As best she could, in her secluded position, she was considering how she might secure further choices, and what they might be — once this, her first free choice, had played itself out.
On a bright Sunday morning in the early years of the last century,
He guessed he wouldn’t mind being a book. Books just did what they were made to do, like stars just shining out in case anyone cared to look.
Behind the mask Jackaroo wore, there could be a face of bone, its flesh long since eaten away. Jackaroo could fight as a trained soldier, with swords and shield; he could ride a horse like a Lord; and...
Where the veil broke, you could see silvery clouds on which tall angels might stand. Not cute little Christmas angels, but high, stern angels in white robes, whose faces were sad and serious from bein...
She held her right hand out to Elske, as if they were two merchants closing on a sale, and she bowed her head to Elske, as if they were two swordsmen ending a match, and she looked Elske in the eye, a...
I wouldn’t like to meet her again, Jeff said, and not in a dark alley. He’d need to be tougher than he ever could be, and it wasn’t just this one old lady, it was most people in the world. Jeff felt a...
Oriel didn’t move. But inside of his head, all was movement, like a river running over rapids, searching for the way through, trying routes around rocks and over shallows, a turbulence of thought more...
Mina thought to herself, watching, her momma was the kind of woman she wanted to be, wherever else she got to in her life.
It wasn't the worst time when Melody left me, the Professor said. The worst time was the years before. Because I didn't know I couldn't hate anybody that much; it was like she'd stuck a sword into me,...
They turned around to head down — and Jeff crawled onto the deck to pull down the jib — he saw a blue heron standing on a little muddy point of land across the creek. He pointed and Dicey followed his...
In the white, warmless light of the moon, his people's fear rose up like a tide towards Malke, and it seemed to Oriel that the King drank in that fear, as if it were wine to give him strength and rejo...
Bullet shrugged. She was right, it would just be another box. It was going to be just another box for him, too, but he'd figured it out. You didn't get out of one box without getting into another, and...
You must not let yourself become too respectable. Keep yourself a little wild. What is life for, if not for the living of it?
He took his time getting to her, as if he was sure she’d wait, sure of his own strength to hold her, even at that distance. He moved like he thought she was afraid of him, too afraid to run.
Fear burned through him, like a flame. Fear coursed through him, like icy water. He threw his head back and raised his dagger, to strike -- and cried out wordlessly, as if the great cry could gather a...
I felt that the world itself had changed and that it would never be steady under my feet again. I felt I understood nothing of people and had no way to learn. I felt fear. Until you have felt fear, yo...
There could be no home for the Tillermans. Home free — Dicey would settle for a place to stay. Stay free.
Looked at from where she sat unsleeping, the sky seemed walled in by forest. It looked as if there was a river of sky matching the water river below.
It seemed to her that, except to marry, the women of Trastad feared men, except for their fathers, and brothers; and the fathers, brothers and husbands mistrusted all other men.