Category: Content Posts
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The Cats and the Crimson
by Rab Foster in Issue 159, April 2025 Two old men were in the room. One was a barber-surgeon. About to perform surgery, not barbery, he bent over the other man, who was in a chair. He inserted into his patient’s mouth an instrument with a claw that clamped onto rotten teeth and a fulcrum…
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Edward Fish’s Folly
by Zachary Olson in Issue 159, April 2025 The solitary law that binds Gran Marche’s thieves is this: only filch what you can flip. It is a law in truth more pragmatic than moral, for even in Gran Marche–which straddles the Turquoise and Citrine Seas, bobbing in the Lowan Bayou’s outer edge, where it is…
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Grave of Kings
by C. W. Stevenson in Issue 159, April 2025 Marrian stalked his prey from the shadows, crouching low amidst the shrubs and small trees of the arid land. He made himself shrink further into the dead grass. A mage and his acolytes. The bald mage tore a hunk of bread before passing it around the…
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Kerta Waja’s Shadow
by Fendy Satria Tulodo in Issue 159, April 2025 You are running. The night is thick like clotted blood, and the scent of burning rice fields sticks to your skin. The wind, heavy with the whispers of restless spirits, pushes against you. Somewhere behind, the creature howls—a sound not of this world, something neither beast…
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Review: Hurled, Headlong Flaming or the Bishop’s Tale
by Anthony Perconti in Issue 159, April 2025 Matt Holder’s Hurled, Headlong Flaming is the inaugural offering from Spiral Tower Press’ Keen Blades imprint. Keen Blades’ mission statement is “to expand the boundaries of what sword and sorcery can be.” Bold statement, to be sure. Once I read the novella’s synopsis, coupled with that (utterly…
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Blood for Wind
by Chris Cornetto in Issue 158, March 2025 The icy clearing was utterly changed. When Tura had scouted it two days ago, the work camp had barely pitched its tents. The first pilings of the palisade had not yet risen, and the stumps had still been trees. The snow had been pristine white, not yet…