I Read Stories: The Nine Scents Of Sorrow by Jordan Taylor

The Nine Scents Of Sorrow by Jordan Taylor in Uncanny Magazine

Sorrow makes perfumes. Their work is so excellent that they become Parfumeur de la Reine. The queen has a problem; she has given the king no children. This is because the king is made of clockwork. She takes lovers, eventually choosing Sorrow.

Sorrow has secrets and cannot give the Queen a child either. But maybe a perfume will resolve the issue.

The time at Versailles is running out; the revolution comes. Sorrow must make decisions to save something from the wreckage, though what can even the finest parfumeur do?

Read This: Nine perfumes, nine chapters, a view of ancien regime France through multiple lenses of perfumery, magic, folklore and gender roles
Don’t Read This: Accessing a story through smell doesn’t work for you