KAMAZOTZ, by Greg Mele, artwork by Justin Pfeil   I. Bronze helm glittering in the new day glow of the risen sun, the man plunged from atop the truncated tower’s sloping walls like a spear hurled by an angry giant, narrowly missing rocky slopes of the low crag upon which it stood. He hit the […]

THEN, STARS, by Michael Meyerhofer, Art by Simon Walpole   I know nobody cares about a squire’s dying words, but Eli Ben-Sodr insists it matters, and he’ll write down whatever I say just as I say it, so I guess I’ll humor him. Gods know he’s been kind to me, even though he could have […]

A FISTFUL OF SPELLS, A Spellslinger Story, by Zach Chapman, artwork by Ben Terdik   I threw the two Striga bodies on Sheriff Hickman’s desk, knocking over a dozen half-empty potion bottles. Glass crunched and Hickman flinched. “I—I don’t need the bodies!” He scrambled from his desk, barely avoiding a purple liquid that streamed to […]

SWORDS, by Colleen Anderson     Torn from the earth with hard edged tools biting into its mother’s belly hammered, chiseled, pulverized until it no longer recalls its long slumber A sword begins the chaotic journey of which it is forged Without love nor comfort nor the still acceptance of nature it enters a fiery […]

The Last Tale, by Jennifer Crow   The last tale you told ended in a forest: dark, foreboding, full of shadows and hungry beasts. The scent of pine, the crunch