Short Stories
“Coyotaje”
The coyotes of Mexicali were bold. They did their business in cantinas, in the middle of the afternoon; the police, well-fed with bribes, looked the other way. Day by day, week by week, people came into Mexicali, carrying backpacks and bundles and small children, and day by day, week by week, they went away again, […]“Comparison of Efficacy Rates for Seven Antipathetics as Employed Against Lycanthropes”
Abstract — This study seeks to establish a hierarchy of efficacy for various antipathetic materials and delivery mechanisms thereof as used in the extermination of lycanthropes. Pre-existing data on this issue consists solely of folkloric narratives and unsubstantiated anecdotes on Internet communities, neither of which are based upon suitable experimental trials. It is hoped that […]“Selection”
The application form is seventy-two pages long, and they require nine copies. These people want to know everything. They also want to make sure you aren’t doing this as a joke. I am not the sort of person who habitually writes second-person present-tense stories about filling out application forms; in fact, most of my fiction […]“Such as Dreams Are Made Of”
Holt closed his cell phone, the soft click swallowed up by the cool grey carpet, and smiled to himself. His next deal was well underway, even as he stood in the monument of his latest achievement. The room that would become his office was empty still, the furniture not yet delivered, but he wasn’t unduly […]
“To Rise No More”
“Come back here at once, you naughty child!” The shouts faded into the spring air as the girl fled, laughing. When she gained the shelter of the trees, she slowed her pace; Miss Stamp would never follow her this far. The woman had tried once, the first time her charge vanished into the wood near […]
“And Blow Them at the Moon”
Henry Garnet’s breathing was the only sound inside the room, marking the passage of time like a ragged and desperate clock. Everything else was remote, muffled, the street outside as distant as a foreign land. He knelt with both hands clenched white before him, trembling as his lips shaped the words. Domine, adjuva me. Soundless […]
“Centuries of Kings”
I have killed kings, lured emperors to their doom; destroyed courts, brought countries to war; for thousands of years I have brought chaos with me wherever I go, death not enough to stop me, and I regret none of it. And now the hunters pursue me through the wood. Written originally for a class whose […]“The Last Wendy”
The stars winked in conspiratorial excitement as the two travelers flew by, borne on nighttime winds. Far below, the lights of London blazed with the unrelenting life of the city, broken only by the dark ribbon of the Thames. Every year London grew larger, stretching arms of concrete and wire into the green fields that […]“The Waking of Angantyr”
Hervor splashed through the cold surf onto the rocks of the beach, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder. By now the ship would be underway again, putting out to sea as fast as it could. How she would get off the island was a problem for later. She was lucky to have made […]“Daughter of Necessity”
The strands thrum faintly beneath her fingertips, like the strings of a lyre. Plain grey wool, held taut by the stone weights tied at the ends, awaiting her hand. She can feel the potential in the threads, the resonance. She has that much of the gift, at least. But it is madness to think she […]“The Wives of Paris”
They offered him a beautiful woman, power over men, victory in war. This story was inspired by a friend’s completely unrelated Trojan War story. She was in the middle of describing it to me, and I suddenly started wondering what would have happened if Paris had given the golden apple to Hera or Athena instead. […]
“The Snow-White Heart”
“Cut out her heart and bring it to me,” the queen said, and so the huntsman did. Given the title and that opening line, those of you familiar with fairy tales can probably guess which one this story is twisting. You can also guess it isn’t going anywhere good. As has become tradition for […]“Kiss of Life”
In faraway lands, the tale is a romantic one. She sleeps in her tower, in the castle surrounded by thorns, awaiting a prince who is brave and true of heart, for only the kiss of such a man will end her slumber and bring her back to life. She has waited for many centuries, they […]“Tower in Moonlight”
The hart leads them far into the woods, fleeing through the trees while the hounds nip at its heels and the horses thunder behind, until the path is lost, lost, and familiar lands are no more than a memory, and then it runs still more. One by one the huntsmen and hounds fall away, until […]“The Gospel of Nachash”
In the beginning God made the world, and on the sixth day he made creatures in his image. Male and female he created them, and they were the bekhorim, to whom God gave dominion over every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit, to be in their care. Mankind he formed from dust, but […]
“What Still Abides”
Let me tell a tale of my father’s kin, for in me runs their blood, and so to me falls this burden: to keep the knowledge, the old-thought, the shape of how it began, as my father gave it to me. This is the short story that tried to kill me. I have never had […]“The Twa Corbies”
In all the fairy stories, when the hero is magically gifted with an understanding of the speech of birds, it actually does him some good. A robin brings him a message from his true love, or a bluebird tells him about buried treasure, or a starling warns him of a traitor among his companions. It […]
