Book 2 of 4 · Ledger & Hearth
The Briar Census
Burned books disagree with the living, and a merchant offers to buy the road rather than the glass.
- Published4 March 2021
- Pages448
- ISBN978-1-916204-02-7
- Signed first£28
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Synopsis
To make the Registry believe her, Maris takes the shard to Vellum Reach, where Sera Vellum reads ash by the ridges heat left behind. The ash agrees that Maris is late, and will not say for what. In Thornmarket, Ilen Thorn keeps his accounts in a living hedge and offers a price not for the shard but for the route it implies. The Briar Census — a count of names the hedges will still hold — comes back forty-one short of the people standing in the lanes. Oswin calls that a legal emergency. Ilen calls it a market. In the Quiet Fen the census bells go in and do not come out as sound. Someone moves the hollow stake where Maris hid the glass.
Sample review
Turns a missing-persons count into a thriller without ever raising its voice.
Content notes
- A public argument, including humiliation.
- A community discovers missing names.
- No sexual content. Being unnamed has consequences in Orvane.
Reading group questions
- What is the difference here between a map and a census?
- Where else does curiosity cost warmth?
- Is Ilen selling safety, or only the look of a road?
- Who benefits if the forty-one names stay uncounted?
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