THE ORB OF SEMERKHET, OR SATHANO THE WANDERER, by Jeremy Farkas, artwork by Gary McClusky     In the Hall of Semerkhet, darkness ruled as it had for many thousands of years. It was an inky blackness, deprived of any light, any warmth, any detail. The weight of time only served to deepen the dark, […]

SHAFT TOMB, by Ann K. Schwader     In far Saqqara, countless faithful wait Upon their earthly gods who fared ahead As Westerners beyond the judgment gate, Emerging justified. These patient dead Partake unknowing of a power old As moonlight on the desert.  And as cold.   Stacked in like coffined cordwood ages deep, Such […]

HOW THE ROSE PRINCES CAME TO LIFE, by Elizabeth R. McClellan, artwork by Andrea Alamona       Witching is about knowing. Though we keep cats, a mouse with a message has amnesty unquestioned by familiars,   for mice get in everywhere and gossip like ravens, with less crude sniggers. They do not trust us, […]

THE BOWSPRIT MERMAID AND THE STEMHEAD DRAGON, by Katherine Quevedo, artwork by Simon Walpole     From wooden mouths above the deep, From oaken tongues upon the swell, When figureheads arouse from sleep To greet each other’s ships, they tell The tragedy of the bowsprit mermaid and the stemhead dragon.   Two sculptures clad in […]

As we drift into the 20th month of the Dark Year 2020, your editors have taken time out from force-feeding Jörmungandr his own tail, to bring you the 49th issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.  What you need?  We’ve got it!  What you want?  We supply it!  An inexplicable need for double Scythian action?  We fulfil […]