WENCH, by Scott Hutchison   Nary a man doesn’t review the merchandise upon entering, wary eyes scanning tables and corners and me. They stride or stroll or slink in the door smelling of earth and blood, wet horse, rust, and a rankness all their own. They clap and call out Wench!–I pause, then saunter over […]

INHERITANCE, by Mary Soon Lee High above, the dragon watched the king and his young son approach through deepening snow. Flew down when they drew close. Her laughter boomed from the rocks like an anvil dropped on granite. “Back again, Xau? And bringing your princeling with you?” King Xau knelt, weaponless, crownless. He bowed so […]

THE ALLFATHER’S RAVENS, by David Sklar Beside the sleeping Odin, Memory yawps about the flavor of his master’s eye. And Thought, his brother, hungrily recalls, perched on the Well of Knowledge, gazing down at Memory pecking at the sodden orb, which sank beneath his beak, bobbed up again before he plucked it from the sacred […]

ROLE– by Scott Hutchison   His fearsome tribe is battle-ready, brawny, broad of shoulders, scar-muscled. He is small, a runt allowed to live. Never once at the forefront of a charge. Not his place. He brings up the rear.   Still, his table-companions raise a cup, acknowledge his role, his steady tactics: the enemy who […]

UNVICTORIUS–by Christina Sng   Carrion sit at his window, Curious, awaiting patiently For death’s eventual visitation.   Time has passed, Accelerated before his eyes. So much to do, so little time.   But he is resigned. He’s paid his dues To the demons outside.   He unclasps his heart And watches in the dark As […]