March 2012 β€” Lycanthropist

Niteblade Magazine
« Spades
The Wake of March »

The Silver Quarter

By KV Taylor

spacer

Elan swiped his sword from a dead noble. Some silk-shirted idiot who had offended a blackwood runner in the taverna one night; a situation that ended with a dagger sprouting from silk-shirt’s jugular. Immediately following, the taverna had emptied in a stampede of smugglers, fallen nobility, and others of questionable virtue. Elanzah Andrej, then a very wise twelve-year-old (maybe eleven, but probably twelve), took advantage of the confusion to swipe the dead man’s sword and spirit it into his little loft above the stables.

Now a smirking, wiser still, (probably) fifteen-year-old Elan ran his fingers over the cage of the elegant hilt and down the sweet watered steel. He’d taken the stone out of the crossguard ages ago, since it was bad enough that a taverna boy would have a sword at allΒ β€” and not strictly legal. A sword with a sapphire the size of his thumbprint embedded in it would definitely draw attention.

He’d put it back in its setting someday. The day he turned seventeen and enlisted in the Mirador Elite.

This moment of appreciation accomplished, he rolled his sword into unassuming burlap, tucked it under his arm, and trotted down to the Taverna Miralina proper to meet Severan. The dark of the tap room wrapped him up, the smell of fermented honey and unwashed men. The smell of home. Several men high on l’anisea liquor lolled at a table, lost in the gods knew what kind of hallucinations. A more conventionally sodden man sang an ode to the bored prostitute leaning over his table. Elan picked his way through similar scenes until the sour mead smell shifted, and a nearby hookah bubbled. Honeyed tobacco, fresh and sweet.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

« Spades
The Wake of March »

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Pages
  • Issue #19 Lycanthropist
    • Fiction
    • Poetry
Nothing to Dread
spacer
Nothing to Dread

Get your copy of the newest Niteblade Anthology for only $3.75 today!
Fiction
  • Alice
  • Night Music
  • Forbidden Fruit
  • It Was Limbruner
  • The Cord
  • The Silver Quarter
  • Spades
  • Three Great Loyalties
Current Issue Goal

Once we reach our fundraising goal the full version of the web-based issue will be released to the public for free.

spacer

You can help!

Donate using the button below, or purchase something from our store.

spacer

Search
Lost Innocence
spacer
Lost Innocence

Pick up a copy of Lost Innocence and five other back issues of Niteblade and you name the price! Pay as little or as much as you want for over 850 pages of fantastic horror and fantasy fiction, poetry and art.
Blog Contributors
  • Alexandra Seidel
  • Amber Stults
Niteblade Staff
  • Alexandra Seidel
  • BD Wilson
  • Jonathan Parrish
  • Marge Simon
  • Rhonda Parrish
Slush Readers
  • Alexandra Seidel
  • Megan Engelhardt
  • Sheri White
  • William Prescott
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.