Thief of Lives

By Lucy Sussex

Why are certain subjects so difficult to talk about? What is justice? Why do writers think that other people’s lives are fair game? And what do we really know about the first chemist?

A story about history, women, science (and also the demonic); a crime story, based upon a true crime; a realist satire of the supposedly sex-savvy; and a story exploring lies, and the space between the real and the unreal. Welcome to the worlds of Lucy Sussex, and to her many varied modes.

Pay attention to this woman! Turn these pages! Here be monsters and mysteries and marvels. – Karen Joy Fowler
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Table of Contents
- Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler
- Alchemy
- Fountain of Justice
- The Story of O
- Thief of Lives

AWARDS
"Alchemy" nominated, Best Short Story Ditmar 2012

REVIEWS
The four stories showcased here could not be more different, one from another, but collectively they constitute an excellent introduction to the talents of the incomparable Lucy Sussex. I can’t imagine the person who would read these and not want to read more. - Karen Joy Fowler

I loved her beautiful story about modern and ancient Babylon, “Alchemy” - Gwyneth Jones

ABOUT THE TWELVE PLANETS SERIES
Twelfth Planet Press is an independent publishing house challenging the status quo with books that interrogate, commentate, inspire.

The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection offers four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of 4 stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release is a standalone and brings something unexpected.

The Twelve Planets
Book 1: Nightsiders by Sue Isle
Book 2: Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Book 3: Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex
Book 4: Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti
Book 5: Showtime by Narrelle M Harris
Book 6: Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren
Book 7: Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan
Book 8: Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer
Book 9: Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott
Book 10: Secret Lives of Books by Rosaleen Love
Book 11: The Female Factory by Angela Slatter and Lisa Hannet
Book 12: Cherry Crow Children by Deborah Kalin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Twelfth Planet Press
• Release date: Jan 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9780980827477

Book preview

Twelve Planets Series

Thief of Lives

by Lucy Sussex

First published in Australia in July 2011

by Twelfth Planet Press

www.twelfthplanetpress.com

Fountain of Justice © 2010 Lucy Sussex, first published by Ned Kelly Awards

All other works © 2011 Lucy Sussex

Design and layout by Amanda Rainey

Ebook conversion by Charles Tan

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Author: Sussex, Lucy, 1957-

Title: Thief of lives : a twelve planets collection /

by Sussex, edited by Alisa Krasnostein.

ISBN: 9780980827477 (epub)

Other Authors/Contributors:

Krasnostein, Alisa.

Dewey Number: A823.3

To the Supanova Writers

Also From Twelfth Planet Press

Twelve Planets:

Nightsiders, by Sue Isle

Love and Romanpunk, by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Anthologies/Collections:

2012, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Ben Payne

New Ceres Nights, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wessely

A Book of Endings, by Deborah Biancotti

Glitter Rose, by Marianne de Pierres

Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein

Novella Series:

Angel Rising, by Dirk Flinthart

Horn, by Peter M. Ball

Siren Beat, by Tansy Rayner Roberts / Roadkill, by Robert Shearman

Bleed, by Peter M. Ball

The Company Articles of Edward Teach, by Thoraiya Dyer / The Angælien Apocalypse, by Matthew Crulew

Above, by Stephanie Campisi / Below, by Ben Peek

Table of Contents

Introduction

Alchemy

The Fountain of Justice

The Subject of O

Thief of Lives

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Introduction

It is a privilege to be introducing this amazing writer in this exciting Twelve Planets project. The four stories showcased here could not be more different, one from another, but collectively they constitute an excellent introduction to the talents of the incomparable Lucy Sussex. I can’t imagine the person who would read these and not want to read more.

‘Alchemy’ is a fantasy set in ancient Babylon, an imaginative and unpredictable deal-with-the-devil story. ‘The Fountain of Justice’ takes place in modern day Australia. In this bit of crime fiction, a cunning female solicitor negotiates as best she can through a world of greater and lesser  evils. Female sexual pleasure is ‘The Subject of O’, a light hearted piece with a pointed interest in sex and gender. And finally, ‘Thief of Lives’ deals with psychological vampirism pointing a taloned finger in particular at writers and the way they use the people around them to feed their work. ‘Thief of Lives’ is a story balanced on the border between fantasy and realism. It takes place in a grim and gritty contemporary Bristol, but reminds us repeatedly that Bristol was once the port of choice in England for the slave trade. Fantasy, history, crime. The relationship of women to men. The relationship of women to women. The relationship of the writer to her subject. This may not be a complete list of the obsessions of Lucy Sussex, but it’s certainly a start.

