Rose & Briar is a series of ten original and retold fairy tales by author and artist Erzebet YellowBoy, including eight previously published and two unpublished short stories. Some are as sweet as the scent of a rose, others are painful as briars. Each one is available as an individual ebook, exclusively on Amazon. Your purchase helps keep a roof over the author’s head, which is good because it’s hard to type in the rain. Thank you!
At the Core was first published in Fantasy Magazine, 2006.
“Fat, red, the grocer’s sticker still adhered to its egg-smooth skin; it rested on top of some other fruits in a tattered basket whose stained wicker unwound itself and broke with a snapping sound when touched. There was always a bright, delicious apple in among the Bartlett pears, the purple plums, the fur-covered peaches. The basket had been the centerpiece of her grandmother’s kitchen table until the day she died, which was that day…”
A Prince’s Kiss is previously unpublished.
“She opened before me, like Spring’s rose covered in dew-sweat under the greenhouse glass. I watched the spider’s web of veins on her eyelids disappear into the crevice of flesh below her brow and the deep red of sunset suffuse her cheeks. She was crusted with sleep; her hair was matted under her head and she could scarce untangle her fingers from where they were laced together on her chest…”
A Remedy for Sorrow was first published in Not One Of Us, #36, Spring 2006.
“Sometimes she plucks weeds, one by one, and lays them on the ground in patterns only she can understand. At other times she puts her fingers in, wrestles with the grubs and worms, feels the earth cup in her palms. Tonight she tunnels in the ground until a mound of moist soil builds up beside her. She digs for the child who had wilted and died like the leaves on the autumn trees. His grave, like all the others, is marked by a single, round stone…”
A Sure and Certain Song was first published in Fantasy Magazine, 2005.
“Who would have guessed that she was a witch? The man had thought—as had every other neighbor—that she was simply an old woman who, by circumstance, lived alone. Her garden flourished behind a stone wall, her home was tended well, and she was known to wave at passersby from time to time. It was only his trespass that finally revealed the truth…”
The Green Dragon was first published in Japanese Dreams, Lethe Press, 2009.
“The dockyard was dry and cold and smelled of metal. One young man, no more than a shadow among shadows, wound his way silently around scaffolding so high it seemed to reach the clouds in heaven. Kazuo crouched behind a coiled nest of chain as voices echoed through the yard. Sound traveled weirdly among the massive columns and cranes; the men speaking could be anywhere. It would be the end of his career, were the guards to find him. Special permission was required to be in the yard at this time of night. Kazuo had no such permission. The need to obey his commander, and all who stood above him in the over-arching hierarchy of family and empire, was strong. His love of Soryu was stronger…”
The Long Sweet Smell of Home is previously unpublished.
“On the edge of Glasgow there is a small town where the streets are lined with typical shops, the roads are paved with stones, and the air is filled with the indecipherable language of the Scots. The people there are hardy and their voices lilt quite roughly as the sun crosses over the cold rooftops. Mothers push babies in their fine prams while old men smoke and nod at whoever walks by. I, a stranger on unfamiliar ground, was wandering up the high street when I saw her…”
What a Queen does with her Hands was first published in Sky Whales and Other Wonders, Norilana Books, December 2009.
“Hestir watched from her wide, high balcony as the ship with golden sails approached the grey harbor waters below. In its bowels it carried fine silk woven by the long and spindly fingers of the women secluded on the northern island of Lami, chests of lacquered tableware fashioned by the three-eyed artisans of the eastern plains, and feathered and furred creatures out of the fiery southern hills. On its deck stood one prince from each of these three places, come to vie for her hand with spectral gifts and royal charm…”
Bird’s Eye was first published in Sleeping Beauty, Indeed, Torquere Press, 2006.
“The seas are parted by a vast continent that curves gracefully around the globe of the earth. The raven, from the clouds above, sees the foam of wavefall rippling over rocky beaches. The dark forest wraps about the high peaks that sprout up here and there. It appears as one great, emerald mass surrounded by diamonds, the sun tipping each wave with silver and gold.
As he falls from the sky the trees take shape. Scattered amongst the wooded depths, cerulean lakes appear like dabs of glistening color on a painter’s dark palette. It continues, mile after mile, field after lake, peak after peak, from one edge to the other, across the wide land as the raven flies. ..”
A Spell for Twelve Brothers was first published in Fantasy Magazine, October 2008.
“‘Give me a girl,’ the king had said to me on the night he caught me, the wizard-woman of the wood, by trickery and by might.
I replied no, I mustn’t.
He said, ‘Oh, but you will.’
He pinned me down and stripped my feathers one by one, leaving only the bare bones of my knuckles where once a wing had grown.”
Misha and the Months was first published in Mythic, Mythic Delirium Books, 2006.
“Pots rattled and banged in the dusty kitchen, an ongoing symphony of discord, a concert of metal on metal. It was Marta, of course, doing the chores. Misha counted—one, two, three —she knew the music would cause Mama to rise up from her afternoon nap in a fury. The sound of Mama’s feet hitting the stairs was drowned by the noise, but Misha felt the vibration of a pending storm and ducked back down into her threads…”