The latest SCI FICTION original is “Passing of the Minotaurs” by Rjurik Davidson. An assassin is forced to confront what she is willing to give up for security.

Kata has been hired to commit sacrilege, to kill mythic minotaurs in exchange for her home. She wasn’t prepared for the effect that the minotaurs would have on her in person. After all, it had been ten years since they last visited Caeli-Amur for the Festival of the Bull.

After succeeding in her first killing, Kata decides she must do the next through subtlety, having nearly been killed by the raging of the minotaur in his death throes. She secures poison and wine, intending to seduce her next victim. Yet, she finds it hard to surmount both her own belief that what she is doing is sacrilege and her intense feelings for her intended victim, Aemilius.

Aemilius remembers for her a world at the height of minotaur strength, when men were even younger then they are now.  And he makes her feel less alone.

“Passing of the Minotaurs” is not a happy story.  Kata remains as trapped at the end as she was when the story began, and as alone. Still, it is evocative of an old city. And an ancient race, the minotaurs. Davidson writes well, including little details that intrigue and heighten the experience of reading his story. “Passing of the Minotaurs” will transport you to a dark city, but a city still filled with fantastic wonders.