RAKEFIRE, by Jason Carney   This was after several secret meetings in smoky roothouses, where whispered secrets were swapped for more secrets couched in cryptolects and allegories. With them I had been shadowing Qwayas for several years, my erstwhile lover and son’s father, who I had questions for and possibly slow death, depending on his […]

THE DEATHS OF ALL WE ARE, by Liz Colter   Waking before dawn, I shift under the blankets that lie heavy on me; or is it soil covering me, nesting me deep and safe? The stone floor beneath the rushes leeches cold into my bare feet when I rise. Pouring from a pitcher, I dip my […]

SERAPH, by Ian McHugh   There was another frost the next morning, and snow starting to fall. “It should be getting warmer,” said Galya, following her mother to the seraph’s chamber beneath the keep. The cold made her limbs ache, even through fleece-lined boots and gloves and with several layers of undergarments. She could hear […]

THE ENEMY’S TRUE NAME, by Mark Silcox   I caught sight of the three Blue Mages ascending the slope while they were still more than an hour away. The mist of their breath drifted upward as their ragged robes dragged behind them over the sharp stones. To the people of the plains, the richly dyed […]

HARD CROSSING AT LUHINMOV FORD, by Adrian Simmons   1.   Cawella Five-Tongues inspected her two spotted horses while the armies waited for the decision of the kings. The horses remained calm, untroubled by the delays of protocol. It would not be a chariot duel, so they had little to worry over. Across the field, […]