Machina Obscurum Read online

  After just two steps, she halted again.

  Her escape was incomplete.

  She tried another step, but failed. Her manacles were still in place and the ring still dragging at the end of her chain. No magicks. No escaping. No freer here than in the pit. So goes my luck. What did I expect?

  She possessed no real plan. She was supposed to be well on her way into the afterlife, and yet here she was, still alive. The ring dragging, she slogged aimlessly forward. Her body felt battered as if by a hundred flails, her skull as though sloshing to its brim with gruel. Her ribs popped with every movement and striations of soreness made her muscles move like shapeless putty.

  Too far to make it.

  Too far not to try.

  She walked and walked. The chain’s pull was far less than on the nether stair, though the bite of the bones against the soles of her feet made the going hurt no less. Vaulting high above, the behemoth towers cast their long shadows across the valley before her. She gazed forward, and all she saw was the pallid plain beneath her feet, the dismally grey Cornerstone sky.

  She lurched onward, the cold chain wrapped in her hand. With each step she expected to shatter into a million shards. Let us suppose I make it to the shore, she though. It will not matter. I will crumble like sand into the waves. The next soul to visit here will see my skull sitting on the beach.

  Striding in as straight a line as she could manage, she kept her eyes half-open. Cornerstone’s bone-buried plain lay stark in front of her, and she struck out across it not knowing whether she walked southward or northward, not caring if the sky was the sea or her life nothing more than the remnant of a dream. Her ring gouged out a rut behind her, but she hardly noticed. She was Cornerstone’s vagabond, its only inhabitant, and small struggles no longer mattered.

  Much later, when dusk finally touched down on the long-dead island, she took what she was certain were her final steps. Cornerstone’s grey cloud curtain parted, and her eyelids, heavy as lead, descended. The ring dragged behind her like the weight of the entire world. Her skin, white as milk in some places and black with bruises in others, felt as thin as a ghost’s. Much nearer to death than she knew, she arrived at the island’s edge. There, at the boundary of the Selhaunt, the stars twinkled over the endless dark water, and the waves lapped gently over her feet.

  Nothing awaited her.

  She saw no ships anchored offshore, no Garrett and Saul rushing from the darkness to greet her. Whether this beach, dry and dead as any other on the island, was near the spot Shiver’s Pride had dropped her countless days ago, she did not know. She could not remember, for it seemed too long ago she had landed here, utterly confident she would find Grimwain and bring ruin to his plans.

  How long has it been? she wondered. Maybe the Ur are already free. Maybe I will shut my eyes and the sky will burn.

  Chain coiled around her right wrist, she knelt on the shore and lowered her head. Her hair fell in inky ropes across her face. She closed her eyes and prayed to Mother Moon for the souls of all her friends. She prayed that her resurrected father would come to his senses and defy Grimwain, and she prayed that the Ur would utterly fail. No one hears me, she knew. I am alone, much more than ever in Sallow or Muthemnal.

  When sleep took her and she slumped lower to the shore, she lost all feeling for the world. All her pain and tortured thoughts washed out to sea, and the absence of the Nightness left her freer to drowse than ever before.

  The night passed her by. Come the next dawn, hazy and lifeless, she did not wake, did not dream. The waves lapped against her naked legs and frothed against her breasts. She never stirred. She was comatose, absent to the world, and so she failed to notice when a creaking craft sloshed to a stop upon the nearby shore.

  Nor did she wake when two pale figures strode to her side and carried her away.

  About J Edward Neill

  J Edward Neill became obsessed with writing in early 2001. On one bitterly cold morning in the lowest corridor of his candlelit man-cave, he fingers to keyboard and hammered away on what would soon become a lifelong obsession. Since that day, he’s spent nearly all his free time lost in his daydreams, conjuring ways to write the kind of stories he loved as a child.

  He’s just a ghost, haunting the world for a little while longer.

  Fiction

  Down the Dark Path – Book I in the Tyrants of the Dead trilogy

  Dark Moon Daughter – Book II in the Tyrants of the Dead trilogy

  Nether Kingdom – Book III in the Tyrants of the Dead trilogy

  Hollow Empire – Night of Knives (a serial novel co-authored with John McGuire)

  A Door Never Dreamed Of

  Non-Fiction

  101 Questions for Humanity

  101 Questions for Men

  101 Questions for Women

  101 Questions for Midnight

  101 Sex Questions

  444 Questions for the Universe

  About River Fairchild

  River Fairchild is somewhat odd, brandishes a dry sense of humor, owned by several cats. Lives in a fantasy world. A fabricator of magic. Makes stuff up and spins tales about it. Believes in Faerie crossings and never staying in one place for very long. Speculative Fiction wordsmith. The secret to her stories? Spread lies, blend in truths, add a pinch of snark and a dash of tears. Escape into her world. She left the porch light on so you can find your way down the rabbit hole.

