Hit or Myth by Robert Asprin

“You know Aahz?”

“Sure do. And I want him back.”

The latter was accompanied by another head rap. So much for holding my temper.

“Then you should know him well enough to know that nobody holds him against his will!”

My head started for the floor again, but stopped short of its target. From my inverted position I could get a partial view of the demon tapping himself thoughtfully on the chin.

“That’s true,” he murmured. “All right….”

I was turned into an upright position once more.

“. . . Let’s take it from the top. Where’s Aahz, and what’s keeping him in this backwater dimension?”

“I think and talk better with my feet on the ground.”

“Hmm? Oh! Sorry.”

I was lowered into a normal standing position. Now that I was self-supporting again, I realized the interrogation had left me with a splitting headache.

“He’s back in General Badaxe’s quarters arguing military tactics,” I managed. “It was so boring I came back here. He should be along soon. They were almost out of wine when I left.”

“Tactics and wine, eh?” my visitor grimaced. “That sounds like Aahz. What’s the rest of it? Why is he staying around a nowhere dimension like Klah and how did he get mixed up with the Great Skeeve?”

“You’ve heard of me?”

“Here and there around the dimensions,” the demon acknowledged. “In some circles they think you’re pretty hot stuff. That’s why I started wondering if you’d managed to cage Aahz somehow. I was braced for a real battle royale when you walked in.”

“Well, actually I’m not all that good,” I admitted. “I’ve only really started making headway in the last couple years since I started studying under Aahz. I’d still be a total nothing if he hadn’t lost his powers and taken me on as an apprentice.”