
Kalvin groaned and covered his eyes with one hand. “I don’t set the prices,” the salesman said, starting to turn away. “If you don’t like it, shop somewhere else.” The thought of starting this fiasco all over again defeated me.
“Wait a minute,” I called, fumbling with my money belt. “I’ll take it. But can I at least get a receipt?”
Shopping for clothes turned out to be a trial of a different sort. There were magik lifts that carried me up two floors to the clothing section, which fortunately gave me time to think things through.
The trouble was that I was disguised as a Pervect. Because of their build, this made me appear much more heavyset than I really was. If I bought clothes to fit my disguised form, they’d hang on the real me like a tent. If I went for my real size, however, it would be a dead giveaway when I asked to try them on.