Hild : a novel / Nicola Griffith

A historical novel about the rise of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages: Hild. Hild is born into a world in transition. In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods' priests are worrying. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. Hild is the king's youngest niece. She has the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world -- of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing human nature and predicting what will happen next -- that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her. She establishes herself as the king's seer. And she is indispensable -- until she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, her family, her loved ones, and the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.