Narrated by Bruce Boston

They drowned her in the River Magnus that winds through the city like some great mottled snake, a confetti of debris upon its sinuous hide. They drowned her for what she knew, what she could tell. They walked free among the shadows. Fate drowned him in the River Magnus. Dark waters called him, waters the color of midnight clouds. He was a suicide, abandoning a life in need of forgetting. Few remembered him or mourned his passing. They met in the depths of the River Magnus, their bodies entwined and limbs flailing in its sluggish currents, rising and dipping in a ghastly pavane. Amidst the trash and pollution and chemical debris, they gave birth to a monster that will soon be weaned. Four-armed, two-backed, and four-legged, it will crawl onto the banks of the River Magnus and scurry away into the shadows. One more shade to join the menagerie that haunts and feeds upon the city night.
BIO: Bruce Boston is the author of more than fifty books. His writing has received a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov’s Readers Award, and the Rhysling and Grand Master Awards of the SFPA. http://bruceboston.com/