Will it hurt? she had asked, lying for the first time with her neck bare and open to the gold-plated plug in his hand. He had laughed, looping the cable around his arm in affectionate coils, leaving none of it… Continue reading

It isn’t worth being the one who saves the day. Who sees the plot coming together with wide, roving eyes while everyone else gapes at the screens mounted high in the square, which have started to flicker with symbols and… Continue reading

“My apologies,” the guest repeated. “I would not want to compromise such loyalty as you seem to have to her, of course.” Yet he still looked at her that way. As he had since the start – what did he… Continue reading

“Anything that moves and acts must be animated by a life force,” the guest explained. “Most people know this, but they make two false assumptions from it. The first is that the moving thing must have been born with that… Continue reading

“I survived only by luck,” the guest recalled. “The path had broadened just then – or else our attacker wouldn’t have been able to stand on it – and my horse reared in terror. It nearly tossed me into the… Continue reading

What a cold climb it had been, a purposeful caravan turned to a funeral procession of two. They had ridden in silence and, soon, in soaking rain that turned the dark to a stinging, hostile force, howling and lashing at… Continue reading

No one travelled by that road if their destination left them any other choice. Narrow and rocky, it deferred to every twist and ridge of the mountains it traversed, making it no shortcut to anywhere except a cold, lonely death.… Continue reading