The Woman on the Balcony

by Dorothy Quick

Sherry thought she had never seen anything more beautiful than the Villa del Quisce.

White and shining it nestled halfway up one of the Italian foothills like a snowy flower sheltered by greenery. The glass glistened in the sunlight. Its marble columns were perfection and at its foot was the violent blue of a lesser lake than Como but having the same intense loveliness. Green lawns, lemon trees, oleanders and flower beds sloped down from the Villa to the sandy shore. Tall cypresses outlined the road that curved upwards. Small spring flowers grouped around the roots of the trees. Violets sprinkled the grass in abundance.

“It looks like some heavenly stage set designed by Bel Geddes,” Sherry thought, “ too beautiful to be real.” Then, suddenly looking at Gio sitting tall and straight beside her, “But it is real, and its ours — our honeymoon house —”

Just at that moment Gio slowed the car and turned to her. “Do you like it, my darling?” he asked. (Continue Reading…)

The Somnambulant

by Sam W. Pisciotta

The moon sits plump within a windowpane as if plucked from the sky and framed for safekeeping. Bound by forces beyond our control, the moon and I share a yearning to pull free. I touch my finger on the icy glass and dream of leaving this place.

But I’m often reminded that such dreams are not for me.

Waiting in the small antechamber, I rise to the tips of my toes, an elevé to focus the mind — legs quiet, core taut, head tilted just so. A dancer’s body. Countless hours of plié, relevé, and sauté. I hold this pose and listen.

Murmurs from the next room. The clink of wine glasses. A shred of laughter. Outside, the final night of winter. The tight drone of propellers slices the evening air as the bulk of an airship moves to block the moon’s full light. The last of the guests have arrived.

Father enters the room. He glowers and pulls me toward the closed door leading to the dining room. “Katya, what are you wearing? Where’s the gown I laid out for you?”

Icy-white layers of tulle drape from my hips, a romantic tutu in the style of Taglioni flowing just past my knees. A white leotard beneath a soft-pink bodice, and slippers laced with pink ribbon. Perfection. My feet move into the fifth position. I bend at the knees and push into a small assemblé. Since that night in London’s West End at Her Majesty’s Theatre, I have lived for one purpose. This evening, I’ll find my soul and gain my freedom. (Continue Reading…)

Quest of the Starstone – Part Two

by C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

Yarol landed on his feet like the cat he was, gun still gripped and ready, black eyes blinking in the starry dark. Smith, hampered by the terrified Jirel, sank with nightmare ease to the ground and rebounded a little from its sponginess. The impact knocked the stump of sword from the girl’s hand, and he pitched it away into the blinding shimmer of the star-bright dark before he helped her to her feet.

For once Joiry was completely subdued. The shock of having her sword melted by hell-fire in her very grasp, the dizzying succession of manhandling and vertigo and falling into infinity had temporarily knocked all violence out of her, and she could only gasp and stare about this incredible starlit darkness, her red lips parted in amazement. (Continue Reading…)

Quest of the Starstone

by C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner

Jirel of Joiry is riding down with a score of men at her back,

For none is safe in the outer lands from Jirel’s outlaw pack;

The vaults of the wizard are over-full, and locked with golden key,

And Jirel says, “If he hath so much, then he shall share with me!”

And fires flame high on the altar fane in the lair of the wizard folk,

And magic crackles and Jirel’s name goes whispering through the smoke.

But magic fails in the stronger spell that the Joiry outlaws own:

The splintering crash of a broadsword blade that shivers against the bone,

And blood that bursts through a warlock’s teeth can strangle a half-voiced spell

Though it rises hot from the blistering coals on the red-hot floor of Hell! (Continue Reading…)

Point of Order

by Taryn Frazier

Behind his screen, the game master cracks his knuckles. “OK, folks. This is session zero of a shiny new campaign, so let’s go around and introduce your characters. Bob, since you’re hosting, how about you start?”

Bob scratches his belly through his “This is how I roll” t-shirt. “Bork is a barbarian half-orc with heavy weapons mastery and a halberd.” He spins around in the office chair he’s pulled up to his dining room table. “Simple, yet elegant.”

“And Bork’s background?” the GM prompts.

Bob coughs. “Um, he’s a . . . soldier?”

Across the table, Amanda snorts and dumps her dice out of a tooled leather pouch. “Let me guess, you pulled his character build from a Weddit post.” She flips her blue braid over her shoulder. “I’m playing Azmandia, an elven wizard who wields a staff of bloodsteel. After being ostracized from her clan, she has roamed the wasteland alone, a law unto herself. She has a weasel familiar and enjoys moonlit —”

Bob makes a snoring sound, and she breaks off to glare at him.

The GM closes his eyes. “Remember the rules.” (Continue Reading…)