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Excerpts

King of All and the Metal Sentinel
2002
Winner Ditmar Award Best Short Story
Agog! Fantastic Fiction, Agog! Press, ed. Cat Sparks

King of All regarded the sky with his one good eye.

"I am King of All I Survey," he mused. "Named after my mistress's father. And since I survey this - the sky! - so I must be master of it."

The thought pleased him. He moved his head slowly from side to side, servos whining in his long neck.

"I am King of the Sky," he told the granite-faced goblins to left and right. News they took with stony solemnity. "King of All," he added to himself. After the decades on this roof, any voice was comforting. Even his own.

He began another slow circuit along the wall walk, pausing to greet each of the six familiar towers like an old friend. King had a tottering limp, his right rear leg sticking on every forward movement. Backwards was okay, but without rear video feed, the prospect was daunting. So King continued forwards. Or, to his mind, without a backwards glance.

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