"Do Not Send." She stabbed her finger at the blinking button, but too late. Even as she touched it, the screen dissolved into a friendly, "Thank you for your business. Your message will be transmitted to the next available translight shipper, and should arrive at the destination in three to four weeks." She paced in front of the kiosk. Three weeks ( Read more... )

The clock ticked in the stillness of the night, and something stole the tick and tucked it away under his arm for later use. Without its tick, the hand of the clock did not move. Nothing moved. There was a breeze, but the curtain did not blow. There was a stranger in the castle, but the watchdog did not stir. There was an intruder in her bedroom, ( Read more... )

It was an inside job. They knew it was an inside job. But they refused to even tell him what the "inside" was. And they *still* expected his to solve the damned thing! He stared at the pair sitting across the desk from him. They smiled blandly back at him, though their eyes were worried. "The pay will be very generous--" the tall one ventured. "I'm ( Read more... )

The ghost trees noticed when their song boat vanished from the lake nearby, but they did not know what to do about it. At first, they waited patiently for the song boat to be returned, though mists rose up from the lake and swaddled their trunks in a layer of thick fog that had no joy of song, no life remembered, in it. And then the oldest tree ( Read more... )