The slender jawbone lies in the palm of his hand like a crown. Raising it, an offering to the night, stretched starlight gleams on milk teeth. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies - The Scrimshander by Damien Krsteski via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2MDgPkw

It’s the last day of autumn, and Jiteh’s twin brother is dead. He sits on the edge of his cot, thorns popping like seedlings from between his knuckles and poking through his sweaty scalp in a blood-slicked crown. “I’m scared,” he whispers. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies - The Sweetness of Honey and Rot by A. Merc Rustad via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2w2Hnm7

The silent proctors walked beside Ukeme into the examination village, checked him for iron and palm leaves and concealed cloth-patterns, and brought him to a hut. He stood at the threshold for a moment, looking down at the floor just inside. via Poc… Beneath Ceaseless Skies - The Examination Cloth by Jonathan Edelstein via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2Iya2XH

Erinia was at the table to win, more than anything else. The need for it filled her bones, burned through her lungs, steadied her will. She wanted it more than earning the Empresses’ favor, more than testing her mettle, more than the pleasure of def… Beneath Ceaseless Skies - The Ghostpotion Games by Christian K. Martinez via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2OReUXp

The leader of House Hawthorn’s Court of Birth lived in a part of the House that Samariel had never been to: a wing of dusty, disused corridors where the wainscoting had rotted away and the wallpaper’s elegant asphodels were obscured by elongated smu… Beneath Ceaseless Skies | Court of Birth, Court of Strength by Aliette de Bodard via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2y0Btme

Yes, I went walking with him near the Deaf King Inn. There are some in Quadril who will call that my first mistake. via Pocket

The folk of the Infinite Forum swore in nine languages and ninety dialects as a cat’s black shape darted up Via Antiqua’s hot white stones. They hissed again as they spied the magic-twisted bloodhound bounding after it like a carnelian thundercloud.… Beneath Ceaseless Skies | Shadowdrop by Chris Willrich via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2PebcYm

The rot hound struck in the dark hours of the morning. It took one of our horses and left a geld woman bloodied and wild, telling tales of a two-headed wolf with eyes like the last embers of a fire. I had known this would come. Not the wolf but some…

Years after their friendship had ended, Ser Maerwynn heard tales of the evil Queen Loreen: her curse of silence on the centaurs; her demand that each stone used to build the townspeople’s homes be paid for in daily drops of blood; and finally, the m… Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Crow Knight by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2R1y7Xr

“—and she said, well, that’s as may be, lad, but if you don’t recall what color it was, then I don’t see how I can help you!” Roars of laughter seemed to shake the hot taproom. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Tragedy of Zayred the Splendid by Grace Seybold via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2Ahrmed

When the magistrate arrives in Immen, the first thing he does is summon Grandmother Seung, druidess of Yang Village Behind-the-Mountains, to ask for her magic potion. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | Magic Potion Behind-the-Mountains by Jaymee Goh via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2ye1bUp

Like you, I grew up with the telling of the Tale of the Scout and the Pachydormu. That telling, on the night of first new moon of winter, marked my years between toddler and twelve like tree rings. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Tale of the Scout and the Pachydormu by Gregory Norman Bossert via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2PtV7hp

A few days before the end of our world, my mother took me to her favorite tailor to be fit for a dress I would never wear. She swept through Amaurel’s opulent central gallery like a dragon made of merlot and diamond, her chin high, her tongue cavali… Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Bodice, The Hem, The Woman, Death by Karen Osborne via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2CEq8eO

Kashmai hates the sea. For a long time, she thought it was the only thing she hated. The seals wake her every morning before sunrise. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Oracle and the Sea by Megan Arkenberg via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2q9tmj5

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io You have heard all the tales about Myrra Ferrinn, I’m sure—she of the ink-dark skies, she of the high places where men may not follow—and, of course, you have heard the tale of her gruesome end. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Bone Flute Quartet by K.J. Kabza via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2E06ZDP

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Even if they did not study history, all the people of Ranzak knew one story older than their grandmother’s time and newer than the legends of the Prophet. Navid had learned it when he was no higher than his mother’s knee, and he was reminded often. … Beneath Ceaseless Skies | The Thirty-Eight-Hundred Bone Coat by R.K. Duncan via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2WC8jEb

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via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The stones sit heavy in her belly. They rub together with every step she takes. She can hear them, a low rumble, like a landslide, or like a house inside her being demolished bit by bit. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | What the River Brings, and What It Takes Away by Natalia Theodoridou via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2Xnuti2

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via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io When she woke that morning, she named herself Hawthorn. She said it into the mirror, three times, just as she’d been instructed: “I am Hawthorn. I am Hawthorn. I am Hawthorn.” via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | Across the Bough Bridge by Mackenzie Kincaid via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2JBQwIj

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io A squall brought early dusk to the harbor at Discort. Merchant schooners and fishing boats lay at anchor within the breakwater, buffeted by the sharp gusts, rigging singing. Fish guts and salt scented the spray whipped against the docks. via Pocket Beneath Ceaseless Skies | To Go Home to Leal by Susan Forest via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2JCp9xI

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