Series
Tales Of The Rose Knights
Osiana
She did not come to her life with intention. Few do, but less so for Osiana. She had been born a bondswoman in a time and place where freedwomen were rarer than talking hens. That she had good hands and clear eyes was apparent even in her extreme youth, so when the Proctors came…
by Jay Lake
Green Ice
The Moon is mistress of the tides, which means she controls the blood of men, for their red-washed veins flow with salt, echoing the sea that is mother to us all. When she calls men to her, they rise to her attendance. When she refuses them, they drown in tears of sorrow. Women,…
by Jay Lake
Roseraie de l'Hay
In the steep-walled country of Hy Rugosa, where the women guard their swords and the men guard their tongues, dwelt a daughter of the fey named Roseraie de l'Hay. She had been born to gentility, armored in beetle carapaces and twinkling magic while still in her willow-wood…
by Jay Lake
Golden Unicorn
The Rose Knight known as Golden Unicorn was a creature of field and forest, flowing across the mountain slopes as fire flows across the stubbled fields of autumn. She was born in the misty hills of the Farmost West, raised among the simple nut farmers of Chemeketa, bound to the…
by Jay Lake
Harlekin
Harlekin Harlekin was fair as a maiden, with a blush to match. Women can possess the kind of beauty that was his and still be taken seriously, but not men--or so it seemed to the beautiful youth. Is it any wonder that he chose to wear particolor and play the clown? This strategy…
by Jay Lake
Black Baccara
Baccara is one of the dark ones from among the ranks of the Rose Knights. She is a pale woman, needle-thin with large eyes dark as bruises. She always goes clad in satin of a color that falls somewhere between maroon and leaf mold. Baccara follows battle rather than leading it…
by Jay Lake
Eden Rose
When the Rose Knight Graham Thomas first fell in love with Eden Rose, he knew the two of them would not have an easy time of it. He was a Yellow Rose of the old guard in the service of the Sun, while she was a White Rose, a servant of the Moon, her colors white and the faintest…
by Jay Lake
Papagena
Papagena was born on the Borderlands, between the sere landscape of the south and the orange plains to the north, a child of two homes, and when she chose to become a Rose Knight, her allegiance was to the plains as well as the desert, to the fertile land of Osverio as well as…
by Jay Lake
Florence de Lattre
She was just a girl in the Armies of the Sun, Florence de Lattre. She would have been ordinary, save that her skin was a shade almost mauve--causing the military doctors no end of distress, solved only by dread incantations of dermatitis pigmentosa and much jabbing of…
by Jay Lake
Myriam
When the Rose Knight Myriam arrived in the farthest reaches of the magical lands of Hy Rugosa, she was already so pale she soon became known as the Gossamer Knight. She told no one from whence she hailed or why she had sought out the lands of Hy Rugosa, but rumors abounded: that…
by Jay Lake
Terracotta
Once upon a time there was a rust-brown rabbit who lived in an ancient castle. The roofs were gone, the towers tottered, the courtyard was rife with brambles and roses gone as feral as an invading army. The sun shone through the eastern gate of a morning, and he would go out and…
by Jay Lake
Descanso Dream
Descanso is the smallest of the Rose Knights, and perhaps the strangest. He is a dream made flesh, a pale man with skin the white of the ocean's dead, riding a horse of fog and silk. His banners trail behind him like a wind from the Orient. His smile gleams of starlight and the…
by Jay Lake
Desert Peace
This is the ending: He stands there, the soldier, in a uniform so floral and pale pink that many armies would have rebelled to wear it. The Pink Knight is not so tall, but tall enough, and the yellow highlights of the startling tunic match the highlights in his hair. He carries…
by Jay Lake
Fruité
Imagine this rose, streaked with a yellow so pale to be almost white, a red bleaching into salmon, a swirl of colors in one small bloom; imagine the scent, sweet and fresh, and then perhaps you will understand why the Particolor Knight from the Summer Lands chose such an…
by Ruth Nestvold
A Line in the Sand
He could hardly breathe. He tried to sit up, but the rubble was too heavy. He worked one hand free and then another and began to push the stones aside, stones that had once been part of the mighty Glamis Castle. What had happened to its princess? At the thought, he fought harder…
by Ruth Nestvold
Diabolo Hawk and the Dragon
Diabolo Hawk and the Dragon "What's with the monkey?" the graying knight asked, his words slurred from several pints of McMenam Inn's finest ale. Diabolo Hawk slid into a spot on the bench next to the other patrons, while Sun King chattered and hopped on his shoulder. "This…
by Ruth Nestvold
Swan Lake
Swan Lake Swan Lake was not always a Rose Knight. Once she was a princess who had ruled over a vast demesne. As a princess, she had no need of swords for her battles. She just smiled, speaking her way through walls and gates and brambled pits to talk the very monsters from their…
by Ruth Nestvold
Norita
Imagine.... The building has ten spiral staircases, and nine of them go nowhere. But how to tell which is the one that leads to a tower where you can stand and look out at the vista of dark woods and castles and cathedrals and rolling hills covered with rows of vineyards and…
by Ruth Nestvold