Swords & Dark Magic - By Jonathan Strahan Page 0,198

back like a full-drawn bow, whole body shaking.

“You’ll have to go back,” said Raubin.

“Back?” muttered Wonderful, her dirt-streaked face a picture of disbelief. “Back, you mad fucker?”

“You know the hall caught fire, don’t you?” snapped Brack, one big trembling arm pointing down towards the thickening column of smoke wafting up from the village.

“It what?” asked Raubin as Whirrun blasted a fresh shriek at the sky, hacking, gurgling, only just keeping on his feet.

“Oh, aye, burned down, more’n likely with the damn thing in it.”

“Well…I don’t know…you’ll just have to pick through the ashes!”

“How about we pick through your fucking ashes?” snarled Yon, throwing the cup down on the ground.

Craw gave a long sigh, rubbed at his eyes, then winced down towards that shit-hole of a village. Behind him, Whirrun’s laughter sawed throaty at the dusk. “Always,” he muttered, under his breath. “Why do I always get stuck with the fool jobs?”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due to many people for this project. Among them are Diana Gill, our editor at Harper Eos who believed in this anthology enough to make it a reality; to Benjamin Carré, for the cover; and to each of the authors involved, who contributed such wonderful stories. Thanks are also due to Lev Grossman, Tim Holman, Katie Menick, Howard Morhaim, Erik Mona, Jason M. Waltz, and Bill Schafer.

Last, and most importantly, to our wives, Xin C. Anders and Marianne Jablon, whose infinite patience and support are the key ingredient in any anthology project.

About the Editors

Lou Anders is the editorial director of Pyr Books, in which capacity he has been nominated three times for the Best Editor Hugo Award, twice for the Best Art Director Chesley Award (one of which he won), and once for the World Fantasy Award. He is the editor of nine critically acclaimed anthologies, one of which, Fast Forward 2, was itself nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. He is the author of The Making of Star Trek: First Contact (Titan Books, 1996), and has published over five hundred articles in such magazines as The Believer, Publishers Weekly, Dreamwatch, Death Ray, free inquiry, Star Trek Monthly, Star Wars Monthly, Babylon 5 Magazine, Sci Fi Universe, Doctor Who Magazine, and Manga Max. His articles and stories have been translated into Danish, Greek, German, Italian, and French. He lives with his family in Alabama.

Jonathan Strahan is the two-time Hugo Award–nominated editor of the Locus Award–winning anthology The New Space Opera, Aurealis Award–winner The Starry Rift, the multiple award-winning Eclipse anthology series, and many more. He is the reviews editor for Locus and lives in Perth, Australia.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Credits

Cover illustration © by Benjamin Carré

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

“Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door,” by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan. © 2010 by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan.

“Goats of Glory,” by Steven Erikson. © 2010 by Steven Erikson.

“Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company,” by Glen Cook. © 2010 by Glen Cook.

“Bloodsport,” by Gene Wolfe. © 2010 by Gene Wolfe.

“The Singing Spear,” by James Enge. © 2010 by James Enge.

“A Wizard in Wiscezan,” by C. J. Cherryh. © 2010 by C. J. Cherryh.

“A Rich Full Week,” by K. J. Parker. © 2010 by K. J. Parker.

“A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet,” by Garth Nix. © 2010 by Garth Nix.

“Red Pearls: An Elric Story,” by Michael Moorcock. © 2010 by Multiverse Inc.

“The Deification of Dal Bamore: A Tale from Echo City,” by Tim Lebbon. © 2010 by Tim Lebbon.

“Dark Times at the Midnight Market,” by Robert Silverberg. © 2010 by Agberg Ltd.

“The Undefiled,” by Greg Keyes. © 2010 by Greg Keyes.

“Hew the Tintmaster,” by Michael Shea. © 2010 by Michael Shea.

“In the Stacks,” by Scott Lynch. © 2010 by Scott Lynch.

“Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe,” by Tanith Lee. © 2010 by Tanith Lee.

“The Sea Troll’s Daughter,” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan.

“Thieves of Daring,” by Bill Willingham. © 2010 by Bill Willingham.

“The Fool Jobs,” by Joe Abercrombie. © 2010 by Joe Abercrombie.

SWORDS & DARK MAGIC. Collection, introduction, and story notes copyright © 2010 by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

EPub Edition © June 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200028-6

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

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* It should be noted that William Morris, Lord Dunsany, and E. R. Eddison all preceded and influenced Tolkien.

† Paizo Publishing’s Planet Stories imprint recently published all six of the Jirel of Joiry stories in one volume. The Black God’s Kiss (2002) is notable for including “Quest of the Starstone,” a story that is omitted from the two previous Jirel collections. Written with Moore’s husband, Henry Kuttner, this tale features Jirel’s meeting with Moore’s other famous creation, spaceship pilot and smuggler Northwest Smith, direct forerunner of Star Wars’ Hans Solo.

‡ Many of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels are set in a city called Ankh-Morpork, a nod to Leiber’s city of Lankhmar, and the first Discworld novel features an encounter with a giant barbarian comrade “Bravd” and a swordsman-thief known as “The Weasel.” Pratchett’s Cohen the Barbarian is, of course, a reference to Robert E. Howard’s creation as well.

§ Imaro and The Quest for Cush are both currently available from Night Shade Books. The Trail of Bohu has recently been self-published by the author.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door

Goats of Glory

Tides Elba:

Bloodsport

The Singing Spear

A Wizard in Wiscezan

A Rich Full Week

A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet

Red Pearls:

The Deification of Dal Bamore:

Dark Times at the Midnight Market

The Undefiled

Hew the Tintmaster

In the Stacks

Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe

The Sea Troll’s Daughter

Thieves of Daring

The Fool Jobs

Acknowledgments

About the Editors

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher