I SHALL NOT DIE HERE (BALLADE OF A WARRIOR BOUND), by Jason M. Waltz: Pulled taut, Oh! so painfully taut, cold links stretched tight — chains draped in quantities self-wrought. Loathed, debased, abused — endless pains never dimming, never hiding darker stains of iniquities untold, retold, sold ado . . . All lost; empty favors […]

THE DOME OF FLORENCE, by Richard Marsden: Mahir had to admit to himself The Dome of Florence, even though incomplete, was easily the largest building he had ever encountered. The dome’s arcing columns of slate-gray stone towered over the red-tiled roofs of every building in the city. Even Florence’s impressive walls, designed to fend off […]

HEROIC FANTASY QUARTERLY– ISSUE 7 2010 ended with an entertainment-bang, what with True Grit, Harry Potter, and Tron Legacy, and 2011 starts off right with the septi-sensational seventh issue of HFQ! And as usual, it’s all free. We’re happy to present a full issue, complete with three stories and two poems for your reading pleasure. […]

LORD OF THE BRASS HOST, by Dariel Quiogue: In the stillness of a moonless night, the final sounds of picks breaking through stone sounded as loud as armies.  Five grave robbers knelt muttering eagerly around the hole they had made through the roof of a buried tomb, shining torches into the yawning vault below.  Glints […]

THE LAST FREE BEAR, by J.S. Bangs: The white bear stalked Tupiak across the ice, just as Tupiak stalked the twisted men. He did not see the bear except once or twice, a long ways off, as an ivory‑colored shape in the snow. The path of the twisted men ran in a straight line to […]