WITCH AND PALIDIN, by Reilly S. Blackwell   Let me pull you into blackberry blood and tangled thorns. Let me teach you of skin and bone and meat that you saw, breathing, moments before it died.   Let me teach you that your faith and your willpower, your selfless conviction, are nothing against a bear’s […]

THE DANCER, by  Susan Carlson   A dancer haunts my dreams. In Enzabar she saved me with one sharp jerk of her chin during a routine of exquisite softness. The man who crept behind me went to his gods screaming, as all cowards go.   She was never a coward. When I stole her, she […]

ICE DRAGON’S LULLABY, by S.W. Smith   The sky was young, as once was he, and all the world a single shallow sea. The sky was black when, birthed alive, he strove at first to fly, then learned to glide.   He skimmed the waves to take his prey. Beneath his wings, Time skimmed away. […]

THE LAY OF HRETHULF GLAMIRSBANE, by Cullen Groves At the marriage feast of Glamir to the maiden Erna, in Glamir’s own hall of Hlodvangr, Hrethulf and his band of berserks drank the last of the mead and the feast-ale while the night was young, and the marriage yet unconsummated. Hrethulf and Glamir were shield-companions of […]

I WALK TOWARDS DEATH, by Elwin Linhirrie:   I walk towards death with every step An outcome long foretold I keep my time in numbered breaths More precious now than gold   Immortal once, or so they said A life made mortal now The curtain drops upon the stage The actor takes his bow   […]