SHADOWS AND FOXFIRE, by R. Michael Burns    “Everything in this world is but a marionette show.” –Yamamoto Tsunemoto, Hagakure, ca. 1700   That night, the gods raged. Fūjin’s winds lashed the towering pines, bowing them before him.  Raijin slammed the narrow valley with fists of rain, his thunder-bellows shaking the earth.  Caught in the heart […]

FEATHERS, by Andrew Knighton Hal stood on the track out of Olbry, feeling the wind whip off the moor, watching a dark shape soar on rotten wings. He heard the cawing of the raum crow and the whimpering of his son from their hut. The cawing filled him with anger, but the other sound ripped […]

HANDFUL OF SPRING, by Charles Paysuer Mina watched each step fall into the snow, those brief shadows around her feet the only landmarks in the shifting white. Directly behind her she felt Natham stumble again, heard his curse as she was forced to stop, to wait, her arms full of spring. “How much farther?” Natham […]

ICE DRAGON’S LULLABY, by S.W. Smith   The sky was young, as once was he, and all the world a single shallow sea. The sky was black when, birthed alive, he strove at first to fly, then learned to glide.   He skimmed the waves to take his prey. Beneath his wings, Time skimmed away. […]

THE LAY OF HRETHULF GLAMIRSBANE, by Cullen Groves At the marriage feast of Glamir to the maiden Erna, in Glamir’s own hall of Hlodvangr, Hrethulf and his band of berserks drank the last of the mead and the feast-ale while the night was young, and the marriage yet unconsummated. Hrethulf and Glamir were shield-companions of […]