Archive for January, 2010

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PodCastle Minature 46: Debris

Originally published in Ideomancer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:13 — 5.7MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R: For Skulls, Sweet and Otherwise, and Days of the Dead

Debris

by Kiini Ibura Salaam

It is legend how my mother kept my grandmother’s eye sockets clean with the pure white feather of a cockatoo. She often sent me to the forests to pick marigolds to stack high around Grandmother’s skull. Grandmother loved the smell of the marigolds. She told me so every time I entered the house with an armful of fragrant weeds.

After my grandmother’s head had been sitting in the altar room for a month, my mother realized my grandmother was dying, not because of her missing body, but because she was bored. Mother brought Grandmother into the living room and positioned her right in front of the window. There Grandmother sat happily for a week until Dad caught her promising her skull to an epileptic candy vendor.

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PodCastle 88: Another End of the Empire

Originally Published in Strange Horizons.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:59 — 24.0MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG for superseded oracles, despots past their expiration dates and probability witches.

Another End of the Empire

by Tim Pratt

“I am here,” Mogrash said. “Give me the bad news.”

“A child dwells in the village of Misery Chin, in the mountain
provinces to the east. If allowed to grow to manhood, he will take
over your empire, overthrow your ways and means, and send you from the halls of your palace forever.”

Mogrash relaxed. This was, at least, not an immediate threat‚ not like the pronouncement of metastasized bone cancer she’d given his grandfather. He sighed. “So I’m expected to send my Fell Rangers to the mountains, raze the village, leave no stone upon a stone, enslave the women, and kill all the younglings to stop this dire prophecy from coming to pass.”

“It’s what your father would have done.”

“Yes, but I’m more modern than he was. Besides, we’ve seen this happen a thousand times‚ the attempt to stop the prophecy will make it come to pass, won’t it?”

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PodCastle 87: Narrative of a Beast’s Life

Originally published in Realms of Fantasy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:27 — 37.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG: Contains the Enslavement of Magical Creatures

Narrative of a Beast’s Life

by Cat Rambo

We were taken to a market in a city. None of us had ever seen such a place before and there were sights and sounds and smells such as I had never witnessed. The buildings were made of clay brick, laid together so snugly that no mortar or cement was necessary. Some buildings were built on top of each other, and stairs meant for no Centaur led up and down the outside.

Here we were sold, each to separate masters. Mine fastened me in a coffle with other beings: a Sphinx of that city that had committed murder, two Djinni, and a snake-headed woman. Oxen drew the cart to which we were shackled, and chained on it was a Dragon, not a large one, but some eight feet in length. A small herd of goats marched behind us in turn, intended for the Dragon’s sustenance.

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PodCastle 86: Tio Gilberto and the Twenty-Seven Ghosts

Originally Published in Realms of Fantasy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:24 — 24.3MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R: Contains Love, Ghosts, and San Francisco

Tio Gilberto and the Twenty-Seven Ghosts

by Ben Francisco

Before I can even ring, Uncle Gilberto opens the door and gives me a big hug and a kiss that smells of gin and menthol cigarettes.  His dog, Ganymede, barks and snuggles his head between my legs.  The cat eyes me suspiciously from the next room.  From behind me, someone helps me slip off my jacket.  I look over my shoulder, but nobody’s there.  “Who’s that?” I ask my uncle.

“That’s Daniel,” he says.

“Hey, Daniel,” I say.  “Been a while.”

Gilberto shakes a finger at the air behind me.  “No, you cannot also take his shirt!  I told you to behave.”  Uncle Gil throws both hands into the air.  “Dios mío, what have I done?  Bringing my innocent nephew into a house with twenty-seven horny ghosts. Qué barbaridad. You tell me right away if any of them try anything, me entiendes, James?”

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PodCastle 85: The Narcomancer (Giant Episode)

Originally published in Helix.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:52 — 44.5MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R for nightmares, broken oaths and mended persons.

This episode of PodCastle is illustrated! The illustration has been provided by Shaun Lindow.
Narcomancer Illustration by Shaun Lindow

The Narcomancer

by N.K. Jemisin

“Death is not a Gatherer’s business,” Cet said. Did the woman realize how greatly she had insulted him and all his brethren? For the first time in a very long while, he felt anger stir in his heart. “Peace is our business. Sharers do that by healing the flesh. Gatherers deal with the soul, judging those which are too corrupt or damaged to be salvaged and granting them the Goddess’ blessing — ”

“If you had learned your catechisms better you would understand that,” the Superior interjected smoothly. He threw Cet a mild look, doubtless to remind Cet that they could not expect better of ignorant country folk. “And you would have known there was no need for payment. In a situation like this, when the peace of many is under threat, it is the Temple’s duty to offer aid.” (Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle Miniature 45: When Shakko Did Not Lie

Originally published in Cricket.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:21 — 10.6MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG: for outfoxing foxes.

When Shakko Did Not Lie

by Eugie Foster

The maiden’s amber eyes glowed in the moonlight. A single tear glistened and rained down her moon-white face.

“Don’t cry, lovely one,” Shakko barked, alarmed.

The maiden lifted the sleeve of her jasmine-yellow kimono and dabbed at her eyes. “Why should I not cry?” she asked. “My champion says he will sleep as Master Sun opens his house to the heavens, and when his windows close at dusk, I will surely die.”