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I used a simple poison in a goblet of wine. Maddalena was discovered kneeling at her prie-dieu, her face buried in her hands, as one in meditation or prayer. She showed no sign of suffering. Her eyes were closed as if in peaceful sleep, and her face bore a faint smile. She had always been too good, too innocent for this world. I felt a certain satisfaction to know that I had ushered her gently into a world where she would be welcomed. I had sent others to a worse place.
This last blow fell heavily on Count Ridolfo and left its mark. The deaths of his sons had hardened him; Maddalena's death seemed to melt away his manhood in a day. His audacity in conception, his decisiveness in action, his pride in everything left him, and he became suddenly an old man, a fearful prisoner in a world of prowling dangers. But he is useful to me still, and I serve him well.
Since the Contessa's death, not a year following her daughter's, I have been his sole companion and adviser, always at his side, and with us the two grandsons, the only heirs to this great house. Leonardo thrives, and his grandfather dotes on him. He resembles his father in many ways. Giorgio is a frail and sickly boy, but clever, very clever. He will survive. I still play the fool for them, and from time to time I am called upon to amuse my master and his guests, for his banquets are as lavish as ever, though less frequent and more selective. Even now, broken and brought low within, he is too important a man to withdraw from the world completely and give himself up to solitude and sorrow, still too proud to show feeling.
He has his wealth and power and influence, and he has his grandsons, and his faithful Niccolo to watch over them when he is no longer able. They are safely in my hands.
As for me, my needs are few, and the Count is generous, most generous. He serves me well.
Even now, he is a strong protector. I fear no enemy. I know that no man in this world is ever truly safe from betrayal, injury, and the assassin's hand; but I know too that the man who harms me will be punished in ways beyond imagining. I husband my final malediction carefully.
For the present, I am content. As for the future, who can say what may be?
Only a fool would dare.
Copyright 2006 by John Morressy. All rights reserved.
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Coming Attractions
What do you think will happen to Guth Bandar? We're not giving away any hints, but come back next month and we'll give you the whole shebang. We think you're going to like it.
Next month we'll also bring you a new fantasy story by Fred Chappell. The great Mr. Chappell, North Carolina's Poet Laureate, regales us with the story of a master of the shadow trade and his apprentice in “Dance of Shadows.”
We've got plenty of other good stories awaiting you in months ahead—fun ones from Esther Friesner and Ron Goulart, a lovely novella by Ian R. MacLeod, science fiction stories by David D. Levine and Charles Coleman Finlay, and perhaps the recently-disappeared David Gerrold will get in touch with us again. We hope.
Two thousand and seven looks to be a very good year. Give a friend a subscription and she or he will thank you all year long.
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Fantasy & Science Fiction Market Place
BOOKS-MAGAZINES
S-F FANZINES (back to 1930), pulps, books. 96 page Catalog. $5.00. Collections purchased. Robert Madle, 4406 Bestor Dr., Rockville, MD 20853.
18-time Hugo nominee. The New York Review of Science Fiction. www.nyrsf .com Reviews and essays. $4.00 or $38 for 12 issues, checks only. Dragon Press, PO Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570.
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RAMBLE HOUSE reprints Hake Talbot, Jack Mann, Cornell Woolrich, Alexander Laing, Max Afford and more. www.ramblehouse.com 318-868-8727
www.dargonzine.org—No ads. No fees. Just good fiction. DargonZine is a FREE, full text, online fantasy fiction anthology.
When They Came by DON WEBB, 23 stories, $22.50 postpaid (U.S.A.) Temporary Culture, P.O.B. 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043. “Don Webb is a genius."—Bruce Sterling
Interstellar adventure among the fundamentalist agnostics. Paradise Passed, by Jerry Oltion. Available from Wheatland Press, www.wheatlandpress.com
SCARCE copies of the April 2001 F&SF issue printed without periods. Only a few left! “The unperiodical!” $10 ppd. F&SF, PO Box 3447, Hoboken, NJ 07030
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Fourth Planet from the Sun, a great collection of stories from F&SF about going to Mars! Now, signed hardcover copies available! $17.95 ppd from F&SF, PO Box 3447, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
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MISCELLANEOUS
If stress can change the brain, all experience can change the brain. www.undoing stress.com
Support the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund. Visit www.carlbran don.org for more information on how to contribute.
Miracle Madness, for when clean isn't clean enough. Dirt spots removed from rugs, sofa, walls, souls. www.miracle madness.com
Space Studies Masters degree. Accredited University program. Campus and distance classes. For details visit www.space.edu.
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F&SF classifieds work because the cost is low: only $2.00 per word (minimum of 10 words). 10% discount for 6 consecutive insertions, 15% for 12. You'll reach 100,000 high-income, highly educated readers each of whom spends hundreds of dollars a year on books, magazines, games, collectibles, audio and video tapes. Send copy and remittance to: F&SF Market Place, PO Box 3447, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
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Curiosities: The Octave of Claudius, by Barry Pain (1897)
Claudius Sandell, a young unpublished novelist, is rendered penniless and homeless when his father disowns him. The mysterious surgeon Dr. Lamb gives Claudius 8,000 to spend as he sees fit, and an octave (eight days) in which to spend it...on condition that Claudius must afterward submit to an experiment that will “benefit mankind."
In the next eight days, Claudius reconciles with his father, gets his novel accepted, meets a beautiful young woman who reciprocates his passion, and becomes wealthy in the stock market. Naturally, being a man of honor, Claudius reports to Dr. Lamb's laboratory on schedule. Fortunately, the crazed scientist's long-abused wife murders Dr. Lamb just as Claudius is about to be surgically regressed to simian form.
Decades after its publication, The Octave of Claudius was praised by George Orwell as “a brilliant exercise in the macabre.” The novel was filmed (with major changes) in 1922 as A Blind Bargain, notable for a hand-colored sequence when the hero attends a charity ball, and for Lon Chaney's presence in a dual role: in a somewhat mannered performance as the mad scientist, and as the aftermath of one of Dr. Lamb's previous experiments (a character not in the original novel).
Eric Odell (1867-1928) was an English journalist who wrote novels and parodies under the name Barry Pain. His 1911 novel An Exchange of Souls describes an attempt by a man and woman to trade bodies, but remains ambiguous as to whether or not the exchange really occurs.
—F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
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Visit www.spilogale.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
ou for reading books on Archive.
FSF Magazine, February 2007 Page 19