The Nun’s Dragon

Wyver made a wider arc in his flight than ever before. In this vast sea of darkness, he found the dead dragons of which he had heard.

Their wings were open and they passed him quickly as he swooped through the endless night. The wyverns here had no color to their scales and their eyes were empty sockets. Winds blew him along as though he were insufficient as a leaf from an earthly tree. Perhaps somewhere in this seeming emptiness was the place humans went when they died.

This is from a new novel by Christine Emmert, who I consider a kindred spirit, and you really, really must read it. The novel is The Nun’s Dragon, and the volume in which it appears also includes “Lilith,” which is one of the most evocative and deeply unsettling works of short fiction that I have read in the past few years.

Update: Ah, this just in! The Nun’s Dragon is making a splash in the “Folklore” category over on Amazon. Now, folklore is not a top-selling category, alas — not like serial killer thrillers, romance novels, or even humble horror novels — but even so, take a look at the screenshot below. Christine Emmert is there on the shelf alongside Italo Calvino and Sir Richard Burton. Seriously, how cool is that?

Definitely go check this one out.