Forever Magazine Issue 96 by Ian Creasey & Ray Nayler & Nick Wolven

Author:Ian Creasey & Ray Nayler & Nick Wolven [Creasey, Ian & Nayler, Ray & Wolven, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, science fiction magazine, short fiction, short stories
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Originally published in Asimov’s, May/June 2021.

The Shadow of His Wings

Ray Nayler

The eagle suffers little birds to sing,

And is not careful what they mean thereby,

Knowing that with the shadow of his wings

He can at pleasure stint their melody

—Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

The buggy was going too fast. As it sped into its turn at the top of the dune, its front passenger-side tire sank into the loose sand. For a moment, it seemed it would make the turn anyway. Then the tire dug in further. The wheel sheared off. The buggy’s back end lurched up. Airborne, it twisted end over end.

As the vehicle tumbled past him, Bashim saw the passenger’s grinning white teeth in a face masked by desert dust and violet Worldshapers. The tailpipes coughed fire, so close Bashim could feel their alcohol heat. The sheared-off wheel bounced past, a black disc eclipsing the desert sun. It narrowly missed smashing into three wallahs who scrambled out of its path just in time.

Then everyone was running: sheikhs in their gleaming white thawbs and oiled sandals, wallahs in their cheap, dirty bazaar-bought t-shirts, their torn third-hand jeans and flip-flops. The buggy came to a rest, at the end of a trail of shed metal, crushed down to its roll cage, a lick of blue flame climbing its passenger side.

One of the sheikhs put his hands to the sides of his mouth and whooped up into the sky in joy.

Later Bashim and three of the older wallahs sat around their campfire, waiting for their dented tin teapot to come to a boil. The sunset had turned the sky above the Kara Kum to a sea of embers, but now the stars ware masked by dust. The moon was a dull disk.

Armen, Bashim’s older brother, had been given two turkey legs by the sheikhs. He was pulling them apart, sorting the meat into equal piles. The other two boys, Rovshen and Azamat, were focused on the greasy turkey.

“Tell me again what he said, Bashim,” said Armen.

Bashim was glad to tell his story. His first day serving the sheikhs, and he had a good story to tell back at the village: He had run faster than all the others, had gotten to the smashed buggy first.

“I helped pull him from the car. His thawb was splattered with his blood, and blood ran from his scalp, but he was still smiling. He put his hand on the side of my face and said, ‘Such a brave child. I will find you later and reward your bravery.’ And then he squeezed my shoulders. He was so large! And muscular. A giant. He must have been more than two meters tall! And he spoke English just like Top Hat Avatar.”

At a nearby campfire an older boy who Bashim did not know was telling another story: “ . . . and he placed the Falcon on my arm. ‘Careful you little bastard’ he said, ‘that’s my grandfather.’ You could see it in the falcon’s eyes, too . . . the way it cocked its head at me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.