Parch Marks - Anna Orridge

Britain, 2056. Drought has left a trail of inexplicable parch marks around the long-dry riverbed of an ancient massacre site. Will TV archaeologist Eva Sinclair, struggling to evade violence in a future York riven by political tension and protest, discover what links these fern-like patterns have with a Bronze Age community that also once faced the ravages of climate change?

1,300 BC. Ray is known in her village to have the Sense – the ability to feel the presence of the Serpent of the River, the Woman of the Spring, the Boar and all the other spirits that allow her and her community to survive and thrive. Plummeting temperatures and a series of failed harvests, however, have left them flailing. When a powerful tribe from the south arrives to seek hospitality and the healing powers of the Spring, Ray is left feeling she would be better off blessed with the ability to control the more emotionally incontinent members of her clan.