Another Man's Burden — Harry Connolly

Short Story. The city of Pald was once, briefly, a free human city, but it is free no longer. Still, vestiges of the culture taught by the city's mysterious founder still linger, especially the mania for sword play and dueling.

On one particular afternoon, three former soldiers--now reduced to pulling merchants and commission-holders through the city in their small carts--witness a murder and resulting theft. A jeweled, enchanted sword changes hands, and the new owner discovers he can not lose a fight with this new weapon, and he will never run out of opponents hoping to take from his dead body.

The three cart-pullers watch, warily, as the duellist's wealth and reputation grows, and they plot how to take a weapon from a man who can not be beaten.

Originally published in Black Gate Magazine issue #3