Edited by Lynn Abbey

Contents

LYNN ABBEY… Introduction

MICKEY ZUCKER REICHERT… Home Is Where the Hate Is

ANDREW OFFUTT…Role Model

DIANA L. PAXSON…The Prisoner in the Jewel

SELINA ROSEN…Ritual Evolution

DENNIS L. MCKIERNAN…Duel

ROBIN WAYNE BAILEY…Ring of Sea and Fire

JODY LYNN NYE…Doing the Gods' Work

LYNN ABBEY…The Red Lucky

JEFF GRUBB…Apocalypse Noun

RAYMOND E. FEIST…One to Go

LYNN ABBEY…Afterword

Introduction

Lynn Abbey

Cauvin thought he'd made himself froggin' clear: He was a work-ingman, a stonemason who liked the feel of a heavy mallet in his hand, not some froggin' songbird caged up in the palace.

"He says he'll beat me, if you don't come," the stranger-a youth not out of his teens-insisted flatly, desperately.

That didn't sound like Arizak perMizhur. Sanctuary's froggin' tyrant was a hard man, not a cruel or vindictive one, or so Cauvin remembered. Cauvin had a thousand froggin' memories of Arizak perMizhur, all of them clamoring for his attention. Problem was, almost none of those memories were his. Five months earlier, on his way to smash some old bricks, he'd gotten his sheep-shite self caught up in the death-wishes of Molin Torchholder, an old man who'd had his froggin' finger on every worthwhile pulse in Sanctuary for a half-century. Everyone knew the froggin' Torch was a liar, a schemer, a hero, and the priest of a vanquished god. What they hadn't known was that the old pud was a witch, too, and before he breathed his froggin' last, he managed to cast all his lifetime's worth of memories into Cauvin's skull.