Tag: 2021

  • The Orchestra of Syrak

    by Rab Foster in Issue 116, September 2021 The shaft Bump was crawling down became so steep that he lost his hold on its stonework and slid forward, unable to stop himself. Worse, the faster he slid, the narrower the shaft became. But just when he feared he’d get irreversibly stuck in it, he shot…

  • Flames Over Esk

    by D. J. Tyrer in Issue 116, September 2021 The sky glowed a dull red from the flames, the light bleeding into the sanguine half-disc of the sun that slowly rose to fill the horizon. Smoke bruised the sky like rain clouds besmirching the dawn. There was a smell that was, unfortunately, pleasant, given the…

  • The Bargain of a Bard

    by Teel James Glenn in Issue 115, August 2021 A Story of Altiva The children in the cages no longer cried or yelled, their tears long dried, but with the stoic endurance and strength of frontier dwellers, they watched the ceremony and the deaths of the adults with only faint whimpers of resignation at their…

  • Death and Taxes

    by Owen G. Tabard in Issue 115, August 2021 1Although he had traveled widely throughout the empire during his years of itinerancy, never before had Hanno the philosopher seen such devastation as he now beheld. For days he and his companion, the warrior Thrax, had ridden the ancient highway, amid the half-ruined ziggurats that spoke…

  • Forging Independence

    by S. E. Lindberg in Issue 114, July 2021 “Put the ax down, Melanie.” “You check on my health, Doctor Grave?” My daughter laughed from behind shadows that curtained slithering, colossal larvae. The ancient larval wyrmen raised their anteriors to peer at me, much like their siblings had while spying my trek into the Underworld.…