L’Enfant Terrible by Mark H. Huston (F&SF, May-June 2022)1 begins by describing the plight of a creature who finds light painful and who isn’t used to time flowing in a linear fashion. After some more description about her attempts to orientate herself in this strange world, she is caught while hunting for rats in the area around her den:
Around her came entanglement. The light still assaulted her; the entanglement remained. She struggled. This was not like the hold of the Old Ones, or the gentle arms of the nest, these were tiny, strong entanglements, they smelled like the traps from yesterday/tomorrow.
Cage.
She remembered the word cage. How did she know that word? She was scooped up, she reached out to touch a mind and failed. She felt the cage confine her. Bite! Tear. But the cage was too strong. It smelled like the cage should smell, and she despaired.
The light went out, and the pain stopped.
Time made its way to tomorrow. p. 189
She is questioned by a wizard, the master of the apprentice who claims to have caught her at the docks, and, after a brief interrogation, the wizard leaves through a portal to seek expert advice on what kind of creature she is (the claws suggest a sea creature but she has vestigial wings as well). After the wizard leaves the apprentice speaks to her and we learn, after he takes down a book from the shelves to show her a portal spell, that he was responsible for her arrival in this world. Then, as he approaches her cage to show her the book (spoiler), she uses a hooked claw to catch him by the nose. She discovers she can easily control his mind, and forces him to recast the spell. Eventually, after several failed attempts, he manages to open a huge portal that slices through the wizard’s rooms:
She looked through the portal and saw an Old One, floating nearby. She called to it, and she could see it responding. It came to the portal. Since her world was gray and featureless, there was nothing to reference the size of the Old One. It grew and grew and then grew more, still not making it to the opening. When it finally arrived, it dwarfed the circular portal. A tentacle reached, but hesitated. Instead, its body moved closer, and it placed its eye to the opening. She knew that from the Old One’s perspective, this looked like a tiny circle of light and strange vibrations suddenly appearing in its world. The Old One attended her request, responded to her call, and peered into the opening like a human looking into a telescope.
She was so happy that she briefly loosened her grip on the human, and of course he began to scream as his fear rose, unrestrained by her power.
“It’s a monster, it is huge! By the Gods and Goddess, I swear I will never perform a forbidden spell again!”
The eye of the Old One moved as it peered into the room. It shifted to the screaming boy, the books and bookcases, the table with the cage, and finally to her. “CTHYLLA!” Its voice shattered everything in the room. Glass bottles burst, their contents spilling out, bits of strange creatures and foul smelling fluids tumbling to the floor. The windows shattered, wood splintered, and the Earth itself shook. The human cried out, louder and louder. pp. 196-7
At this point the wizard returns and launches a spell at the Old One that appears to use all his energies. Blinded, the creature retreats, and Cthylla then attempts to control the exhausted wizard. But, as she grapples with him, the apprentice kicks her back through the portal.
The story concludes with Cthylla talking to the gigantic Old Ones about what she has found, and how tasty the flesh and thoughts of the creatures on the other side of the (now closed) portal are. Then, as the story cuts to the wizard berating his apprentice and summoning a killing spell, a portal opens and an Old One looks in. . . .
This is a well told story, and I particularly liked the way that it goes from an intriguing, small-scale beginning to a titanic end (and one suggestive of a vastness that lies beyond the immediate world portrayed in the story).
***+ (Good to Very Good). 5,300 words.
1. This appears to be the first story that Huston has published outside Eric Flint’s 1632 alternate world franchise since he first staring writing in 2006. See ISFDB for further details.