Myth Conceptions

by Robert Asprin

  "Wait a minute, Aahz," I interrupted before he got too far from the subject. "What instructions?"

  "Instructions not to talk about our little skirmish here," Aahz clarified absently. "Tanda will know enough to keep her mouth shut, but the others won't."

  "You think they'll talk?"

  "Is a frog's behind watertight?" Aahz retorted.

  "What's a frog?" I countered.

  "Money in their pockets, fresh from a successful campaign against overwhelming odds . . . of course they'll talk!" Aahz thundered. "They'll talk their fool heads off to anyone who'll listen. What's more, they'll embellish it a little more with each telling until it sounds like they're the greatest fighters ever to spit teeth and you're the greatest tactician since Gronk!"

  "What's wrong with that?" I inquired, secretly pleased. I didn't know who Gronk was, but what Aahz was saying had a nice ring to it.

  "Nothing at all." Aahz responded innocently. "Except now the word will be out as to who you are, where you are, and what you are . . . also that you're for hire and that you subcontract. If there's any place in all the dimensions that folks will take note of information like that, it's the Bazaar."

  Regardless of what my mentor may think', I'm not slow. I realized in a flash the implications of what he was saying . . . realized them and formulated an answer.

  "So we suddenly get a lot of strange people dropping in on us to offer jobs, or looking for work," I acknowledged. "So what? All that means is I get a lot of practice saying `No.' Who knows, it might improve my status around here a little if it's known that I regularly consult with strange beings from other worlds."

  "Of course," Aahz commented darkly, "there's always the chance that someone at the Bazaar will hear that the other side is thinking of hiring you and decide to forcibly remove you from the roster. Either that, or some young hotshot will want to make a name for himself by taking on this unbeatable magician everyone's talking about."

  I tried not to show how much his grim prophecy had unnerved me. Then I realized he would probably keep heaping it on until he saw me sweat. Consequently, I sweated . . . visibly.

  "I hadn't thought of that, Aahz," I admitted. "I guess I did overlook something there."

  "Then again there's Grimble and Badaxe," Aahz continued as if he hadn't heard me.

  "What about Grimble and Badaxe?" I asked nervously.

  "In my estimation," Aahz yawned, "the only way those two would ever work together would be against a common foe. In my further estimation, the best candidate for that `common foe' position is you!"

  "Me?" I asked in a very small voice.

  "You work it out, kid," my mentor shrugged. "Until you hit the scene there was a two-way power struggle going as to who had the king's ear. Then you came along and not only saved the kingdom, you increased the population, expanded the borders, and added to the tax base. That makes you the most popular and therefore the most influential person in the king's court. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Grimble and Badaxe are going to just sigh and accept that. It's my guess they'll `double team' you and attack anything you say or do militarily and monetarily, and that's a tough one-two punch to counter."

  "Okay. Okay. So there were two things I overlooked," I said. "Except for that-"

  "And of course there's the people Big Julie and his men owe money to," Aahz commented thoughtfully. "I wonder how long it will be before they start nosing around looking for an explanation as to what happened to an entire army? More important, I wonder who they'll be looking for by name to provide them with that explanation?"

  "Aahz?"

  "Yeah, kid?"

  "Do you mind if I have a little more of that wine?"

  "Help yourself, kid. There's lots."

  I had a hunch that was going to be the best news I would hear for a long time.