Low Town

I remember the lightning in the air, and the lovers bidding goodbye to each other in the streets, and I can tell you what I think. We went to war because going to war is fun, because there's something in the human breast that trills at the thought, although perhaps not the reality, of murdering its fellows in vast numbers. Fighting a war ain't fun - fighting a war is pretty miserable. But starting a war? Hell, starting a war is better than a night floating on daeva's honey.

The dangerous men were still asleep, their blades sheathed next to their beds. The really dangerous men had been up for hours, and their quills and ledgers were getting hard use.

Thus far, the best that could be said for the day was that it was half over.

If the human race has ever invented an institution more effective in the propagation of intellectual and ethical cripples than the nobility, I have yet to stumble across it.

There are some things a man can’t fake, and lethality is one of them—a lapdog might learn to howl, even bare its teeth on occasion, but that don’t make it a wolf.

The Questioner was repacking his tools with a vague air of disappointment. Deciding my legs were steady enough to carry me, I propped myself to my feet, then turned towards my would-be torturer. 'You got a cigarette?' I asked. He shook his head, the burned red crown of his hood bobbing. 'I don't smoke,' he said without taking his eyes off his work. 'That stuff will kill you.

I’d heard that in some of the newer mental wards they set the mad and congenitally stupid to rote tasks, having them sew buttons onto mounds of fabric, the futile labor working as a salve to their broken minds. I wonder sometimes whether the guard is not an extension of this therapy on a far grander scale, an elaborate social program meant to give the low functioning an illusion of purpose.

don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure,” she began. “Are you mad? I had you last year at Lord Addington’s spring formal! We went behind his pagoda and I took you from the rear. You said I was the best you’d ever had!” The color drained from her face—clearly she didn’t find my scenario entirely implausible. Stammering an explanation she hurried off, leaving me to watch the celebration solo.

Don't you want to know what I saw?" she asked. "Everyone always wants to know what's ahead of them." "People are fools. You don't need a prophet to tell you the future. Look at yesterday, then look at today. Tomorrow is likely to be the same, and the day after that.

Things happen.” “True, exactly as you say. Things happen.” His eyes traced patterns on the wall behind me, and the fire crackled in the corner. His face took on a wistful quality that tends to augur monologue, and, sure enough, the pregnant pause gave birth to soliloquy.

Jedna misao u mojoj glavi bila je toliko velika da ništa drugo nije moglo zaživjeti i uništila je spokoj koji mi je ostao, a već su ga oslabili prethodni današnji događaji.

The dangerous men were mostly still asleep, their blades sheathed next to their beds. The really dangerous men had been up for hours, and their quills and ledgers were getting hard use.

I snatched a flute of champagne from a passing waiter who harrumphed with disdain. The degree of contempt underlings are willing to muster on behalf of their employers is a source of continual amusement to me.

Pogled su mi uzvratile neobične i stravične stvari, beskonačne membrane očiju u nemirnom i bijesnom vrtlogu, otvorene čeljusti koje su bez prestanka pokušavale ugristi beskonačnu crnu prazninu, otvori koji su erotično pulsirali, pipci koji su se stezali i pružali u vječnoj noći. Neugodan cvilež brbljao je na polurazumljivom jeziku, obećavao mi je odvratne darove i zahtijevao još stravičnije žrtve.