Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in Sirenia Digest #111. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Chance Matthews has suffered enough tragedies. The latest—her grandfather’s death—has left her shaken, convinced that she will always be alone. What she needs now is time—time to recover, time to determine what her future will be. What she doesn’t need is a strange girl with alabaster skin who knows things about Chance she can’t possibly know.

Chance doesn’t believe in angels. Or monsters. But among the artifacts left by her geologist grandparents, there lies a fossil of a creature that couldn’t possibly have ever existed.

But it did. And still does…

An albino girl wanders the sun-scorched backroads of a south Georgia summer, following the bidding of an angel - or perhaps only voices in her head - searching out and slaying ancient monsters who have hidden themselves away in the lonely places of the world.

Caitli-n R. Kiernan first introduced Dancy in the pages of her award-winning second novel, Threshold (2001), then went on to write several more short stories and a novella about this unlikely heroine, each a piece, of which, has become an epic dark fantasy narrative. Alabaster finally collects all these tales into one volume.

Contents:

• 11 - Preface (Alabaster) - essay
• 19 - Les Fleurs Empoisonnées - [Dancy Flammarion] - short fiction
• 55 - The Well of Stars and Shadow - [Dancy Flammarion] - (2003) - novelette
• 71 - Waycross - [Dancy Flammarion] - (2003) - novelette
• 103 - Alabaster - [Dancy Flammarion] - novelette
• 123 - Bainbridge - [Dancy Flammarion] - novelette
• 171 - Afterword: On the Road to Jefferson - essay

And now, with Comes a Pale Rider, Kiernan offers a second collection of Dancy Flammarion short stories. From Selma, Alabama to the back roads of Georgia to a South Carolina ghost town, Dancy continues her holy war with the beings of night and shadow, driven always on by her own insanity or an angel with a fiery sword--or possibly both.

Contents:

• 9 - Bus Fare - [Dancy Flammarion] - (2014) - short story
• 25 - Dancy vs. the Pterosaur - [Dancy Flammarion] - (2015) - short fiction
• 49 - Tupelo (1998) - short fiction
• 107 - Dreams of a Poor Wayfaring Stranger - short fiction
• 139 - Requiem - short fiction
• 169 - Afterword (Comes a Pale Rider) - essay