This was where the dead went.
Not up above, to the clouds and the bright, high skies. Their ancestors had believed that, long ago, but Kyen hated the idea—to be lost up there, blown hither and thither by the winds. Far better to return to the earth, to become part of it and be reborn, one day.
He had followed the rope trail all the way from the cave-mouth outside the village, and in the deepest chamber, the river of fire crawled past. The cavern sweltered in lava heat, and Kyen’s bronze skin gleamed from the sweat.
The Eyes of My Brother is now available to read for free at Kaleidotrope, as part of their Summer 2024 issue.
A later post in their Patreon’s Kaleidonotes includes a brief author follow-up about the story. Mine’s not very illuminating, as my thinking about the story was quite overshadowed at the time, but it’s always worth dropping into their Patreon later. Kaleidotrope posts follow-ups from most (maybe all, but I’d hesitate to swear to that) of their published writers about the story they published, and some of them are a lot more insightful than mine was!
Artwork above is by Steve Lillie, and comes from the Summer 2024 issue of Kaleidotrope.
