"David J. Wright - Payment Due" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wright David J)

Payment Due

Payment Due
by David J. Wright
Editor's Note: "Payment Due" continues the story of Jig, the omnipotent
youngster, who was first introduced in "A Little Wager".



Mr. Wright says of himself...

I'm a 28 year old business drone (Advertising & Publishing) who's been writing
for 15 years, mostly fantasy because I was under the mistaken impression that
you didn't have to know anything to do it. I've since discovered it helps to
know how magic works and what elves eat for dinner. I've been published twice
before in print, in the magazines The Standard and Aberrations, and five times
electronically, in the e-zines 2XS, The Outpost, and The CCC. Shocking that
someone would print any of my work, actually.



Day 43, 322 days left
"Let's go back to your bar and get a drink, Jig," Dixon said. "It's thirsty
work, this terrifying old wizards."
"No, not this time, Dix. Instead, let's go out to eat somewhere, somewhere nice,
somewhere expensive. And this time, Astogoroth, you pay."
Astogoroth only stared silently at him, his eyes great circles of white.
"How did you know this would trick him?" Dixon asked.
Jig shook his head. "Oh, Dix, I didn't. I figured he'd be too scared to check if
this was real, and even if he did think to check, my power looks just like
Gantegor's. After all, what comes from the demon looks like the demon, right?"
Jig glanced around at Astogoroth, who continued to stare. A tiny smile had crept
up the corner of the wizard's mouth.
Had Jig an-Slopdale been a typical eleven year old, he would not have been
standing in this para-dimensional council chamber, laying wagers against a
thousand year old time traveling wizard to see who paid for dinner. No, had he
been a typical eleven year old, he would have been playing "swords" with his
friend Dixon, running around with brittle wooden planks, imagining that it was
his thrust that pierced the dragon's heart and stole its life. Had he been a
typical eleven year old, he would have expressed outraged disgust about every
characteristic of his female peers, all the while wondering what it was like to
kiss one of them. Had he been a typical eleven year old, one day to him would
have seemed like a year, and one year an eternity.
But a little over six weeks ago, Jig an-Slopdale had ceased being typical, had
shed, or more appropriately lost, all claim on the usual. Forty-three days ago,
an accidentally freed demon had given Jig immeasurable power in exchange for the
boy's soul, payment due after one year. Payment due in 322 days.
"What's wrong with Astogoroth?" Dixon asked. A soft coughing fluttered out of
the wizard, his huge and fat and greasy body trembling with it.
"I - I don't know," Jig said. He placed a hand on Astogoroth's round shoulder