It came away.
“What the –”
Velda exclaimed, “Deras!”
An arrow winged into and through the sergeant’s arm, its tip jutting out bloodily. He backed off, yelling in shock and pain.
The man holding the knife to Velda went down with an arrow in his eye. One of the troopers guarding Deras took a hit. The other abandoned him, ran for cover and collapsed headlong as a bolt found his back.
Arrows fell like rain, striking men all around. One plummeted screaming from halfway up the crooked tower.
Then the band of archers was charging in, their bows replaced with blades. Brackenstall led them, Goran at his side, his spoiled face plain for all to see.
A cacophony of steel meeting steel rang out as the two sides engaged.
“Kill the woman!” the sergeant shouted. “Somebody kill the woman!”
One of his men rushed at her, a blade in his hand. She had her back to the fortress wall, bound hands held up in a vain effort to protect herself, eyes wide. Goran saw, with horror, but couldn’t disentangle himself from the opponents he faced. All the others seemed equally powerless.
Deras sprinted towards Velda, praying he could reach her before her would-be murderer. The man got there first, weapon raised. Deras saw a discarded sword in his path. He scooped it up and ran with it levelled. The man half turned as Deras neared and the sword slid between his ribs. Eyes rolling, incomprehension on his face, the man sank to the ground.
Deras looked at the bloody sword he was holding and couldn’t have dropped it more swiftly had it just come out of a furnace. Velda dashed to him and clutched his arm. They started for the slab of fallen masonry, and shelter.
But the fight was all but over already. Bodies littered the ground, including a couple of the archers, though to Deras’ relief they looked wounded rather than dead. Their comrades were aiding them.
Goran had the whimpering sergeant on his knees, his sword to the man’s throat. “As for you, you piece of shit –”
“No!” Deras cried. “Leave him!”
“What?”
“Spare him.”
“After what he’s done? And what he was about to do to Velda?”
“For me,” Deras pleaded. “In consideration of what I just did, if nothing else,” he added desperately.
“He’s right, Goran,” Velda said. “I wouldn’t want that man dead, in spite of everything. That isn’t how the League does things.”
“Release him,” Deras urged. “He’ll be a message to his kind. It’ll let them know they can’t overcome Goran Minshal. That Lycerians are a force to be reckoned with.”
Goran hesitated. For a moment it looked like he could go either way. Finally he withdrew his sword and gave the man a kick, sprawling him in the dirt. “What the hell. They’ll probably execute the swine anyway for bungling his mission.”
They tied the sergeant to a horse and sent him away.
Velda and Goran embraced. She shed a tear and he comforted her.
“You’re shaking, brother,” Goran observed.
“I’ve killed a man.” Deras was dazed by the realisation of what he’d done.
“And I’m grateful to you.”
“But I killed a man,” Deras repeated.
“And I didn’t. Two miracles in one day.”
“How can I take a life and call myself a healer?”
“What would have been the alternative? Soothing words?”
“It always takes them peculiar the first time,” Brackenstall commented.
“First and last,” Deras told him.
Goran squeezed his brother’s arm. “Look at it another way. See it as saving Velda. Not to mention getting me to spare somebody, and that’s never happened before.”
“I’m grateful, too,” Velda said. “It’s not what we would have chosen, but you did the right thing.” She planted a kiss on his cheek.
Goran surveyed the carnage. “And you created enough of a diversion to make the rescue possible. What more do you want, Deras?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Why did you need me at all?”
“You wanted to be part of this mission, didn’t you? Anyway, if they’d decided to kill me right away, or who they thought was me, I’d still be around to reckon with them.”
“You are joking, aren’t you, Goran?”
His brother just smiled. “We have wounded. See to them, healer. Go on.”
Deras snapped out of it and made for the fallen archers. Velda went to help him.
* * *
As they rode back through the wood, Velda said, “I knew it was you, Deras. In the mask. Or that it wasn’t Goran, rather. Even before you spoke.”
“We’re roughly the same build. We look quite similar. How could you tell?”
She smiled. “A woman can tell. If you ever get one of your own, you’ll find that out.”
“Only a saint would suit my brother,” Goran offered.
“And he deserves one.”
“Whoa!” Brackenstall said, halting the column.
“What is it?” Goran asked, hand going to his sword.
The archer looked up.
A great shadow passed over above the trees, momentarily blotting out the sun. As swiftly as it came, it was gone.
Velda turned to Deras. “What might that have been?”
A shiver tickled his spine. “I think I’d rather not know.”
