BEAST HUNTER’S SONG, by Michael Liguori “You’re a big fellow,” the serving girl said. She was a new face in the brothel, and though she stood a bit short for Sedrick’s tastes, her comely face and warm eyes and silky curls of auburn hair more than made up for that. Not to mention her bosom. […]

WHITE ELEPHANTS, by Linda Donahue Driving gilded chariots, gaudy embassy guards rode across the Persian desert.  A shaded chariot, drawn by four horses in silk caparison, led a white elephant, its tusks decorated with tassels and capped with golden balls.  Silk curtains enclosed the howdah on the elephant’s back and a dark-skinned Mahout rode with […]

ENGINES RARELY SEEN, by N.G. Lancaster   The Grift came back from upstairs all red-faced, saying that he was going to help his whore dole out a vendetta. The whore himself, a wispy kid who was ugly but for his mop of chestnut hair, stood back on the stairs while the Grift made his declaration. […]

THE HARROWED HALL, by Cullen Groves     There was a shout at the doorway, then a shock of war-tumults, And a thrall came in running, from the threshold of battle, To the high-seat he hurried, and hove to in a word-wind, ‘With cold brands they come faring, and fires in their left hands,                 […]

DRAGONSLAYER, by Mary Soon Lee   It’s true enough, I killed a dragon — an old dragon with a maimed wing, mind you, crippled by some foreign prince.   The dragon came down the mountainside after it was injured, right into our village. I remember women screaming. And men. The smell of roast meat. Then […]