A SONG FOR THE NEW KING, By S. Boyd Taylor: Archimandrus was fifty when the commission first came. A poem, a psalm for the new coronation. Oh how glorious! He had waited so long for this. Years. Decades. Had pushed away wife and child alike. Locked himself in dark rooms for months at a time. […]

DEATH AND DIGNTIY, by Michael R. Fletcher: Thus Far: Some three weeks ago the Melechesh Pass, held for thousands of years by the Wizard’s Guild, fell to an unstoppable army of corpses. One corpse, Khraen, Fist of Sorhd-Rach, First General of the Invincible Hand, powerful demonologist, and loyal servant to the Emperor of eternal Palaq […]

A GAME OF CHESS, by David Pilling: On the morning of one inauspicious day in early spring, with the sky as grey as the towers of Camelot and the incessant rain trickling into our chain mail, we rode out. One hundred and forty-nine brave young knights, eager to win glory and honour, and one miserable […]

RENEGADE, by Alex Marshall: The silence deepened as the boat slipped onward under the trees.  Even the dip and pull of the pilot’s oar made scarcely a noise as the slime-dark hull skimmed the water.  Seated in the prow, Dyer watched the pilot warily.  He was a local man; one of the Char Cutters who […]

DANCE UPON SAND, by Seamus Bayne: I consider how fragile humans are as I bring my axe onto the shield of the cavalrywoman. The blade bites deep, and blood sprays forth. She drops her shield, screaming. Her blood is the coin of my revenge on the sorcerer king, Theisius, who has made me into a […]