The Warriors, the Mothers, the Drowned

Title: The Warriors, the Mothers, the Drowned
By: Kay Chronister
Published in: Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #174 (May 28, 2015)
Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "A journey-through-the-underworld tale, the underworld here being Mictlan, the Aztec land of the dead. We have Ana carrying her daughter Sylvie to escape death, although it’s not quite clear whether the baby is actually still alive. They are followed by a nagual, a shapeshifter in the form of a coyote taking the role of the ferryman and psychopomp, insisting that Sylvie belongs among the dead. Ana, of course, refuses to give her up; she believes that if she manages to cross to the other side of the deadlands, the child will be saved."
Category:Best Short Story