Bloody Muddy Water
Novelette 11,958 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Blackheel Lysha put down a fine table of grub for breakfast: pinky beans, cornbread, boiled shellbird eggs, roast marsh hen legs, and a gooey gumbo of okra and sweetcrab. And what a nice longhouse too, with rare glass windows to keep all the nasty sooty air out. Rugg ate to fill himself, knowing there was soon work to be done."
Content warnings 3
deathillness-and-pandemicviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on BCS, where the author gets the click.