David Dalglish

Daniel Pyle

Mercedes M. Yardley

J. L. Bryan

Michael Crane

Robert J. Duperre

David McAfee

D. P. Prior

Joel Arnold

Dawn McCullough-White

Steven Pirie

K. Wood

Benjamin Wretlind

...a young man tries to build a better life while trapped in a mall after a plague has killed off most of humanity... ...zombies overrun a world gone mad, leaving a boy with no choice but to rely on possibly mystical means of escape... ...Halloween night brings out a darkness so threatening that a young couple's only hope of survival may be a procession of strange, ghostly children... ...when the world is given a brief glimpse of divinity, a formerly disabled man must come to grips with the fact that not everything is as good as it seems... These tales and many more await in The Gate 2: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair, the new collection edited by Robert J. Duperre. Thirteen talented authors have been assembled, bringing with them the best they have to offer in a wide range of horror, be it slice-of-life or paranormal in nature. Also included are two bonus stories by the editor. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Plastic by J.L. Bryan The Indian Rope Trick by D.P. Prior Night Night by Daniel Pyle Dead Things by Michael Crane Does Laura Like Elephants? by Steven Pirie 39 Days by Robert J. Duperre The Candle Eaters by K. Allen Wood Black Mary by Mercedes M. Yardley Exhibit C by David McAfee The Canoe by Joel Arnold Destination by Benjamin X. Wretlind The Ghastly Bath by Dawn McCullough-White Worldwide Event by David Dalglish 2 Bonus stories by Robert J. Duperre Traipsing Through the Dark: The Stories Behind the Stories

The Gate - 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair

Valmore Daniels

To end the curse that made him a monster, the Nameless Dwarf must find three mythical artifacts: The gauntlets of the fire giant Sartis; The Lich Lord's invulnerable armor; And a paranoid god's Shield of Warding. But the plan has been devised the faen, tricksters who live only to deceive.

Curse of the Black Axe

The blockbusting epic fantasy from international bestselling author D.P. Prior.The entire Legends of the Nameless Dwarf Tetralogy in one volume:1. Carnifex: A Portent of Blood"Gritty, tense, and brutally tragic. High quality storytelling with great characters and a relentless plot." -- Mitchell Hogan, author of A Crucible of Souls and Aurealis Award winner." For more than a thousand years, the dwarves have hidden away from the world in their ravine city of Arx Gravis. Governed by an inflexible council whose sole aim is to avoid the errors of the past, the defining virtue of their society is that nothing should ever change. But when the Scriptorium is broken into, and Ravine Guard Carnifex Thane sees a homunculus fleeing the scene of the crime, events are set in motion that will ensure nothing will ever be the same again. Deception and death are coming to Arx Gravis. The riddles that preceded Carnifex's birth crystalize into a horrifying fate that inexorably closes in. But it is in blood that legends are born, and redemption is seeded in the gravest of sins. For Carnifex is destined to become the Ravine Butcher, before even that grim appellation is forever lost, along with everything that once defined him. 2. Geas of the Black Axe"A dwarf with no name is a dwarf most shamed." As the lands above the ravine city of Arx Gravis face their gravest peril, the last desperate hope of Creation lies in a dwarf with a grisly past: The Nameless Dwarf-a pariah, untouchable, the most cursed of dwarven kind. But in a world plagued by deception, where no action is free from risk, the road to salvation is shadowed with portents of blood.3. Revenge of the LichThe survivors of the slaughter at Arx Gravis flee their ravine city, leaving its walkways and canals awash with blood. Convinced there can be no atonement for what he has done, the Nameless Dwarf joins forces with a whiskerless thief, a guilt-driven assassin, and a consumptive wizard. Together, they pursue the dwarves into the lands of nightmare across the Farfall Mountains. But the companions bring troubles of their own, not least of which is an ancient grimoire that leads them inexorably toward a forest of tar, and an evil from Nameless's past that threatens his entire race. The last hope of the dwarves comes from the unlikeliest of sources: a mythical city beneath the waves, an axe from the age of heroes, and the Nameless Dwarf, in whose veins flows the blood of legends. 4. Return of the Dwarf LordsThe Nameless Dwarf: the name that is not a name, but is far better than the one he left behind. Freed from the curse that turned him into the butcher of his own kind, he once crossed half a world to protect those who had survived. Having worked out his penance and resettled his people in Arnoch, the ancient citadel of the Dwarf Lords, Nameless sets up home in the town of Brink. Now, with everything a dwarf could possibly wish for-a gym, a beer hall, and a bawdy house across the road-his new life is a welcome break from a decade of adventure. Then a blood-stained dwarf staggers into town with a message of doom: Arnoch has sunk beneath the waves, its last defense against the attack of a five-headed dragon. The one slender hope remaining to the dwarves lies in their distant past: the Dwarf Lords, who had been created for perils such as this. But for centuries, they have been in exile on Thanatos, a death-world likely to change even the greatest of heroes. With time running out for Arnoch, Nameless must find the Dwarf Lords and persuade them to come home. But before that, he first has to survive them.

The Complete Saga

Legends of the Nameless Dwarf

D. P. Prior

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