JIRO, by Peter Fugazzotto: Boots poked out of thick undergrowth within a stone’s throw of the heavily rutted country road. What was visible of the armor – a bronze plated lamellar jacket – was congealed with blood. Jiro – hungry, cold, and tired – saw the armor as the means to fill his aching belly. […]

DON QUIXOTE’S QUANDARY, by Colleen Anderson: He had studied flags, kites and pinwheels knowing them for the harmless fry of monsters they would soon become his duty for all his tilting at windmills everything looked skewed An enemy of state of mind he sought the source of untamed, wanton might not just to cage a […]

THE DEATH OF CONWYNN THE WILD-EYED, by Colin Heintze: The coals are burning weak and low even now they cease to glow so come sit for a spell I have a story to be told and it might just do you well to escape this winter cold You in the back who’s talking so an […]

Ah, April. Finally, finally perhaps the damn cold and snow will relent! Hey — we talked about March Madness and NCAA basketball and cerebral awakenings this time last year, so why not talk about the weather this year? Yep, HFQ Issue 16 is here and there’s not a better time than now to read it. […]

LORD OF THE TATTERED BANNER, by Kristopher Reisz: By the time they took Orsten Keep, the pretender had already escaped over the mountains with half her army. After the battle, the smell of blood and smoke lingered. It was a strangely fertile smell, like fresh-tilled earth. Fengr Tall-As-A-Mounted-Man felt his war-rage cool, leaving him with […]