“The Penitent Damned" by Django Wexler(Originally published on io9.)Duke Mallus Kengire Orlanko, Royal Minister of Information — sometimes called the Last Duke, though not in his hearing — did not look particularly dangerous. He was short, balding, and tended toward the portly, a roly-poly little man with an unfortunate taste for rich purples that gave him the look of a ripe plum.Nevertheless, it was widely agreed that the Duke was the most dangerous man in Vordan, if not beyond. This was not si...
Oct 17, 2016•56 min
Flash Fiction: “The Choochoomorphosis” by Oliver Buckram(Originally published in Unidentified Funny Objects 3.)As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed into Neville, the Crime-Fighting Locomotive. Neville was a funny little blue engine with six small wheels and a stumpy smokestack. He lived in the Big Station with the other steam engines of the Happyville Railroad, and spent his days cheerfully bustling up and down the railroad tracks, solving crimes and ...
Oct 10, 2016•35 min
Flash Fiction: “Papagena” by Jay lake and Ruth Nestvold("Tales of the Rose Knights" #8, originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)Papagena was born on the Borderlands, between the sere landscape of the south and the orange plains to the north, a child of two homes, and when she chose to become a Rose Knight, her allegiance was to the plains as well as the desert, to the fertile land of Osverio as well as the harsher but warmer beauty of the Desertlands.She did not wear only one color. Some ...
Oct 04, 2016•50 min
“Reckoning” by David Steffen(Originally published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, September 2013.)"The Day of Reckoning is upon us," Preacher Paul said."You reckon?""I reckon."Paul watched Jake for telltale signs of guilt, but his friend only nodded and went on rocking his chair on the general store's porch."You'd best do everything you can to prepare," Paul added. "I'm here to offer you counsel if you need it.""Before you get too far in that sermon of yours, you ought to know I don't ...
Sep 26, 2016•55 min
“First and Last and Always” by Thana Niveau(Originally published in Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane.)Tamsin placed her hands on either side of her phone and gazed intently at the picture of Nicky she’d taken the day before. Her heart soared as she said his name aloud.“Nicky.”The flickering candlelight gave him the illusion of movement and Tamsin could almost believe she was watching him through a portal, seeing him as he was right at this moment. After a few seconds the picture fa...
Sep 19, 2016•49 min
“The Ifrit's Trial” by Spencer Ellsowrth(Originally published in Human Tales.)Noble courtiers, wazirs, Sultan and lovely Sultana, salaam. Such fanfare for a poor Ifrit you have brought! I see you have seven red-robed sorcerers arrayed about the room, and seven white-robed holy men, each holding the seal of Suleyman whom the Hebrews called Solomon the Wise, and chanting the psalms of David, may peace fall upon him. In the yards of the palace you have arrayed seven times seven of these fork-bearde...
Sep 12, 2016•59 min
"Flash Fiction: “Eden Rose” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold("Tales of the Rose Knights" #7, originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)When the Rose Knight Graham Thomas first fell in love with Eden Rose, he knew the two of them would not have an easy time of it. He was a Yellow Rose of the old guard in the service of the Sun, while she was a White Rose, a servant of the Moon, her colors white and the faintest pink blush. The Sun and the Moon had long been at war, but in the way of youth, Ed...
Sep 05, 2016•38 min
“The Forever People” by Robert V.S. Redick(Originally published in Fearsome Journeys.)When Majka stepped out through the kitchen door at dusk she found a huge white weasel in the garden. Brazen, it locked eyes with her: a rare chelu, a ghost weasel, halfway between the garden wall and the little ramp by which the chickens entered the barn. Majka hissed. The chelu answered with a growl. The animal was nearly the size of a wolverine.The door stood open behind her. From within came the eager thok t...
Aug 30, 2016•55 min
Flash Fiction: “Black Baccara” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold("Tales of the Rose Knights" #6, originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)Baccara is one of the dark ones from among the ranks of the Rose Knights. She is a pale woman, needle-thin with large eyes dark as bruises. She always goes clad in satin of a color that falls somewhere between maroon and leaf mold. Baccara follows battle rather than leading it like most of her fellows, always in the service of the Armies of the Moon.Baccar...
Aug 17, 2016•55 min
Flash Fiction: “The Quest You Have Chosen Defies Your Fate” by Beth Cato(Originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)You are reading a book, and within that book you now walk through the iron gates of the junior high school of your youth. You don't understand how you are reading of a real place within this old fantasy book of adventures you found in the closet of your childhood bedroom. These particular pages didn't exist before, here in this volume that you read until its white spine was bow...
