CORINTH, by Gerald Henson: They hounded me through the streets of Corinna.  They had surrounded the crumbling barn where I slept and thought to catch me unaware, but even then I knew to listen in my sleep.  I knew not to close my eyes long enough to dream. The Antonine Empire had failed a generation […]

A WHISPER IN ASHES, by Charles Gramlich: Down from the death-lands of snow came a warrior with eyes like scars. No one knew his origins. None could foresee his end. He had no name. The barbarians called him Krieg.   I. The Black Tarn The northern wind was quiet for once. The polished surface of […]

THE NATURE OF DEMONS, by J. Kathleen Cheney: The town elders left the corpse untouched for us to view, now more than a day dead.  That the demon had fled the town already, I didn’t doubt.  Even so, the elders refused to enter that small house on the edge of the woods, retreating with murmurs […]

JIRO, by Peter Fugazzotto: Boots poked out of thick undergrowth within a stone’s throw of the heavily rutted country road. What was visible of the armor – a bronze plated lamellar jacket – was congealed with blood. Jiro – hungry, cold, and tired – saw the armor as the means to fill his aching belly. […]

LORD OF THE TATTERED BANNER, by Kristopher Reisz: By the time they took Orsten Keep, the pretender had already escaped over the mountains with half her army. After the battle, the smell of blood and smoke lingered. It was a strangely fertile smell, like fresh-tilled earth. Fengr Tall-As-A-Mounted-Man felt his war-rage cool, leaving him with […]