Salt and Seal

BOOK ONE OF THE HIDDEN TRIBES SERIESBefore the Act of Union in 1707, three hidden forces fought for the soul of Scotland: the traditional kinship of the land, the absolute freedom of the nameless outcasts, and the cold, emerging ledger of the modern state.An encounter with old treasure sets Euan Macaid on a path he never intended to walk-a quest that becomes far more about himself than the powerful forces of his age. What he finds in the anam-luing, the soul-ship broken on the Berwickshire coast, opens more than a hold of lost charters. It opens something in him. He moves through a world rippling with the unforgiving certainty of the Kirk's authority and the wilful manoeuvrings of the voting classes. It is a world where people still carry the cries of the burning witches in their ears, and the best explanations for the unusual are found in the lore of nightly folk tales. This is the story of how the wonders of the land and sky can make more sense than the actions of rulers, and how ordinary people-with a mason's trowel or a clerk's quill-struggle to make sense of it all.