Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin

If I was going to continue my efforts to master flying, I’d have to devote more time to the art of forced landings.

I lay there motionless. I couldn’t hear the soldiers any more, but I didn’t want to run the risk of sitting up and betraying the fact I wasn’t dead.

“Are you going to lay there all day or are you going to help me get untied?”

My eyes flew open involuntarily. Aahz was sitting there grinning down at me.

There was only one sensible thing to do, and I did it. I fainted.

Chapter Fifteen:

“Anyone who uses the phrase ‘easy as taking candy from a baby’ has never tried taking candy from a baby.”

-R. HOOD

“CAN we move now?” I asked.

“Not yet, kid. Wait until the lights have been out for a full day.”

“You mean a full hour.”

“Whatever. Now shut up and keep watching.”

We were waiting in the dead-end alley across the street from Frumple’s shop. Even though we were supposedly secure in our new disguises, I was uneasy being back in the same town where I had been hung. It’s a hard feeling to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. Then too, it was strange being with Aahz after I had gotten used to the idea of him being dead.

Apparently the neck muscles of a Pervect are considerably stronger than those of a human. Aahz had simply tensed those muscles and they provided sufficient support to keep the noose from cutting off his air supply.

As a point of information, Aahz had further informed me that his scales provided better armor than most chain-mail or plate armor available in this dimension. I had heard once that demons could only be destroyed by specially constructed weapons or by burning. It seemed the old legends may have actually had some root in fact.