The Chatelaine

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

The Chatelaine has come.

The year is 1328 and Hell has overrun Bruges. Demons stalk the streets and revenants swarm the walls. The city's men have fallen and only widows remain.

But Hell should fear them.

Margriet de Vos killed her first soldier when she was eleven. She has buried six children and will fight for the daughter left to her. Their only wealth is gone, taken into the inferno. And she will not be stolen from. The Devil be damned.

Together with a man-at-arms with unfinished business, a widow and her forgehammer, and a alderman's wife who escapes with her children, Margriet will raise a raiding party like Hell has never seen.

Kate Heartfield is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Embroidered Book, the Aurora-winning novel Armed in Her Fashion, and the Nebula-shortlisted novella Alice Payne Arrives, along with dozens of other stories. Her interactive fiction projects The Road to Canterbury and The Magician's Workshop were shortlisted for the Nebula in game writing. She lives in Canada.

Visit her at www.heartfieldfiction.com or on Twitter @kateheartfield.