“If we forget who we lost, then we forget who we once were, and if we forget who we once were, we lose sight of who we are now.”
“Are you an idiot, or an idiot?' Gargarin hissed.
'The first one. I really resent being called the second.”
“In a kinder world," he whispered, "one I promise you I've seen, men and women flirt and dance and love with only the fear of what it would mean without the other in their lives.”
“I've been waiting for you all night and day,' she said.
Froi shivered. He realised that the words came from Quintana the ice maiden. Realised, as he felt his face heating up, that the idea of this Quintana waiting for him with excitement spoke to parts of him he believed to be dormant. And then she winked.
'Did I do that right?' she asked. Her smile was lopsided and he saw a glimpse of the teeth.
And Froi imagined that he would follow her to the ends of the earth.”
“I'm not interested in those who do me wrong. There's not enough time in the day for them.”
“I don't despise you for what you allowed to happen to me. I despise you because when I was released, you refused to be found and I needed you more than anything in my life. Not to mend my broken bones, Arjuro. I needed my brother to mend my broken spirit.”
“I still wake with your name on my lips every morning.”
“Silence is not just about secrecy, Your Majesty. It is grief and it is shame.”
“Some of us weren't born for rewards, Froi. We were born for sacrifices.”
“He took her face in his bloody hands. "I’ll come and find you wherever you are. I’ll not stop breathing until I do. So you’re going to have to promise me that you won’t lose hope. That you will keep yourself alive.”
“There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.”
“No stories or explanations,' Finnikin had once told him. 'When it comes to women, straight into an apology and you will find the rest of your life bearable.”
“I fear that I will do something to bring harm to those I love," Froi said. "So I follow their rules to ensure that I won't."
"But what if you bring harm or fail to protect those you don't know? Or don't love? Will you care as much?"
"Probably not."
"Then choose another bond. One written by yourself. Because it is what you do for strangers that counts in the end.”
“Near the window, Finnikin stood with both hands against the wall, his head bent over her. As always, the intimacy between them made Froi ache.
"I promise you," Finnikin said. "I've already shouted at her and used a very, very reprimanding tone."
"I was quivering," the Queen said, stepping out from behind Finnikin.”
“Phaedra shook her head. “If your people mean no offense, they should not speak their thoughts out loud in front of their children, Tesadora. Because it will be their children who come to slaughter us one day, all because of careless words passed down by their elders who meant no harm.”
“Sometimes... sometimes keeping alive is too tiring," she whispered, wringing her hands. Before he knew what he was doing, he pressed his lips against her brow. "Don't ever say that. Ever.”
“Don't ever ask me again if I hate living anywhere with you and Jasmina. This Rock reminds me of the boy I was and being with you in the palace reminds me of the man I want to be.'
'Not just any man,' she whispered. 'A King. Mine.”
“Quintana of Charyn's body was a map of hatred.”
“I heard your song the moment we were born. And years later, it dragged me back from the lake of the half-dead when all I wanted to do was die. Each time someone tried to kill me, it sang its tune and gave me hope.”
“Is your queen what you are searching for in a woman, Froi?"
"I never imagined I was looking for something in a woman. But if I did, I'd have to judge her by the way I felt laying beside her before I went to sleep at night and how I felt in the morning waking up to her."
"Oh, too profound, my friend. Much too profound.”
“A kiss is the prize?’ he asked sadly. ‘Even more than giving me the rest of you? It should be the other way round, Princess. In the real world, it's called courting. You let a lad kiss you and then you offer him more.’
‘Let me tell you something, Olivier,’ she said with tears of sorrow in her eyes, ‘this is my real world.”
“Arjuro made a scoffing sound. ‘You think Lumatere will invade because of you? Are you that important?’
Froi looked away. ‘Isaboe would invade if you kidnapped a servant, let alone a friend.’
‘Isaboe? We’re on first-name terms with the Queen of Lumatere, are we?’ Gargarin asked.
Froi found himself bristling. ‘What? Do you think I’m some cutthroat for hire who they found hanging around the palace walls with the words “I want
to kill a Charynite King” tattooed on my arse?”
“...the greatest weapon against big stupid men was a sharp mind.”
“What are you doing?" she asked, trying to raise herself.
"First, I thought I'd show you what a pity it would be if they cut off my wicked tongue.”
“Lucian was beginning to get used to hearing her small observations at night. More than anything, he realized he liked her voice in the dark. It made him feel less lonely.”
“Imagine who she would be if we unleashed her onto the world. I think she would rip the breath from all of us.”
“And he saw it in her eyes. Still. The belief that there could be someone other than herself. You, he wanted to shout. You. No one but you. Stupid, stupid girl.”
“How seven days had passed since she had disappeared from existence.
That it would take the eyes of the gods to find her.
Or the heart of the Lumateran exile.”
“Men don't rape women because their women are ugly," cousin Jostien said, but there was a protest at his words.
"That's what my fa said! He says that inside their hearts and spirits they are nothing but little men who need to feel powerful.”
“He's my father!" she bellowed, pointing to Trevanion.
"Vestie!" Beatriss said firmly, stopping to stare up at her. "I'll snip at the tongue if I ever see it in such a way again! Trevanion, speak to her."
Vestie hung her head, shamefaced.
"Vestie," he said, his voice still gentle.
"Yes, Father."
"Shout it out louder, my love. Shout it out louder.”
“You cannot "love" a dog out of her bad behavior, just as you can't "love" a criminal into stopping his crimes.”
“He had the same look on his face that I had every day when I looked in the mirror. He was nothing more than a shell of a person.”
“Is that where you draw the line? I'll never understand why some things are more taboo than others."
"And that's what makes you so kinky, the fact that you don't see the difference.”
“every son should have a chance to know his father, not as a child knows his protector, but as a man knows another man.”
“At that moment I knew what the plebs were, much more clearly than when, years earlier, she had asked me. The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts. The plebs were my mother, who had drunk wine and now was leaning against my father’s shoulder, while he, serious, laughed, his mouth gaping, at the sexual allusions of the metal dealer. They were all laughing, even Lila, with the expression of one who has a role and will play it to the utmost.”
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