The executioness
(Book)

Introduction by Paolo Bacigalupi.

"In paired novellas, award-winning authors Tobias S. Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden"--Jkt.

"Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much."--From publisher's description on jacket flap.