The Vaster Wilds: A Novel

Something tore in the skies above and the new downsifting snow was no longer needles of ice as it had been when she had first escaped the fort but had become now soft slow flakes that began to collect upon the old surface of snow and to obscure the steps she had made behind her.

all had bargained with god in their hearts to relinquish pride and vanity and greed if they could survive this depth of terror. But the promises so seared into their flesh would fade as the storm faded away, as the bruises diminished and the bones knit whole again, and they would go on as the sinners they had always been.

I am not the first to suffer, for Job endured worse and was rewarded for bearing in humility the tests of god, she said. What if your sufferings are not the tests of god but rather punishments for your acts, for your corrupted soul? the voice said. Then, the girl said angrily in her sleep, I shall bear the suffering in gratitude for the life that h

For what woman has not, walking in the dark of the street or along a path deep in the countryside, sensed the brutal imaginings of a man watching her from his hidden place, and felt the same chills chasing over her skin, and quickened her steps to get away.

swift tarry stream

the cold wind playing against the disinterested forest.

And I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me; I am gone like the shadow when it declineth; I am tossed up and down like the locust; my knees are weak through fasting and my flesh faileth of fatness.

She was a fool, she knew, even as she populated the cave with beast and man. But she couldn’t stop her imaginings. They filled her with pulses of fear.

in the knit and purl of mist that made the girl shudder,