NOW FUNDING ON KICKSTARTER

 
In Sunshine or In Shadow - Jonathan Maberry

Kagen Vale was very far from home.

But not as far as he wanted to be.

An Altar of Driftwood and Coral - Matthew X. Gomez

Perla looked up as the wind whipped the door open to her taverna, revealing a tall stranger. The communal area wasn’t crowded, only a few of the locals who were willing to brave the weather for her fish stew and a jack of either sour wine or bitter ale. The stranger shook water off his patched cloak, and doffed his wide-brimmed hat, the rim drooping with rainwater. He walked with a dancer’s grace into the common room and up to the bar, rubbing a hand over his close-cropped hair, and placed a small silver coin on the scarred wood. 

Aristeros -Christina Ladd

Once there was a shopkeep who wished to become a knight. Every evening in his room above his father’s shop he had cut his teeth on tales of brave deeds done in dark forests, all for the sake of a single token from the beloved.

Chosen - C.N. Wheaton

I should have known the job was too good to be true. 

In my defense, I was hungry and tired and more than a little bit drunk at the time. That last audition with a second-rate traveling troupe hadn’t even called me back. My meager savings were dwindling by the day. If my luck didn’t change, and soon, I was going to have to go back home. I’d do just about anything to avoid being a farmboy again. 

Chrysanthemums in Spring - Archer Lacombe

Hallvus gave a tired sigh as he looked at the steps up to the inn, and his guide, an older man with sparse white hair named Gellan, gave him an apologetic look. Or was that a wince? It was difficult to tell.

Dion the Conqueror - Maxwell I. Gold

Remorseless, cruel, and unbreakable were the words everyone in the Seven Realms ascribed to Dion the Conqueror. Yet, somehow, I’d end up bound to him. Frail, vulnerable, passionate, and wild. These were the worlds I ascribed to him, and I had heard the awful and sometimes entrancing stories, the bone chilling accounts of Dion’s imperceptible strength from how he managed to rip apart the iron chains of Old King Tramâch’s massive gate as if it were nothing but tattered furs; all with an impressive physique for the purpose to claim a horde of treasures locked away behind Andras’ high walls.

Dogmen from Ur-Kon - J. R. Santos

With both hands Argotha slashed down, the blade heavier at the tip just enough to add the weight of an executioner arm to the deadly descent, a silver arc that heralded a quick death.

Dragons or Domesticity - Jessica Andrewartha

“Is she completely covered? Will you check again?” Abagail begged her husband for the fifth time since they’d descended into the cave system. 

“Not a toe or a hair poking out,” Jarreth reassured. Her nerves calmed, but only long enough to take three strides forward. 

Drastic Poodles - Colin Anderson

The people are restless. They know what shall come. Go west of the mountains and you can hear the thunder. They know it is coming here. I trust it is why you are here. Maybe not tomorrow or a year from now, but it will arrive, and when it does, it will bring the end with it. Parrgin knows that they are next should we fall, yet they hesitate to act on our behalf or indeed, their own. We… I have made similar decisions in the past. I do not fault them. This land has never known a threat like this before. How do I question the preparation of another kingdom when we are still scrambling for solutions?

Fireflies - Jacob Jones-Goldstein

Tiny crimson fireflies flit through the air, glowing brightly against the darkening sky. They swirled and swooped in chaotically choreographed dances, tracing lines in the gloom before venturing too far out into the cold and falling to earth, their light extinguished. 

Light and Shadow - Lance Mazmanian

The White Statue: a favorite toy of the unnaturally black dragon, whose skin was more shadow and refraction than flesh. At night the dragon now sat constantly above Village Hargrave, never bringing grief but always filling the dark with its two eyes spreading every color imaginable across irregular beams.

On The Eighth Day Of Battle - Alyssa Askani

As Milius waited for his turn to fight within the stone-walled pit, stern-beaked guards dragged a goose and a swan out of the blood-stained sand. Both birds had entered, but neither survived. They strutted and preened when they should have fought. Many first-time fighters swooped about the brick-walled pit, desperate for the adoration of the audience above.

Quest for a Cure - Eric Remington

The story of the beginning? How we came to be so great and powerful? As with so many things, it starts small. It starts with a single hope, a single quest. A single powerful man who just wants to help his son. And it starts in a cave.

The Bards Song - David Shoemaker

On a dark and wint’ry night

Fogbound in snow, without moonlight

A young bard rejoiced the sight

Of King Culhwch’s castle’s keep.

The Bone Dump - Randall Hayes

Nachtigall lay, stinking and sore, in a pile of dung. He had been out frolicking with the bats the night before, more than a little drunk. He must have fallen asleep hanging from the ceiling of their cave. 

The Fool Who Learned the Spell - Jon Negroni

The Duke of Harren’s daughter sneezed, and the chandelier caught fire.

Wick saw it happen—the way her little hiccup of embarrassment sent a ripple through the glamour she’d been wearing all evening. The illusion of copper hair flickered, showed mouse-brown beneath, and somewhere in that flinch of concentration the candles overhead went up like festival torches.
 

The Goddess's Favor - Rose Strickman

Before dawn, Zuali went with the other priestesses to wake their mistress.

Night lay heavy on the plains, but a faint glow to the east foretold sunrise. It was going to be a bright, clear day. In the ruins of the temple, wild birds called and sang to the sunrise. It was a bright, cheerful sound, but Zuali took no pleasure in it. Her stomach was tight, her mouth dry.

The Legends of Ravis, The Enthraller - Michael Joseph Tharnish Roby

With a sword of shimmering, cyan kalcum secured to my belt, I followed Lord Mattings and two guardsmen into the colony’s deepest, darkest dungeon. My lord says he’s never descended there; his predecessors locked it ages before. The upper floor’s fetid stink gave way to stale, dusty air as we descended. Indeed, if tales of the creature we approached rang true, Death herself turned her violet eyes from those corridors.

The Torch of Clarity - Phil Giunta

The lifeless eyes of Lord Barlon stared down at his body from atop a pike in the center of the palace courtyard. Following his assassination at the hands of his brother, Malachi, the former leader of Mirnako had been stripped naked and his decapitated corpse dragged across the grounds, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

The Wrong Hero - Jon Resnick

Another explosion sounded below. I threw my arm around the rough wooden rung of the rope ladder and braced for the shockwave. It slammed into me from below with a rush of scorching air, and I was thrown sideways. My feet flew from their rung, and I barely held on as the ladder whipped around and the ship swayed. Screams erupted from the deck, only fifteen feet above, but no one fell overboard–thank God. A good thing, too, since a fall from this height would kill anyone.

There b

y the Grace of the Gods... - Greg Schauer

“Are you warm enough, Grandfather?”

I hear my great, great, great granddaughter, Stula, moving behind me, she is fussing with the blanket draped over my shoulders. I see her hands moving at the edge of my fading vision. I know she does it out of love but the way I am now, her ministrations frustrate me. After having led an active life, to be trapped in this body is maddening.

Wild Foxes - Irina Serova

Court Herald article, June 7, 18**

“Princesses Annaelle, Kato, Nele, Elodie, and Ilke disappeared without a trace yesterday afternoon during the picnic in the Royal Cedar Park. Servants and governesses who have given the princesses privacy for refreshments and games, could never have anticipated their sudden disappearance. The lawn was littered with half-eaten sandwiches, cakes untouched, and fallen chairs, plates and glasses strewn about. Queen Nerissa, still grieving the loss of King Theo last year, has been dealt another cruel blow. Royal investigators have been tirelessly looking for any clues. While there is no evidence that the princesses were kidnapped, investigators are not ruling out any possibilities.