When you love something enough time races ahead like the wind chasing autumn leaves, sending them skipping and dancing out of reach, no matter how fast you run. But when you want something and must wa...
When it was done and he took the mess away to bury, I lay back and breathed deeply, doing my best to settle my boiling stomach. All right, he said, that’s that. Now it’s time to go, if we’re to reach...
When Mora came in with my hot chocolate, she also brought me a gift: a book. I took it eagerly.The book was a memoir from almost three hundred years before, written by the Duchess Nirth Masharlias, wh...
When I emerged from the room, I found the riding all waiting, their gear on and horses ready.I turned to Nessaren. Until that moment I hadn’t considered what it meant to have them with me. Was it poss...
What have you done with your day? Nee asked, her fan spread in the attitude I recognized from our fan lesson as Harmonic Discourse.We had a bout with the group at the garrison, had a squint at some ho...
Well, if he wants to be king, he’ll just plain have to get used to questions and toadies and all the rest of it, I said. Remembering the conversation at dinner and wondering if I’d made an idiot of my...
We saw Bran and Shevraeth only at dinner, and that seldom enough, for they were often away. When the weather was particularly bad, they might be gone for several days. On the evenings we were alone, N...
We ended up downstairs in the summer parlor, whose great glassed doors would in a few months look out on a fine garden but now gave onto a slushy pathway lined by barren trees and rosebushes. Still si...
Tis true I haven’t seen much of anyone these mornings, but I’ve been locked up studying for a special project. But I’m nearly done, and so I find myself free.Then Trishe had her opportunity to come fo...
Then the day came when a new column was spotted riding up behind Debegri’s force. We almost missed them, for we had also begun staying in a tight group. But luckily Khesot, cautious since his days in...
Then a step in the grass made me look up. The Marquis was right in front of me, and he was a lot taller than he looked seated across a campfire. In one hand were the horse’s reins, and he held the oth...
The second letter was sealed plainly, with no crest. I flung myself onto my pillows, broke the seal impatiently, and read: I winced and dropped the paper to the table. Well, I asked for the truth, I m...
The grandeur around us was a silent testimony to wealth and power. The air was scented with a complex mixture of exotic flowers and the faintest trace of tanglewood incense, denoting peace and kindred...
The dining room was formidably elegant--I couldn’t take it in all at once. A swift glance gave the impression of the family colors, augmented by gold, blended with artistry and grace. The table was hi...
Stablehands ran to the bridles and led the horses to a picket as Nessaren and I walked into the tent. Inside was a kind of controlled pandemonium. Scribes and runners were everywhere that low tables a...
So what’s the plan?I believe that our best plan is to flush them out. If we can capture them both, there will be little reason for the others to fight.But if they’re in the midst of the army-- Bran st...
So much to learn, I said with a groan. How will I manage?She just laughed; and the next day a new arrival brought my most formidable interview yet: with my new maid.Her name is Mora, Nee told me, and...
Our plan depended on the Renselaeus warriors being fast and accurate and brave, for they were as outnumbered as Bran and I had been up in the mountains.I was also, therefore, intensely aware that my l...
One morning when we three were alone, Nee leaned forward and said, Elen, you’ve been closeted with Vidanric a lot, I’ve noticed. Has he said aught about a coronation? I confess it makes me nervous to...
Now, tell me everything.He chuckled and leaned against the door. That’s a comprehensive command! Where to begin?With Galdran. How did he die?Vidanric. Sword, Bran said, waving his index finger in a pa...