My own first encounter with Lucy Sussex was her remarkable novel, The Scarlet Rider. I went from that to My Lady Tongue, and I have never looked back. So for me, this collection is both a homecoming to the heart of Sussex-central, and, at the very same time, a journey to some memorable new worlds

Lucy is not only a writer herself, but also a tireless advocate for the work of other women. Most notably, while in literary archæology mode, she was instrumental in the rediscovery and reprinting of early Australian crime writers, Mary Fortune and Ellen Davitt. It is a joy to return the favour by presenting her here. Pay attention to this woman! Turn these pages! Here be monsters and mysteries and marvels.

Karen Joy Fowler

Alchemy

Three figures walked in single file in the evening heat haze besides the Euphrates river, heading homewards. All women, shawled, hunched by the baskets on their backs. The last, youngest and smallest, was further slouched by the year-old baby riding on her hip.

As if the sun had blinked, now an extra figure suddenly appeared, appended to their procession. Where day met night, before the sun-god disappeared through the doors to the underworld, can be a time where strange things happen. The three women had taken a risk staying so late to gather sweet rushes outside the city gates. Now returning with their baskets dripping and laden, they knew that they must hurry lest something untoward sneak into the city with them.

The third woman, her nostrils full of the scent of leaves and rhizomes on her back, her mind occupied by the problem of how to preserve that smell, nonetheless heard behind her the extra set of shuffling footsteps. Some field worker, some beggar? Though very tired, and with extra work ahead of her that night, the processing of the sweet flag besides cooking the evening meal, she let her mind fix on the sound. Suddenly she realised what about it was so strange—it was an exact copy of her own footsteps.

She reeled in a turn, saw the bent figure, the shawled head—and nothing beneath the fringes of woven wool. For a moment she and the demon were face to face, his disguise rumbled. Then in a flap of confusion, shawl transmogrifying from fronds of hair to great feathery wings, he shot away and up. 

Her mouth opened wide—she could scream, but that would wake her baby. Worse, it would alert her companions, her censorious sisters-in-law, that she had somehow, by her actions, drawn the attention of the spirit world. She closed her mouth, turned again, as the three trudged towards the city gates, the watching guards, the safety of a walled city state, a relatively new thing in the world: Babylon. 

From above the demon watched her, biding his time. His name was Azubel, a name not written in cuneiform on the clay tablets kept by the priests in the temples of Babylon, and before that, old Sumer. He was not part of their spirit world as they perceived it—or, more to the point, as they had shaped it, like they took the Mesopotamian clay and made it into bricks, jugs, writing tablets, everything useful to an aspiring civilization. He might be useful to the Babylonians, he knew that. But it would require a transaction, something in return. Something that would make it worthwhile that he, an immortal, should invest his time and power in these creatures doomed to die amongst their clay-dust. Whatever that something might be, he had a notion it could be in that hindmost woman, shuffling along with her load of reeds and drowsing baby. 

He had not meant to scare her, merely to get closer, to get a sense of her thoughts. They had a special savour, distinct as musk: an unusual mind was here, working on a different level from those around her. She had been acute enough to detect his presence despite the crude disguise. That was interesting. Enough to keep him from the immortal’s curse, that of being eternally bored? Possibly. But he would have to proceed carefully, he could tell that. He would watch invisibly, and then reveal himself slowly, to see how she would react. 

Over the next moon, he followed her, as focused as a hunting bird on its prey. 

He observed her at the street markets, among all the other good housewives. Accompanied by her shadows, the watchful sisters-in-law, she bought her family’s daily provisions, or ordered delivery of larger purchases: a new water barrel; a load of straw for fuel. She sat at a market stall herself, in the perfumier’s quarter, in front of her many stoppered jars. She was not a good saleswoman, her mind puzzling over the

Reviews for Thief of Lives

[tsana_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thief of Lives is a collection of four short stories without common setting. I have to admit, this collection was closer to literary realism than I usually read. Thematically, women are central to all the stories in a variety of different ways. Karen Joy Fowler eloquently explains what Sussex writes about in the introduction:"Fantasy, history, crime. The relationship of women to men. The relationship of women to women. The relationship of the writer to her subject."AlchemyThe first story in this collection is set in ancient Babylon. It’s about the best perfumier in the city, one of the first chemists in the world. She is watched, throughout her life by an immortal who has singled her out the smartest person in Babylon and is fascinated by her mind.The Fountain of JusticeThis story can be most accurately described as crime. It’s set around underworld shootings in an Australian city (I would guess Melbourne, but I don’t think it ever said), and told from the point of view of a legal aid.The Subject of OThis story is about the main character’s understanding of her sexual experiences, when she starts to see them in a new light.Thief of LivesThe titular story was my favourite of the bunch. The main character is PA to a successful urban fantasy novelist who has been sent to Bristol to conduct some research. While there she discovers a psychic vampire preying on the town; a creature who sucks the life out of its victims before committing their lives to paper. It’s a fascinating exploration of writers drawing inspiration from their surroundings that interweaves reality and fantasy.~4 / 5 stars