Lawless Lands

by Emily Lavin Leverett

  Then he was done, and her body rested at the bottom of the dark hole. He smiled through his tears and nodded down at her, then began to fill in the grave.

  An hour later, the plot was smoothed over, and he walked back to the mech.

  "Here, Clay," Gibbons said, and a square of metal fell to the ground. "Wasn't easy to do, and it may not look like much, but I believe it is appropriate."

  Clay picked up the square and read the words on it. The tears started up again, but he grimaced and forced them to stop before he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and returned to the grave. He jammed the end of the metal into the ground and pushed down hard, making sure it wouldn't be blown away anytime soon.

  Then he smiled at the words and returned to the mech.

  Clay and Gibbons were long gone when more settlers finally traveled across the Cabenero Pass. It was a single roller with only a young man and a young woman in it, all of their worldly possessions packed in the hold behind their backs.

  "What's that?" the young woman asked, and pointed at a thin piece of metal flapping in the wind.

  "Grave marker," the young man said.

  "Stop," the young woman said. "I want to read it."

  "Come on, we need to get—"

  "I said stop." The tone of her voice would not allow dissent.

  The young man laughed and eased the roller to a stop. He got out and helped the young woman down, then they both approached the crude grave.

  "Here lies a woman who was loved. A woman who deserved more. A woman who will never be forgotten. I am sorry, my love. I am sorry, my sweet Netha Kane. You will always be in my heart. I will do right by you. I swear this to my end."

  "Wow," the young woman said, taking the young man's hand. "You better write something like that for me."

  "It'll be better," the young man said. "And it will be decades from now. And, if we're lucky, it will be our children writing the words so that we can go off in peace together."

  The young woman smiled and gave him a kiss. Then they climbed back into their roller and drove across the pass, ready for a new life. A life they both hoped would be long and full of love, but neither of them expected to be easy.

  Nothing ever was. Not anymore.

  Acknowledgments

  Special Thanks to Melissa Gilbert at Clicking Keys for her assistance with this project. www.clickingkeys.com.

  We couldn't have brought you these wonderful stories without the support of our fantastic Kickstarter backers. The following people had faith in our project, and we're very grateful!

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  About the Authors & Editors

  Originally from Britain, Dave Beynon came to Canada as an infant, growing up on a farm just outside of Dundalk, Ontario. He has been a cow milker, a residence manager at the Hamilton Downtown YMCA (there’s a novel waiting to be written about those four years), a factory worker and a purveyor of fine corrugated packaging and displays.

  Dave writes speculative fiction of varying genres and lengths. In 2011, his novel, The Platinum Ticket was shortlisted for the Terry Pratchett Prize. Dave co-hosts a local cable TV show called Turning Pages, an in-depth interview show that highlights authors, writing and publishing.

  He lives in Fergus, Ontario with his wife, two children, three chickens and a pond full of feral goldfish.

  Find out more about Dave at www.davebeynon.com or follow him on twitter @BeynonWrites.

  Jake Bible is a Bram Stoker Award nominated-novelist with over 40 published novels including the bestselling Z-Burbia series set in Asheville, NC, the bestselling Salvage Merc One, the Apex Trilogy (Dead Mech, The Americans, Metal and Ash) and the Mega series for Severed Press; the YA zombie novel, Little Dead Man, the Bram Stoker Award nominated teen horror novel, Intentional Haunting, the ScareScapes series, and the Reign of Four series for Permuted Press; and the dark fantasy novel, Stone Cold Bastards, and urban fantasy series, Black Box, Inc, for Bell Bridge Books.

  Aubrey Campbell writes short fiction across a wide variety of genres, from paranormal romance to sci-fi westerns, as long as it’s weird, full of swashbuckling adventure and may or may not have a happy ending. When she’s not writing, she spends her time drawing, hiking, and daydreaming too much about fictional characters. She lives in the Midwest where she hoards so many books she’ll never be able to read them all, an unhealthy amount of journals, and cats.

  Alexandra Christian is an author of mostly romance with a speculative slant. Her love of Stephen King and sweet tea has flavored her fiction with a Southern Gothic sensibility that reeks of Spanish moss and deep fried eccentricity. As one-half of the writing
team at Little Red Hen Romance, she’s committed to bringing exciting stories and sapiosexual love monkeys to intelligent readers everywhere. Lexx also likes to keep her fingers in lots of different pies having written everything from sci-fi and horror to Sherlock Holmes adventures. Her alter-ego, A.C. Thompson, is also the editor of the highly successful Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of anthologies from Mocha Memoirs Press. A.C. will also pen several Shadow Council Archives novellas starring everyone’s favorite sidekick, Dr. John Watson, coming soon from Falstaff Books.