  Books

  Diamonds & Dust - Jewels of Chandra Book I

  A Dragon’s Lament – Jewels of Chandra Book II

  The Fall of Shaylar – Jewels of Chandra prequel

  Just another Day in Purgatory

  Living the Afterlife: A Death and Chronos Flash Fiction Collection

  Fantasy Uprising – Untethered Realms Box Set

  Twisted Earths

  Beyond the Binding – Composers for Relief Companion Collection

  Darkest Days, Blackest Nights

  Demon in the Basement

  About John R. McGuire

  John’s collection of comic books began when he was 10, in a convenience store in Waycross, Georgia. It wasn't long afterwards that he started writing his first comic related stories. This passion has continued throughout his adult life as he remains an avid comic book reader and collector.

  In 2002, he was a founding member of Terminus Media. It began as a writer's collective in the back of the Dragon's Horde Comic Book Store in Decatur, GA. Through the next decade, Terminus published anthologies in which John was both an editor and contributor.

  His website is www.johnrmcguire.com

  Books

  The Dark that Follows

  Hollow Empire – A Serialized Dark Fantasy

  The Gilded Age – Steampunk Comic Book

  There’s Something About Mac – A Veronica Mars Kindle Worlds Novella

  Beyond the Gate: Stores from the World of the Dream Engine – FREE Anthology featuring my short story - The Secrets of Storytelling

  Piece by Piece - A FREE short story featuring Jason Mills

  About Phil Elmore

  Phil Elmore is the senior editor of League Entertainment, an intellectual property firm based in Florida. A resident of New York, he can be reached through his website at http://philelmore.com/.

  Books

  Augment: Human Services

  Armor of God

  Duke Manfist: Bullets, Babes, and Bacon

  'Twas the Night Before Duke Manfist Saved Christmas

  Duke Manfist and the Ghert Permkern

  Duke Manfist: Thanksgiving... With My Fist!

  About Chad J. Shonk

  Chad J. Shonk is the award-winning writer of the increasingly popular indie film Dakota Skye and the new science fiction novel Proxy. He is the founder and publisher of Antithesis Publishing as well as a father, a dog owner, a film expert, a reader of history, a decent pizza chef, an exceptional lover, a certified X-Wing pilot, and a devoted fan of the Cincinnati Reds baseball club. Not always in that order.

 
A product of the great states of Ohio, Georgia and California, he currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

  Visit mynameisdakotaskye.com and justaproxy.com

  Books

  Proxy (Volume 1)

  Dakota Skye: The Novel – coming Fall 2016

  Movies

  Dakota Skye (Available on DVD via Amazon)

  About Robert Jeffrey II

  Robert Jeffrey II is an award winning journalist whose work has appeared in such publications as UVC Magazine, JaDore Magazine, BlackSci-Fi.com, and The Atlanta Voice Newspaper. He is a regular contributor for the Tessera Guild, and his comic book work includes client work for the Centers for Disease Control, and Nitto Tires. His comic book writing includes work on such award winning/ nominated series as his creator-owned series Route 3, Radio Free Amerika, Terminus Team-Up, and Soul of Suw.

  He’s yet to fulfill his dream of pop-locking to save a community center.

  Head to http://robertkjeffrey.wix.com/robertkjeffrey for more info.

  Follow him on Twitter @SYNCHRKJ, Tumblr @robdawriter , and Instagram @robertk.jeffrey.

  About J.L. Clayton

  J. L. Clayton lives in a small town and works at the local post office, delivering mail every day with a smile on her face. She and her husband, Robert, have a 16-year-old daughter, Shyla. J. L. was inspired by the Twilight series to write A Spark of Magic: Chosen Saga Book One, her first novel.

  Books

  A Spark of Magic – Chosen Saga Book I

  A Blaze of Magic – Chosen Saga Book II

  About Roy T. Dodd

  Roy T. Dodd is the twenty-four year old author of the Sciaphobia series. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, is a student of psychology and philosophy, and is the self-proclaimed Kobe Bryant of Wastebasketball.

  Books

  Visit Roy at https://roydodd.wordpress.com/