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Novella in Shepard's Griaule series. It originally appeared in Sci Fiction, December 3, 2003 and was later printed as a chapbook. It can also be found in the collections Dagger Key and Other Stories (2007) and The Dragon Griaule (2012).

Read this story for free at the SciFiction archive.

Hugo, World Fantasy, and SF Chronicle Award-nominated Novella and winner of the Locus Reader's Poll for Best Novella.

This story is a mystery / legal drama of a father who is put on trial for killing the priest of the cult which worships the mountain-sized dragon sleeping near their town, after the priest kidnaps his daughter and prepares to sacrifice her, naked and bound, to the Dragon Griaule.

Published originally as a chapbook and then by Asimov's in September 1989, this story was later collected in The Dragon Griaule (2012).

Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, BSFA, and SF Chronicle Award-nominated Novella.

The mountain-sized sleeping Dragon Griaule overshadows a nearby town with its maleficient presence. Desperate to overthrow its malignant influence without alerting the dragon to their intent, the town hires a painter who promises to cover the dragon's beautiful scales in a poisonous paint which will kill it once and for all.

Published originally by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in December 1984, this story was later anthologized in Nebula Awards 20 (1985), The Best Fantasy Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (aka Great Tales of Fantasy and Science Fiction) (1985), Bestiary! (1985), Dragons! (1993), Modern Classics of Fantasy (1997), The Mammoth Book of Fantasy (2001), Wings of Fire (2010), and collected in The Jaguar Hunter (1987), The Best of Lucius Shepard (2008), and The Dragon Griaule (2012).

Read this story online for free at Baen.

Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and SF Chronicle Award-nominated Novella and winner of the Locus Reader's Poll for Best Novella.

In self-defense, Catherine kills the man who attempts to rape her. Pursued by his vengeful brothers, she takes refuge in the mouth of the mountain-sized, immobilized dragon which overshadows her town -- but becomes trapped inside the dragon, where she encounters another trapped human and many strange creatures.

Published originally as a chapbook and then by Asimov's in September 1988, this story was later anthologized in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection (aka Best New SF 3) (1989) and The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy (2004), and collected in The Ends of the Earth (1991) and The Dragon Griaule (2012).

World Fantasy Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection The Dragon Griaule (2012).

In the Carbonales Valley, a remote region separated from this world by the thinnest margin of possibility, there is an ancient, incredibly large creature known as the Dragon Griaule. For twenty-five years, in stories ranging from The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule through Liar's House, Lucius Shepard has brought us extraordinary accounts of lives shaped by the dragon's undying influence. The Taborin Scale is the latest installment in this ongoing epic, and it is an astonishing and revelatory accomplishment.

The story begins when George Taborin numismatist, collector, and solid citizen travels to the valley on his annual vacation. There, he encounters a prostitute named Sylvia and acquires a tiny dragon's scale with unexpected properties. With shocking suddenness, George is removed from his everyday life and thrust into a primal world of violence and cruelty. In the course of an adventure that will change his life in fundamental ways, he is forced to bear witness to the gradual unfolding of a vast, implacable design.

The Taborin Scale is Lucius Shepard at his absolute best. Bizarre, horrifying, and strangely beautiful, it is both a gripping, self-contained narrative and a pivotal moment in what might be the most singular fantasy of our time.

Read this story online for free at Subterranean Press.

More than twenty-five years ago, Lucius Shepard introduced us to a remarkable fictional world, a world separated from our own 'by the thinnest margin of possibility'. There, in the mythical Carbonales Valley, Shepard found the setting for "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule", the classic account of an artist -- Meric Cattanay -- and his decades long effort to paint -- and kill -- a dormant, not quite dead dragon measuring 6,000 feet from end to end. The story was nominated for multiple awards and is now recognized as one of its author's signature accomplishments.

Over the years, Shepard has revisited this world in a number of brilliant, independent narratives that have illuminated the Dragon's story from a variety of perspectives. This loosely connected series reached a dramatic crossroads in the astonishing novella, "The Taborin Scale". The Dragon Griaule now gathers all of these hard to find stories into a single generous volume. The capstone of the book -- and a particular treat for Shepard fans -- is "The Skull", a new 40,000 word novel that advances the story in unexpected ways, connecting the ongoing saga of an ancient and fabulous beast with the political realities of Central America in the 21st century. Augmented by a group of engaging, highly informative story notes, The Dragon Griaule is an indispensable volume, the work of a master stylist with a powerful -- and always unpredictable -- imagination.

Table of Contents:

• The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule - [Griaule] - (1984) - novelette
• The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter - [Griaule] - (1988) - novella
• The Father of Stones - [Griaule] - (1988) - novella
• Liar's House - [Griaule] - (2003) - novella
• The Taborin Scale - [Griaule] - (2010) - novella
• The Skull - [Griaule] - novella
• Story Notes (The Dragon Griaule) - essay

Lucius Shepard's Beautiful Blood is something both special and long awaited: the first novel-length exploration of the world of the Dragon Griaule. It's a subject that has preoccupied Shepard since the publication of "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule" in 1984, and he has returned to it repeatedly over the years, though never before in such a mesmerizing, all-encompassing fashion.

Like the initial tale, Beautiful Blood begins in the 1850s in the town of Teocinte, in a world "separated from our own by the thinnest margin of possibility." It is a landscape whose dominant feature is the massive, long-dormant body of an ancient dragon that has lain there, motionless, for millennia, exerting a powerful but mysterious influence on the surrounding area. The novel tells the story of Richard Rosacher, an ambitious young medical student who becomes fascinated by the properties inherent in the dragon's blood. His exploitation of those properties launches him on a career that leads him from the shabbiest quarter of Teocinte to a morally ambiguous position of power, wealth, and influence. Beautiful Blood takes us though the entire length of that career, which is marked throughout by the invisible agency of Griaule, who may well be the driving force behind Rosacher's astonishing ascension.

The novel also encapsulates the events of the initial Griaule story, events that dovetail neatly with the current tale. Meric Cattanay, the eponymous protagonist of "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule," makes a welcome reappearance here. Meric's decades-long involvement with the dragon begins at roughly the same time as Rosacher's. Their stories proceed along parallel but independent lines that occasionally intersect, providing us with a view of familiar events wider and deeper than any we have had before. The result is a colorful, involving narrative with profound metaphysical overtones, one that raises--but does not answer--significant questions. Is the dragon merely a bizarre but entirely natural phenomenon? Or is he/it the manifestation of some divine purpose? And to what extent are the actions of men like Meric and Rosacher the reflections of its implacable but enigmatic will? Questions such as these animate the narrative at every turn, adding an extra level of resonance to one of the most original and important fictional creations of recent years.