Madam, Don't Forget Your Sword

The ones tasked with the routine jobs: Picking up the laundry, packing snacks for the quest, renting the secret lair, oiling the death machine, walking the eldritch horror? The people who keep the heroine's sword sharp and her chainmail polished-does she ever notice? What are their lives like? How did they get their jobs? There would be no story without them, but what are their stories?

Here, we present twenty-eight innovative and remarkable speculative fiction tales that reveal how the companions, sidekicks, and minions make that hero-or villain-super.