Ragnarok - XXVI
The Sulfur Carrier had dug its claws Into the cliff face, on either side of The shallow crevice where the Old Man stood At bay. The rock walls were collapsing in. When he had thrust his spear into the breach To wedge it open, it had buckled and...
Ragnarok - XXV
Darkness, and the stench of rotten eggs To make his eyes water. If he had held His hand before his face, Shane could have seen No glove, no fist, no color or outline. He did not bother to. He blinked the sting Out of his eyes, and strained toward...
Ragnarok - XXIV
It grinned. It ripped a fist of mangling claws Down like a meteor. It gouged the stairs, Where Varr and the Old Man had stood away As could a spoon through cold whipped butter-cream, But they had ducked, had rolled under its palm As it passed just...
Ragnarok - XXIII
Somewhere, amongst the ruins of ruins The legions of dishonored dead, hissing As might an immolated corpse upon A burning ship, at cold saltwater's touch, With agonizing slowness flung themselves Against the hated company who held, Though...
Ragnarok - XXII
Shane found the Old Man waiting underneath A spreading and a skeletal ash tree. And he was not alone. Beside him stood The Lady, with her ineffable smile, The Old Woman, frowning upon her cane, The Witchfolk King, rolling brown oak leaf...
Ragnarok - XXI
The man turned round and smiled. As when the blobs Of seeming random ink click suddenly Into an image unmistakable Of a familiar human face without The slightest alteration in themselves, But only in the one who stares, and stares, And stares,...
Ragnarok - XX
"Man's voices have been silent for too long. His songs are gone long unsung. Man has been Long disenchanted in this latter age. What songs are sung in triumph, and what hymn Is raised to god or gods above the stars? How often is there heard the...
Ragnarok - XIX
Somewhere, it was winter. Stars were lost Above the mottled, slate-hard clouds. The streets Were glazed with colorless lamplight. The air Was weary cold, and smelled of apathy. Somewhere it was January, or Some time that felt like it. Beside the...
Ragnarok - XVIII
As does a man who from an areoplane Leaps for heart-stopping sport hang for the half, Half-second that his heart is stopped, and sees The world spread out below, amid the clouds, And wheeling slowly, like the stars at night, Until gravity finds...
Ragnarok - XVII
Said Varr, voice hollow like a man bereaved And echoing around the council hall, "Never before have I turned tail. What has Become of Last to Flee? If such as I, By death made undying, by corruption Made incorruptible in who we are, Already have...
Ragnarok - XVI
"Mean you to slay this?" Varr said slowly, as The Sulfur Carrier stretched, its knees below The pit its impact had carved out, "Do you Yet say that this your sword shall cut down this Colossus, berserker?" Klau swallowed, and, With his eyes to...
Ragnarok - XV
As haloed patriarchs, hewn from the stone Atop the arches, mid the cornices Where gargoyles grimace at the bitter taste Of dusty rainwater, watch heretics Self-excommunicated all depart, Stoic, still militant, and stony-faced Shed not one tear,...