Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

“The Heir of Drymote, Chapter One (Abridged)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

There must be shelter somewhere. Charlotte Mayweather peered dismally around the wild and rambling grounds of Drymote Estate, trying to blink the rain out of her eyes. Hydrangeas, their mop heads drooping under the onslaught, bobbed in silent agreement around her and the Michaelmas daisies swayed with the winds, but nowhere seemed to offer any sanctuary from the sudden downpour. Nobody knows I...

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“The Returned (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Submitted to Contest #105

Calli Calli had never believed in ghosts until now. She stared wordless at the arrogant reprobate silhouetted against the open door of the underground Rat’s Nest lair they lurked within. Micah Dawlish. Of all the men to come crawling back here now, of all times…but then that was Micah all ove...

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“The Kidnapping (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

“Are you coming tonight?” Hastra glared at them all in the gloom of the Rat’s Nest, the underground lair they lived in. She’d already grabbed everything she thought she might need for this suicidal mission, including a vast number of knives. She’d do this alone, if she had to…she just hoped it wouldn’t come to that… Gregyr, the most senior member left of their litt...

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“The Rescue (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

The glass rained down like frozen tears, cold, jagged, dangerous, and Hastra hesitated, to see if any one had heard. The night gaped at her from within with an alluring stillness, as if there was nothing beyond but black and she felt herself beginning to breathe again. She gritted her teeth and slipped her hand through the shards of glass, leering fang-like back a...

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“The Letter (Highmast flashback)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

“He’s a nobleman’s son, Dryvus,” Calli spat furiously, her flame-red hair flicking in her eyes in her agitation. “We can’t trust him.” “We don’t have to trust him to use him,” Dryvus, the leader of the Rat’s Nest crew, said with that same infuriating calm he always had. “No!” “It’s not your ...

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“The Ball (Highmast Flashback)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Submitted to Contest #93

[Author's Note: This flashback takes place before the events of The Bad Penny. This short story was originally written for Beth Connor's podcast, Crossroads Cantina] The trees that ran down the street were already beginning to burn in flaming shades of gold, jasper and amber. Calli couldn’t help but stare at them as she passed. The...

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“The Technomancer (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

The Rat’s Nest underground crew house felt morbidly empty with only the three thieves and con-women left in it.“You should have seen this place in its heyday, Mags,” Hastra said softly. A soft slur edged her words, but it was the only sign which she gave that she was five cups deep into the Harbour Red. Gregyr, the temporary and somewhat begrudging leader of their crew, usually kept a close eye on the wine-cellar, but he and Big Gristo had gone up north and had left them unsupervise...

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“The Silver Charm (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

“Are you sure you’re strong enough to be doing this, Gregyr?” grunted Big Gristo carefully. “I don’t want to be telling you your business—”“Then don’t.”“—But,” continued Gristo pointedly, “You were only brought back from death a few weeks ago. I’m not sure you should be gallivanting off into the sticks already. It can wait.”“Number one, I wasn’t dead. I was almost dead, there’s a difference,” Gregyr grumbled. “...

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“The Library of Glass and Light” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Submitted to Contest #91

Each footstep wailed out an eerie reverberating song through the empty room, like someone running their finger around the rim of a wineglass. The large and airy halls were darkened now, save for the distant glimmer of moonlight seeping through the clouded walls, and the quiet throb of orb-light fracturing against every reflective surface, as the glowing spheres blushed at them from every side. Each haltering step chimed a different note until their quiet, winding path made a melody of sorts, each of Ako’s footstep...

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“The Tunnel (Highmast flashback)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

“Everyone knows wyverns have been dead for years, Gregyr. You worry too much.”Dryvus’ voice was bright and filled with the shoreless unconcern it always had, as it echoed back at them through the damp tunnels.Gregyr didn’t say anything. He and Dryvus had only been friends for a few years, but he had already learnt that it was impossible to argue with the plump young man when he was feeling optimistic. Though he and Dryvus were of an age, Greg...

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“The Bad Penny part 2 (Highmast series, flashback)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Calli would be damned if she was going to wear a gown to meet Micah, even if he had summoned her to the Speckled Boar, one of the most up-market wine-houses and eateries in Highmast, the harbour city where they both lived. He could apparently click his fingers and make her appear, but he certainly couldn’t make her dress up for him. Not now. Not ever.She’d tried her hardest to persuade Dryvus, her mentor and boss, that they shouldn’t go to meet him at all. It was surely a trap, desp...

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“The Bad Penny part 1 (Highmast series, flashback)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Calli laughed brightly, her fingers already reaching for the proffered invitation card. “It’s very good of you,” she fluttered in her sweetest voice, teeth-tinglingly saccharine. But before she could snatch that all important card—the whole reason Dryvus, her boss and the leader of the Rat’s Nest crew she worked for, had sent her to slowly infiltrate the Hurstmere’...

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“The Tale of Macsen Bach, Ogden Mawr and clever Jack the Green” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Submitted to Contest #87

Way back when, a while ago, upon the days of old,There was upon a winter’s night, a winter’s story told,Of Macsen Bach, the pixie-man, a fae both bright and bold,And Ogden Mawr, the trickster god, and his famous pot of gold.Macsen was a mischief, and Odgen was a fright,And both of them together made a nightmare of the night,For each of them contended with the other to decide,Who was the king of trouble, and who'd be left aside.If one of them would spoil the milk...

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“The Bargain (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Gregyr had always pictured pain as a technicolour monster before now; a nebulous, swirling thing of crimson, or a fang-filled midnight blue, migraine flashes of neon, or thick, clumpy nauseous yellow—but now he had a tasted true pain and he knew he’d been wrong. The world outside was bright and colourful. The pain trapped inside him was a beast of black and white: throbbing, oily darkness and blinding ice—nothing in between.Open your eyes.

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“The Festival (Highmast series)” by Lizzy Duffield-Fuller

Calli had always liked spring. The teasing winds whipped the tang of salt up from the docks, masking the more putrid smells which mouldered in the harbour city air. Flowering weeds bullied their way through the chipped cobblestones on the sloping streets. The flamewyrms, which usually oozed a smug blue light in the labyrinth tunnels under the city, went into their mating season and blinked a soft...

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