AN ORACLE, by Ann Keith   Putting your concentrated might Into your spirit, you will fight The whole day long, and into the night, And all the night till dawn. Though the heavens rock and the clouds be rent And the driving icy rain be sent Against your face like splinters of flint, You will […]

THE ROYAL DOORS, by Eliza Victoria You fold your hands and talk of your sorrows. That is the only way to get through the day these days and the only way to get through the door. Oak and birch, painted silver, as large as a cathedral and just as heartless and empty. A face appears […]

A TALE AT BEDTIME, by Mary Soon Lee   Lie still and listen well. “Yes, Mama, I know,” said Prince Keng.   Before the dragons flew to King Nariz, before the time of demons, Batar was the greatest horse lord who ever rode the eastern plains, yet he thirsted for more power. So Batar fell […]

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 […]