LOW TIDE, by Conor DiViesti, Artwork by Carol Wellart It was the last week of the low tide and the foreman was waiting for him. Horace limped back to camp alone, dragging the empty crab net behind him as first light crept over the horizon. Pools of quivering, tepid saltwater splashed beneath his feet and […]

FIVE DAYS TO DRAGONHAUL, by Evan Marcroft, art by Miguel Santos, Audio by Karen Bovenmyer   The day before I was to begin my journey north, I rode the train down to the Needles Quarter to purchase new winter boots. I quickly found two ideal pairs at a canopied stall operated by a harried widow. […]

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, […]