THE BEAST IN THE WOODS, by Peter Fugazzotto Hwaeth, half-orc, crouched in the sodden gray grasses, and squinted down the hillside trying to see the enemy. But the fog was impenetrable. The line of trees blurred into a fuzzy black swath. As much as he tried, he could not discern the enemy from the trees. […]

THE PRIESTESS’ DAUGHTER, by Jennifer Blackford I barely remember my father’s golden eyes, or his shouted laugh that made even my solemn priestess mother smile. She knew too much and not enough of wild things. Before my father died, all the village children envied me. He was the only man we knew with his own […]

JUMBLE, by Mary Soon Lee, art by Gary McCluskey Twilight. Two men on the snow. Tsung’s thoughts jumbled, snow below him, above him, branches thickened by white. King Xau bent over him, blood trickling from the king’s shoulder. Red blood, white snow as Tsung drifted in and out, the king’s hands on his stomach– pressure, […]

Well-met and welcome to Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Issue #42! The weather here has finally cooled down and HFQ turns up the heat with four stories and two poems and accompanying illustrations.  Without further delay, let’s get into it!   Fiction Contents A Night in the Library, by Robert Zoltan, with artwork by Robert Zoltan. The […]

A NIGHT IN THE LIBRARY, by Robert Zoltan 1  In the city of Merth, in a dimly lit bedchamber of a mansion on Silverhand Lane, Kora Dervan stared at her reflection that stared at her reflection that stared at her reflection… She sat in a corner between two mirrors that created an infinite number of […]