Three Songs to Fill Up the Shadow
Novelette 12,193 words Recommended by 1 award/anthology source
"The ferryman’d had a poor, cold day, is how it starts. There’s other ways to start this one, but this time, we’ll start with the ferryman. It was shadows-eve, the coldest, longest night of the year, when the blackbird breathes all over the world. He’d made two trips across that day, in in a current so wide and misted that the sharpest-eyed steamboat pilot couldn’t read it, each pole-stroke like stirring Death’s dinner."
Content warnings 3
child-deathracismviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on BCS, where the author gets the click.