Aug 16, 2016•39 min
“Broken Clouds” by Rachel Swirsky(Originally published in When the Villain Comes Home.)Alex walked home through light rain that was almost soundless as it silvered the sidewalk. The whole world seemed colorless: overcast sky, grey drizzle, endless cement.The empty, grasping ache in her abdomen gnawed at her, not just because of the pain but because of the frisson of loss that accompanied it. She was like a glass with the water poured out, a vacant vessel.Would it ever stop? Did anyone ever recov...
Aug 16, 2016•49 min
"nd Mercury, Gilt and Glass” by Lane Robins(Originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)42 facts about my wife, Marie:1) Marie was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1984.2) She has blue eyes, and brown hair that falls just below her shoulders, not quite wavy, not quite straight. Her features are regular and even, though her upper lip is a little short and always bares her teeth.3) We met five years ago during a dull business conference mixer. I thought she had a wonderful smile, especially when...
Aug 01, 2016•51 min
"n Xochitl in Cuicatl in Shub-Niggurath” by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, translated by Silvia Moreno-García(Originally published in Sword & Mythos.)Screams. The sun had not risen yet when the Mexica priests entered the Valley of Toluca, carrying the effigies of their gods. They carried the whistles of death tied around their necks: small clay skulls that produced terrifying shrieks when they blew them. This is how they announced the arrival of war, and with it, of Huitzilopochli and Tezcatl...
Jul 26, 2016•58 min
This month's cover art is "Dragonfly Kiss" by Susan McKivergan, a digital muse, graphic designer, and artist. When not working and improving her skills in digital art, she enjoys cooking, 3-D modeling, texturing, painting, crafts, sewing, the beach, gardening, traveling, and more. She has done artwork for many CD and book covers, magazines, E-zines, and commissioned and licensed work. She has won several awards, has appeared in ImagineFX, and has sold thousands of prints through deviantART. Her ...
Jul 19, 2016•57 min
Flash Fiction: “Harlekin” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold("Tales of the Rose Knights" #5, originally published on Daily Science Fiction.)Harlekin was fair as a maiden, with a blush to match. Women can possess the kind of beauty that was his and still be taken seriously, but not men -- or so it seemed to the beautiful youth. Is it any wonder that he chose to wear particolor and play the clown?This strategy went well for him for a time--being underestimated has its advantages. But when Harlekin de...
Jul 12, 2016•45 min
Flash Fiction: “River Boys” by Stephen S. Power(Originally published in Faed.)The river gives our village food and blood, breath and beat, and, one evening, it gave us a boy.A girl named Minu found him in a coracle caught on a mossy bank upstream. She didn’t recognize the weave of his boat or the cloth knotted at his hips. He was terribly thin. He couldn’t speak or open his eyes. He only pointed at his mouth. She helped him onto shore and laid his head across her lap. As the river shares with us...
Jul 05, 2016•26 min
Flash Fiction: “The Pixie Game” by Anna Zumbro (Originally published at Daily Science Fiction .) The rain has stopped shortly before the dismissal bell rings, and the ground is spongy and quivering with worms. Someone taps Gage’s shoulder. He spins around and sees Dasha, her mouth upturned at some private joke. “We’re playing the pixie game. Want to come?” It’s the third time someone has talked to him at this school and the first time he’s been invited to do anything. He follows her, half runnin...
Jun 28, 2016•33 min
Featured Story: “The Cow & The Beanstalk” by Julie Frost (Originally published in Azure Valley , April 2013) Once upon a time, I was unfaithful to my fiancée. That went… aye, about as well as you’d expect. “You traitorous varlet!” Mary screamed at me. “Please, beloved! This isn’t what it looks like — ” I dodged the chamberpot she flung at my head. Fortunately, it was empty. Unfortunately, this was in fact exactly what it looked like. “With my own sister?” Katherine, the sister in question, w...
Jun 21, 2016•1 hr 9 min
Flash Fiction: “Golden Unicorn” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold ( “Tales of the Rose Knights” #4, originally published in Daily Science Fiction .) The Rose Knight known as Golden Unicorn was a creature of field and forest, flowing across the mountain slopes as fire flows across the stubbled fields of autumn. She was born in the misty hills of the Farmost West, raised among the simple nut farmers of Chemeketa, bound to the service of no man nor spirit save her own will and the glories of those mo...
Jun 14, 2016•30 min
Fiction: “Want’s Master” by Pat Bowne (Originally published in Tales of the Unanticipated , 2002.) When William Harrison Gracile came in to work at four-thirty in the afternoon looking as if he had aged twenty years overnight, his suit hanging loose on a wizened frame, his secretary wished him good day and went back to her typing. Gracile was offended. He had never been late to work before; he had never come in with a hair out of place. He deserved better from his secretary, he thought. She shou...
