fantasy – mythpunk

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Summary: Chloe’s first memory is of being carried hurriedly by Tashuhunka through sleeting rain with echoing blasts of thunder as an epic battle raged overhead. Tash, the only boy that wasn’t caught that night, raised her in secret as he also hid in the woods. She is devastated years later when he sends her to live with a family. She feels like she was orphaned twice. Now eighteen, Chloe is starting to hear things that other’s can’t. She feels drawn places she was warned about, and she dreams of boys...but there aren’t any boys in the realm - other than Tash. All the other boys were imprisoned by the witch who believes one of them is the emperor's heir and she wants that power. After the witch won the battle and imprisoned the boys, she cast a spell making everyone forget about them. Now, Chloe has seen the boys in visions. Her friends think she's imagining. Tash knows better. This is what he was afraid of. He tried to protect her from a perilous fate written in ancient prophecies, but as she comes of age, destiny propels her to solve the mysteries of the realm and free the boys. But, how? Magic doesn't work without dust, which is scarce now, and Chloe doesn't have superpowers. She's just a misfit, from the wrong side of the pond. Something inside drives her. She doesn't know she's being brave. She's just following her heart, and not thinking how scary it all is.

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Summary: RISE (noun / verb) Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) An upward slope or movement 2) A beginning or origin 3) An increase in amount or number 4) An angry reaction 5) To take up arms 6) To return from death 7) To become heartened or elated 8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

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Summary: When yet another wave of colonizing Felters arrives to strengthen their fortress on the forest’s edge, Velu, an indigenous hunter, knows they bring only pain and death. But with them arrives an intriguing older woman who hunts legends. When Velu learns the woman, Lady Greyback, shares his terrifying visions of the ancient scorpion god, Ajakava, she invites him to research what they mean. But the Felters grow hostile, blaming Velu and the other hunters for deaths in a doomed expedition through the forest. Meanwhile, the visions become ever more persistent, hinting the god is awakening. When a second Felter expedition seeks to extend their reach to the capital beyond the forest, only Velu and Lady Greyback know they will walk straight into Ajakava's clutches. While the lady sees new destruction, Velu sees memories of a long-forgotten massacre. What vengeance does the old god have in store, and for whom? Find out what happens in Ajakava by Chaitanya Murali

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Summary: What is the cost of survival? It's been a year since Cassidy Durant became the captain of the Dreamscape Voyager, and six months since she witnessed the carnage at the Dragon's Nest. Supported by her crew and Hymn — the enigmatic Fae with whom she has formed an illicit partnership — she has done all she can to carry on with her life. However, the horrors of the past refuse to stay behind her. Instead, they threaten the future of the entire Empire. Promises of the Empire is the epic second installment in the Dreamscape Voyager Trilogy, which began with Skies of the Empire.

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Summary: Airship pilot Cassidy Durant finds herself entangled in a menacing plot when a Faerie named Hymn saves her life in exchange for protection against nebulous enemies. This complicates her simple life of cargo trading, since affiliating with the Fae is a death sentence in the Empire. Meanwhile, reluctant mercenary Zayne Balthine is tasked by his employer, a devout worshiper of the Desert Goddess, to break into the Imperial Palace. It's not his first suicide mission, but this time, things are different. He'll die should he fail, though that’s nothing new. But if he succeeds, he will be responsible for unfathomable death and devastation.