Overcast 131: The Empress's Knife by dave ring

The Overcast

Published on Jul 24th at 4:19pm

The Empress's Knife by dave ring. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by dave ring.

Behold, the ziggurat. 

We stood atop Arida Peak, at the western edge of the Empire’s hold. 

“Let me see it,” I said.  Scalid, my handler, stepped away from the spyglass.  I removed my hood and pressed my eye socket against the cool metal. 

Vormundine was unfurling its massive wings, four or five times the size of the rest of its body.  Its musculature was pale grey, almost white from this far away, but pinkening until the wingtips shone a nearly translucent ruby. 

“Are you ready?”  the sergeant asked, impatient.  She likely wished to be back at the border, where the Empress’s army held back the barbarian horde.

dave ring is the chair of the OutWrite LGBTQ Book Festival in Washington, DC. He has stories featured or forthcoming in a number of publications, including Fireside Fiction, GlitterShip, and A Punk Rock Future. He is the publisher and managing editor of Neon Hemlock Press, as well as the editor of Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales of a City That Never Was from Mason Jar Press. More info at www.dave-ring.com. Follow him on Twitter at @slickhop.

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