In celebration of the impending release of The Very Best of Kate Elliott, we are sharing story excerpts from the collection.

Today’s preview comes from “Leaf and Branch and Grass and Vine.”

Thecool autumn night air did not bite, but summer was irrevocably gone.
Because it had rained the day before, the leaves slipped instead of
crackled underfoot, making it a quiet passage. With a clear sky and
the moon’s merciful light a bounty laid over the world, they did
not bother with a lantern. Both she and young Uwe knew the nearby
animal trails well enough that the full moon gave them all the light
they needed to follow familiar ground. She kept her eye open for
night-blooming woundheal, at its strongest here at the end of the
year and especially under a full moon, but saw none of its pale
blossoms.

Uwe
slipped in and out of shadow ahead of her. The young man was light on
his feet and very shy. He glanced back now and again to make sure she
was on the right track, for there were places in the wood where a
person might fall into harm’s way and never know until it was too
late to climb out.

That
was the way of the world: usually the worst was already on you before
you knew your throat had been opened and you were bleeding out. So
her husband’s death had come, its end determined before she had
even known he was injured.

Ahead,
Uwe halted, a hand raised in warning.

The Very Best of Kate Elliott will be available for sale by all finer outlets on February 10, 2015.

For more on The Very Best of Kate Elliott, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Julie Dillon.

Design by Elizabeth Story.