Issue 22

Ragnall's Lover by Sandra Unerman

"I turned round in haste and found myself looking at the creature whose breath had warmed me, a dragon which had pushed its great head through the corner gap in the stones. It was so close to me that I could not see it properly. Its hide was black, mottled with patches of red and gold, a leathery surface, much cracked and pitted. Its throat was throbbing and a deep rumbling was coming from somewhere in its body, still hidden inside the hill. I could see its mouth, thin-lipped and full of teeth, three rows of teeth. And I could see one eye, blacker than its body or than the inside of its mouth, a brilliant black"

A Length of Scarlet Silk by Lyn McConchie

"She chose the things she wished to take, carrying them to the factory. The overseer terrified her. If he found what she planned he could refuse to permit it. But he only walked about. She had done more. She made her new home atop one of the huge humming machines. There was a portion which was lower. Large enough for her to stretch out in comfort. Like being cradled in powerful arms. Here she would sleep and her machines would take care of her."

Narkiss by Jean Lorrain (translated by Francis Amery)

"Narkiss had the large hypnotic eyes of Isis: immense eyes with night-black pupils, where the water of springs and the fire of stars seemed to shimmer. He had the long narrow face of Isis, the accentuated jaw and the sacred pallor: the transparent, almost radiant pallor which revealed the goddess, even when she was veiled, to her initiates.
At night, beneath the tall palm-trees stirred by the breeze, the nudity of Narkiss brightened the shadows. The hawk-headed images of Anubis smiled on their pedestals when - to the rattling sound of his long ear-rings - the little Pharaoh approached, slowly and reverently."

Losing the War by Stepan Chapman

"It was as tall as two men and as broad as three horses, and its hide was red as bricks and just as hard. It wore fine black boots and a three-cornered velvet hat with a plume. It had an ammunition belt strapped across its chest, a holster belt around its waist, and a pair of flintlock pistols as long as your arms. And that was all it wore. Being a war rather than a man, it felt no need to hide its nakedness. (Nor did its nakedness provide it with anything worth hiding, if you follow my drift.)"

Neil Gaiman interviewed by Tim Concannon

"I wanted to create something with Sandman that was - to whatever extent I could manage it -almost infinitely re-readable. You could read an episode of Sandman, and then you could read it again. If you read it in the context of the collection it's in, the shape of the thing will change. In fractal kind of way - if you keep moving up - and read the whole of Sandman you'll get more out of that. It you read all of it again it will change."