Deviations: Bloodlines
By Elissa Malcohn
“Be careful you don’t fall over the edge, Governor.”
Brick-colored chops twitched. HigherBrook suppressed a wry smile at the deputy’s dry warning. Like you, Shabra?
No, that was unfair; they’d all fallen over the edge. His diminutive host had merely expressed concern for his safety, resting tapered, bronze-hued fingers on his thin linen sleeve. He was surprised he could hear her at all, given the shouting around them and the weapons fire far below.
The leader of Crossroads backed away from a milky balustrade that ended at his hips. Beside him, the Cliff’s deputy clutched the same marble at waist height and shrieked at combatants deaf to her encouragements. Her long black braid swung out above the carnage.
A high sun baked the battle. The Games raged in full view across the clearing and continued hidden inside distant thickets. Two fighters separated from ringing metal and gunshot and clashed by the river separating the Yata territory of Alvav from the Masari town of Rudder.
A collective cheer erupted from the balcony as rifles and armor fell on meadow grass, revealing bound breasts and glinting machetes.
Shabra chuckled. “I’ll bet you don’t see that in your valley.”
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Elissa Malcohn
Elissa Malcohn’s novelette “Lazuli” (Asimov’s, Nov. 1984) made her a 1985 John W. Campbell Award finalist for best new science fiction writer of the year. Her short story “Moments of Clarity” (Full Spectrum, Bantam, 1988) reached the preliminary ballot for the 1989 Nebula Awards. Commenting on “Moments of Clarity” in his review of Full Spectrum in the November 1988, Out of This World Tribune, Bruce D. Arthurs wrote, “This one story is worth the price of the entire book.”
Biography.
Elissa’s work also appears in publications that won awards in 2009. IPPY Silver Medalist Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (Scriblerus Press) contains her story “Arachne” (originally published in Aboriginal Science Fiction, Dec. 1988). Bram Stoker Award winner Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press) contains her story “Memento Mori.” Her story “Hermit Crabs” in Hugo Award winner Electric Velocipede (#14) and her novelette “Flotsam” in Asimov’s (Oct./Nov. 2009) made the recommended reading list in The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 26th and 27th Annual Collections, respectively.
Elissa’s work has appeared in dozens of publications since the 1970s. Covenant, the first volume of her Deviations series, was originally published by the now-defunct Aisling Press in 2007.
Elissa edited Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, from 1986-88 and was a five-time Rhysling Award nominee for best speculative poetry of the year.
Outside the genre, Elissa won first prize in the Woodview Coffee House 2010 songwriting contest.
Member, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Science Fiction Poetry Association, Broad Universe, and more. Proud participant, Operation E-Book Drop, Books For Soldiers, and Shadow Forest Authors.
Elissa Malcohn
