One thing I still remembered from my war days was how to move in shrubbery.
No, my career as a warrior princess, short as it had been, was over, I thought morosely. Violence only works if you're good at it. Otherwise, it hurts too much.
Act'. How many good people do you really know? I discount those who mouth out platitudes for the edification of the young, and who truly are 'good', whatever that means?What a strange subject, and fro...
Everyone is an idiot, I stated. Except me.
Who can ever know what turns the spark into flame?
Did you really think you could take a few hundred ill-trained village people into war and expect anything but defeat?I opened my mouth to retort, then realized I’d be spoiling what little strategy we...
If everywhere you go everyone watches you, and wants you, can you truly be yourself?
I just wanted to see if you traitors would dare to face me, Galdran said, his caustic voice making me feel sick inside. Sick--and angry.The Marquis bowed low over his horse’s withers, every line of hi...
At some unseen signal the long line of guards around me stopped and their spears thudded to the floor with a noise that sounded like doom.Then a tall figure with a long black cloak walked past us, plu...
Ah, beloved, he murmured, his fingers caressing the faint lines in her brow, tracing the shadows at the sides of her lips. How beautiful you are.She couldn’t help a chortle.Inda heard the unsteadiness...
The stubborn little countess—so unlike anyone Vidanric had ever met—trampled her determined, well-meaning way not only over his plans, but his thoughts.
Looking down the south road again, Meliara?The voice startled me. I turned and saw my oldest friend, Oria, peering in around the door tapestry. Though I was the countess and she the servant, we had gr...
I turned around--and nearly bumped into a small group of soldiers in Renselaeus colors. They all stopped, bowed silently, and would have stepped out of my way, but I recognized one of them from my rid...
I am trying, he said with great care, to ascertain what your place is in the events about to transpire, and to act accordingly. From whom did you get your information?The world seemed to lurch again,...
You’ve left me behind. What have you been reading, Mel? Life! You should go up to Erev-li-Erval and help take the field against the Djurans. Unless you’re planning another revolution here!Were you thi...
We'll abduct Garian. Or Jason.And—?And dump them into the ocean. Nobody would ever pay a ransom for them.
Then, without warning, notes from a single flute floated as if down on a breeze, and with a quick snap of wrists the dancers twitched the ropes into soaring, billowing squares of gauze.A gasp from the...
So there I was, light-headed with hunger, footsore, with the perimeter of safety having closed to about ten paces around me, and the Marquis of Shevraeth standing just on the other side of the wall.At...
Lady Meliara? There was a tap outside the door, and Oria’s mother, Julen, lifted the tapestry. Oria and I both stared in surprise at the three long sticks she carried so carefully.More Fire Sticks? I...
It would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I walked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how en...