Daindreth's Outlaw

It was odd, be taken care of. It made her feel helpless and lazy, but at the same time…she might be able to get used to it. There was a relief in having someone take care of her, like she’d been free climbing a cliff her whole life and now suddenly had a rope to catch her if she fell.

[Magic users] were dangerous and most of them had been women, something that made them doubly terrifying to many.

The last thing he wanted was to use her. Her mother had used her. Her father had used her. It was time someone protected her.

Mercy by its nature is unjust.” Daindreth exhaled a long breath. “None of us is blameless. We’re all accomplices to some atrocity or another. It’s the way of the world.

securing the rigging to the docks.

She couldn’t sculpt it [the poisoned ka], weave it, or shape it as she could with any other ka, but she could shovel it, heap it on him like dirt. Amira dragged the sickening power to press down and around Iasu.

I haven’t really figured her out yet.” “Has any man ever really figured out a woman?” Sair asked. Her tone was flat, factual. Not teasing at all. Thadred was a little relieved by that. “Fair enough,” he admitted.

Thadred considered that for a moment. Calling on her people was probably better than a bloody death by kelpie.

You can threaten me. Torture me. Do what you want to me. But there is nothing you can do that will make me betray my son.” She addressed the Kadra’han with a steadiness Thadred couldn’t have managed himself. “We give our lives for our children, not the other way around. That’s something your empress has yet to learn.

The Cursewood didn’t seem real, more like a nightmare that had been dragged into the waking world.

You were right about one thing,” she muttered. “This is the last thing any Kadra’han would expect us to do. They think we’re sane.

I believe your mother loved you, Amira. I believe she still does.” Amira felt something in her going hard at that. The old guard dog of anger took a protective stance over that place in her heart where the past had left a gaping wound.

Daindreth bit his lip. He didn't think so [that he would have allowed those atrocities], but it felt as if she was making him out to be infallible. He didn't like it.

She [Amira] wasn't sure if he [Cromwell] protected her in order to use her or used her in order to protect her.

He was rejecting her because he didn't want to hurt her, but rejecting her was hurting her anyway.

As he discovers new power as a sorcerer, he begins to wonder if perhaps there is more to his heritage than he was told and more to his potential than he ever dreamed.