Torc of Moonlight — Linda Acaster

How many believers does it need to keep an ancient religion alive?

Second year student Nick Blaketon came to Hull's university to play rugby, drink beer and get laid; none of it is going right for him.

Alice Linwood came to focus her studies on uncovering the shrine to a Celtic water goddess and to exorcise an unhappy childhood where too many had died by accident. She knows why modern universities surround the North York Moors as once did mediaeval seats of learning. Derventio, Malton's Roman garrison, holds the key.

Nick dismisses her theories as fantasy -- until the trees crowd in and he realises that history is not always buried, and it's not always dead.

How many believers does it need to keep an ancient religion alive? Just one. You throwing coins into a wishing well.