The Queen of the Tearling

Even a book can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and when that happens, you blame the hands, but you also read the book.

Carlin often said that history was everything, for it was in man’s nature to make the same mistakes over and over.

The mark of the true hero is that the most heroic of his deeds is done in secret. We never hear of it. And yet somehow, my friends, we know. —Father Tyler’s Collected Sermons, FROM THE ARVATH ARCHIVE

The future was only disasters of the past, waiting to happen anew.

You win your people or you lose your throne.

Those who cease to worry about their souls often find them difficult to reclaim later

Everyone dies eventually. I think it's better to die clean.

There's no other life for me. Anyway, clemency wouldn't begin to repay your debt. I've given you a greater gift than you know." "What gift?" "You'll find out. In return, I expect you to keep it safe." Kelsea turned back to the mirror. "Great God, tell me you didn't impregnate me while I slept." The fetch threw back his head and roared with laughter. He placed a friendly hand on Kelsea's back, making her skin prickle. "Tear Queen, you'll either be dead within a week or you'll be the most fearsome ruler this kingdom has ever known. I see no middle ground.

We don't always choose, Majesty. We simply make the best choices we can once the deed is done

You think of beauty only as a blessing, Majesty, but it brings its own punishments.

They had found the seven volumes of Rowling with no help at all, but there was no squabbling.

Stories moved Kelsea most, stories of things that never were, stories that transported her beyond the changeless world of the cottage.

Weakness, all the more dangerous for being combined with a sense of entitlement

This is how women are trained to stay indoors, she thought, the idea echoing in her mind like a gravesong. This is how women are trained not to act.

Carlin always said that most men were dogs, and Kelsea had never taken her seriously; there were too many good books written by men.

Shit," she muttered. She'd heard the word from her guard many times, but only now did she understand the real use of profanity. That one word said exactly what she was feeling, said it better than a hundred other words could have done.

Kelsea saw now that there was something far worse than being ugly: being ugly and thinking you were beautiful.

I need my own armor, and soon. A silly queen I'll look when I've been slowly flattened into a man." Mace grinned. "You wouldn't be the first queen of this kingdom to be mistaken for a king.

Kelsea didn't recognize the guard, but she knew his voice. After a moment she realized, bemused, that it was Dyer. He'd shaved his red beard. "Dyer, is that your face under there?" Dyer flushed bright red. Pen snorted gleefully, and Kibb clapped Dyer on the back. "I told him, Lady...now we can see every time he blushes.

Not just a thief, but a murderer as well. Beneath the handsome man, Kelsea sensed another man, a terrible one, with a life as black as the water in an ice-covered lake. A murderer many, many times. The idea should have brought horror. Kelsea waited for a long moment, bu what came instead was an even worse realization: it didn't matter at all.

...Javel saw evil in those bright blue eyes, not malevolence but something much worse: an evil born of lack of self-awareness, an evil that didn't know it was evil and therefore could justify anything.

I see this land flowing with books, Father. Widespread literacy. Books everywhere, as common as they used to be in circulation before the Crossing, affordable even for the poor.

The Queen held up her hands for silence. At that moment, Javel knew for certain that she truly was the Queen, though he never knew why or how he knew.

Time stretched years back and years forward, but nothing that came afterward ever had the power to wash away what came before.

The Fetch was intelligent, diabolically so, and intelligent people devised intelligent cruelties. That was where the Red Queen had always excelled.

We're coming to the point where I may need to split my men to evade pursuit. If so, my choice of bodyguard for you will depend much on your won abilities." "Well, I am a fast reader, and I know how to make stew." Carroll nodded in approval "You've a sense of humor about all this, Lady. You'll need one. You're entering a life of great danger.

What does the Red Queen want, then?" Kelsea had asked Carlin. She had no interest in maps and wanted to wrap up the lesson. "What conquerors always want, Kelsea: everything, with no end in sight.