About the Authors
Joe Abercrombie was born in Lancaster on the last day of 1974, spent much of his youth in imaginary worlds, and left school with a good idea of how to make stuff up. He moved to the big city, learned to brew tea, and ended up as a TV editor, working on documentaries, events and concerts. But in the darkness of the night he was still making stuff up, and his first book, The Blade Itself, was published in 2006. He now lives in Bath with his wife Lou and their three children: Grace, Eve and Teddy. He makes stuff up full time.
James Barclay is mainly an author and sometimes Scott Barclay, the actor. He’s published twelve books; seven about The Raven, two about The Ascendants of Estorea and three about his very own brand of Elves. He’s also written two novellas for PS Publishing – Light Stealer and Vault of Deeds. Beyond writing and acting, James lives noisily but happily with Clare; their sons, Oscar and Oliver; and Mollie the Hungarian Vizsla.
Storm Constantine has written twenty-eight published books, both fiction and non-fiction, and well over fifty short stories. Her writing spans literary fantasy, science fiction, and dark fantasy. She is best known for her Wraeththu trilogy. Storm is founder of the independent publishing house Immanion Press, created in order to get classic titles from established writers back in print and innovative new authors an audience. She lives in the Midlands with her husband, Jim, and five cats.
Jonathan Green is a writer of speculative fiction, with more than fifty books to his name. He has written everything from Fighting Fantasy gamebooks to Doctor Who novels, by way of numerous Black Library publications and myriad short stories. He is also the creator of the Pax Britannia steampunk series for Abaddon Books. To find out more about his current projects visit: www.jonathangreenauthor.com.
Tanith Lee was born in 1947, didn't learn to read until she was nearly eight, and started to write aged nine. Since becoming a fulltime writer in 1974 she has written around 100 books, nearly 300 short stories, four radio plays, and two episodes of Blake's 7. Her latest collection, Colder, Greyer Stones (NewCon Press), was launched at the 2013 World Fantasycon in Brighton, where Tanith was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Tanith lives on the Sussex Weald with husband writer/artist John Kaiine, in a house full of books, stained glass, plants and cat fur.
Juliet E McKenna has always been fascinated by other worlds and other peoples, myth and history. Her debut fantasy novel The Thief's Gamble was published in 1999, first of the Tales of Einarinn. In 2012, her fifteenth, Defiant Peaks, concluded The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. She writes diverse shorter fiction and reviews for web and pri
nt magazines. She lives in Oxfordshire, fitting all this around her husband, teenage sons and cat, and vice versa.
Anne Nicholls’ published works, originally written under the name Anne Gay, include the acclaimed novels Mindsail and The Brooch of Azure Midnight. Her short story “Roman Games” was reprinted in the Year’s Best Fantasy. Anne is now principally a psychotherapist, best known for self-help writing and broadcasting, but her paintings are also beginning to gain a following.
Stan Nicholls is the author of more than thirty books and approximately fifty short stories, but he is probably best known for his Orcs series, which have amassed worldwide sales in excess of a million copies. For six years he was the sf and fantasy book reviewer for Time Out, and his journalism has appeared in some seventy national and specialist publications. He has been Chair of The David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy since their instigation in 2009.
Gaie Sebold’s debut novel introduced brothel-owning ex-avatar of sex and war, Babylon Steel (Solaris, 2012); the sequel, Dangerous Gifts, came out in 2013. She has published short stories, had several jobs, and is a member of T Party Writers. She now writes full time, gardens obsessively, and sometimes runs around in woods hitting people with latex weapons. Find out more at http://gaiesebold.com/ and follow the latest scandal and tidbits from Scalentine at http://scalentine.gaiesebold.com/
Jan Siegel has written in several different genres under several different pseudonyms. She also works as a poet, journalist, free-lance editor, and occasional teacher, her interests covering a wide range of subjects. While a writer may be defined as someone who knows a little about a lot, Siegel claims she knows very little about a hell of a lot. An idealist, she is continuously surprised to find fact stranger than fiction and real human beings even more bizarre than any character in a book.
Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Lincolnshire, studied and trained in Reading, and now lives in Leeds. He is known for the Shadows of the Apt fantasy series starting with Empire in Black and Gold and currently up to volume 9, War Master’s Gate. His hobbies include stage-fighting, and tabletop, live and online role-playing. More information is available at www.shadowsoftheapt.com
Sandra Unerman lives in London and is a retired Government lawyer. She has written fantasy for many years and has had stories published in Scheherazade and All Hallows magazines. She has attended the Milford writers’ workshop and recently graduated from Middlesex University with an MA in Creative Writing (Fantasy and Science Fiction). She is a member of the London Clockhouse group of writers.
