WITH A GOLDEN RISHA, by  P. Djéli Clark The Hanging Stones of Ispa had been aptly (if also quite boringly) named. Twenty or more boulders floating high above the Jade Sea, as if unaware their weight should have made such a thing impossible. Some held a sorcerer had convinced the fool things they were feathers […]

BRONZE-ARD, THE FERRET MASTER, AND AUSPICIOUS EVENTS AT SWIFT CREEK FARM, by Adrian Simmons, artwork by Lilith Graves   The remarkable occurrence of both Bronze-Ard and the Ferret Master arriving on the same day at Swift Creek Farm presented Bellaw and her siblings with a rare opportunity to slip out of a day’s work.  And, […]

CRAZY SNAKE AND THE CAMAZOTZ, by Eric Atkisson I There was no word for it in the tongue of his people, the Nermernuh, whom the Utes named Kohmats–They Who Are Always Against Us–but his mother had spoken of something like it when he was a child. He could picture her delicate hands shaping it in […]

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 […]