Nettle & Bone

by T. Kingfisher

Perhaps she might have built a man out of bones, but she had no great love of men any longer. Dogs, though … dogs were always true.

If I were a man, I would fight him. If she were a man, no one would force Kania to try to bear child after child. If I were a man, I would not be the next in line to be married if he kills her. If we were men … She stared at her fingers curled in the dirt. It did not matter. They were not and the history of the world was written in women’s wombs and women’s blood and she would never be allowed to change it.