Paladin of Souls (The Chalion Series Book 2)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

and matter sought to return gifts of spirit to the realm of spirit, as lo...

“But the fire at the heart of the world also held forces of destruction that could not be denied.

And from this chaos rose the demons,

It was the Season of Great Sorcerers.

wise and wicked by the consumption of many souls of men,

for the saint had divided his own soul, and poured it out into the wine,

and given it to the demon of his own free will.

for he was born in that moment, into the world of both matter and spirit.

but slowly the great-souled saint began to teach him the beauties of virtue.

for with the gift of free will had come the possibility of sin, and the burning shame of it,

And so began the great battle to clear the world of demons run rampant and restore the order of the seasons.

their Son, of all the gods, was given agency over both spirit and matter,

tally of the advent of the five gods.

the tally of the gods

called down the fivefold benison,

groin, and heart, hand spread wide

A free demon whose mount is dying simply jumps to another. You see, an elemental escaped into the world of matter cannot exist without a being of matter to lend it intelligence and strength,

In the beginning it is mindless, formless, as innocently destructive as a wild animal,

It is constrained in turn by the power of the creature or person ...

For a demon can tempt a weaker person to sorcery with promises to extend life.

Fortunately, stray demons are rare.

the Bastard’s seminary.

finely carved wood, with a small riot

It had been one of those dreams. The real ones. There was no mistaking them.

Whatever You want from me, I can’t do it. I’ve proved that before. Go away. Go away.

There’s a whole locked room where they keep the books on sorcery and demons, and, um, the lewd books. Chained.”

I still remember how I was chided and shamed for bearing a daughter to Ias,

have found reason to think, you see, that you may be extraordinarily spiritually gifted.

How in five gods’ names had he come by this sudden delusion?

“It was not me he loved in that way, but Ias. Dy Lutez should have been a lay dedicat of your order, I think, instead of holy general of the Son’s.”

the Bastard’s Order was the refuge of those to whom it was not given to conform to the fruitful relations between men and women overseen by the great Four, but to seek their own sex.

“The world is ashes and the gods are a horror.

This pilgrimage may be a medicine despite me.

He gave her the deep obeisance of piety to a living saint.

places of historical or theological interest—wells, ruins, groves, shrines, famous graves, commanding heights, formerly embattled fords.

She did not care for this oppressive shift in her perceptions.

She did not want to be responsible for them.

I had no luck wi...

In truth, she did not even know if her handmaiden, so hastily snatched up into her service, was a maiden.

Quite the reverse, since innocence based in ignorance was unfit to protect itself.

But the shadows were not impenetrable, for a strange glow hung in the air,

She knew it for the same moon as in her vision.

The place, the man, were as real as she, wherever they were.

the water was this land’s one rich gift, clear and pure and cold.

the village birthplace of a saintly woman healer, devotee of the Mother,

whose miracles had all taken place far from here.

the lords of Chalion prepared for the autumn campaign in the north.

Ista felt it first as a wave of emotion: hot, confused menace; pain and desperation; a terrible shortness of breath.

It’s not a bear. Or—not only a bear.

The eyes that stared back at her had a red intelligence that owed nothing to any animal mind.