Wakenhyrst

by Michelle Paver

Put not your faith in men,

And this creature obeyed with much sorrow, and she would rather have licked the ooze in the gutter.

there is no uncleanliness and she need feel no shame.’

As she lay in bed it occurred to her that between religion and superstition there was no difference, since both were based on unreason. To kill a man to redeem the sins of others was as irrational as tapping a hole in one’s eggshell to stop a witch using it as a boat.

‘that the symbol of our religion is an instrument of torture?

DEATH freezes everything. Whatever you did or didn’t do, whatever you said or left unsaid: none of that is ever going to change. You have no more chances to say sorry or make things right. No more chances for anything except regret.

She and Maud had both had to fight to survive. Ivy had used sex, Maud had used her brain. Why could they not have found some common ground?

sometimes, for reasons no one understands, a single crane dances alone.’