•   CONTENTS                                                           Before Paphos
                          Jack's House
           Art Gallery                                                 by Loretta Casteen
       o
                          By Jay Lake
           Articles                                                    8 January 2007
       o
                          23 December 2002
           Columns                                                     It starts again. The baby begins
       o
                                                                       to cough and choke.
                          This was Joshua's favorite time of year.
           Fiction
       o
                          The sun fell blinding white on the           Locked Doors
           Poetry
       o                  snowfields, and the dancing breeze
                                                                       by Stephanie Burgis
                          swept ice crystals down from
           Reviews
       o
                          ultramontane glaciers. Little orange
                                                                       1 January 2007
                          butterflies rose like fire-lit clouds from
           Archives
       o
                          the dark forest verges to spread across      You can never let anyone
•   ABOUT US              the snow, each a spark of eye-bright         suspect, his mother told him.
                          warmth against the cold that always          That was the first rule she taught
           Staff
       o                  surrounded Jack's House.                     him, and the last, before she left
                                                                       him here alone with It.
           Guidelines
       o            The young Rat had window duty that
                    day, eighth gable attic, staring through theHeroic Measures
      o Contact
                    rippled, bubble-filled glass across the
                    snow to the northwest. He stood watch, by Matthew Johnson
      o Awards
                    lest the Master finally return, or Dogs
                    attack. Fear was a function of proximity 18 December 2006
      o Banners
                    -- Cats often climbed the stairs to
                                                                 Pale as he was, it was hard to
•   SUPPORT US      slaughter Rats in the carpeted halls;
                                                                 believe he would never rise from
                    patrolling Dogs caught only those
      o Donate                                                   this bed. Even in the darkest
                    occasional, unwary fools who wandered
                                                                 times, she had never really
                    outside; while the Master was a distant
         Bookstore
      o                                                          feared for him; he had always
                    divinity, powerful for the most part in the
                                                                 been strong, so strong.
      o Merchandise threat of His absence. Always dreaming
                    of the Cheese, the Rats feared little in thisLove Among the Talus
•   COMMUNITY       House other than Cats and Dogs.
                                                                 by Elizabeth Bear
      o Forum       Watching from his high window, Joshua
                    saw Old Lenox the Cat stumble away 11 December 2006
      o Readers'
                    from Jack's House. Old Lenox was a
         Choice
                    piebald tom who sometimes served as Nilufer raised her eyes to his. It
                                                                 was not what women did to
                    ambassador to the Rats, when the
                    myriad wars demanded the occasion of men, but she was a princess,
                                                                 and he was only a bandit. "I
                    truce. He had even done Joshua a
                    kindness or two over the seasons. The want to be a Witch," she said.
                                                                 "A Witch and not a Queen. I
                    tom carried a spear in one hand, a
                                                                 wish to be not loved, but wise.
                    wineskin slung across his shoulder.
                                                                 Tell your bandit lord, if he can
                    "Where are you going, old man Cat?" give me that, I might accept his
                                                                 gift."
                    whispered Joshua. It was an old
                    nestling's rhyme. He continued, lost in
                                                                 Archived Fiction Dating back to
                    memories of warm seasons with his
                                                                 9/1/00
                    littermates among the shredded
                    cardboard and wood shavings:

                          "All dressed up just like that.
                          I'm going out, little Rat,
                          To die by the light of day.
                          Every Cat must die that way."