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During an archaeological dig, a hidden chamber filled with the skulls of children is discovered. At first glance they seem to have been there for thousands of years but closer examination reveals a more shocking secret.

The opening of the chamber triggers a series of horrific murders, each victim mutilated and their entrails used to form a different letter of the alphabet. Who is behind this outrage? And how is it linked to a subterranean chamber thousands of years old?

Inspector Stephen Wallace must unmask this crazed killer. Is it the sadistic thug responsible for organising a series of barbaric dog fights? The mysterious recluse who holds Black Mass orgies for drug addicted teenagers? Or is it, in fact, something much worse? An evil so old, so vile and so powerful that it threatens to engulf everyone who comes near it.

For Wallace, and possibly for the whole human race, time is running out fast.
Something evil is waiting. Something monstrous is loose...

"The trouble with wanting to do the right thing is that frequently the right thing today is the wrong thing for tomorrow, or the wrong thing for the people who are standing between you and your perfect, platonic future. The wild was the wrong place for our elephant, just like the recycler was the wrong place for Billie, and the cities were the wrong place for me." A tale of bioengineering, a carnival, and the cost of finding one's right place.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The conspiracy at the heart of the empire has been revealed. The Archivists played a key role in solving a brutal murder and uncovering one of the empire's longest kept secrets. Now, what's left in its wake are a series of unearthed artifacts, one shaken city, and the shocking truth not dared spoken aloud.

Just as the empire has begun to regain normalcy, another mystery unveils itself when a stolen ancient relic is found. Only no one knew that it was missing from its sacred vault in the first place. And now that the real one has been recovered, who replaced it with a fake?

With Quill and Amadea at the heart of another mystery, they will need to quickly follow the clues that all lead back to this new relic.

Because all the while, an old enemy is gathering strength beyond the Salt Wall and the Archivists might come to find there's nowhere left for them to go but over.

Relics and Omens

Old companions and fresh heroes.
New and ever more fantastical creatures and monsters.
Banished gods and lost magic.
Dragon overlords are taking over the world of Krynn.
The Chaos War is ending.
The Fifth Age is beginning.

A collection of fantastical short stories exploring the new Fifth Age setting from the best known Dragonlance writers.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1998) - essay by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
• Icefall - (1998) - shortstory by Douglas Niles
• Legacy - (1998) - novelette by Nancy Varian Berberick
• Sword of Tears - (1998) - novelette by Richard A. Knaak
• The Cost - (1998) - shortstory by Robyn McGrew
• A Most Peculiar Artifact - (1998) - novelette by Janet Pack
• Voices - (1998) - novelette by Kevin T. Stein
• The Notorious Booke of Starres - (1998) - novelette by Nick O'Donohoe
• Scavengers - (1998) - shortstory by Jean Rabe
• Homecoming - (1998) - shortstory by William W. Connors and Sue Weinlein Cook
• The Restoration - (1998) - shortstory by Jeff Crook
• Relics - (1996) - shortstory by Jeff Grubb
• The Summoners - (1998) - novelette by Paul B. Thompson
• Island of Night - (1998) - novella by Roger E. Moore
• Demons of the Mind - (1998) - novelette by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin

Young Ishta found it in the forest, buried beneath dead leaves: a rounded, flattened stone as black as onyx. One side held a golden oval that glowed with a unnatural light. Of course, it had to be magic.

But what did farmers know of magic? It could be dangerous, or it could be some harmless toy. They had to find out.

Since Ishta was too young to bring her discovery to the Baron of Varag's stronghold, her older brother, Garander, went instead. Once there, Azlia, a beautiful wizard, recognized the stone immediately as Northern sorcery. She had to call Sammel, the local sorcerer, to find out its nature... a relic of the last great war.

When the Baron takes the stone for himself, that should have ended things. But it was just the beginning for Garander. Because that magical stone wasn't the only relic left in the woods...

There's an underground black market for arcane things. Akin to the trade in rhino horns or tigers' bones, this network traffics in remains of gryphons, faeries, goblins, and other fantastic creatures.

When her fiancé Vince goes missing, Angela Gough, an American criminology student, discovers that he was a part of this secretive trade. It's a big-money business -- shadowy, brutal, and sometimes fatal. As the trail leads her deeper into London's dark side, she crosses paths with a crime lord whose life is dedicated to collecting such relics.

Then Angela discovers that some of these objects aren't as ancient as they seem. Some of them are fresh.

In the dark underbelly of our world, there's a black market in arcane things--living and dead. Angela Gough has been pulled into this world, making her a criminal on the run.

In London she encountered the Kin--satyrs and centaurs, Nephilim and wraiths, they are hunted and slaughtered for their body parts. Fleeing back to the United States, Angela discovers that the Kin are everywhere, and they are tired of being prey.

When her niece Sammi is struck by lightning, she is drawn toward the mysterious Folded Land, and its powerful and deadly ruler. Helped by her lover Vince, caught in the midst of a Kin uprising, Angela must locate Sammi before the girl is lost forever.

A diseased town--long hidden beneath a lake--rises from the depths to become a focus of the war between humankind and the Kin.

There exists a secret and highly illegal trade in mythological creatures and their artifacts. Certain individuals pay fortunes for a sliver of a satyr's hoof, a gryphon's claw, a basilisk's scale, or an angel's wing. Embroiled in the hidden world of the Relics, creatures known as the Kin, Angela Gough is now on the run in the United States.

Forty years ago the town of Longford was the site of a deadly disease outbreak that wiped out the entire population. The infection was contained, the town isolated, and the valley in which it sits flooded and turned into a reservoir. The truth--that the outbreak was intentional, and not every resident of Longford died--disappeared beneath the waves.

Now the town is revealed again. The Kin have an interest in the ruins, and soon the fairy Grace and the Nephilim leader Mallian are also drawn to them. The infection has risen from beneath silent waters, and this forgotten town becomes the focus of the looming battle between humankind and the Kin.

In the tradition of UNIFICATION, here is the story that fans of the original STAR TREK series and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION have been clamoring for -- Montgomery Scott's return to the Star Trek universe and his encounter with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D.

Missing in space for seventy-five years, Scotty manages to survive against incredible odds, only to be found by the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Though rescued, Scotty soon finds himself lost in a world that he barely recognizes, a world that has passed him by...

But the adventure is not over for Captain Scott who must do the impossible when the new U.S.S. Enterprise faces a very old danger in a remote sector of space. This time, Captain Picard and his crew will need more than all of their courage and all of their skills to save the great Starship from destruction. This time, they will need a miracle worker.

Attempting to come to terms with a failed marriage and longing for his son, Peter Travers's struggle to build a new life is haunted by mysterious visions of a woman and child as the spirits of the past come alive and a dark and terrible secret refuses to die.