We first posted Joe Bonadonna’s sword and sorcery novelette “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” in December 2011, and it has proven to be one of our most popular online stories. We’re proud to re-present it here as part of the new Black Gate Online Fiction library.

Long before the legendary cities of Cush and Erusabad were destroyed by war, the graveyard was old. No one knew how old the graveyard truly was, for the carvings on its headstones and markers had been long worn away by the hands of time, wind, and weather. The cemetery crouched with its dead in a hidden vale in the dark heart of Khanya-Toth, land of shadows, black magic, and creatures of the night.

A tall, slim woman sat on the opposite side of the fire, close to the entrance to her bamboo hut. She wore a black robe, her face partially hidden within its hood.

“You’ve come a long way from Valdar to see me,” she said. Her name was Zomandra Chuvai, and she was a witch, one of the Kha Jitah. She lived alone in that ancient graveyard, with only ghosts and memories to keep her company.

“We’re the Blunker boys,” Ollo said. He was all skin and bone, with a sickly yellow pallor.

“I’m well aware of who you are,” Zomandra said. “Shall we talk business?”

“The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” is part of Joe’s first published swords and sorcery collection, Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser. Read more about Mad Shadows in “Dorgo the Dowser and Me,” posted on the Black Gate website here.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” is a complete 15,000-word novelette of weird fantasy offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.