The Dark Issue 32: The Dark, #32

By Lindiwe Rooney, Eric Schaller, Bill Kte’pi and Carrie Laben

Each month The Dark brings you the best in dark fantasy and horror! Edited by award winning editors Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace and brought to you by Prime Books, this issue includes two all-new stories and two reprints:

“In Her Bones” by Lindiwe Rooney
“Smoke, Ash, and Whatever Comes After” by Eric Schaller (reprint)
“Her Brother and His Sister” by Bill Kte’pi
“The Fledglings of Time” by Carrie Laben (reprint)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Prime Books
• Release date: Dec 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386363095

Book preview

THE DARK

Issue 32 • January 2018

In Her Bones by Lindiwe Rooney

Smoke, Ash, and Whatever Comes After by Eric Schaller

Her Brother and His Sister by Bill Kte’pi

The Fledglings of Time by Carrie Laben

Cover Art: Little Girl with Gas Mask Holding a Balloon Standing in Apocalypse City by grandfailure

ISSN 2332-4392.

Edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace.

Cover design by Garry Nurrish.

Copyright © 2017 by Prime Books.

www.thedarkmagazine.com

In Her Bones

by Lindiwe Rooney

The first time Wekesa Mwani came to Ayanda’s home, he brought with him his famous panga. The cleaver hung from his leather belt and slapped against his calf as he walked, unchallenged, through the gates and gardens into the Sekibo house. After all, it was Wekesa’s father Yana Mwani who paid for the guards on patrol and their automatic rifles.

Out of her sisters, Ayanda was the quietest, and the most observant. She was friendly to everyone in the house, from the chef to the sentries. For the first time in her life, the house felt like a prison, and those guards and servants became wardens.

The first time Wekesa Mwani came to Ayanda’s home, he didn’t bother to knock. He stepped through the door way as if it were his own, and wandered through the house until he came upon Ayanda’s family eating dinner.

Her father stood at once. Wekesa— he yelped, only to stutter into silence as the intruder drew the blade from his belt.

The panga was a curiously ancient weapon for the son of a gun-runner, but Wekesa was famous for it. The stories about how he liked to cut down his father’s enemies were whispered in the marketplaces, and told with relish in schoolyards. Wekesa and his reputation kept Yana’s opponent’s wary.

Without greeting or explanation, Wekesa swept her father’s plate and cutlery to the floor so that he could sit on the edge of the table. He laid the cleaver across his thighs with careful patience.

Have you heard, he said airily, that the police took Yana’s shipment this morning?

Ayanda breathed shallowly, fear constricting her chest and throat.

I . . . I hadn’t heard— her father whispered.

Wekesa grinned at the four girls seated around the table. Ayanda and her sisters. You have such a beautiful family, he said. tell me your names. How old are you?

Elewa was the eldest, and the most intelligent. Armed with charm and a reputation for legal gymnastics, she was ready to replace her father as Yana Mwani’s accountant and pocket-politician. She spoke first. Elewa, she said. I am twenty-three.

He nodded sagely, and moved his attention to Ayanda next. Ayanda. Nineteen, she said.

The words sounded weak and breathless in her own ears.

Beautiful Fanaka and sweet Dalia followed suit at fourteen and six years old.

Only six? His eyebrows rose in playful surprise. But you look so much older!

His forefinger had tapped on the blade of the panga with a small, dull sound heard around the otherwise silent room. His eyes turned back to Joseph Sekibo. I’m surprised a busy man like yourself can make time for family dinners.

Joseph Sekibo jerked to his feet and dropped his wrung and wrinkled napkin onto his seat. He spared a glance for his wife. I’ll be back, he said. it’s just a misunderstanding—

Don’t worry, Joseph, Wekesa interrupted again. I’m sure they’ll be excellent hosts.

But because he had not obeyed the traditions of welcome, he was not a guest, and they were not hosts. Disregarding the greeting ceremony meant Wekesa was prepared to hurt, or kill, any member of the Sekibo family.

Her father left. Ayanda knew that he went into the city to bribe, blackmail, and trick Yana’s weapons out of the government’s hands. He and Yana were old friends—the gangster kings of Khabamett. Born and raised in the slums on the other side of the bay, the decaying tin shanty-town known as the Slide.

Bloodshed and manipulation saturated their shared history. When they were starving, gutter-bred boys, a sangoma told them that together they would become the most powerful men in Khabamett. But only together, and so they remained bound by their superstition.

Once Yana and Joseph fulfilled the sangoma’s prophecy, Yana’s faith turned into possessive paranoia, and Joseph belief turned to fanatic religion. He would never betray Yana, just as Yana would