Issue 11 of the excellent magazine The Colored Lens in now out, featuring my short story Damned. The first of three stories (so far) in a loose series set in a magicpunk world (or magitech, as I prefer) is about moral choices in a dystopic society whose treatment of the magically gifted will be only too familiar to anyone familar with twentieth-century history.
Besides Damned, this issue features stories by Marcelina Vizcarra, Peter J. Enyeart, Steve Toase, Greg Little, Melinda Moore, Jeff Suwak, Dusty Cooper, Damien Krsteski, Iulian Ianescu, J. A. Becker and Todd Thorne.
Excerpt from Damned
The
spell to start my car didn’t work that evening, so I contacted the repair
service and walked home from the office through darkening drizzle, rather than
being ripped off by the Instant Transportation System. Rain insinuated itself inside my upturned
collar. Typical: they spend a fortune on
improving the fireballs and blasting spells, but nothing on controlling the
weather.
“Can
I see your papers, sir?” said a voice behind me.
I
turned with the practiced air of having nothing to hide, but my mind was
racing. Had he heard my thoughts, and
would he consider them disloyal? I’d
always doubted the rumours of the peacekeepers using mind-reading devices, but
I wasn’t so sure at that moment.
It
was reassuring that his fireball-thrower was still in its holster, although his
hand rested on it, but his face was blank and unreadable as they always
were. He had the spell-shield slung over
his shoulder, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice and reflect any hex
back on the attacker.
I
fumbled the papers from my inside pocket and tried to stand calmly while he
scanned them. Everyone feels paranoid in
this situation. Or maybe just me. It’s not as if anyone would dare to discuss
it.
He
looked up at last. “Seen any of the
damned, sir?”
The
question threw me, as was no doubt the intention, but I was able to answer
truthfully, “Of course not. I’d have
reported it if I had.”
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