Dispatches from the Front: Number Sixty-One

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

War correspondents and soldiers possess one thing in common: They only see pieces of the war—even a magical war.

Everything rests on a single magical weapon, dispatched by Pixie Air, which the soldiers believe will solve everything.

One war correspondent questions how. But for the first time, she finds herself on the battlefront, hoping that her people succeed in this last attempt at saving their corner of the world.

“Rusch is a great storyteller.”

—RT Book Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jan 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386237181

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

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Dispatches from the Front: Number Sixty-One

Dispatches from the Front: Number Sixty-One

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing

Contents

Dispatches from the Front: Number Sixty-One

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Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Dispatches from the Front: Number Sixty-One

Winter, Year Five—Near the Cascann Mountains

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The shelter is little more than a snow-covered hut. The centaur who brought me up here cannot fit inside. We cover him with blankets to warm him up, give him hot mead and the last of some richly scented stew, and send him back to his troops.

All the way up, he complained about letting a human ride his back, even though he is the media liaison for this part of the war. He doesn’t like answering to a woman, particularly a woman once known as a unicorn tamer, a woman whose only real magical skill—besides her learned ability to put pen to paper—is to get equine creatures to do her bidding.

He made me swear I was not charming him. I swore. He did not believe me.

The journey up the foothills was treacherous, and one I was glad I did not have to make alone. He remained silent through most of the trip—afraid, he told me when it looked like we wouldn’t reach our destination—that I would report every word he said.

I reminded him that we had censors. Before any parchment gets tied to the feet of the carrier pigeons, it is copied by the monks attached to each unit, and dispatched to headquarters. The monks remove things, the officials remove more.

So I try to be vague while being descriptive. I’m told by my editor that the censors don’t mind harsh talk, just specific talk, talk that will give away positions to the enemy or allow him to divine battle plans.

I’ve heard that the Scralle have lost their diviners and are now relying on general wizardry, but like all rumors, there is no way to confirm.

What I told my centaur—what I tell all of the media liaisons—is that being a battlefield correspondent is like being a soldier. I only see pieces of the war, not the whole. I leave the analysis for the historians of whichever side survives.

Those historians will not know what to make of this—the entire magical world at war with itself.

The hut has only one room. Pixie Air has divided it into two using a gossamer blanket that is sturdier than it looks. The main