The weeping stitched the edges of my consciousness with sorrow-spun thread. As always, it vanished when I turned to face the tapestry-hung wall, and returned when I looked away. Today I couldn’t bear the melancholy it stirred and I gripped the closest tapestry and let its dust envelop me, each speck a lazy gold spiral […]

Jennette & Makam Part 5 I pressed my thumb to the golden thorn Jennette held and let the bead of blood drop onto the small wooden plaque. The blood spread unreasonably fast, filling the carved words and turning them maroon. “Are you sure about this?” Makam’s deep voice in my ear made me jump. Jennette […]

Jennette & Makam, Part 4 The real Jennette carved slivers from me with her gaze. I spun for the doorway we’d come through, not even pausing to glare at Makam, but the exit was gone. “Don’t try to run, little pretender.” Jennette strode across the polished chamber, headed for the opening she’d come from. Now […]

The Starless Sky – Jennette & Makam, Part 3 I glared back at Glide’s first moon as it sank lower behind the capital city, named for the planet. “For the eleventh time, what are we doing out here?” The red, jagged surface of Glide glinted in iridescent colors under the second moon’s light. The path […]

R I S K – Jennette & Makam Part 2 “Does it matter why?” Makam cranked the glowgas heater as high as it would go. I leaned against the edge of the tiny porthole that looked out over Glide’s busiest street. Layers of gleaming speeders, rusty delivery hovers, and yellow flyboards wove and twisted in […]