Queer Fantasy and Weird Tales for the People
The battering on the doors has grown more insistent, an arrhythmic roll of a huge, flat drum. A trickle of old blood, embalming fluid, and gods know what else creeps underneath the nearer side. Isabel can smell them, the unmistakable miasma of rot, sickness, and cold, damp earth.
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel’s day continues to get worse. You can have a little zombie apocalypse, as a treat, by reading this chapter on Patreon.
Locked
“The geography of the nether world is complicated,” Isabel explains. “It’s governed not by distance and space but by the spiritual and conceptual relationship of one place to another.”
Not one of the words in her second sentence makes any sense to Berend. It must be evident on his face, because she looks at him and continues, “My point is that there are a lot of places in the world beyond that haven’t been discovered, and no one knows what might be lurking there.”
“Like the place with the eyes,” Berend says. He still can’t shake the feeling that the next time he looks out a window, they’ll be there again, filling the sky and staring down at him with malevolent, predatory intentions. “Or was that a thing? A creature as big as the world?”
Isabel shrugs. “There isn’t much of a useful distinction. Ondir is the gate, and the gate is Ondir. He is the realm of the dead and its lord.”
There’s a reason Berend never even entertained the thought of joining the clergy as a young man. He rubs at his own eyes, hoping they don’t look as dry and crusty as they feel. His borrowed coffee is wearing off. “Right. So you’re saying that there’s a place, or a person, or a…thing that eats souls like a fire eats wood. Nobody’s heard of it before, because it just appeared out of nowhere, but that happens sometimes.” He blinks, willing himself to stay awake and coherent a little longer. “Do I have that right?”
He looks at Warder, who glances expectantly up at Isabel.
She holds up two empty hands. “It’s more complicated than that, but yes. More or less.”
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Two”“It’s just a minor breach in the cold rooms,” the black-haired nurse says. “We’ve sent for a priest of Ondir. Everything is perfectly safe. You’ll just have to wait for a while.”
The Book of the New Moon Door
It’s finally time for the zombie apocalypse. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon, or wait until next week when it’s available here!
Also, the January edition of the newsletter is going out at noon my time, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from this writing. Put your email in the box here to get it (and don’t forget to check your inbox for the confirmation email!
Trade Secret
Berend retreats to a stiff wooden chair, the upholstered seat little more than a suggestion of padding, placed in the hallway. Isabel slumps heavily into its companion a few feet away and on the opposite wall and stares, her expression blank and her eyes hollow, at nothing. He’s going to have to find a place for her to sleep, and soon, before she falls off the chair and knocks her head against either the wall or the floor.
For himself, he figures he has about two hours before the coffee he borrowed from Emryn Marner wears off. The young man was too soundly asleep to be asked, so it might be more accurate to say that Berend stole the coffee, but either way, it was a justifiable acquisition. He should have stolen some for Isabel.
As it turns out, Lucian Warder is alive. Berend had worried that wouldn’t be the case by the time they got here, though he didn’t breathe a word of his fears to Isabel. Warder’s alive, and that means that his entire plan hasn’t gone to hell. Yet.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-One”Do you think you’re blameless? That it was only your research partner who was at fault? I should fetch the city watch to chain you to this bed.
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel confront the inventor Lucian Warder in the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door, now available on Patreon.
Departure
It’s nothing, Isabel tells herself. It’s a traveler’s tale, embellished with every telling until it’s unrecognizable as the original story. An entire village did not turn to metal overnight.
She’ll believe that anyone who chanced to be awake last night saw the red star fall. It had been bright as a jewel, burning like a distant bonfire through the sky of this world and of the next. But the rest? It would require a ritual from the old legends, a coven of mages made immortal by their own power, the sacrifice of dozens of innocents. The next part of the story would involve a holy warrior of the church of Alcos, in enchanted armor that shone like the sun and a sword that could cut through both flesh and lies, riding a winged steed into the place of their power.
Emryn Marner himself doesn’t seem to believe it. He eats his pie like a starving man—all men his age are starving—and doesn’t bring it up again. He and Berend take the tub down to the gutter and dump out the dirty water, and then he retreats to his room with his books. “There’s an exam next week,” he explains. “Though if the world’s ending, maybe I’ll get to miss it.”
“When I was a boy, my teacher said that one of the hells was just endless written exams, over and over, for all eternity,” says Berend.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty”“You’re a necromancer. I’m a Sentinel. I’m sure you’ve read enough history to know what was going to happen.”
“You were a Sentinel,” Geray snarls.
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel’s brief respite is plagued by the still-present ghost of a murderer in the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door. You can read it now on Patreon.
Isolation
Berend takes the desk chair from Emryn’s bedroom and places it against the wall between the sitting room and the kitchen, facing away from the kitchen door. Its slats dig into his back. He’s reasonably sure he won’t fall asleep in it, but he wouldn’t be willing to wager any actual coin.
Water splashes as Isabel wedges the huge kettle sideways into the first bucket and takes it back to the stove. The hiss of steam follows.
When she asked him to stay by the door, Berend had assumed there would be some sort of conversation. He’s starting to doubt that the uncomfortable chair will be enough to keep him awake.
“I wasn’t ever going to take you to the temple of Isra,” he says. “You know that, right?”
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Nineteen”Berend scowls. “Tell him I don’t care what he thinks. He thought that hacking people apart would make the gods notice him, and where did that get him?”
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel’s very brief respite comes to an end as they receive strange news. There’s also the ghost of a serial killer hanging around. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon!
Also, in case you missed it (or I am misremembering mentioning it, which is possible): Part Two has twenty-six chapters, and I’ll be starting work on the third and final part after the new year.
Rest
Emryn Marner’s address leads to a narrow, three-story house in the University quarter. The first level is red brick, stained with soot, while the upper two are panels of gray plaster between wooden beams. Someone, not too long ago based on the degree of grime, had painted the door red in a spasm of artistic fervor. Upon closer inspection, its original wood color shows through between brush strokes.
It’s early afternoon, and the street is quiet, its occupants away at their classes. From what Berend can see from below, this house is empty as well. He knocks anyway, one fist on the poorly-painted door, and waits.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Eighteen”
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