Realizing I ought to be circulating as well, I turned--and found myself confronted by the Marquis of Shevraeth.My dear Countess, he said with a grand bow. Please bolster my declining prestige by joini...
Out of the first carriage stepped Bran, his hair loose and shining under a rakish plumed hat. He was dressed in a magnificent tunic and glossy high blackweave riding boots, with a lined cloak slung ov...
One doesn't lose a self, like a pair of gloves or a pine. We learn and change, or we harden into stone.
Occasionally the rain lifted briefly, enough to enable me to see ahead when I topped the gentle rises that undulated along the road. And after a time I realized that though no suspicious riders were a...
Now, how did you know about that? the man said, and this time there was no mistaking the threat in his voice. He laid his hand significantly on his sword hilt.It’s my business, as you said. I tried my...
Not one of the passerby showed the least interest in the proceedings. I wondered if I had missed yet another chance at escape, but if I did yell for help, who knew what the partisanship of the Lumm me...
My spirits were so glum I almost overlooked the two letters waiting on my writing table.When I did see them, my heart gave one of those painful thumps, and I wondered if these were letters of rejectio...
My friendly guise of the morning notwithstanding, I had no wish to blunder into the memoir room if Shevraeth was working there. I vowed…The thought vanished when I happened to glance out one of the m...
My dear Countess, a fluting voice said at my right ear, and Lady Tamara’s soft hand slid along my arm, guiding me toward the lowest tier near the fireplace. Several people moved away, and we sank down...
Last question, why are you riding alone? Wouldn’t things be more effective with your army?I move fastest alone, he said. And my own people are in place, and have been for some time.I thought of Nessar...
It is a shame that so few have the time or inclination for scholarship these days. There is much entertainment to be afforded in perusing the mistakes of our forbears.
In my mind I saw, clearly, that straight-backed figure on the dapple-gray horse, his long black cloak slung back over the animal’s haunches, his plumed helm of command on his head. With either phenome...
In a slow, pleasant voice, Prince Alaerec asked mild questions--weather, travel, Bran’s day and how he’d filled it. I stayed silent as the three of them worked away at this limping conversation. The R...
If you’re capable of simple truth, just spit it out.Your brother has agreed to a truce, the Marquis started.Truce? What do you mean, a ‘truce’? I snarled. He wouldn’t surrender, he , unless you forced...
I was sicker than I’d ever been in a short but healthy life, so sick I couldn’t sleep but lay watching imaginary bugs crawl up the walls. And of course it had to be while I was like this--just about t...
I stepped into the room and bent down to lift up two or three of the papers. Some were proposals for increases in taxes for certain nobles; the fourth was a list of people to be watched. I looked at h...
I sighed, and for a long, pleasant moment envisioned myself sneaking out in my nightdress, grabbing a horse from the stables, and riding hard straight for home. Tlanth was safe. Tlanth was friendly an...
I sat where I was and waged a short fierce inner battle. Either I could sit and sulk--in which case they would want to know why--or I could go out there, pretend nothing was amiss, and do what needed...
I really needed time to think, and--so I figured--if my life was destined to continue at such a headlong pace, I was going to have to learn to perform my cerebrations while dashing back and forth cros...
I had seen ardency in men's eyes, but I had only felt it once. With Flauvic, false and therefore easy to dismiss. I suddenly wished that I could feel it now. No, I did feel it. I did have the same fee...