  A self-proclaimed “Southern Belle from Hell,” Lexx is a native South Carolinian who lives with an epileptic wiener dog and her husband, author Tally Johnson. Her long-term aspirations are to one day be a best-selling authoress and part-time pinup girl. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Broad Universe—an organization that supports female authors of speculative fiction. Questions, comments and complaints are most welcome at her website: http://lexxxchristian.wixsite.com/alexandrachristian

  David B. Coe, who also writes as D.B. Jackson, is the award-winning author of nineteen novels and more than a dozen short stories. Writing under his own name (http://www.DavidBCoe.com) he is the author of the Crawford Award-winning LonTobyn Chronicle, the critically acclaimed Winds of the Forelands quintet and Blood of the Southlands trilogy, the novelization Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, and the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, a contemporary urban fantasy published by Baen Books.

  Writing as D.B. Jackson (http://www.DBJackson-Author.com), he is the author of the Thieftaker Chronicles (Tor Books), a series set in pre-Revolutionary Boston that combines elements of urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. David co-founded and regularly contributes to the Magical Words group blog (http://magicalwords.net), and is co-author of How To Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.

  A. E. Decker, a former ESL tutor, tai chi instructor, and doll-maker with a degree in Colonial American history, lives in Pennsylvania. She is the author of the Moonfall Mayhem YA series published by World Weaver press, and works as an editor for the Bethlehem Writers Group. Her work has been published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Fireside Magazine, and The Sockdolager. Like all writers, she is owned by three cats.

  Gunnar De Winter is a biologist/philospher hydrbid who explores ideas through fictional fieldwork. Beware, he occasionally attempts tweeting (@evolveon) and writing.

  B.S. Donovan made his first short story sale in the esteemed Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier anthology. The rest, as they say, was future history. Originally from Boston, he's had a wide and varied career, which has brought him to China and Japan, where he currently lives and works. His greatest ambitions are to raise two confident and happy children, reach 1st dan at Japanese calligraphy, and to see his name in a list with these wonderful authors again. You can read more about him on bsdonovan.com

  Jo Gerrard is a poet and writer who has been published in Star*Line, Dwarf Stars, the upcoming Invisible 3, Sporty Spec, and Magic and Mechanica. She is a native of the western United States and as such will talk your ear off about jackalopes, Wyoming, or California's deserts. (She'll be glad to listen to your turn at storytelling, too.) She believes there is not nearly enough speculative fiction set in western (or Western) America. Jo can be found in inland Southern California, accompanied by one elderly guinea pig.

  Laura Anne Gilman is the Nebula- and Endeavor-award nominated author of two novels of the Devil’s West, Silver on the Road and The Cold Eye, and the short story collection Darkly Human as well as the long-running Cosa Nostradamus urban fantasy multi-series (Retrievers, PSI, and Sylvan Investigations), and the “Vineart War” epic fantasy trilogy. Her recent short fiction has appeared in Daily Science Fiction and the anthologies Genius Loci and Strange California.

  A former New Yorker, she currently lives outside of Seattle, WA with two cats and many deadlines. More information and updates can be found at www.lauraannegilman.net, or follow her on Twitter: @LAGilman

  Jeffrey Hall lives in a small suburb of Massachusetts with his wife and son. When he isn't exploring different worlds through the written word or spending time with his family, you can find him doodling, playing basketball, reading, and thumbing away at a videogame or two. He is the author of several nontraditional fantasy short stories and the book series Chilongua Tales, a dark fantasy anthology set in the jungle. To find out more about his fiction and to see some of his doodles visit him at www.hallwaytoelsewhere.com.

  John G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love. He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles (Bell Bridge Books), the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects.

  In 2016, John teamed up with a pair of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fictions “misfit toys.”

  In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering.

