We’re thrilled to share the cover and preview an excerpt from Martin Cahill’s debut novella Audition for the Fox, a fantasy adventure forthcoming September 16, 2025 from Tachyon Publications.
“A triumph, a candle-bright and timely pleasure lit up by gorgeous prose and an exuberant love for the world and for hope.” – Cassandra Khaw, author of The Library at Hellebore
To survive the challenge of a trickster god, a quick-witted acolyte rallies her ancestors with cunning subterfuge and outright rebellion.
Nesi is desperate to earn the patronage of one of the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. As a child with godly blood in her, if she cannot earn a divine chaperone, she will never be allowed to leave her temple home. But with ninety-six failed auditions and few options left, Nesi makes a risky prayer to T’sidaan, the Fox of Tricks.
In folk tales, the Fox is a loveable prankster. But despite their humor and charm, T’sidaan, and their audition, is no joke. They throw Nesi back in time three hundred years, when her homeland is occupied by the brutal Wolfhounds of Zemin.
Now, Nesi must ally with her besieged people and learn a trickster’s guile to snatch a fortress from the disgraced and exiled 100th Pillar: The Wolf of the Hunt.
From author Martin Cahill:
“I don’t think I could love this cover more if I tried. Elizabeth Story did an absolutely fabulous job in capturing the Fox of Tricks, a feat I thought nigh impossible until I saw her rendition of them in all their toothy, grinning, feral glee. The glint of their trickster’s eye, bright and wild. The tension of a predator in pause, leaving you unsure if they’re going to help you out of the dark wood or if they’re going to simply lead you deeper in for the fun of it. The cheeky breaking of the fourth wall as the Fox cannot help but literally get in the way of their own title, eager to bring readers into this tale. And the colors! The fonts! The movement and design! Everything I could have wanted for this cover and more. And if you think this is stunning, just wait until you look inside. Elizabeth not only created a truly beautiful cover but followed the Fox’s tail into a wood of inspiration and delivered interior illustrations that left my jaw on the floor. I hope you pick up a copy and see exactly what I mean!”
Martin Cahill is a writer living just outside of New York City and works for Erewhon Books as their Publicity and Marketing Manager. He is a 2022 Ignyte Award nominee for Best Short Story and a graduate of the 2014 Clarion Writers’ Workshop. He has published fiction with Reactor, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed Magazine, and many more; his story “Godmeat,” appeared in The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2019. He was one of the writers on Batman: The Blind Cut from Realm Media and is a contributor to the forthcoming anthology, Critical Role: Vox Machina — Stories Untold. Martin also writes, and has written, book reviews, articles, and essays for Reactor, Catapult, Ghostfire Gaming, Book Riot, Strange Horizons, and the Barnes and Noble Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog. Audition For The Fox is his first published book and debut novella. You can find him online at @mcflycahill90.
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Audition For the Fox
Audition For the Fox
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A Tale Between Pillars: The Fox and the Spider
Who for a story? Who for a tale? You know how this works: give me sound, I give you stories!
Each child claps with all their little hearts.
Applause, like thunder! Hoots like Gren’hass! Drum your feet, wake old, Papa Badger, wake Uncle Beetle, both tired, so tired like all your mamas and papas, your aunties, your uncles. Lucky younglings, you! The world has not made you tired yet. Phaw! What face you make to me now, to Yarnspinner Keef, hmm? Why you turn up your face at me? Just because my face is lined and my hair is gone, you think I’m older than any of you?
Each child laughs in their way, shouting YES!
Never! Age is but number on a paper. Time, the finest wine, nothing more! If you drink it, who say you must swallow?! I have Spring in my bones. I have a song in my heart! If I had neither, would I strength to spin? Nay!
Enough sound, yah-ha! Enough stamping, yah-ha! The time for story is here. And here, in the fire’s light, who do my hands make in shadow?
Each child gasps, pointing their little finger at the phantom shape.
Yes! Mother of Spiders, Keeper of the Devoted, Nera’Je, Daughter of Dedication! See her legs, many times many! See her eyes, each a star, each a fire! See each fine hair across her body, sewing needle thin and twice as sharp. Woo-my, Nera’Je is a Pillar beautiful, indeed! And dedicated she, who in the family does she most love?
Each child caws in their way, flapping arms to the side.
Yes! Sister Death! No one more dedicated, no one more devoted than she! And who in the family does she most despise?
Each child puts hands to their heads, making sharp ears.
Yes! Sibling Fox, sibling Tricks! No one more clever, no one more aloof than they! Did the Spider and the Fox get along?
No!
Did they love each other as family does?
Yes!
But would the Spider make a web for the Fox to sleep in if they were tired? Would the Spider spin a tale on a dark night to comfort the Fox? Would she even open a damn door for that tricksy one out of courtesy alone?
No!
Oh, young ones! Do you think the Fox cared a single lick what their sister thought?
No!
Of course not! And hey-now did that make the Spider ornery, as full of mad as a cat in a bath! Nothing angers the rigid like a person who goes with the flow. And so in the days before you and I were brought forth from clay and cloud, the Fox of Tricks ran afoul of the Spider of Dedication. Not by anything they had done, though they had done much. But by the sheer insult of being who they were! Lazy, foolish, boorish, crass, ooh-wee, Nera’Je was in the mood to pick a fight. And what did she do?
A contest! The contest! She makes a contest!
She does! And the Fox, T’sidaan the bold and boisterous, never met any challenge they didn’t lick their lips for, ‘cause nothing tastes sweeter than winning! So Nera’Je, she says what?
Sit still, Fox, sit still!
