Fae, Flames & Fedoras: A Changeling Blood Universe Novella: Changeling Blood, #0

By Glynn Stewart

In the sewer-building projects of 1940s New York City, something ancient and powerful has been awoken. With half a dozen mortal workers dead, the Fae Courts of the city find themselves forced to action despite their desperate lack of manpower.

Their call for aid brings six young Fae to the city, among them the Seelie Noble Talus, son of Korinth. New to the city and expendable, they are tasked with finding the creature underneath the city.

The youths are assured that nothing in the world can stand against six Fae Nobles.

On the other hand, nothing supernatural should have been sleeping under New York City…

This novella is part of the print collection Spaceships and Spellcasters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781989674031

Glynn Stewart

Glynn Stewart is the author of Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible—but only because of magic. Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant, and today he is the author of over 60 books, including the urban fantasy series Changeling Blood and the far-flung space adventure Exile. Glynn lives in Southern Ontario with his partner, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.

Book preview

Fae, Flames & Fedoras

FAE, FLAMES & FEDORAS

GLYNN STEWART

Faolan’s Pen Publishing

CONTENTS

Visit Me Online

Fae, Flames & Fedoras

About the Author

Other Books by Glynn Stewart

Preview: Changeling’s Fealty by Glynn Stewart

Chapter 1

Changeling’s Fealty by Glynn Stewart

Fae, Flames & Fedoras © 2018 Glynn Stewart

Illustration by Shen Fei

ISBN (epub): 978-1-989674-03-1

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Published by Faolan’s Pen Publishing. Faolan's Pen Publishing logo is a registered trademark of Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc.

VISIT ME ONLINE

For Glynn Stewart news, announcements, and more, visit GlynnStewart.com

You can also sign up for my email newsletter here.

Joe Costa sighed exasperatedly as he filled the date in on the form—September 8, 1948—and accepted the detonators and wires he used to do his job every single day. Stacking them and several boxes of explosives on his cart, the burly sewer worker quickly caught up with his team as they headed into the new sewer tunnel heading out west, into one of New York’s rapidly growing suburbs.

The six-man tunnel-blasting team lit up their electric headlamps as they passed beyond the brightly lit excavation where the engineers had laid out diagrams of how the sewers were going to look in about six months. Most of the work was being done on the surface, with excavations and pipelines, but Costa’s team’s job was to blast the massive drain tunnels the rest of the pipelines drained into.

This required them to walk the better part of a mile through the portion of the tunnel they’d already blasted out, in roughly an inch of water that had leaked in from where the tunnel linked to the existing storm system that drained out to the sea.

The group of men laughed and joked as they headed deeper and deeper under the earth, their lights occasionally reflecting off various side tunnels where the other sewers linked to their tunnel. The joking was self-defence—Costa shivered slightly, remembering the first few times they’d made even part of this trek. With only their headlamps to light the way in the dark, it was terrifying.

They reached the end of the tunnel, where they’d finished clearing and smoothing the existing walls the night before.

Have at ’er, Joe! the team lead told the demolitions man.

With a big grin, Joe started pulling explosives off of his cart and setting them on the rough rock face where the tunnel would soon extend. Even though he’d gone over the placements with the engineers the previous evening, he’d served in the War and could have done it himself by feel.

For the first hour or so, the other five men were mostly only there to keep the demo man from going insane in the dark, though he happily used them as grunt labour, running wires and holding charges in place. If nothing else, the other sewer workers’ expressions when holding the charges were always priceless.

Right, boys, stand back, he finally ordered once the first set of charges was in place. Joe wasn’t technically in charge of the team, but no one argues with the man holding the detonator.

The big man lit a cigarette as he backed away with the rest of the team and rolled out the wire from his detonator until they were clear.

Fire in the ’ole! he barked and hit the button.

He expected a shockwave of air, a blast wave of heat, and then a shortness of breath for a few minutes while the air refreshed in the tunnel.

There was a shock and blast of heat, but then his cigarette was torn from his hand by a massive backflush of air as it rushed into the space opened by the explosion. The sound of the explosion echoed, along with a clatter of stone falling into an empty space that shouldn’t have been there.

Joe carefully picked up his cigarette as the rest of the team ran forward to see what had happened. No demolitions man would ever leave loose flame in an area he was working.

You’ve gotta see this, Joe! one of the men yelled. We blew into some kind of cave.

"Madre de dios, one of the other workers suddenly swore. That’s gold."

That got even Joe’s attention. He jogged lightly forward to join his team. They were well ahead of him, scrabbling down the uneven slope of the massive hollow he’d blown open. Distantly, flickering in the light of their headlamps, he could make out the gold the other man had seen.

It wasn’t the veins of