MA11-12 Myth-ion Improbable Something Myth-Inc by Robert Asprin Page B

out over more than just a Main Street. It was tucked into a small valley, with flat farmland going off in both directions from it.
    We walked into town, following the road and staying off the wooden sidewalks so that we wouldn’t make any noise. The town was just flat empty. Not even a horse had been left outside. Nothing was moving, and as far as we could tell, nothing lived here, even though we knew better.
    “This is very strange,” Tananda said as we got near the center of town. “How boring would it be to go to bed when the sun set every night? I’d go stark-raving crazy in a matter of days.”
    Tananda was the kind of person that always had to be doing something: going on adventures, shopping, or partying. I had no doubt that it wouldn’t take her days to go crazy here.
    “I just wonder what they are afraid of,” Aahz said. He pointed to one building. “Those shutters look as if they could take a pretty good pounding and still hold.”
    “It was the same way in Evade,” I said. “But I was awake all night and never heard a sound from outside.”
    “More than likely this is just an old custom,” Tananda said, “and we’re still so far out in the sticks, away from any larger cities, that the custom remains.”
    “Are there larger cities in this dimension?” I asked.
    “Who knows?” Aahz said. “Just stay alert and watch for anything unusual.”
    He didn’t have to tell me to do that, since I was already on full alert. And even though flying, combined with no sleep the night before, had me exhausted, I doubted I could sleep now even if I wanted to try.
    Aahz found a sliver of light coming from the shutters of one store and stopped. He unfolded the map and we gathered around, trying to be as quiet as we could while we looked for our next destination.
    “You were right, Skeeve,” Aahz whispered, patting me on the back.
    The map had changed.
    Baker, the city we were standing in, was now the focal point of the map, and two roads led toward two other towns from Baker. The treasure was now marked in a town called Silver City. Dodge City wasn’t even on the map. Glenda was going to be mad. I wished I could be there when she discovered how stupid she had been.
    “So which way do we go?” Tananda asked.
    The two towns next in line from Baker were named Bank and Keep. Both looked to be about the same distance from here, but Bank was to the right in the north and Keep was to the left in the south.
    “Bank,” I said, before I even realized the word was out of my mouth.
    “Why?” Aahz asked, staring at me, his intense eyes scary in the semi-dark.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “It just seems right, and starts with the same letter as Baker.”
    Tananda laughed, but had the decency to not say anything.
    Aahz just shook his head, folded up the map and put it away.
    “Bank it is,” he said, moving out into the middle of the street and walking on toward the west end of town.
    “I could be wrong,” I said, walking between him and Tananda.
    “More than likely,” Aahz said.
    “So why go with my suggestion?”
    “Because I have none better to offer.”
    “Neither do I,” Tananda said. “Besides, if you’re wrong, we can blame you.”
    “Terrific!” I said. “As if I don’t get in enough trouble as it is.”
    Both Aahz and Tananda chuckled, but said nothing the rest of the way to the edge of town.
    It was easy to find the road to Bank. At a fork in the road a hundred paces outside of the main part of town there was a sign, clear and readable even in the moonlight, pointing to the right.
    Aahz glanced around, and then turned to me. “Ready?”
    “Sure,” I said.
    “Keep it slower than before,” Aahz said. “We don’t want to run into anything out here.”
    I concentrated on the power coming into my body, easier here than back near Evade. When I had enough I lifted us slightly off the ground and headed down the road. Outside of town the road was straight, running between what looked like