Rappacini's Crow

Steampunk short story, part of the Altered America series. In a darker version of America, an ongoing war fights for the precious substance called phlogiston. A Native American nurse tends soldiers destroyed by the war, but finds himself enmeshed in a struggle with the doctor that runs the asylum and his pet crow. This short story by master storyteller Cat Rambo originally appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and is part of her Altered America series of short stories.