Traitor's Blade

I must have encountered the Duke somewhere on the road because I was carrying a sack with me and his head was in it.

Gods, man, don't you start now,' I said softly. 'We're going to get a terrible reputation if we just keep travelling across the countryside crying all the time.

When you're fighting a crowd, it's good to shout potentially threatening things like "Crossbows!" or "Fire!" or "Giant Flying Cat!" every once in a while.

That's what being free means - not the right to do whatever you want, but the right to take a stand and say what you'll die for.

The archer is the true weapon; the bow is just a long piece of wood.

I rolled my eyes at Kest. We'd heard this lecture many times before, but Trin hadn't, so she stepped right into it. "Is it really so hard?" She asked "My dear, not one man in a hundred can be a proper archer. And not one in ten thousand can become a master." "And you are one? A master archer, i mean?" Brasti smiled and contemplated the nails of his right hand. "One might fairly say so, i believe." "One says so frequently," I observed.

Feltock bit the inside of his cheek. Then he said, ‘And you think you remember everyone who was there that day?’ I thought about it for a moment. ‘Not everyone, ’I replied. Feltock was looking at me intently, trying to see if I knew, if I did remember. More trouble than it will be worth, I thought, but I was a little drunk and a little tired so I said, ‘But since you’re asking, yes, General Feltock, I remember you.’ Feltock’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then he gave a bitter laugh. ‘Not “General”, ’he said. ‘Not for a few years now. ’We drank some more in silence. ‘So,’he said, uncrossing his legs with a crack. ‘Are you gonna come for me next, boy?’ I sighed. ‘No.’ ‘Why not? I was there, wasn’t I? I was one of those what took down your King, wasn’t I? So what’s the difference between me and Lynniac?’ ‘You didn’t laugh. ’He just looked at me for a while and then said, ‘Huh’. Then he stood up and started walking back to the wagons. ‘Why “Captain”Feltock?’ I asked when he was a few paces away. ‘Why aren’t you a general any more?’ Feltock turned and gave me a sour grin. He tossed the rest of his wineskin back to me. ‘Because, boy, when they put the King’s head on that pole, I forgot to laugh.

I don't know how well I can fight, or run, or judge, but when the blade comes, I swear on whatever they want me to swear on, I'll stop it, with my body if nothing else.

If Kest ever becomes a Saint, the transcendent expression of an ideal, he’s going to be Saint Kest-who-never-fucking-learns.

The First Law is that men are free, for without the freedom to choose, men cannot serve their heart, and without heart they cannot serve their Gods, their Saints, or their King.

... he had known darkness and despair, and emerged determined to light candles for everyone else.

She turned back to the rest of us. "They've taken it all," she said. "They've taken every last good thing in the world." Then she swung the door wide. "Now go and show them your answer.

Our nation is weakened by a system that breeds a visceral hatred so deep that most people would as soon see the world burn as stay as it is, but lack the will to try and change it.

You can’t do this,’ I said, though I had nothing whatsoever to back up my statement. ‘Why not? I seem to have an army behind me.’ ‘We have a Saint,’ Brasti said, pointing at Kest. ‘Your Saint seems to be unconscious,’ the Duke replied.

When you’re fighting a crowd, it’s good to shout potentially threatening things like “Crossbows!” or “Fire!” or “Giant Flying Cat!” every once in a while. When people are in the middle of a battle they’ll look more often than not, and in this kind of fight, every second is a chance to do some damage and otherwise avoid the inevitable. I

Ah, you fool. Dying isn’t sacrifice. Haven’t you figured that out yet? All those years of trying to get yourself killed in battle? That ain’t sacrifice, boy. That’s self-loathing. It’s gleeful suicide. It’s vanity.

Books make good friends sometimes, Falcio.’ He clapped me on the shoulder. ‘Take as many as you like from the library.

I wondered, not for the first time, that the world could bear the weight of so many foul people. “Besides,

At first it sounded like lovemaking, but I am beginning to think I really can’t tell the difference between these noises and those of a man being tortured.

Oh, hello." Kest said, "Who are you?" The smithy was full of smoke and dust and the King coughed for a bit before he answered. "Paelis the first." He said, "Your King." "Ah. That must be nice.

That’s what being free means – not the right to do whatever you want, but the right to take a stand and say what you’ll die for.

That’s what being free means–not the right to do whatever you want, but the right to take a stand and say what you’ll die for.

An archer needs to trust his form, not the feel of the bow. The archer is the true weapon; the bow is just a long piece of wood.

People always underestimate the reach of a rapier–trust me, it’s longer than it looks.

Nothing gets by you, Falcio, except for the bloody obvious.

For a moment it felt as if everything around me stopped completely. Even the wind held its breath. Until that instant I had never truly understood despair, though I had lived with it my whole life. I thought despair was something you fought and died fighting – something you had to clothe yourself in madness and rage to protect against. But then, against all logic and decency, Brasti had decided, in that impossible moment, to turn all the pain in the world into a joke. You and I will grow old together and laugh at the day these silly birds came to rest in our fields, she had said to me. Hollow words, and yet their very emptiness left a hole that demanded to be filled. The sound that broke through my lips was harsh and awkward, like a man who’d forgotten how to speak, but it set Brasti off and he started laughing like a fool.

...but the truth is, that those who truly and completely fail are those who sleep the deepest and softest of all.

they've taken it all," she said. "they've taken every last good thing in the world." Then she swung the door wide. "Now go and show them your answer.