Beneath Ceaseless Skies #408, May 30, 2024

“Blood and Desert Dreams” by Y. M. Pang

“We Shall Drink Wine” by Andrew K. Hoe

Reviewed by Mina

Both of these tales are uncomfortable, with the real horror only slowly becoming clear. Both also play with the idea of the unreliable narrator.

“Blood and Desert Dreams” by Y. M. Pang is a tragic tale of a servant girl, Kahna, whose blood is deadly to anyone who touches it. Her mistress, Lady Daria, trains her to be her assassin to clear the way for her own rise to power. Kahna is tied to her mistress by a tortured sense of loyalty and love, giving everything including her sanity. Unable to leave even when offered an escape, she lets her blood be taken again and again; only in the delirium of extreme blood loss can she find freedom in the desert sands. Or does she?

In “We Shall Drink Wine” by Andrew K. Hoe, the author plays with the narrator’s voice: how much can we trust what the narrator tells us? Who is the hero, who is the villain? When two wandering warriors challenged a demon decades in the past, who won? Who did the demon infect? It is a complex tale, also weaving in class differences and asks the question, can love survive against arrogance? It is up to the reader to pick up the clues as the two warriors, once allies, now duel each other. And the true horror, the true betrayal slowly emerges.