The Price of Valour

Three men can keep a secret only once two of them are at the bottom of the river.

But there was never any arguing with Janus, least of all from the other end of a flik-flik line.

Is that what love is supposed to look like? Wanting the best for another person, regardless of what it means for yourself?

They both offered Winter crisp salutes, but the expression on their faces made her uncomfortable. It was the look of Women meeting a legend. When did I become a legend?

Raesinia wondered if Maurisk, in the barricaded offices of the Hotel Ancerre, repeated it to himself. Janus is coming.

He noticed—it was impossible not to notice—that Raesinia was wearing a sheer silk nightgown that did little or nothing to hide the shape of the figure beneath it. A woman’s figure, Marcus had to admit. The queen’s diminutive height made it easy to forget that she’d passed her twentieth year.

I’m on it,” Cyte said. “I’ll have our supplies waiting at the gate in the morning. That just leaves—” Winter sighed. “Jane. I know.” “We could leave them behind.” Cyte smiled, to show it was a joke, and Winter forced a faint smile in return. “Abby would never forgive me.” I would never forgive myself. “I’ll go and talk to her now. Maybe they haven’t had time to get drunk yet.” I

Why do you continue your... charade? Your current position would seem to be a good one for revealing the truth'. 'A few people know, sir. Bobby, Jane, some of the Leatherbacks. For the rest... it just seems easier to keep things as they are.' Winter thought of Novus and his tirade. 'It would be one thing if I had just joined up, but it's been so long. People might be upset that they'd been fooled. And...' Janus raised an eyebrow. Winter hesitated. 'It's all right for the Girl's Own,' she said. 'They joined up because Vordan needs them, and when the war's over they'll go home. I... I haven't anywhere to go.' She tugged the collar of her uniform. 'This is who I am now, for better or worse. This is my home. After the war, maybe it will be all right for a woman to keep this on, but... maybe not.' Winter found her throat getting thick. She'd never put it that way before, never even thought it so bluntly. This is my home.

Best way to get on someone’s good side is to make it ‘me and you against the idiots.

Liberators are always more popular than conquerors. And a return to law and order is more welcome once people have gotten a taste for what life is like without it.

But Marcus had refused to be persuaded. His naïveté can be sweet, when it’s not so annoying.