The Melding
by D. Wallace Peach
Category: Fiction

Generations ago, the realms fell to fire. The Burn – the only means of destroying a lush land so manipulated by man that while its crops sated hunger, they poisoned the flesh. Now the wilderness reseeds, hard lessons learned through starvation and poverty. What remains for nature’s tinkerers? Pathway, the coveted distillation that enables the grafting of skin across species. The Sahls of the Sea Barrows meld spiral horns to their skulls, reptilian scale to their chests. They embed the razor teeth of sea-beasts in the bones of their forearms and replace the flesh on their backs with the pelts of wolves. Women of wealth adorn their bodies with serpent skin as elegant as black lace, tufted tails, and plumed feathers, their own skin cast off, no longer desirable. Then they bear children…creatures like Aeris, a man who longs to be human. Too late, he discovers the truth – there is only one source of human skin. Trapped in the flesh of a murdered man, Aeris joins a dogged crew of transfigured renegades. Their goal: to destroy Pathway, no matter the cost.