THE SEA WASP, by Robert Rhodes: An hour after sunset, I lingered by the ship’s rail.  The eastern sky had long since blackened, but in the distance, the King’s Lantern burned like a star trapped in mid-fall.  Tomorrow would bring us to the coast of Armitane and into Port Royal, the brightest and loudest of […]

AMBITION, PURPOSE, OUTCOME, by  Charles Saplak: DAYBREAK OF THE APPOINTED DAY: And yet another soldier will beseech The Dragon for his vision; a timeward glimpse of truth, a precious deep thought chosen for him and him alone. Light’s long arrows silently fly, Chip the mountainside free from night’s dark, Yet Sir Michael has been awake […]

THE DANCE, by Shennandoah Diaz: He danced the dance a million times before. Slide right, twist, lunge, pull up. Each movement graceful — Each blow destructive. He lived for the dance. The exchange of steel, The giving of flesh and blood, Each sacrifice made in honor replenishing the soil And feeding the legends that sustained […]

Hail! And welcome to the one-year anniversary issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly! One year of adventure, action, and arcane magic. One year of broadswords, short swords, long swords, lust, love, loss, revenge, romance, dragons, goats, stoats, and all points in between.  We’ve had stories nominated for international awards (the Internets makes them such!) while surviving […]

ANCIENT SHADES, by James Lecky: Although the admission pains me, I must confess that, under certain circumstances, I am a man for whom the goods of others become a temptation. Had I given myself more time to think – or if I had not foolishly accepted a pipe of kif from my gambling companion Abel […]