Unfettered II: New Tales By Masters of Fantasy by Shawn Speakman

Author:Shawn Speakman
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Publisher: Grim Oak Press
Published: 2016-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

It was half an hour before Danny returned, covered in bits of bramble and in extremely poor humor.

“I was trying to get down a slope, and I ended up in a pricker-bush,” she said, in response to our stares. “There’s nothing out there. Just hills and mountains and grass.”

“It’s better than the swamp,” Gil said.

“We’ve still got two sets of beans left,” Evan said.

“If we use up the last one, and end up somewhere really horrible, we’re going to regret it,” Jason said. “I hate to say this, but this may be as good as we’re going to get.”

“What are you suggesting?” Danny said.

“We could load up all the food we can carry from here and start walking. See what we can find.”

“Give up, you mean,” Evan said flatly. “Give up on going home.”

“Think about it this way,” Jason said. “What if we try two more worlds, and end up with that swamp full of killer mosquitoes again? Or more dragons?”

“I don’t know about you,” Evan said, “but I have a life I’m not ready to give up. I have family. I have plans. I’m not going to just abandon everything to . . . to tromp through some wilderness.”

“You think I don’t?” Jason said. He was quiet but intense, maybe as intense as I’d ever seen him. “I’m saying that maybe we’re not meant to get home, and we ought to accept it.”

There was an awkward silence.

“When you say ‘meant,’” Gil said, “are you referring to . . .”

“I have no idea,” Jason said. “My personal metaphysical model of the world went out the window about the time we figured out that the magic coffee machine slash warp drive was powered by sexual intercourse. But I’m not going to rule out the notion that all this is by design. That we’re here for some kind of purpose.”

“If that’s true,” Evan said, “I’m going to find whoever planned this and kick his ass.”

“I’m sure the gods are just quaking in their boots,” said Lisa. “Assuming they exist, and wear boots.”

“I was raised Unitarian,” said Gil. “Do you think it’s too late to convert to worshipping Thor?”

Having spent the past few minutes sidling closer to Danny, I edged around the magic sword and whispered in her ear.

“Do you think we could talk? Alone?”

She turned to me and narrowed her eyes. “Do you really think you have anything to say?”

“Yes,” I said. “I really do.”

After a moment of silence, she nodded. While the others continued arguing, the two of us slipped toward the kitchen. I caught Anna’s eye as we went, and she gave me a covert thumbs-up. Danny led me back through the kitchen to the storeroom, which had a door we could close behind us. It smelled of gasoline instead of coffee. Danny set the magic sword down, carefully, and turned to face me.

“Okay,” she said. “Talk.”

“I’ve been doing some thinking.”

“Startling.”

“And getting a lot of advice. Most of it bad.”

“Also not a surprise.”

“And I think I figured out a few things.

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.