‘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...

‘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...