MORRIGAN’S SONG, by Colleen Anderson   Breathe in the moist air, smell the land within it. hear the movement of trees and animals all around far away, in daylight, the eagle’s call pins the sky deer ghost through the glen ravens call into the night as they settle into sleep you are before a cubby […]

SHAMANS, by David Farney   Countless tribes speaking countless tongues frequent xanthous shores of a long-burning lake. Come hunters, come nomads, come fishers too — unlikely neighbors enthralled by songs of shamans through whose lyrics tribesmen discover discourse.   But soon it seems the shamans sing too loudly — this common tongue strips mysticism and […]

WITCH AND PALIDIN, by Reilly S. Blackwell   Let me pull you into blackberry blood and tangled thorns. Let me teach you of skin and bone and meat that you saw, breathing, moments before it died.   Let me teach you that your faith and your willpower, your selfless conviction, are nothing against a bear’s […]

THE DANCER, by  Susan Carlson   A dancer haunts my dreams. In Enzabar she saved me with one sharp jerk of her chin during a routine of exquisite softness. The man who crept behind me went to his gods screaming, as all cowards go.   She was never a coward. When I stole her, she […]

ICE DRAGON’S LULLABY, by S.W. Smith   The sky was young, as once was he, and all the world a single shallow sea. The sky was black when, birthed alive, he strove at first to fly, then learned to glide.   He skimmed the waves to take his prey. Beneath his wings, Time skimmed away. […]