Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery

“That I do,” he replied. “And so where is my companion?”

“She is safe, in the prison. But you’ve only performed half of your task.”

“You sent me to get the sword, nothing more.”

“Something’s wrong,” one of the others said. “He should be—”

“Yes, he should,” Hesqel said. “He who bears the sword should be host to Qash.”

“Oh, he’s here,” Fool Wolf said, raising the blade.

Hesqel sneered. “I don’t know what witchery prevents his incorporation, but that weapon cannot harm any of us.”

“I believe you,” Fool Wolf said.

He dropped the sword.

Godblood, Chugaachik sighed as he stepped over the dead. Almost as good as babies. Release me again—we’ll go back up there, find out what Qash sees in virgins.

He didn’t even bother to answer her, but just shook his head wearily.

You’ve never been like that before, sweet thing. That was more you than me.

“I know.”

Why?

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said.

We’ve killed children before. We’ve done things these pathetic half-men never dreamed of.

“That’s right,” Fool Wolf replied. “Now, sleep.”

It was easy, because she was sated. As she slunk away, he could still feel her genuine confusion.

He had to kill a guard to free Inah. She looked at the yellowish blood that soaked his clothes and coated his face and shook her head,

“You let her out,” she said. “After all that talk.”

“I did it to save you, of course,” he replied.

“That’s a lie,” she said, “but I like it.” She leaned up and kissed him.

He bathed in the same pool as he had earlier, then donned some clothes they had taken from a line on the outskirts of the city. By nightfall they were at the rim of the valley. Unfamiliar dales and peaks walked off north, east, and west.

“Which way?” Inah asked.

In the darkening sky, Fool Wolf picked out the constellation his people called the Twins, used that to find the star called the Yekt Kben, the Hearth, the one that never moved. Then he pointed a bit to its right.

“What’s there?” she asked.

“Home,” he replied.

HEW THE TINTMASTER Michael Shea

MICHAEL SHEA was born to Irish parents in Los Angeles, California, where he frequented Venice Beach and the Baldwin Hills for their wildlife. After attending UCLA on the advance-placement program while still in the tenth grade, he made his way to UC Berkeley for the wildlife there during the Time of Troubles. He hitchhiked across America and Canada twice, and at a hotel in Juneau, Alaska, chanced on a battered book from the lobby shelves: The Eyes of the Overworld, by Jack Vance. It led to his first Vancean novel, A Quest for Simbilis, which was published in 1974. Shea followed that with several novellas, some horrific, some comic, in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, including the Nebula Finalist, “The Autopsy.” He published Nifft the Lean in 1982. A classic of the genre, it won the World Fantasy Award and was followed by The Mines of Behemoth and The A’rak. Other work includes novels The Color Out of Time; In Yana, the Touch of Undying; and collections Polyphemus and The Autopsy and Other Stories.

Ah, colorful Helix! It’s a rainbow whirligig, a bright coil of bustling streets and painted structures that spirals up the little mountain—or grand hill—of the same name. It lies a few miles inland from Karkmahn-Ra, Earth’s most seething port, and the hub of trade for the whole Sea of Agon.