‘Nothing can make death easier,’ Cala said, ‘but silence can make it harder.’ ‘Speaking helps not,’ Maia said.

After a time, he felt a deeper rhythm, the rhythm of the stone and water, not the rhythm of his words and heartbeat. He breathed into this deeper rhythm, let it teach him a new...

‘In our inmost and secret heart, which you ask us to bare to you, we wish to banish them as we were banished, to a cold and lonely house, in the charge of a man...

Maia screamed and woke. ‘Serenity?’ Cala’s voice, Cala’s angular shape outlined against the window. ‘ ‘Tis an ironic title, in sooth,’ Maia said feebly, realizing that the entangling garments of the nightmare were merely his...