The Wolves of God, and Other Fey Stories

A weather‑worn steamer slips into the shallow bay of Kettletoft, the low‑lying houses of Sanday seeming to rise out of the sea. Jim Peace, a former Hudson Bay Company man, watches the familiar shoreline with a mix of longing and unease after three decades in the far‑north wilderness. Now forty‑eight, he has saved his earnings and left the remote post to confront the life he once fled.

The island’s stark, treeless dunes awaken memories of childhood games, sea breezes, and the simple rhythms of a world far removed from the endless forests that haunted his years abroad. Yet beneath the nostalgic tide lies a tension – a knot of figures on the pier, the presence of his brother, and the faint, unsettling echo of wolves that once haunted the northern wilds. As Jim steps onto the sand, he must decide whether the past can finally be laid to rest or if old shadows will follow him home.