They walk a safe distance apart, the woman who will become a tiger and the lover she will devour, a distance that to outward eyes appears wholly lacking in suspicion... [read]
As when an airship, streaming westward soon after dawn into the city, is silhouetted by the sun and dilates like a pupil as it makes its final approach with the slow, steady pace of massive things; so the dreadnought Agamemnon, on course to conquer the peaceful moon of Re, awoke... [read]
My mother stands up and goes to the window. As she pushes open the glass, a breeze wafts in from the garden, bringing with it the scent of unkempt grass, wildflowers, and the promise of rain. —And suddenly, I remember Camelot...[read]
In this part of the world, spring paints each roadside bank and woodland patch a shock of brightest indigo, composed at closer look of delicate bluebells in their thousands... [read]
A light flickered in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and stared off into the moor's deep darkness, relieved for the moment of distraction. "That's them, missus," Old Mac said. "The will-o'-wisps."... [read]
At dawn on the first day of spring, I wake to the clamour of the gentlemen leaving the city on their horses, the morning sun glinting on the bright barbs of their hunting spears and the iron talons of their giant hawks.... [read]
He phased into view in the middle of the stage, punctiliously dressed in a top hat and tails, his translucence diminishing nothing of his inscrutability. When I asked for his name, he gave only the Magnificent Benvolio... [read]
The last time he saw the house he was glancing back over his shoulder as he and his sister fled into the trees, handfuls of snatched jewels heavy in their pockets, the smell of burning flesh coating their nostrils like black tar... [read]
Soon after the old man wakes, he takes his lyre to the cave where the sleepless dragon guards the golden hoard of a long-dead king and plays songs he hopes will send it to sleep... [read]
When the Colossus stops moving, the silence hits the island like a thunderclap. The creak and screech of its enormous limbs have been a constant companion to each of us since birth, a lovingly cooed lullaby, now so suddenly, so violently, absent... [read]
The Lady waits for the Duke in a body as fragile as sugar glass, resting her head against the cool marble of the colonnade that circles the Hall of the Nobles of Io... [read]
It had taken Mauve almost an entire standard year to get a table at the restaurant—Invasion, a trendy new pop-up on a rapidly gentrifying moon... [read]
"The one thing I lack," Loosestrife said, assuming a pose that accentuated his trousers to their fullest glory, "the one thing that will secure my position for good, is a servant—a human servant!"... [read]