Black Gate

The crumbling passage led to an underwater city, filled with marvels, wild magic… and secrets.

The village witch rowed Newyn to the tainted place, the ocean cove the locals called ya sangra liu — the bloody harbor. No one knew what had happened there, except that once it had not been filled by the sea.
     “There.” It was a toothlike stone structure that stuck out of the water to roughly waist-height, in the middle of the miniature bay. “Everyone knows, you walk down that way, you can breathe.”
      Newyn studied the protrusion. It was manmade, circular, perhaps the ruined top of a tower. “Do you breathe water, like a fish, or is there air?”
     “You’re not floating, if that’s what you mean. You can walk, run, speak if you find anyone to speak to. Near enough to air, even if the fish swim in it.”
     “And others have gone down, and come back.”
     The witch half nodded, half shrugged. “Come back, yes. But not always whole.”
    “Why did they go?”
     “Some folks come back ranting about gold… I’d think you might like gold.”
     “Oh, I do,” Newyn said, so softly it was almost a hiss. “I do.”

Isabel Pelech has been published in Talebones, Tickled by Thunder and Dreams & Nightmares. She lives in Tennessee with two gray cats.

“The Wine-Dark Sea” appears in Black Gate 14. You can read a more complete excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Art by Mark Evans.

Lady Nyla was once rich and powerful. Now she lived in a hut on a lonely road. But tonight the Mother Goddess gave her back a measure of her old power — to set her against a terrible foe.

      Nyla lay upon her stomach on the frozen ground and watched the black magician work. He and his familiar concentrated on the task at hand, unaware of being watched. They had not wasted energy on wards against humankind, for they feared no mundane danger on this bitter night. But from the protections they had drawn they were mortally afraid of the thing they summoned.
      The baby lay upon the altar, loosely wrapped in purple cloth. Occasionally it wriggled and let out a weak cry as it suffered in the cold.
      The familiar, she decided, was the weak link.

Jan Stirling’s first sale was to Esther Friesner for Chicks In Chainmail. She lives in New Mexico.

“The Lady’s Apprentice” appears in Black Gate 14.  You can read a more complete excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Art by Matthew Laznicka.

It looked like a routine hire… until Kellen found himself framed for theft, and embroiled in a plot to steal the secret of the Crown’s great airships.

     The ship’s motion grew more violent, and the crewmen passing his hiding place cursed. Kellen smacked into the hull, then fell back against a sharp-cornered skip. How much more of this could the ship take and stay aloft?
     Against all expectation, he’d escaped discovery. But he had to do something. They’d toss him overboard as soon as they found out, he had no doubt, along with his hopes of escape, but he wouldn’t be the cause of destroying this ship and its crew.
     He wriggled out from his hiding place, hands held high to look nothing like a threat. “I need to speak to your captain.”
     Silvery beams swung toward him, and he shielded his eyes. “Stowaway!” one shouted.

Renee Stern’s short fiction has appeared in Aeon Speculative Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Oceans of the Mind, and the anthology Sails and Sorcery: Tales of Nautical Fantasy.  She lives outside Seattle.

“Red Hell” appears in Black Gate 14, now shipping.

You can read a more complete excerpt here. The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Art by Jim & Ruth Keegan.