Take my advice: live your life to the fullest. Breathe the air, taste the wine, kiss the girls, and always remember that the tales of another are never as wondrous as your own.
Success, he continued, is achieved most consistently through cruelty and deception. Determination of the spirit certainly helps, but faith in Ferrol is a currency as valuable as a pair of shoes two si...
Snake, Wyatt announced. A big black one.There’s dozens of them, Royce explained.Where? Alric asked.Mostly behind you on the walls.What? the king said, aghast. Why didn’t you say something?Knowing woul...
Say, Hilfred. Mauvin turned to him. Your father is pretty fair with a blade.My father is excellent, Reuben corrected. He’s known to be the best sword in the royal guard next to the lieutenant and the...
Same reason you're trying to sell your nightshirt, Royce replied.For rum?Rum? Hadrian said. Not food?Albert shrugged. That's what I do with all my money. It helps take my mind off the fact that I spen...
It’s not that we don’t trust you, Royce said as Hadrian prepared the bow. It’s just that we’ve learned over the years that honor among nobles is usually inversely proportionate to their rank. As a res...
Gwen, Etta said, I don’t know what in the kingdom you were thinking when you told us to pack our stuff-you know we ain’t got no stuff.
Guy’s eyes narrowed. So you are saying that you traveled all the way out here alone— passing through, as you put it—and just happened to join up with the Pickerings?Hadrian smiled at the sentinel. It...
Ferrol’s Law was created for ordinary Fhrey, not the Miralyith, Gryndal said. The Art has elevated us, and we cannot be bound by the law of a god when we have become gods ourselves.Arion saw Mawyndulë...
Everyone stared in shock at the pool of white robes and the bright-red blood that began to stain them.Behind her, holding a rock in both hands, stood Malcolm.—We really need to talk about this habit o...
Do you think the Gilarabrywn knows we’re still in here?Esrahaddon said it was intelligent, so I presume it can count.Then it will come back and find us. We have to reach the castle. The distance acros...
Do you see the butterfly? Suri grinned with enthusiasm. Yes, I see it, but— So stunning and delicate; it’s marvelous. No one can see a butterfly and not stop to admire it. I’d love to be one. To go to...
Courageous hearts weren't banned from the breast of women.
Caught early enough, the waking forest had no time to disguise itself into something mundane. This was a place of enchantments, a place where anything could happen.
Black Diamond? Hadrian asked. Is that the city patrol?Albert chuckled, and Royce shook his head, looking at Hadrian as if he had dropped his pants in public.
Besides, when you found me, I was a much different person.I remember, the wizard said thoughtfully. You were like a rabid dog, snapping at everything and everyone. Clearly, my genius in matching you u...
Bah! Magnus scoffed. Humans always blame dwarves. A baby goes missing and it was a dwarf that stole it. A princess runs off with a second son of a king and it was a dwarf who lured her to a deep priso...
Arista, the wizard said, sharks don't eat seafood because they like it, but because chickens don't swim. We all do the best we can with the tools we have, but at some point you have to ask yourself wh...
Arista was tortured with thoughts of roasted pig dripping with fruit glaze, beef served in a thick, dark gravy, and mountains of chicken, quail, and duck.
And we can’t afford to miss again. We’ll have to literally stab him in the back. If we do that, the people are going to want us to find the killer. That won’t be a problem. Saldur smiled. We’ll just p...