Black Gate

A band of desperate men pursue the slave traders who stole their families… across cold barrows where a dread thing sleeps.

A vast shadow filled the bowl, blotting out the meager moonlight, and Niall’s cries came from the center. I drew my blade and ran towards Niall’s voice and was stopped dead. It was as if I had collided with a wall of ice which then threw me backwards to land winded on the turf. An angry throbbing filled my ears, paralyzing me with fear. I felt held in the power of some huge savage beast.

Then Aron was there and the hold was broken. With his sword in his right hand and a blazing pine branch in his left, he ran towards the shadow that squatted over the barrows.

“Fire, bring fire you fools, drive it away from the barrows,” cried Aron.

Martin Owton’s “The Mist Beyond the Circle” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read a more complete excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Martin Owton’s first story for Black Gate,  “A Touch of Crystal” was written with Gaie Sebold, and received this praise from Sherwood Smith at Tangent Online:

It’s the voice that makes this entertaining tale about a young woowoo-loving woman named Clearspring Treesong Watkins who works at the local woowoo store.  Much as she works at her crystals and candles and rituals, she’s not quite ready for the sudden appearance of enormous biker… Elves?  The dialogue snaps with energy, and the pacing never flags in this delightful tale, a superlative end to the new fiction.

Martin Owton lives near London, and is searching for a publisher for his adventure fantasy novel set in the same world as ‘The Mist Beyond the Circle.’

Art by Malcolm McClinton.

Next up in our Black Gate 14 Preview is an old-school Sword & Sorcery epic from  talented newcomer Matthew David Surridge.

Eventually Isrohim Vey went to the land of Marás, where, in the nave of the Obsidian Cathedral, he slew the Black Bishop called Nimsza; and, taking up Nimsza’s ring, spoke with the demon Gorias that Nimsza had commanded in life.

“It may be true,” Gorias purred, “that demons know something of the ways of angels.” Gorias held Nimsza’s soul between its claws, and was content.

“Tell me of the Angel of Death,” said Isrohim Vey.

“Azrael cannot be evaded,” the demon said.

“I do not want to evade the Angel,” said Isrohim Vey. “I want to find him.”

“The Word of Azrael” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read an excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Matthew David Surridge lives in Montreal. “The Word of Azrael” was his first fiction sale. You can find him online at misrule.blogspot.com.

Art by David Bezzina.

Brand and his shipmates face dread sorcery on a strange isle in John C. Hocking’s “The Bonestealer’s Mirror,” the sequel to “The Face in the Sea” from Black Gate 13.

We searched the labyrinth of sea-caves for hours, finally emerging in early afternoon, wet, hungry and tired. Asbjorn decided to return to Mord’s steading to collect Vali and Asdis, and to ask if the isle had more sea-caves in which the demon might lair.
      We knew something was amiss as soon as we came over the ridge and could see Mord’s home below. Vali and Asdis sat on the low roof of the longhouse, but of the dwelling’s owner there was no sign. As we approached they stood, and I saw Vali held his sword.
      “Where have you been?” yelled Asdis. Anger made her voice hard. I felt she was speaking to me alone and could not have uttered a reply for a chest of gold.
      “Just taking our ease,” said Asbjorn, “walking about in the black belly of a mountain hunting a demon out of Niflheim.” 

“The Bonestealer’s Mirror” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read an excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

John C. Hocking is the author of Conan & the Emerald Lotus (Tor, 1995).  The first tale of Brand the Viking, “The Face in the Sea,’ appeared in our last issue, the second, “Vali’s Wound”, was in Daniel Blackston’s anthology Lords of Swords (Pitch-Black, 2005). “The Bonestealer’s Mirror” is the third installment.

Art by Storn Cook.

Something is crawling into Cresy’s bedroom each night… something not human.

The Thing was here, in her room again, shuffling softly by her bed. She could hear it, and it made her afraid. And more than anything, the fear made her angry.
        I am the Hangman’s daughter, in her mind, her voice echoed from the walls. I am strong. I am not afraid of you!
       After what seemed like an eternity, Cresy sat bolt upright in her bed, and the sounds of the city came back to her. But this time, this time she saw it. A black shadow by her window, curved, hunched over. It was built like a therian — small, like a child, but with long arms and huge hands, hands built for strangling. Its eyes glowed, featureless yellow orbs. And in the light from those eyes, she could see its face, and she could see that it had no lips. Just skin, stretched across its jaws, as it tried to scream, and couldn’t.

Chris Braak is a novelist and playwright from Philadelphia.  His first novel is The Translated Man.

“The Hangman’s Daughter” appears in Black Gate 14, coming in February.  You can read an excerpt here.

The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.

Art by John Kaufmann.

We kick off Part II of the Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek with an excerpt from the issue’s lead story, Diana Sherman’s “Dark of the Year.”

“Dark of the Year” is the tale of a man wandering through a landscape ravaged by sorcerous war, desperately searching for a dying man or war-mage who can read his granddaughter’s true name, in the last few days before the Shadows come… before the Dark of the Year.

Diana Sherman has been published in Talebones and Polyphony, and a has sold a play to The Exquisite Corpuscle anthology from Fairwood Press.

Art by Mark Evans.

You can read the excerpt here.

Matai’s grandaughter doesn’t have a name, and soon, she will be susceptible to the Shadows when moondark comes.  Less than a fortnight distant, when the year turns on the longest night.  The Shadows and their darklings will come creeping through towns and cities, calling for children to come.  Most will be safe, their ears cottoned against those whispers by the knowledge of their own true names. 

But the orphans with no womb names, they’ll be gone of a morning.  No sight nor sound of their passing.  But someday, some other dark night, you might spy a lost child creeping through the village, a darkling servant now, whispering and beckoning.  You know them by their black lips, burnt by the Shadow that stole the souls out of their mouths.  That, and their angry eyes.

The complete version of “Dark of the Year” appears in Black Gate 14, on sale in February.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks, as we post excerpts from each of the stories coming in BG 14.