Deathspeaker by Stephen Case

"Deathspeaker" by Stephen Case 

This story came out of "Beneath Ceaseless Skies #231," July 2017 magazine issue and was written by Stephen Case. 

This was an interesting story playing with the theme of a sort of balance.  A type of yin and yang of magical powers.  Life and death.  Which one would reign supreme? 

A girl who had no name was being held prisoner by King Tsud because of her special gift.  The girl had the gift to speak a name and that person would instantly die.  The king would give her lists of his enemies and force her to speak their names all day killing anyone standing in the way of the king. 

Then one day a scribe in the library took pity on her and helped her escape.  After her escape the scribe was tortured and beaten to try and find out the whereabouts of the girl, but he didn't give her up.  After the torture; he wished so much for death. 

The scribe was very careful with his name and never gave it to anyone except for one person.  He gave it to the girl in hopes that she would speak his name and end his life.  He hoped and hoped she would speak his name.  However, she needed his help and that fact helped him deal with the time he stayed alive. 

After her escape, she took control over Tsud's kingdom by sheer force and fear.  Although she didn't have a name, people started to call her Empress.  The Empress killed those who stood in her way simply by speaking their name.  Soon she had the respect of everyone in the kingdom, some from loyalty and some out of pure fear. 

One day a group of ambassadors from the kingdom controlled by the Bone King came calling upon the Empress.  They angered her and after coaxing the name of one of the group, killed him in front of everyone.  She told them to go back to the Bone King and tell him she didn't do his bidding.  This of course started a war between the two. 

Soon after this the scribe decided that the Empress no longer needed his services and left without her knowing.  He left her a note with where he was heading and said goodbye.  He was heading to a monastery that would take him in due to his work accomplished in the king's library. 

While in the monastery the scribe makes a huge discovery.  He is shown something that very few have seen, or even understand.  He can't wait to delve in and discover the secrets held and possibly find the answers he has been searching for.  Then the Bone King came calling. 

Before the scribe had a chance to do much of anything at the monastery the Bone King found out where he was staying.  The Bone King knew that the scribe was close to the Empress and wanted information from him.  He forced the surrender of the scribe and took him hostage. 

While in conversation, the Bone King told the scribe that he was aware of the Empress's power.  What she was capable of doing and that she was wanting to find out the Bone King's name.   However, the Bone King was in no way afraid of the Empress, or her army.  The scribe couldn't figure out why the Bone King was so confident in his ability to fight of the Empress. 

This was when the Bone King told the scribe his own secret.  He too had a special power.  Just like the Empress.  The Bone King had the power of life.  He spoke a name and that person would live forever.  Now what was the Empress and her kingdom supposed to do? 

Who would triumph over the other.  Would everlasting life win out or does death truly come for everyone eventually, even those who supposedly live forever? 

This was a good story with an interesting perspective on balance of life and the yin and yang of things.  One person had the power of life and the other had the power of death.  it was interesting to see how the author gave a somewhat ambiguous perspective on each of these powers. 

What I mean by ambiguous is that there wasn't really any good or evil in the powers.  One might think that life would be good and death would be bad.  That wasn't the case in this story.  Death had the potential to be a good thing, or a bad thing.  As did the power of life.  What if someone didn't want to live forever.  What if no matter what happened no one ever died.  They just lived their life maimed or worse.  Then death would be a welcome escape.  If someone was afraid of death and wanted to live forever at any cost then life had the potential to be a great thing.  

The author did a good job in writing the story so that perspective played a big role.  Depending on whose eyes were being seen through, whose thoughts were being contemplated, made the power of each king a good or bad thing. 

I enjoyed this story overall.  It had a feel that it could have been part of a larger story, maybe a novella, or even a novel.  Although this story had that feel to me, I don't think that it would make a good novel.  I think the short story form was perfect for showing the duality of powers.  I think the feeling of a larger story worked well vs actually being a larger story.  After reading this story I would definitely look forward to another story by this author.  

"I Have Been Drowned In Rain" by Carrie Vaughn

"I Have Been Drowned In Rain" by Carrie Vaughn 

This story comes out Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine April 2017, issue #223. 

This was a fun little sword and sorcery story.  It has been awhile since I've seen sword and sorcery in short form.  The story was a great little romp, just long enough to give a quick scene of what could be a great novel. 

A party led by Jared, a knight, is stuck on the banks of the sea.  It is pouring rain and there are no ships that are going out into the water at this time of the day.  They have to find a ship and sail across the sea, but the catch is, all without getting caught. 

The party consists of a knight, Jared, a thief, Baerd, a magician, Aldis, a princess, Mariana, and Kat.  Kat is special.  Kat is a mystery.  No one knows anything about Kat.  Kat was found in an alleyway being abused by three men when Jared spotted her and saved her.  She joined them as a type of maiden for the princess, but also acted as a waif, and a servant of sorts. 

Kat said mysterious stuff like she knew something the others didn't.  She was always aloof at the same time.  Like she wasn't altogether there.  She stayed quiet, but when she talked it made everyone stop and take notice.  Like when Kat told everyone that "rain is death." 

Rain is death just went along with how Jared had been feeling.  Jared had been having a bad feeling since they arrived at shore.  He was so close to finishing his quest, but there was just something in the air he couldn't put his finger on.  Were they being watched?  Was the princess's identity not secret anymore?  Was someone following them waiting for them to sleep?  Was there a traitor in there midst?  Jared just didn't know and he hated the feeling of not knowing, but he trusted his gut. 

When nightfall came and it was time for bed Jared set up a watch during the night.  Everyone would take turns.  Aldis offered to take first watch and Jared went to lie down for the night.  Jared didn't think he would sleep, but he must have been more tired than he thought.  He fell right to sleep.  Something he wished he wouldn't of done.  Something he didn't see coming, or did he? 

I really liked this story.  I love sword and sorcery and this was a nice bite-sized story.  The story was a nice little scene length and introduced quite a bit for the shortness of the story.  To me I wished it had been a longer story.  To me that means it was a good story. 

The author does delve a little bit into what started the quest and some information as to why the quest needed to be done.  You weren't left wondering why the quest was being done.  That made me hungry for more because I wanted to see how the quest ended. 

The ending was satisfying considering that it was a short fiction work.  With the knowledge that it was meant to be short fiction I could understand the ending.  However, I still wished it had been longer.  I would of loved to see how the rest of the story developed.  There was so much rich story going on that the author could have expanded on things a bit more, but again, short fiction.  Get to the point, and tell the story. 

Overall, I could see this being a seed to a new novel.  Of course everything turns into a series now a days, but I would like to see a stand alone novel with this story.  Fun stuff!