Impossible, ain’t it?! Impossible for that little scamp of a sibling, whose nose so much as twitches at the thought of mischief. And not just that, what else?
Quiet, Fox, stay quiet!
And no talking either?! Nera’Je, you’re a tough sister to say it so. But the Spider is dedicated in all things, even pride! To think she worked hard in a family that loved this lil frustration. To think she worked all day only for Elephant to make music for Fox, dancing under stars to entertain. To think! Always weaving her family together, never thanked, and celebrating the fool that kept trying to cut her strands! So she says, what?
In the woods, your woods, meet me in your woods! Be still and watch me work and do not speak, and when you fail, who more fool than you?
How brave the Fox, how foolish, to accept a challenge with no prize but pride? Even with no fight picked, T’sidaan couldn’t let her speak down to them without standing up to her. So they said:
In the woods, my woods, come meet me in my woods! Weave in those treetops high, make your art against the sky, and when you fail, as I know you will, I will laugh so hard and long that I shall cry!
Next dawn, Nera’Je came to T’sidaan’s cozy den in the Woods of the World, her many, many hooked feet shushing that floor of autumn leaves. Came she upon her sibling, awake before the sun! Them?! And already their butt sat upon a tree stump. She would not dare ask if that was coffee in the chipped teacup at their side, for even in silence, she knew they’d offer a cup and she would not be cajoled, no way!
In her shadow, dozens of dedicants came with, delighting in their Pillar’s challenge, here to cheer her! And who for the Fox?
No one, no one!
Aww, but they’d be alright! For what do we say of the Fox?
The Fox is loved by everyone, because the Fox is for everyone!
And you better believe to this day that boils the blood of Spider and Mole and Gecko and Wolf something fierce! But it’s not their story, it’s her story, and Nera’Je, ooh, you know she gets to work as soon as that sunlight between worlds rises.
Up and up and up, into and around and through the forever oaks and eternal trees of the Wood Between the World! Up and moving, her many limbs and many eyes moving like a symphony of talent, an orchestra of care, as from her body she pulls her weaving strands and begins to work.
And what is she making?
The downfall of the Fox!
You gotta be one crazy Spider to paint something so vicious in the home of your host, whew! But off she goes, and her dedicants cheer and laugh and point at the Fox, who hasn’t even tried to blink, let alone stifle a yawn at the drama of it all!
Pride is a terrible drug, my young friends, and when you’re sick on it, you miss all sorts of things.
Things like all your dedicants beginning to slowly close their eyes.
Things like anxiety in your chest, fear in your heart.
Things like the sun moving faster through the sky, even!
Even things like the smallest motion, that turns a set of lips into the teeny tiniest grin.
She wasn’t getting it! What had happened? Hours upon hours, Nera’Je moved through the trees fast as wit, fast as thought, weaving and shaping, dedicated in every way. Her sibling hadn’t moved a muscle. Just watching, silent, still as stone. But by the dragons below, that must’ve meant they had something planned! The Fox didn’t do as they were told, ever! How were they putting her followers to sleep? How were they making her so nervous? They hadn’t even finished their coffee yet!
The sun was just setting when Nera’Je made her fatal mistake. For a Pillar of dedication, she lost her focus. Her many eyes roamed too far, too wildly, her limbs a tangle, her heart racing.
And just as the last of gold faded and the sky of the wood purpled, when the contest should’ve been won, instead of a complete weaving to show, Nera’Je tripped.
Tripped, fell, tangled up in her own webs and weaving, bundled up like a lil baby and by a single strand hung from the trees, shrieking. What she say?
A trick, a trick, you tricked me so!
Only when the last of light left, did T’sidaan breathe out. And with their first breath, what did they do?
The children erupt into laughter, hearty and raucous. Even some parents join.
They laughed and laughed and laughed! They laughed till their sides hurt, till they were near ready to cry! Up from the stump and over to their sister, T’sidaan looked up, hands on hips, and shook their foxen head.
Sister mine, sister mine, trapped in your art, you’re looking fine! Your people rest on autumn beds, when they should be cutting you down instead. Why wake the weary when they’re asleep? Till the morning, I think you’ll keep. And the magic of their home, the very woods themselves, held her own webs tight against her.
T’sidaan did not go to rest, but back to their stump, they sat. Fresh coffee continually filled their cup, and all night, they watched their sister cry and scream and shriek her cheeks blue with anger. If pride was money, she was broke by morning, when her cries of sorrow and embarrassment woke her followers. Rushing to free her, Nera’Je sobbed as her dedicants cut her from her own workings.
You did something! You tricked me! You moved, you must have done something!” she screamed. Couldn’t accept what you and me know is true: tripping over yourself, proving yourself someone’s better, and falling face first into your own problem? Kid, that’s all on you.
Off she went, raging still. Old Nera’Je would always treat the Fox with ill intent. No making peace with someone who’ll only choose to think bad of you, not even a sister, the Fox knew. When someone tries to bully you into thinking you’re less than, you have to stand up for yourself, yeah? And more than that, what’s the lesson here, kids?
And every child screams, thinking they know.
Easy, easy now! I’d say you’re all right, and the Fox would agree, but I tell you this: no matter how you feel about the Fox, you gotta admit: not taking a trickster seriously sure is the fastest way to learn you should, isn’t it?
Now! One more afore we tuck you to bed, and then up with the sun, for we’ll be in New Borahune tomorrow, Hare be with us!
—Recorded in ink by Yarnspinner Effis, apprentice to Keef, on the Wilden Road between New Borahune and Lamenyasar
Excerpted from Audition for the Fox, copyright © 2025 by Martin Cahill
