BEAST HUNTER’S SONG, by Michael Liguori “You’re a big fellow,” the serving girl said. She was a new face in the brothel, and though she stood a bit short for Sedrick’s tastes, her comely face and warm eyes and silky curls of auburn hair more than made up for that. Not to mention her bosom. […]

WHITE ELEPHANTS, by Linda Donahue Driving gilded chariots, gaudy embassy guards rode across the Persian desert.  A shaded chariot, drawn by four horses in silk caparison, led a white elephant, its tusks decorated with tassels and capped with golden balls.  Silk curtains enclosed the howdah on the elephant’s back and a dark-skinned Mahout rode with […]

ENGINES RARELY SEEN, by N.G. Lancaster   The Grift came back from upstairs all red-faced, saying that he was going to help his whore dole out a vendetta. The whore himself, a wispy kid who was ugly but for his mop of chestnut hair, stood back on the stairs while the Grift made his declaration. […]

THE MADNESS OF THE MANSA, by Cullen Groves One summer night, a great storm arose over the western ocean, and many citizens and sailors in the port of Asongai told how they had seen the demons of madness walking the black winds in the darkness. The gales made wrack of the galleys in the harbor, […]

MELTING GOLD AND ASHES, by Dennis Mombauer   The massive and ornate ship was visible even from the hills above the city, swarmed by ant-like workers who had been carrying pyrewood onboard its planks for days. When the ship would be ignited, the flames would burn hotter and higher than any flames had burned in […]