There once lived a man smaller than a teacup. Convivial even with the scullery maids, yet having a gentleman’s bearing, he charmed all comers. He spoke French and Portuguese without an accent and was fluent in Dutch and Mandarin Chinese.… Continue Reading
Lord Dalius burst through the heavy oak doors of his keep, gasping for breath. He’d had to run lest too many people see him in such a state. “That wretched hag!” he shouted into the emptiness. With a quivering breath… Continue Reading
The girl on the corner has made paper cranes for as long as anyone can remember. Last month, one of them came to life. Now live cranes are everywhere. Walking our crowded street, pecking at litter for scraps of value.… Continue Reading
The vitrifiers position me on the table, the striated steel cold against my skin. An acrid scent lingers in the tiled room, a vestige of a thousand other treatments. “You have had surgery.” Minister Krasell casts his eyes over my… Continue Reading
“Of all the fairy stories we tell our children,” said Arkady, “The Tale of the Greater Good is by far the most wicked.” “You sound like the fifth Karamazov brother.” Outside, the cold reduced everything to elemental purity. Traces of… Continue Reading
The imperial mage let himself into the menagerie long after closing. Merdesac hurried to the bear enclosure and called through the wrought iron fence, “Prince Adrian. It’s time.” A large brown bear trundled over to him. Behind the mage, a… Continue Reading
When we go to sleep, everything is normal. When I wake up, my husband is a frog. I know it’s him by his little froggy eyes, which look at me just the way my husband’s did. “Did” or “do”? Do… Continue Reading
Furious and cloaked in the silvery light, I change. With an itch that grows to a burn, coarse hairs push their way up through my skin like worms in a flooded graveyard. I dare not scratch, for unbidden keratin oozes… Continue Reading
Bernard Dudinski was an idiot and there was no savant about it. He picked up the paperweight to examine the tooth encased within it at a closer angle. He was convinced it was his own. Bernard had a perfect smile — which… Continue Reading