The first Fragment tale available for download is “Tamed” — a story written in 1998 for the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology Dreaming Downunder, edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb. The story takes place in the world of Tharenweyr, which is the setting for Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead, though in a country on the opposite side of the continent to the mercantile state of Vesuula, which is the novel’s main locale. “Tamed” was conceived as a story in its own right, but also as the possible beginning of a sequel to the novel — part of the overall fictional reality of Tharenweyr but having its own coherence. Whether it becomes that sequel is yet to be determined.
Story:
Torm pur Nathal is an outsider who has come to the rural coastal fringe of Tenen, seeking something that remains elusive. When he discovers that the area is home to a “monster tamer”, Bryalt — eldest offspring of the Weller Family, fascination and hope lead him to seek employment on the Weller freehold. But Bryalt is barely keeping a grip on his sanity, and when his mother dies, he succumbs to despair. The drontagis or “monster corruption” he has been holding at bay erupts in force, and all hope seems lost. Yet Bryalt is not the last of his family…
Read it now: