He was a thing of books and alembics to me, library and laboratory.
Everyone says you love a Dragon-born girl differently as she gets older; you can’t help it, knowing you so easily might lose her.
And listen to me: what you’ve done here carries power with it, of a different sort. Don’t let Solya take all the credit, and don’t be shy of using it.
And if you have been lying about it, Iskierka put in, having roused enough from her napping to follow the conversation, with slitted eyes, you may be quite sure you will all be sorry: if anything has...
She’s been living alone with a man for ten years, so of course she’s ruined, even though the girls all say he never puts a hand on them.
Magic that came only when you made some larger version of yourself with words and promises, and then stepped inside and somehow grew to fill it.
After supper Laurence would go to sit outside and read to him by the light of a lantern. He had never been a great reader himself, but Temeraire’s pleasure in books was so great as to be infectious, a...
You impossible, wretched, nonsensical contradiction, what on earth have you done now? I
Well, I don't know, yet, the dragonet said, but I mean to find a way: just because the business will be difficult is no excuse for not making the attempt.
Two lords and an archduke had asked her to marry them, and so, she wrote to me in outrage, had Solya.
There’s something nearby, she said. Something up ahead. The captain heard her and glanced back. Something dangerous? Something dead, Kasia said, and dropped her eyes to her saddle, her hands clenched...
She was thinner than she had been. The thing ate only sparingly. Enough to keep Kasia alive, not enough to keep me from watching her wear away, her body growing gaunt and her face hollow-cheeked.
My first description held true: I felt as though I was picking my way through a bit of forest that I had never seen before, and her words were like another experienced gleaner somewhere ahead of me ca...
If you really wanted to court me, you'd have to do it by my family's laws, and you'd have to marry me the same way. I said, and folded my arms, knowing that would be the end of it, of course. And I wa...
If I were very offensive, do you suppose they would go away now?
I stood panting with my hands clenched at my sides, still ringing head-to-foot, and said, Is that magic enough to put me on the list? Or do you want to see more? They stared at me, and in the silence...
I held that last gown of plain undyed wool in my hands, feeling like it was a rope I was clinging to, and then in a burst of defiance I left it on my bead, and pulled myself in the green-and-russet go...
I hated him and his silence ferociously: I knew he was only letting me convince myself there was nothing to be done.
I had a feeling the Summoning wasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life d...
I didn't properly think about what was happening even as I kissed him back, my laughter spilling into his mouth and making stutters of my kisses. I was still bound up with him, our magic snarled up in...