  Barb Hendee is the national bestselling author of The Mist-Torn Witches series. She is the co-author (with husband J.C.) of the Noble Dead Saga. In addition to writing novels, she also teaches writing for Umpqua Community College. She and J.C. (and their two beloved cats: Ashes and Cinders) live in a quirky two-level townhouse just south of Portland, Oregon. When they first bought the townhouse, the large fenced patio area consisted of nothing but rocks. They spent six months carting out rocks in a wheelbarrow, then ripped up the ground, and now have a lush vegetable garden where they grow everything from peas to tomatoes to carrots to potatoes—while they struggle to keep the zucchini plants from taking over the world.

  Matthew J. Hockey has now returned to England with his fiancée after two years teaching in Seoul South Korea. By the time you read this he might actually have his own place. His crime fiction has most recently appeared in Fast Women and Neon Lights, an anthology of 1980s inspired neon-noir short stories from Crime Syndicate Magazine/Short Stack Books. His first foray into weird/horror was published in Cthulhu Lies Dreaming: Twenty-three Tales of the Weird and Cosmic from Ghostwoods Books. He can be found most days at https://www.facebook.com/MatthewJHockey/.

  New York Times and USAToday bestselling fantasy author Faith Hunter was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. She writes two contemporary Urban Fantasy series: the Jane Yellowrock series, featuring a Cherokee skinwalker who hunts rogue vampires, and the Soulwood series, featuring earth magic user Nell Ingram. Her Rogue Mage novels are a dark, post-apocalyptic, fantasy series featuring Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage. The role playing game based on the series is Rogue Mage, RPG. Find her online at www.faithhunter.net, yellowrocksecurities.com/, or http://gwenhunter.com

  Pamela Jeffs is a prize-winning speculative fiction author living in Queensland, Australia with her husband and two daughters. She has had her short fiction published in various magazines and anthologies both nationally and internationally.

  When she isn’t being a writer, Pamela has a background in interior and exhibition design where she has had the good fortune to work with a multitude of talented artists. This exposure has given her an appreciation for art in all its forms including, graphic, sculptural as well as the literary.

  For further details about Pamela, visit her at www.pamelajeffs.wixsite.com/pamela-jeffs or drop her a line via Twitter @Pamela_Jeffs

  Nicole Givens Kurtz is the author of the Cybil Lewis science fiction mystery series. Her novels have been named as finalists in the Fresh Voices in Science Fiction, EPPIE in Science Fiction, and Dream Realm Awards in science fiction. Nicole's short stories have earned an Honorable Mention in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest, and have appeared in numerous anthologies and other publications.

  Emily Lavin Leverett is a writ
er and editor of speculative fiction, and a professor of medieval English literature. Medieval English Romance is the focus of her scholarship and influences her fiction. Changeling’s Fall (2016), co-written with Sarah Joy Adams, is the first book in their contemporary epic fantasy the Eisteddfod Chronicles from Falstaff books. Winter’s Heir will follow in fall 2017. She has co-edited several volumes, including The Big Bad I and II, Tales from the Weird Wild West, and Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier. She has published short stories in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Emily lives in North Carolina and, when not writing, editing, or professoring, she and her husband are fans of the Carolina Hurricanes and of their two cats.

  Misty Massey is the author of Mad Kestrel, Kestrel's Voyages and the upcoming Kestrel's Dance. She co-edited The Weird Wild West and Lawless Lands: Tales From The Weird Frontier. Misty is a founding member of Magical Words, and recently became the audiobook editor for BellaRosa Books. When she isn't writing, she studies Middle Eastern dance, and performs at local events. She's a sucker for good sushi, African coffee, and the darkest rum you can find. Find her at www.mistymassey.com, Facebook, Twitter and Dreamwidth.

  Margaret S. McGraw is co-editor, with Misty Massey and Emily Leverett, of two anthologies of short stories about the wildest West that never was: Weird Wild West (eSpec Books, 2015) and Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier (Falstaff Books, 2017). Margaret writes fantasy and science fiction; blogs about prompt-writing, con reviews, and book reviews at WritersSpark.com; and edits fiction, academic, and technical writing. Her imagination draws on her lifelong love of science fiction, fantasy, and anthropology. Her education and experience range from anthropology and communication through web design and IT management. Margaret lives in North Carolina with her daughter, an array of dogs, cats, Macs and PCs, and too many unfinished craft projects. Friend Margaret on Facebook or Goodreads at “Margaret S. McGraw”, follow her on Twitter @MargaretSMcGraw, or visit her blog at WritersSpark.com.