short stories

The Winged City


When General Minkhir returned through the Winged City’s gates, her clay servant Chukash saw the emblem of conquest in her hand. This time it was a bronze crescent, drenched in blood as always. Chukash fell in beside her, holding a basin to catch the blood. The trees to either side of them straightened, the gray-brown limbs flushing to a green-tinged hue, but the street was as dry as it had been before the general’s departure weeks earlier. It was an inauspicious sign when the city’s need for water was still dire.

Epic fantasy in a parched city from the viewpoint of a man of clay with a handprint within him, among other mysteries. Setting loosely inspired by Mesopotamian mythology. Thanks to Aliette de Bodard, Kiz, Mrissa, and the Brawlers. Appeared in Giganotosaurus, Dec. 2010.