Beneath Ceaseless Skies #301, April 9, 2020

“Her Cage of Root and Bone” by Kali Wallace

“As the Shore to the Tides, So Blood Calls to Blood” by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

Two stories dealing with relationships between siblings appear in the latest issue of this biweekly publication.

In “Her Cage of Root and Bone” by Kali Wallace, the narrator’s sister imprisons her in a tower. Roots and branches growing from her body attach her to the tower, ensuring that she can never leave. Each year, the sister visits with a magic brew that keeps the prisoner young. The sister grows old, eventually revealing that she intends to leave her realm to her adopted daughter. The prisoner makes a choice that seals her fate.

Both sisters are ruthless and bloodthirsty, making it difficult to sympathize with the prisoner’s plight. The most dramatic events in the plot all took place in the past, so this is essentially a two-character play. Although full of striking images, and an intriguing mood reminiscent of a dark fairy tale, these aspects of the story are likely to create a distancing effect, leaving the reader cold.

“As the Shore to the Tides, So Blood Calls to Blood” by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez takes place in a world where two gods, brothers, divided the fresh waters of the land and the salt waters of the sea between them. Jealousy led the sea god to flood the land with ocean water. His brother wounded him and trapped him in a part of the sea full of his blood.

Against this mythic background, two brothers who were devotees of the sea god saw their parents slain by acolytes of the freshwater god. Raised in an orphanage, one escaped to become a sea captain. The other ran away and lost himself in drink. A message from his brother sends him on a journey back to the sea, where he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conflict between the followers of the two gods.

The tale alternates between the first person narration of the brother and legendary accounts of the two gods. The latter portions of the story are more interesting than the former, which are typical fantasy adventure fiction.

Victoria Silverwolf has siblings.