Rules of War and Other Stories

By Fran Jacobs

Rules of War and Other Stories is a collection of five short stories by fantasy writer, Fran Jacobs.

A woman seeks out the demon who killed her husband, a hero returns home after defeating the Dark One while a boy meet a familiar stranger in the famous Midnight Market. And in a world where their two races are at war, a mortal boy and his faerie lover go on the run, and a man bring homes a faerie,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fran Jacobs
• Release date: Jul 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301134830

Fran Jacobs

Fran Jacobs is a fantasy writer, author of the Ellenessia's Curse series (the Shadow Seer, Seer's Tower) and several short stories. She has a masters degree in Ancient History, a passion for zombies, the 80s and cake. She currently lives in Swansea, South Wales, with her three cats, Megaera, Claudia and Mr Kitty, where she writes full time, drinks too much coffee and works on becoming a crazy cat lady.

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RULES OF WAR

AND OTHER STORIES

By Fran Jacobs

Published by Fran Jacobs at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Fran Jacobs

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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This is a work of fiction, and as a work of fiction any resemblance to people, places or things is entirely accidental. The creation of certain buildings and locations is entirely the work of the author to avoid conflict and comparison with existing structures

DEDICATIONS

Thanks to Sarah, for the idea of releasing a collection of short stories, Clive for keeping my fabulous website in tune, Deedee for the great cover and all the magazines that published these stories.

And thanks to my parents and friends, especially Lisa, Scott, Katie and Karen, my zombie companion, for their support and encouragement in everything I do, not just writing.

As always this book is dedicated to those who have moved on, my grandparents and Ailsa. Never forgotten, always missed.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Rules of War. Set in a world where faeries and humans are at war with each other. Young Arathy's father brings home a faerie, captured in a cage. It was first published with Chaos Theory, Tales Askew, in 2005 and reprinted with Daikaiju in 2006.

The Midnight Market. I was inspired to write this after visiting a night time Christmas market in Derby. Sylan meets a strange boy during the Midnight Market, who seems to know him, even though they had never met before. First published by Golden Visions in 2011. (Although faeries and the Faerie Realm is mentioned in this story, it's not set in the same world as 'Rules of War' or 'Ume's Lament'. Basically, they're different faeries, from a different realm.)

Medyna's Choice. This story acts as a prequel to my novel series, Ellenessia's Curse, and tells of Medyna's revenge on the demon Ellenessia. First published with Neo-opsis in 2006. Reprinted with Dred in 2006.

Homecoming. Tyran was the chosen one, the one foretold to destroy the Dark One. This is the story of what happens after that. It was first published by Golden Visions magazine in 2009.

Ume's Lament. Set in the same world as 'Rules of War' this is the story of lovers Talyn, a mortal, and Salir, a faerie, living on the run. It was written for a competition for Fantasy Writers website, where it came third, and was first published by Forgotten Worlds in 2006 and reprinted by Golden Visions in 2008.

About the Author.

INTRODUCTION

I wrote my first, proper, short story, that is, one with an end, as part of my English AS level back in 1996. It was a gay love story, complicated by the religious devotion of one of the boys. It got full marks. Since then I've written maybe fifteen short stories and don't hate about ten of them, which is pretty good going, I guess, considering how hard I find them to write.

Three of my short stories, including the one I wrote for my English class, are on my website. Two I've held back to try and put together into a different collection of short stories, and the remaining five are here. Three of those stories, Rules of War, Ume's Lament, and the Midnight Market, mention faeries. Rules and Lament are set in a world where faeries and mortals are at war with each other. Those are typical looking faeries, androgynous, but beautiful, with wings, even though they are human sized and it's unlikely those wings would be able to support them if they tried to fly! The faeries in the Midnight Market don't actually appear, they're just mentioned, and I used an idea from our own faerie mythology, that of the faeries connection with the dead.

The other two stories are faerie free. Medyna's Choice was written as a prequel to my novel series, Ellenessia's Curse, and originally included as a prologue to the Shadow Seer, the first book in the series. I dropped it as a prologue and tidied it up a little so that it can be read completely separate from that series. It's rather a different style from the other stories in the collection. Homecoming is a different style again and written in the first person point of view. All the clichés of the fantasy books I grew up reading are there, the powerful, special sword, the sinister 'Dark One,' and the mystery of the hero's birth. But it is set after the 'Dark One' has been defeated, something we don't usually get to see. It's more like an epilogue, in that respect.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy them.

RULES OF WAR

The creature in the cage wasn’t moving. It sat still and silent in the centre of its prison watching Arathy approach, impassively and unconcerned, with its dull violet eyes. When Arathy’s father, Kyther, had returned from patrol duty and unloaded the cage from the cart, the creature had been shouting in its own language and rattling the bars that surrounded it. But it had quietened down when Kyther had threatened it with an iron rod, and it hadn’t moved since. Even so Arathy still felt nervous as he crept towards the cage. His heart was pounding, his breathing was ragged and his palms were slick with sweat. But he knew that was as much to do with the fear of his father coming back out of the farm house and catching him avoiding his chores, than because of the nervous anticipation he felt at finally being able to see one of the fey.

They had been at war with the faerie race since his great grandfather’s time, but Arathy had never actually seen one. He’d heard stories about them, though, ever since he was a child, how they stole mortal children and