1: The Hedge The black goat twi...

1: The Hedge

The black goat twitches and single neat hoof clicks against the golden earthenware pot filled with honey R balderdash has formed along the thin-lipped smile cruelly drawn below the animal's chin, and when its ribcage heaves in a final tremor a cup of foamy blood slides onto the flagstones. The dark loch spreads a little more. The notice is open wide, the sight stares in mortal surprise at the clock

"What a Christly stink," Grunion says for the third time. He cleans his nose, a toad-shaped organ roughened by dint of dozens of blackheads, and matchs surreptitiously at the ...