Black Gate

Gemen the Antiques Dealer gathers a resourceful team of fighters and adventurers to assist him in his mysterious quest, in the sequel to “The Trade”:

The guards finished lowering their prisoner into the octagonal pit. Gemen guessed that at least three hundred now looked on as the woman, very much alone, paced back and forth with restless, furtive energy while a bored-sounding magistrate, above, read out a host of generic accusations.

The magistrate rolled up his paintbark parchment. “The accused calls herself Velori, and she will now defend herself! Survival connotes innocence!”

Immediately four ladders snaked down, and as Velori planted herself in the center, four warriors slid down and advanced, their heads encased in bestial masks of iron and leather, inlaid axes at the ready.

Gemen’s companion let out a dry laugh. “You’re about to tell me it isn’t fair, aren’t you? They’ve got weapons. She doesn’t.”

Gemen shook his head. “It looks fair to me.”

Mark Rigney is the author of the plays Acts of God and Bears and winner of the 2012 Panowski Playwriting Competition. His short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Black Static, The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review, Realms of Fantasy, Talebones, Not One Of Us, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and many more. His contemporary fantasy novel, A Most Unruly Gnome, won the 2009 First Coast Novel Contest. Two collections of his stories (all previously published by various mags and ‘zines) are available through Amazon, Flights of Fantasy, and Reality Checks.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Gregory Bierly, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“The Find” is a complete 14,000-word novelette of weird fantasy offered at no cost. It is the sequel to “The Trade,” Part I of The Tales of Gemen the Antiques Dealer, which Tangent Online called a “Marvelous tale. Can’t wait for the next part.”

Read the complete story here.

In the hottest driest month of the year, to the hottest driest city in the Empire of the Open Palm, a long and endless winter night had come… as the Army of Childless Men marched upon the desert city of Rok Moris, home of the Bird People.

They made a final graceless descent over the barren mounds of Paupers’ Grave, at the southernmost edge of the city. Beneath the mounds of Paupers’ Grave, the secret burrows of long bygone builders spiraled down and down into the cliff rock. The labyrinth, the mazepaths, the Catacombs. Where, in secret, the Bird People dwelled.

Kantu dropped from the glider with a wrenched groan. Mikiel tumbled after but regained her balance in an instant, shifting her feet lightly until once again her sandals settled like petals on the dirt. Mikiel shrugged the contraption off her shoulders and folded it back into her pack. She stroked the patchworks and ribbing, murmuring sweet thank yous.

“Good old thing,” she said. “Clever wings, clever threads, clever souls.”

“The rest of us get rugs,” Kantu said sourly. “Rugs are good enough. They do the job. Only you would think of wings.”

“And you call yourself Bird People.”

C.S.E. Cooney’s fiction has been reprinted in Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy (2011 and 2012 editions). Her poems and short stories have appeared in Clockwork Phoenix 3, Apex, Subterranean, Strange Horizons, Podcastle, Pseudopod, Ideomancer, Goblin Fruit, and Mythic Delirium. Her collection, How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, was released by Papaveria Press in May and her fairytale-with-teeth novella, Jack o’ the Hills, was published by Papaveria in January. She was the recipient of the Rhysling Award in 2011 for “The Sea King’s Second Bride.”

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Gregory Bierly, Mark Rigney, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“Life on the Sun” is a complete 10,000-word novelette of adventure fantasy offered at no cost. It is the sequel to “Godmother Lizard,” which appeared here on Sunday, November 11th, 2012, and which Louis West at Tangent Online said, “entranced me from the beginning… I highly recommend it.”

Read the complete story here.

The young warrior Lod, hero of “The Oracle of Gog” (from Black Gate 15), returns in an epic tale of death and treachery in the gladiatorial arena.

“Look at me,” the Games Master said.

Lod’s head felt heavy. He turned in what seemed like slow motion.

“If you win,” the Games Master said, “I’ll buy you. I’ll turn you into a champion.”

Someone shoved Lod from behind. He stumbled up the wooden ramp into warmer air. A trumpet blared. Lod twisted in surprise.

The stadium was gargantuan, built from cyclopean marble blocks. There were giants in the stands, the Nephilim sons of the First Born. Those were arrogant and lordly, and mostly they wore military attire, leather tunics and bear-furs.

He gripped his sword. “Give me strength, O Elohim,” he whispered. “Let me die today like a man.”

Vaughn Heppner has written a number of Amazon best sellers, including Star Soldier, Invasion: Alaska and People of the Ark. His last articles for us were “The E-book Revolution” and “A Look behind Lod’s World, or How to Strike Gold.” Read an excerpt from his novel Star Soldier here.

“The Pit Slave” is the sequel to “The Oracle of Gog” (from Black Gate 15), and part of Lost Civilizations, a six-book series: Giants, Leviathan, The Tree of Life, Gog, Behemoth and The Lod Saga. A slightly different version of “The Pit Slave” appears in The Lod Saga, available now at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Gregory Bierly, Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“The Pit Slave” is a complete 7,000-word sword & sorcery tale offered at no cost. Art for “The Oracle of Gog” by Mark Evans.

Read the complete story here.