Hoard

Steven Piziks

You never know what might show up in a library.

(This is the very first short story I ever sold. It went to Marion Zimmer Bradley for Sword and Sorceress IX, and when I got the news she wanted to buy it, I sat down. There was no chair behind me.)

Trollboy

Steven Piziks

Trolls see more than mere truth.

Ghosts from an Echanter Fleeing

Steven Piziks

Being a teenager is tough. Being a teenager necromancer is tougher.

The First Maxim

Steven Piziks

A lie can be the truth and a fraud can work real magic.

Chain, Link, Fence

Steven Piziks

The perfect aid to your sex life--if you're willing to pay the price.

Bedlam

Steven Piziks

Magic exacts a price from everyone.

The Beginning of Tears

Steven Piziks

Think carefully when you open a genie's bottle.

Patterns In the Chain

Steven Piziks

Even ogres knit to pass the time.

Washerwoman

Steven Piziks

Two a.m. in a laundromat is the strangest place to find a fairy--and blood.

Innkeeper's Solution

Steven Piziks

The Rose, the Rich Man, and Mother Berchte

Steven Piziks

Santa Claus brings what you want. Mother Berchte brings what you deserve.

Servants to the Dead

Steven Piziks

Even the dead have to pay their way.

The tiger and the dragon are ancient enemies in Japan.

A Quiet Knight’s Reading

Steven Piziks

Thin Man

Steven Piziks

Modern children fear the monster under the bed or the creature in the closet. But Victorian climbing boys spend their days crawling through claustrophobic chimneys to scrub them clean and make their beds in piles of ashes. What would they fear?