APPLES OF THE GODS, by Jane Dougherty I walk through the orchard, taking the path between the plum trees and the blueberry bushes, touching the cloudberries and the bright clusters of hazel nuts. I let my wanderings take me to the pear trees, and then the apple trees, the most precious of all. In the […]

HEART OF VENGEANCE, A Tale of Azatlán, by Gregory D. Mele, artwork by Justin Pfeil, audio by Karen Bovenmyer Jaakhár was in flames, the ancient palace-complex engulfed in a red, vengeful glow that gleamed evilly in the blackness of night. Helomon Twelve-Vulture, now Lord of the Red Flower Clan, reined in his foaming, winded horse, […]

THE WHISPERING HEALER, by Larisa Walk “What you want at this hour?” Anisia squinted at the man on her doorstep. He held a small bundle in his arms. The light from her oil lamp trembled in yellow blotches on his fish belly-white, too-smooth face. Newborn babes didn’t have skin that unmarred. Yet his eyes seemed […]

DO NOT FEAR, FOR THE WORK WILL BE PURE, by Michael Johnstone, artwork by Karolína Wellartová, audio by Karen Bovenmyer. For all that his Rat Quarter Cycle conferred upon him deserved esteem in Elsidor, leading to a flourishing period of commissions from the highborn, Zayal’s now justifiably celebrated statue of King Rolan I, shaped from […]

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 […]