Queer Fantasy and Weird Tales for the People
My axe came down on the first guard’s head. His helmet caved in over his face and he stumbled backward with a curse I could not understand. The others pressed in around me, fencing me in with their spears. A flash to my left caught my eye, and I stepped back, fearing a deadly point.
It was only the shaft of a spear darting toward me. It glanced harmlessly off my shoulder. They still intended to bring me in alive.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter III: Banwa Province”“I am Eske, world-treader and champion of the Cerean Tournament. It would be in your best interest to let me go.”
Journey to the Water Chapter III
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The dragon sent me south, to the Isles of Ashinya. There, I was to speak with the elders, who kept an artifact they called the Dreaming Eye in a temple on the largest island. With their help, I might be able to use it, and it would open the way to the other world that I sought. I was unsure exactly how it worked, but I trusted the word of the dragon.
“You cannot travel as I do,” she said. “You are human, and you will require human guidance. Pay your obeisance to the wise women of Ashinya, and they will help you.”
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter II: The Road South”Phyreios was in ruins. A gaping black maw lay open at the base of the mountain, where the worm had gone back from whence it came, into the bowels of the earth. Under the clear autumn sky, a miasma of smoke and dust hovered over the rubble. The survivors were few, and they had nothing but what they were able to carry, but they lived, and they would rebuild. A god walked among them, and he would lead them to a golden age of peace and prosperity—a god who wore the face of my beloved.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter I: The Dragon Temple”
We made our way back to the gate, a grim procession through the rain and the rubble. Phyreios had truly and utterly fallen. There was nothing left of the temple at the foot of the mountain, once the city’s most magnificent structure. Of the arena, all that remained was a few broken pillars of soot-stained white marble, standing half-buried in a bed of broken stone. Over the husk of the city lay a miasma of smoke, and the rain brought up a thick fog. I could not see much farther than the reach of my arm. The Sword of Heaven hung heavy from my hand.
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter XXVII”Weight bore down upon me. The broken earth cut into my flesh. Were it not for the pain, I would have thought I had perished, crushed beneath the rock. Absolute, impenetrable darkness pressed in all around.
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter XXVI”Another shake rumbled beneath our feet, but the approaching figure did not stumble. I placed myself between the door and Khalim. We waited, hardly daring to breathe, as the footsteps echoing in the darkened corridor came nearer and nearer. Beyond the arena’s walls, weapons clashed and barricades were shattered as Reva’s miners confronted the city’s soldiers. I prayed to whatever god might be listening that they would be safe, and keep the Ascendeds’ forces from our backs.
I stood between Jin and Jahan, and each had his sword at the ready. The air hummed and shimmered between their blades. I could almost hear the magic contained within. I felt a lingering fear in the knowledge of the power of these weapons, as much as I was grateful for their presence. If one could kill a god, what would it do to me, should I find myself on the wrong end of it?
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter XXV”The city still stood, and was recognizably itself, despite the fires that lit up its streets. Reddish light fell over the plain as the sun rose, casting the landscape in a bloody hue. There was a brief reprieve from the earthquakes, the aftershocks rippling under our feet, but for how long Phyreios would remain standing, I did not know. Aysulu’s horse stood with its legs planted wide, anticipating another shake.
“Oh, no,” Khalim whispered beside me. “No, no, no.”
He must have recognized the horror before him. He had seen it, and walked hundreds of miles to prevent it, and yet there it was, just as it had appeared in his nightmares.
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter XXIV”“You must not tarry. Gather your leaders.”
The person who stood before me was not Khalim. Though his appearance had not changed—I had become accustomed to seeing the light of his magic shine from his eyes—it was clear that he had become someone else. He stood perfectly straight, a warrior’s posture. The voice that came from him was deep and booming. I had heard it earlier that day, when the lance of light had fallen from the sky and turned the assassin who meant to kill me into ash, and I had heard it once before, in the arena. It had stilled the crowd that had nearly overwhelmed Khalim, quieted them into order. I had been bewildered then; now, I was afraid.
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter XXIII”The being of fire burned a dark path through the brush back toward us.
“Brace!” I cried, and the shields on either side of me rose up to meet my own. For all the miners’ inexperience, they had risen to the challenge admirably. The flying orbs of fire broke on the wall of shields, and though I felt the heat and smelled scorching hide, nothing caught. That would not be the case for long—the air was dry, and through the smoke I could still see the elemental coming toward us. A spear of ice that glittered in the sun flew from the wall and struck it at its base, and it slowed, its progress obscured by a sudden cloud of steam.
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter XXII”
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