Beneath Ceaseless Skies #377, March 9, 2023
“Discreet Services Offered for Women Ridden by Hags” by Stephanie Malia Morris
“The Changeling and the Child” by Pooja Peravali
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
The 377th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies has two short stories.
“Discreet Services Offered for Women Ridden by Hags” by Stephanie Malia Morris
In this short fantasy, Bernice is a doctor for ridding women of soucouyants (or hags) that have infested their bodies. These hags live under the skin threatening to rip the skin to go out for the night. Bernice and her sister Angelique learned from their mother how to exorcise the soucouyants, though sometimes resulting in the host’s death.
Angelique rebelled against their mother’s teaching before disappearing to the north, leaving Bernice to finish her studies alone. Eventually, Bernice goes in search of her sister, finding her married to a political leader. Bernice stays in her sister’s shadows, afraid to contact her for fear of rejection again. But then, one day, Angelique knocks on her door, searching for a doctor who can perform an exorcism.
This story’s pace slowed in a few places but otherwise was an engaging mysterious read.
“The Changeling and the Child” by Pooja Peravali
The mother’s newborn son is swapped for a changeling daughter in this short fantasy. After raising the girl for a few months, the mother misses her son. Even if she only knew him for a day or so, still she had known him for many months in her womb.
In search of a chance to win back her son, she sets off along the cliff to a mysterious stone, where they say you can call on the magical creatures that live underground. After doing all the rituals, she finds herself inside the stone, where a knight escorts her to the underground queen’s court. Will the queen merely swap the children back? She hopes not as she also loves the changeling who is cradled to her chest.
The well-developed prose was intriguing, though many authors have explored the stolen child trope in the past.
You can follow Kevin P Hallett’s writing on www.kevinphallett.com. There are links there to join his mailing list for a weekly newsletter on the recent release of his third novel, Journeyman Wizard.