William Shakespeare takes a wrong turn going beyond the fields he knows — and in the Black Bull of Inkebarrow, he finds a turn from history to magic. A short story in the Tales from Ysthar collection.

A Dozen or So Years after the Fall of Astandalas Magic is out of fashion. Good manners never are. Jemis Greenwing returned from university with a broken heart, a bad cold, and no prospects beyond a...

Hal's university career ends quite satisfactorily for himself, but with heartbreak, drama, and painful ignominy for his best friend Jemis. Nevertheless, Hal stood with Jemis when academic argument turned...

A short fantasy story for the winter holidays! Early in the new year, Sister Mirabelle of the Linder Church of the Lady is sent to Ragnor Bella to investigate rumours of a saint. Her job is to determine...

Artorin Damara is the Last Emperor of Astandalas and present Lord Magus of Zunidh. He is respected as a great mage, revered as a living god, regarded as the embodiment of power and wealth and majesty....

Magic is out of fashion.Good manners never are.Jemis Greenwing returned from university with a broken heart, a bad cold, and no prospects beyond a problematic inheritance and a job at the local bookstore.Ragnor...

Five invitations into the realms of poetry to five very different people, set in a world not altogether dissimilar to our own, resonant with myth and magic. These are standalone tales associated with...

Behind the corners of our world, there is magic.  As the Lord of Ysthar, Raphael is responsible for it.An honest man, his lies are legion. An infamous recluse, his social circle includes Scheherezade,...

Arthur MacEachern was a celebrated Canadian writer when he lost his Muse. To success, he thought; it wasn't until a fateful trip to the dentist that he realized his Muse lived somewhere else entirely...

The world is full of unexpected stories. For Nora, hers is intricately tied with the old apple tree next to the village green. They say Eve fell to the temptation of an apple, but for Nora and her brother...

Friends by chance--or is it fate? Damian Raske and Jullanar Thistlethwaite are about as different as can be. Damian is a young swordsman, dreaming of being the best in the world, hardly aware of what...

Northwest Oriole is a land of small countries and many universities, where scholarship is greatly regarded. Choosing a school is thus a matter of great weight, no matter your rank or wealth.Hal has always...

What the gods desire, they take.When the gods take a person, there is not much one can do about it, even if there seems something strange and terrible about the god. Through the gates of the eastern mountains...

Before the Fall of the Empire of Astandalas, the Red Company was legendary. A dozen or so years after that cataclysm, they have almost faded into myth. Pali Avramapul may not have gone under her own name...

Magic is out of fashion. Orio City is where that's decided.When his best friend Mr. Dart unexpectedly needs to make an urgent trip to Orio City, Jemis Greenwing's immediate response to ask when.  He's...

Magic is out of fashion.Outlaws make their own. Jemis Greenwing has slain a dragon, been acknowledged as the Viscount St-Noire, and not incidentally also been given a raise. After a chaotic first month...

Magic is out of fashion.Murder, like romance, is always a possibility. The journey home from Orio City was supposed to be straightforward. Avoid being captured by brigands or agents of the criminal gangs;...

Magic is out of fashion.Except, obviously, at Winterturn. Winterturn in Ragnor Bella is a holiday for family, feasting, and a few religious festivities. Jemis Greenwing and Mr. Dart are both quite ready...

It's not actually illegal to be a wild mage.Terec reminds himself of this, often.Nor is it illegal to go north.He reminds himself of that, too.Terec was born with a wild talent for fire, and can no longer...

A young man without a name lives in a tower at the edge of the world. He is content with the orderly rituals and freedom to study wild magic that is his lot--or he was content, until one day he spies...

In the cities along the river Ihil, the nomad tribes of the Middle Desert are almost as legendary as the gods. Sardeet is the youngest daughter of the Bandit Queen of the Oclaresh, but her father was...

Jack Greenwing is good at scouting. He's renowned for being able to hold on in battle long past bravery. He was once given a trophy for his courage by the hand of the Emperor himself.At Loe, where the...

Magic is out of fashion.Gambling is merely illegal.Neither law nor common sense has ever stopped anyone in Ragnor Bella from making—or breaking—their fortunes at the table, at the racetrack, and especially...

The greatest poet of the Empire of Astandalas was widely considered the infamous outlaw Fitzroy Angursell. Almost all of his poems and songs were banned, but that had the tendency merely to encourage...

On the thousand and first night of Scheherezade the Storyteller’s marriage, things do not go at all as she had hoped — nor do they end as she had expected. A short story from the Tales of Ysthar collection.

Raphael Amian came to Earth from the wreck of another world, walking the centuries immortal with the gifts of music and magic. As Orpheus in ancient Greece, the loss of his beloved Eurydice nearly broke...

Thrice-cursed bard and warrior-elf Tamsin wakes up in Elfland after what might or might not have been his death, healed and hale for the first time in millennia. Somewhat confused but not entirely unhappy...

The tanà holds the fire of the community. Thirteen-year-old Kip's always felt a bit of an outsider, but he knows he has what it takes to become the next tanà. He just needs to persuade his Buru Tovo that...

Aurelius Magnus has not yet been stolen by the Sun and Moon. He has not yet led the Empire of Astandalas into what will later be hailed as a golden age, nor met the man whose friendship and loyalty will...

"Someone always leaves," Tovo reminds them. "Kip will return when it's time." He wonders, though. He wonders if his errant grand-nephew was really as bright and as promising as they all thought he was....