The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles #1)

by Michael J. Sullivan

“Just as learning certain truths robs us of innocence, taking lives robs a man of his soul. Each killing steals a bit of humanity until a murderer is nothing more than an animal. A hunger replaces the spirit. A want for what was lost, but as with innocence, the soul can never be replaced. Joy, love, and peace flee such a vessel and in their stead blooms a desire for blood and death.”

Fear made all the difference between rational and insane and could even masquerade one for the other.

That’s what magic is, you see. Observations, coupled with logic, knowledge, and reasoning, provide a wizard such as myself with an understanding of nature.

Once an idea is learned, once it settles in, it becomes comfortable and hard to discard, like an old hat.

“Next time try breaking the fall with your neck,” Royce said with no sense of humor. “That would be less painful for both of us.”

That’s how Raynor Grue liked to see it. He had a tendency to decide what the facts were—made life easier that way.

Ever notice how the word friend is only one letter away from fiend? Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe not.”

“Yes, a team, partners, as in two people working together, pooling their talents for a common goal. In elvish they have a word for it. They call it—” “Riyria,” Royce finished for him.

“What good is it to have duplicates? Opposites extend your range, your knowledge, your capabilities. If the two of you could learn to get along, you could be quite formidable, because you are so different.

feel very strongly that everyone should have an education. Ignorance is the bane of the world. Knowledge brings understanding, and if men understand the difference between right and wrong, they will, of course, do what is right.

Even kindness was the result of a desire for respect or admiration in the eyes of those helped.

He could be anywhere, at any time. Back in Manzant, the loft in Colnora, the room in Glen Hall, somewhere on the road, in prison, in a coffin—so long as he didn’t open his eyes, no single possibility was any more likely than any other.

“There’s doing what’s right, and there’s doing what’s safe. Most of the time you do what’s safe because doing different will get you dead for no good reason, but there are times when doing what’s safe will kill you too. Only it’ll be a different kind of death. The dying will be slow, the sort that eats from the inside until breathing becomes a curse. Understand?”