Tulliæn spans a fractured mountaintop, where the locals lie and the tourists come to die. Try the honey. Briskwater crouches deep in the shadow of a dam wall. Ignore the weight of the water hanging overhead, and the little dead girl wandering the streets. Off with you, while you still can. In Haverny Wood the birds drink blood, the dogs trade their coughings for corpses, the lost children carve up their bodies to run with the crows, and the townsfolk stitch silence into their spleens. You mustn't talk so wild. The desert-locked outpost of Boundary boasts the famed manufacturers of flawless timepieces; those who would learn the trade must offer up their eyes as starting materials. Look to your pride: it will eat you alive. Sooner or later, in every community, fate demands its dues—and the currency is blood. Table of Contents

• Introduction, by Kate Elliott
• The Wages of Honey
• The Briskwater Mare
• The Miseducation of Mara Lys
• The Cherry Crow Children of Haverny Wood What Are the Twelve Planets? The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection offers four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of four stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release will bring something unexpected to readers. Nightsiders by Sue Isle Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti Showtime by Narrelle M Harris Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott Secret Lives by Rosaleen Love The Female Factory by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter Cherry Crow Children by Deborah Kalin