The Warrior Heir

He's not lazy. He's just highly inefficient.

Ellen could have killed me," Jack said quietly, "but she didn't. She saved my life." "How come?" Fitch demanded. "After all this?" Ellen turned scarlet and stared at the ground. "Maybe none of my opponents ever gave me flowers before," she mumbled.

Just remember who you are... The world will try to change you into someone else. Don't let them. That's the best advice anyone can give you.

Well now, Jack," Hastings said from the sidelines. "I'm afraid you've been beheaded. Not a good start." He sounded amused.

And they always slept better with blades beneath their beds.

D'Orsay's voice was cold. "Sponsors, control your warriors." Hastings gave an almost imperceptable shrug. His warrior was upright only through the grace of his opponent. Wylie, on the other hand, was in Ellen's face immediately. "What's the matter with you?" he hissed. "Finish him off, and let's be done with this." He made as if to grab her sword arm, as if he intended to settle the matter himself, but she threw him off hard. He landed in the grass. "You're a killer, Ellen!" he shouted. You've trained for this for a lifetime. Now do what comes naturally!" Ellen pointed her sword at Wylie and flame ran along the blade. "Be careful what you wish for," she said coldly.

Ellen rose to her feet. Jack thought for a moment she was going to storm out. Instead, she picked up the pitcher of hot fudge and poured the contents onto Leesha Middleton's pink jeans and fuzzy white sweater. "Oops." Ellen sat down again and went back to eating her ice cream. Leesha screamed, a sound that could be heard in Canada. Every eye in Corcoran's was on her. She slid out of the booth and swiped ineffectually at her jeans with a napkin.Then she plucked at her ruined sweater with her thumb and forefinger. "You...you...I can't believe you did that!" Ellen licked whipped cream from the back of her spoon and looked at Leesha calmly. Leesha was tiny, but she seemed to expand, like an amphibian taking on air, then she drew herself up and retrieved her pink leather purse from the bench next to Jack. It was smeared with fudge too. "You'll pay for that, I promise you," she said to Ellen in a voice that raised the gooseflesh on Jack's neck. Then she turned and left. For a moment, Corcoran's was totally silent. Ellen looked across the table at Jack's sundae. "Are you going to finish that?

The world will try to change you into someone else. Don't let them. That's the best advice anyone can give you.

More and more, there were no revelations, but simply the uncovering of truths long known but dimly remembered. Everything had been written long ago. There was nothing truly new in the world, but only the slow, circular march of time that revealed the old things once again.

You can't always pick where you fight, or who you fight...or even...how you fight. But do the picking...whenever you can.

The human mind had a remarkable ability both to discount what it sees and make reality conform to expectation.

One more thing: Linda, can you get to Canterbury and take over my Chaucerian Society? They're at Dovecote Hostelry in the old city. We're visiting all the scenes of the great murders. Tomorrow they want to see where Becket was killed. They're a bloodthirsty lot, it seems.

You look like a boy who has eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge and doesn't like the taste.

I've found it wise to enjoy any time of truce, while recognizing it for what it is. A truce.

(A)ny time you buy weapons, or build an army, you begin to look for an excuse to use them. Plus, you pose more of a threat to others.

I guess you never think your enemy is as clever as you are.

They fought for glory, but not for blood. They were Weirlind, heirs of the warrior’s stone. And they always slept better with blades beneath their beds.

Stupid. He was stupid. He was tired of being stupid.

They fought for glory, but not for blood.

A girl who would never play in a tournament. She'd been butchered by agents of the Red Rose when they'd been unable to steal her away.

Maybe none of my opponents ever gave me flowers before,” she mumbled.