Keynes, quite ignoring the covert gestures, the attempts at signaling, of nearly every senior officer, examined [Lily] and declared that she was perfectly fit to fly, had better fly, I should say; thi...
Justice is expensive, Tharkay said. That is why there is so little of it, and that reserved for those few with enough money and influence to afford it.
I’m not stupid, nor a liar, I said, and if I can’t do any good, I can at least do something
It wasn't that I wanted a husband and a baby; I didn't, or rather, I only wanted them the way I wanted to live to a hundred: someday, far off, never thinking about the particulars.
I started to murmur my own spell, but I found myself thinking not of roses but of water, and thirsty ground; building underneath his magic instead of trying to overlay it.
I say to you, here are the dangers. Some are more likely than others. Weigh them, put them all together, and you will know the cost. Then you must say, is this what you owe?
I hated her; I wanted her to burn, the way so many of the corrupted had burned, because she’d put her hold on them. But wanting cruelty felt like another wrong answer in an endless chain.
I had hated him, but I wouldn't have reproached him, any more than I would have reproached a bolt of lightning for striking my house. He wasn't a . . .
I bent down and sang Tihas, tihas, kai tihas, kai tihas, over and over, and found myself falling into the sound of the birthday song about living a hundred years. That sounds absurd, but the rhythm of...
I am not your subject or your servant, and if you want a cowering mouse for a wife, go find someone who can turn silver to gold for you.
I am not whimpering, at all, Temeraire muttered, and added, ow! There
How did you, he said, pushing himself up on an elbow, indignation finally dawning, and I pushed him back down and kissed him.
How are you giving it magic? he said, through his teeth.I already found the path! I said. I’m just staying on it. Can’t you—feel it? I asked abruptly, and held my hand cupping the flower out towards h...
He wasn’t a person, he was a lord and a wizard, a strange creature on another plane entirely, as far removed as storms and pestilence.
He snorted. He thinks killing a day-old hydra has made him a hero. None of the songs had ever mentioned the Vandalus Hydra being one day old: it diminished the story more than a little.
He scowled at me. Jaga, he said, and for a moment I stood cold and still. Old Jaga had died a long time ago, but there weren’t very many songs about her, and bards mostly sang them warily, only in sum...
He says to land, Tharkay translated, with improbable brevity; at Laurence’s frowning look he added, and he calls us a great many impolite names; do you wish them all translated?
He roared at me furiously for ten minutes after he finally managed to put out the sulky and determined fire, calling me a witless muttonheaded spawn of pig farmers-My father's a wood-cutter, I said- a...
Happiness was bubbling up through me, a bright stream laughing.
All those stories must have ended this same way, with someone tired going home from a field full of death, but no one ever sang this part. Borys