Tag: 2017

  • Mordant and Mast

    by Alexander Leger-Small in Issue 69, October 2017 Big bellied ships blocked the sky above Braten-town harbor. Every morning Ysma woke to their shadowing promises. When tasks brought her to the water – receiving a shipment of raw-cloth or some other errand for Mistress – she knocked barrels and crossed fingers two times two, a charm…

  • The Thirst of Untus

    by Sam Beaven in Issue 68, September 2017 My name is Lossn. I am a failure. I sat across the table from the too-fat man who sweated in the heat, decadently shedding water through his brown skin, typical of the cultured city-folk. He wouldn’t last long in the desert, he would be abandoned by his tribe.…

  • The Soldier’s Choice

    by Alison McBain in Issue 68, September 2017 If there was one man whom Shazia could call a friend, it was Ibin. Most people thought that he should have followed in his father’s footsteps and become a warrior rather than a… well, whatever he was. When she’d first come to Castle Var, she’d thought the same…

  • Gallows Dance

    by Dan DeFazio in Issue 67, August 2017 Note: To avoid any associations with a certain on-line retail giant and its products, the character Alexa has been renamed. She is now known as Angelique Malvaux. The town lay at the edge of the Black Forest, its name unremembered. It was just after sunset, and the town—village,…

  • Fish Out of Water

    by Anna Cates in Issue 66, July 2017 “You’re the sleaziest bucket of fish guts I’ve ever seen.” “Gee, thanks.” Inchel laughed. “I didn’t realize I looked that good.” The elf boy’s ashy skin peeped through holes in fishnet stockings cladding his bony thighs beneath leather shorts. He ambled awkwardly in his chunky-heeled girly boots.…