Clive is a slave. For thirty years, ever since he was a boy, he has kept the books for Schuyler Distribution. And for all his life he has been devoted to the God of his province: Atep, King of Shadows.
But now his master Erwin Schuyler has died and Schuyler's dissolute son William has bankrupted the family business. Clive must be auctioned off. He is sold to Charlotte Kelly Clothiers in far-off Riverton, in the province of the Goddess Estar, Lady of Dust.
Things are unsettled in Riverton. Clive is spiritually suspended between old God and new Goddess. He clashes with Julia, the slave he is replacing. A curious suitor arrives on Dame Kelly's threshold. And a bitter and vengeful William Schuyler does not seem finished with Clive.
This novella, set in an American South of the early 1900s, is a collaboration between Misha Burnett (An Atlas of Bad Roads) and David Skinner (Stellar Stories).