Jun 07, 2016•46 min
This month’s cover art is “Abyssal” by Jason Deem , a designer, art director, and illustrator who mostly creates fantasy and horror art, and is the resident cover artist for Grimdark Magazine . You can find him online at spiralhorizonart.com , or in real life in Dallas, TX. First Story: “Raikou and the Shi-Ten Doji” by Ed Ahern (Originally published in Eternal Haunted Summer , Autumn Equinox 2013) A long time ago the capital of Japan was Kyoto, the city of blossoms. The Mikado and his court live...
May 31, 2016•42 min
Flash Fiction: “Old Blood” by Jeremy Szal (Originally published in Saturday Night Reader , September 2015) They said you couldn’t kill Old Blood, direct descants from the First Men, blessed with wisdom and the ability to peer into the future. It seemed that a blade between the ribs did just the trick. I doubted Lord Commander Roran had predicted that move. I stood in the Commander’s place, leading the Amelleus army. My army. There were thousands of men bathed in the morning’s pale glow, standing...
May 24, 2016•56 min
“Rosaraie de l’Hay” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold (“ Tales of the Rose Nights ” #3, originally published at Daily Science Fiction .) In the steep-walled country of Hy Rugosa, where the women guard their swords and the men guard their tongues, dwelt a daughter of the fey named Roseraie de l‘Hay. She had been born to gentility, armored in beetle carapaces and twinkling magic while still in her willow-wood cradle, and grown slowly in the manner of the fair folk into a woman of subtle beauty and p...
May 17, 2016•48 min
“Wednesday’s Child” by Jon Michael Kelley (Originally published in Father Grim’s Storybook .) “Good morning, Miss M.” The voice, lecherous as a dank cellar draft, seemed to travel low to the ground, as if slithering out from beneath a rock. She instantly froze, the spoon halfway to her mouth. She’d heard that voice once before, here on this very same glade, and knew that it originated from a primal and universally shared nightmare. Her skin, pupils, every follicle of hair reacted protectively as...
May 10, 2016•52 min
First Story: “When the Harlequin Dances” by C.L. Holland (Originally published in Bards and Sages Quarterly , January 2010 .) The bells rang out over the city. They sounded mournful, at odds with the carnival brightness in the streets below me. I was perched on the ledge halfway up the Azielto Tower, watching as the city folk thronged through the streets to find the best spot to see the Harlequin Parade. A better view could be had from higher up the tower, but to go any closer while the bells ra...
May 03, 2016•57 min
Featured Story: “The Forest Lord” by Sarina Dorie (Originally published in The Urban Green Man .) The summer day I moved into my cabin in the woods, I knew something wasn’t quite right. It started with the way the aspens and alders scratched against the wood paneling of the house, sounding like words, and swaying when there was no wind. During the process of unpacking, I set my glass of orange juice on the porch railing. It disappeared and later reappeared in the same spot, only empty. I couldn’...
Apr 26, 2016•1 hr 9 min
“The Dark Down There” by Joe R. Lansdale (Originally published in Dead Man’s Road , October 2010.) Reverend Jebidiah Mercer smelled them before he saw them. They came out of the brush along both sides of the trail. There were four of them. One had a pistol, one a shotgun, the other two were carrying digging tools, a shovel and a pick. His hand went swiftly inside his coat, pulled his .36 Navy Colt. Before the fellow with the shotgun could lift it, the Reverend shot him right between the eyes, sp...
Apr 19, 2016•1 hr 7 min
Flash Fiction: “Green Ice” by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold (“ Tales of the Rose Nights ” #2, originally published at Daily Science Fiction .) The Moon is mistress of the tides, which means she controls the blood of men, for their red-washed veins flow with salt, echoing the sea that is mother to us all. When she calls men to her, they rise to her attendance. When she refuses them, they drown in tears of sorrow. Women, though, follow a flow and rhythm of their own, still in Sister Moon’s power, but...
Apr 12, 2016•42 min
Story: “There’s a Hole in the City” by Richard Bowes (Originally published in Sci Fiction , June 15, 2005) Wednesday 9/12 On the evening of the day after the towers fell, I was waiting by the barricades on Houston Street and LaGuardia Place for my friend Mags to come up from Soho and have dinner with me. On the skyline, not two miles to the south, the pillars of smoke wavered slightly. But the creepily beautiful weather of September 11 still held and the wind blew in from the north east. In Gree...
Apr 05, 2016•40 min
“While the Gods Laugh” by Michael Moorcock (Originally published in Science Fantasy , October 1961.) One night, as Elric sat moodily drinking alone in a tavern, a wingless woman of Myyrrhn came gliding out of the storm and rested her lithe body against him. Her face was thin and frail-boned, almost as white as Elric’s own albino skin, and she wore flimsy pale-green robes which contrasted well with her dark red hair. The tavern was ablaze with candle-flame and alive with droning argument and gust...
Mar 29, 2016•1 hr 21 min