Ian Whates currently has two published novel series: the Noise books (Solaris) and the City of 100 Rows trilogy (Angry Robot), as well as more than fifty published short stories. His work has received honourable mentions in Years Best anthologies and two of his stories have been shortlisted for BSFA Awards. Growing Pains, his second collection, appeared from PS Publishing in March 2013. In 2006 he founded NewCon Press, quite by accident. “Return to Arden Falls” is the fourth Fallen Hero tale to appear to date.
For more information on how Legends came about, follow this link
For the interview conducted on the editor at the Fantasy Book Critic site follow this link
NEWCON PRESS
Publishing quality Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy and Horror for six years and counting
Winner of the 2010 ‘Best Publisher’ Award from the European Science Fiction Society.
Anthologies, novels, short story collections, novellas, paperbacks, hardbacks, signed limited editions, e-books…
To date, NewCon Press has published work by:
Neil Gaiman, Brian Aldiss, Kelley Armstrong, Alastair Reynolds, Christopher Priest, Tanith Lee, Joe Abercrombie, Dan Abnett, Nina Allan, Sarah Ash, Neal Asher, James Barclay, Tony Ballantyne, Stephen Baxter, Chris Beckett, Lauren Beukes, Aliette de Bodard, Chaz Brenchley, Keith Brooke, Eric Brown, Pat Cadigan, Simon Clark, Michael Cobley, Storm Constantine, Peter Crowther, Hal Duncan, Jaine Fenn, Jonathan Green, Gwyneth Jones, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, M. John Harrison, Amanda Hemingway, Paul Kane, Leigh Kennedy, Kim Lakin-Smith, David Langford, Alison Littlewood, James Lovegrove, Una McCormack, Sophia McDougall, Gary McMahon, Ken MacLeod, Ian R MacLeod, Gail Z Martin, Juliet E McKenna, John Meaney, Mark Morris, Anne Nicholls, Stan Nicholls, Marie O’Regan, Philip Palmer, Stephen Palmer, Sarah Pinborough, Rod Rees, Andy Remic, Mercurio D Rivera, Adam Roberts, Justina Robson, Mark Robson, Gaie Sebold, Robert Shearman, Sarah Singleton, Martin Sketchley, Kari Sperring, Brian Stapleford, Charles Stross, Tricia Sullivan, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Steve Rasnic Tem, Lavie Tidhar, Lisa Tuttle, Ian Watson, Freda Warrington, Liz Williams, Neil Williamson… and many, many more.
Join our mailing list to get advance notice of new titles, book launches and events, and receive special offers on books.
www.newconpress.co.uk
Fables from the Fountain
Edited by Ian Whates
Cover art by Dean Harkness
Produced as a fund raiser for the Arthur C Clarke Award and containing all original stories written as homage to Arthur C. Clarke’s classic Tales from the White Hart, featuring many of today’s top genre writers, including:
Neil Gaiman, Charles Stross, Stephen Baxter, James Lovegrove, Liz Williams, Adam Roberts, Eric Brown, Ian Watson, and Peter Crowther
The Fountain: a traditional London pub situated in Holborn, just off Chancery Lane, where Michael, the landlord, serves excellent real ales and dodgy ploughman’s, ably assisted by barmaids Sally and Bogna.
The Fountain, in whose Paradise bar a group of friends – scientists, writers and genre fans – meet regularly on a Tuesday night to swap anecdotes, talk of wondrous events, tell tall tales, reveal classified secrets, and, maybe, just maybe, save the world…
“Fables from The Fountain is a humorous and entertaining homage... Warmly recommended.” – SFcrowsnest
“Fables is probably the closest I’ve ever seen to a multi-author anthology reading like a single-author work. I’m guessing this is what Whates set out to do, and if so he’s achieved it admirably. There’s not a poor tale in here.” – The Future Fire
“There are no weak stories here… Highly recommended for anyone interested in a good tall tale told well.” – The Green Man Review
Shake Me to Wake Me
The Best Short Fiction of
Stan Nicholls
Cover art by Ben Baldwin
Shake Me to Wake Me features the very best of Stan Nicholls’ short fiction, as selected by the author. Slipping effortlessly between fantasy, horror, and science fiction, the stories span twenty years of Stan’s distinguished career, beginning with 1993’s “SPOIL” and coming right up to date with “The Gripes of Wrath”, a new story written especially for this collection. Prepare to be amused, prepare to be shocked, prepare to be entertained… Prepare to be shaken.
“Nicholls knows how to skilfully infuse abundant plot into easy prose and exceptionally smooth dialogue.” – SFX
“Weirdly charming, fast-moving and freaky…” – Tad Williams
“Easily as much fun as you’d expect.” – Jon Courtenay Grimwood in the Guardian
Launched in November 2013; available now from NewCon Press as a signed limited edition hardback, an A5 paperback, and an e-book.
Legends: Stories in Honor of David Gemmell Page 25