Warprize (Chronicles of the Warlands, #1)

by Elizabeth Vaughan

Explain that a good healer knew when to let a patient go, that death wasn’t always an enemy.

They all bled red, and they all responded to my medicines.

But for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to anyone that a healer at some point had to deal with the actual body.

“As if I would waste time reading a book.”

I’d always thought that I’d be able to scream or fight or get away from any foolish enough to try anything.

They were very expensive and I’d used them sparingly, saving them for a special occasion or an indulgence. As I looked at them, I wished I’d used them every day.

It was fairly clear that the Warlord wanted to be able to inspect the merchandise before claiming it.

Ah, the familiar cries of a healing warrior.

I didn’t wait to see if I was obeyed. They’d feel my wrath if I wasn’t.

It looks bad to lose one’s warprize on the very first day.”

“That ends now.”

“You are passionate about your trade.” He cocked his head. “Your profession?”

I closed my eyes, wondering if I would ever hear my own name again.

“The sky favors the bold.”

“You were given a treasure, Warlord. The King may not see it that way, but my people do. See that it is cherished.”

“Only the sky is perfect.”

red was the color worn by women whose profession I was not supposed to know about.

Of course Great Aunt Xydella would have worn the dress and loved every outrageous minute of it.

If that meant I never heard my name again, so be it.

“Someone who walks in front of your horse, crying out your name and title. Usually used by someone who thinks he is of great importance and is afraid no one knows it.”

“Show us this stone tent of yours.”

I envied them to a degree, having so freely what I had to fight to achieve.

In one wonderful, horrible moment I knew that I was lost. Keir, Warlord, had taken me, claimed me, made me his warprize. But somewhere, somehow, he had managed to find a way into my heart as well.

Please Goddess, let him want me. Let him want me forever.

Well then that one of us has the common sense the elements gave all creatures.”

I needs get back and poke holes in the bucket he carries his conceit in.”

I would have to remember that the next time I dosed someone with it. It wouldn’t stop me from giving it to them, but I’d try to be more sympathetic.

“I believe you would call that a ‘compromise.’ ”

I sat frozen, not understanding how everything could change in an instant.

I lay awake for quite some time, wondering about a world where a warrior held his rank and title by merit instead of class or birth.

“You are free, Lara. The only restraints on you are those of your own choosing.”

it takes more courage to be waiting than to be in the thick of things.

“No excuses. You want something, you work for it, not sulk in your room weeping like a spoiled child.

Does the heart count days, or even hours?

“If the kingdom were ill, what would you do?”

Keir had been right. The best part of being a queen and a warprize is getting exactly what you want.

I’d diagnosed my patient; now all I had to do was convince the patient that the treatment would work, no matter how bad the taste.

The one Xyian custom he’d have nothing to do with was “bedclothes.”