Seven Riders and Six Horses

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn and Other Flights of Fancy, December 2024

“It would carry Jyan through the air without asking anything. It would neither share joy nor bring pain.”

Seven riders on six horsebacks and one mechanical contraption, each of the seven blessed with wings, flew toward the sea.

The horses’ wings were made of tawny feathers, golden when the sun hit them right, downy and angelic.  The mechanical contraption’s wings were less wings and more of a spinning rotor in a tarnished shade of silver, held above the rider by a jointed, metal arm, heavy with bolts.  It didn’t look air-worthy, but it was. Continue reading “Seven Riders and Six Horses”

The Dancing Swords

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn and Other Flights of Fancy, December 2024

“You cannot see. You cannot think. Or remember. The pain is everything now.”

First, you tear the eyes out, digging your fingertips into the sockets around them, squishing the bulbs to get your fingers under them. They’ll be slippy, and you’ll have to squeeze hard while yanking out, or the eye won’t come.

Once you have the eyeballs pulled out of their sockets, rip quickly to tear them from the gooey threads still connecting them. When they come free, throw them at the floor. Stomp on them with your boot.  The heavier the boot, the better. Continue reading “The Dancing Swords”

Birthday

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Every Day Fiction, June 2017

“All I want to do is not deal with this question, get through one more day without crying or yelling in front of Layla.”

“If you could do anything in the world for your birthday — anything at all — what would you do?”

My daughter, Layla, mirrors the question that I asked her last month about her birthday when I was looking for clues as to what I should give her, what kind of party I should throw her.  She’s only five, too young to be looking for clues. Continue reading “Birthday”

The Third Wish

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Aoife’s Kiss, Issue #33, June 2010

“Charles heard the page’s words, but he twisted them around in his brain until they meant something quite different:  Bryen does not think you are worth wasting a wish on.”

The shore bubbled and frothed under Bryen’s sotto voce chanting.  His hands trembled, conducting currents in the air, and he squinted his eyes tight.

“Knock it off!” Charles yelled at his brother.  “How will I ever get a fish to bite if you keep that up?”  He kept preparing the boat as he grumbled.  “Bunch of rubbish,” he said.  “Scares all the decent fish away.” Continue reading “The Third Wish”

The Grafting

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Collie Commander, November 2024

“It was as if the Cetazoids had found a way to flirt with the line between a high tech future and a low tech past in the same way as they flirted with the line between the purple ocean below and the blue ocean above.”

The social heart of the Tri-Galactic Union starship Initiative was a wide room with windows all along one side that looked out on the yawning void of space, sprinkled with the bright points of the distant stars.  Tables were scattered around at a comfortable density, and a synthesizer bar worked by an uplifted rabbit named Galen stretched along the opposite wall.

Galen was a mysterious figure who loved listening to the woes and travails of the mostly canine and feline officers of the Initiative when they came to her bar, which she called the Constellation Club, but she rarely opened up about herself or how she’d come to be the only rabbit on a ship full of dogs, cats, and the rare exchange officer from another world. Continue reading “The Grafting”

Scattered Thoughts on Having Seen Wicked

My eleven-year-old whispered to me during “Popular” as we watched Wicked: “Now I know what to expect from college.”

I’m not sure a better decision has ever been made than splitting Wicked into two movies:

—They couldn’t have cut a single thing
—Defying Gravity absolutely is the end, period
—It’d just be too heartbreaking if it were actually over, instead of looking forward to a second one Continue reading “Scattered Thoughts on Having Seen Wicked”

Wicked is Out

All the glowing posts I’m seeing about Wicked almost make me want to go see it in the theater, because I really, really want to see it… but I’d so rather get to just stream it at home than deal with theater schedules, blaring ads before the movie, wearing a mask, etc. etc.

Okay, I folded and got tickets for my family to see Wicked on Sunday evening. Continue reading “Wicked is Out”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 30: The Voyage Begins

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter.

“Before Lys’s egg had even been laid, her mother had seen that this moment could stop the Zakonraptors.”

Once again, the vacuum bomb sailed away from The Wanderlust, looking like nothing more than a thin streak of light on the viewscreen.  A shooting star.  But this time, Captain Carroway didn’t try to wish on it.  She wondered how many of the members of her crew did.

The bridge of The Wanderlust was much more crowded this time.  Everyone aboard had gathered together to watch.  And now, not only were there two crews melded together aboard The Wanderlust — Union and Anti-Ra — but also three newcomers, two guests from the Waykeeper’s back and the strange amalgamation of circuitry and mycelia who now insisted they were a doctor. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 30: The Voyage Begins”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 29: A Better Use for a Black Hole

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“…Captain Carroway wasn’t going to make the choice he wanted her to make. She wasn’t going to take this ship home. Not at the expense of an entire world.”

“You can move Lupinia?” Commander Chestnut asked, scurrying his way into the engine room and pressing his way between the much larger cat and canine blocking his view of the indecipherable equations Ensign Diaz had been writing.  His brushy reed of a tail flipped about wildly, expressing more excitement than seemed like should be able to fit into such a small mammal. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 29: A Better Use for a Black Hole”