Hare and Adder: Of Granaries, Traders, and Circles of Inspiration

by Crispina Kemp

Hegrissa should have been a granary keeper. She should have been able to find her way back to Lienershi when Kerrid, Head of the Granaries, sent her south to meet with her father. She should have been safe with the copper-smith since smiths are sworn off women. But now seduced, pregnant and with her trade lost, her only hope lies with her native family. Yet rejected there too, she finds acceptance with an eblan, a Speaker for the Dead, who believes her inspired. Can she find a new identity amongst these people, or will she reclaim what should have been hers? Two thousand years after the events of The Spinner’s Game, Kerrid is the Head of the Kerdolan and granary traders. Though established in this role, there are still Asars who oppose her, led by Urinod who believes the moment of Kerrid’s death will return the Asars to their rightful otherworld realm. Stuck between these are the next generation, Brictans born of Asar-human parentage, and those who seek to make a life within the increasingly important Alsaldic Lands. This trilogy maps the development, flowering and collapse of the Alsaldic Empire as it moves from its birth within an early agricultural society, through the copper and bronze-using warrior cults, to topple at the first whisper of iron. This is a work of imagination, inspired by mythology, anthropology and archaeology; it does not purport to be an accurate or speculative account of the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Western Europe.

641 pages, Paperback

Published June 7, 2023