Daily Science Fiction

"The Fosterling" is online at Daily Science Fiction.

Jain Harley, captain of the King's Guard, has the mission of fetching the prince, future Hepastian IV, from the foster mother he has lived with for the past seven years in the slums of Zenith, learning the ways of the poorest of his future people. It's the way things always have been--a way that has always produced great kings in the future--but now it just seems to be producing a distraught woman and a very sad kid. And, for Jain, another one of those damn migraines.