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 […]

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 […]