“Names are powerful things. They act as an identity marker and a kind of map, locating you in time and geography. More than that, they can be a compass.”
“Trees and bushes grow over concrete, reclaiming little pockets and corners, but even more have been cleared away. Shattered glass crunches under my feet and clouds of dust drift in the wind, but somehow this place, the picture of neglect, doesn’t feel abandoned. I know this place from the histories, from the books and old maps.”
“They had been walking beside the dry bed of the stream for hours and had let the village for behind. Looking back, Rowan could no longer see even the tall stone walls of the mill, the highest building, because the trees had screened in from view. In front of them, like massive wall, rose the Mountain. In another two hours, the others said, they would reach it. The map showed clearly that they must begin their climb at the place where the water gushed from its underground tunnel to form the stream.”
“Besides each child telling their wonderful stories, they also do a map of what the land looks like whilst they are living there, and thus - because we are going backwards - we see an unravelling of progress.”