No longer available online - now in Tales of the Otherworld It's the story of how Clay and Elena met and the start of their relationship.

    But that’s before Fort Bridger comes under threat of attack and the experienced scout is asked to escort the commander’s daughter to the safety of Fort Laramie. Tom quickly realizes that the spirited Amy Travis is a skilled horsewoman who can hold her own on the arduous four-day trip. But she’s also unnervingly adept at making Tom reveal his heart. When three unknown riders begin pursuing the pair, Tom sets his personal feelings aside to ensure Amy’s safety. But as he valiantly strives to protect Amy from danger, will Tom Barkley leave his own heart vulnerable?

    Kiernan, best known for her contemporary settings, "gothnoir" tales of pain and wonder, and atmospheric stories of Lovecraftian terror, was first published as an author of dark science fiction. Now she returns to sf with a masterful thirty-thousand word novella, The Dry Salvages.Three centuries in the future, though much of Earth has been crippled by war, pollution, and catastrophic climatic change, man has at last traveled to the stars and even found evidence of at least one extraterrestrial civilization. In a bleak and frozen Paris, at the dawn of the 22nd Century, an old woman is forced to confront the consequences of her part in these discoveries and the ghosts that have haunted her for almost fifty years. The last surviving member of the crew of the starship Montelius, exopaleontologist Dr. Audrey Cather struggles to remember what she's spent so long trying to forget -- the nightmare she once faced almost ninety trillion miles from Earth.