The first thing that struck Rell was the silence. It wasn’t the absence of sound. No. The crowd still breathed, shifted, whispered. But the shape of it. A hollowed silence, like lungs emptied and waiting to be...

“See?” Joler exclaimed, waking me up. “I beg Crobet to train with me every day, but he just sits there!” “Why haven’t you been training?” Turgess snapped. “You’re getting flabby!” I shrugged, regretting giving...

Martha scanned the pews as she entered the sanctuary, one hand slipping almost unconsciously into her bag. Her fingers brushed the spines of two books, one as thick as her fist and one as thin as a pencil. The...

Have to get out of here. No time to waste. I weave through the long corridors at the edge of the army base, counting turns, counting breaths. The vials jangle in my pockets, though I’d wrapped them in paper...

As usual, morning in the village was quiet. Until I saw Martha. She was hauling boxes into the street outside her cottage. Everyone knew her as the widow who hadn’t left her home since her husband’s death five...