Thursday, March 18, 2010

Payment Deferred - James Enge

"“Ten days law — that’s what you got, eh?” the thug whispered. “Ten days to reach the border, then if they catch you inside it — zzccch! When’d your time run out, uh, was it twenny days ago? Thirty?”

“Two months.”

“Sure. Call a Keep, scut-face. By sunrise they’ll have your head drying on a stake upside the Kund-Way Gate.”

“I won’t be calling the Keepers of the Peace,” Morlock agreed. The crooked half-smile on his face was as cold as his ice-gray eyes. “What will I do instead?”

“You can’t kill me, crooky-boy — ” the thug began, with suddenly shrill bravado.

“I can kill you. But I won’t. I’ll cut your tendons and pull your cheek-rings. I can sell the metal for drinking money at any bar in this town, as long as the story goes with it. And I’ll make sure everyone knows where I last saw you.”"


4 out of 5

http://www.blackgate.com/fiction-excerpt-payment-deferred/

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