The Other Wind (Earthsea Cycle, #6)

by Ursula K. Le Guin

witches seldom kept company more than a night or two with any man, and it was a rare thing for a witch to marry a man. Far more often two of them lived their lives together, and that was called witch marriage or she-troth. A witch’s child, then, had a mother or two mothers, but no father.

Ugh.

Women of the court had been happy to gossip to Tenar about his several mistresses, none of whom had lost anything by being known as the king’s lover. He had certainly managed all that quite well, but he couldn’t expect to do so forever.

Too bad. Le Guin's casual approval of immorality makes this series inappropriate for imressionable young people. She doesn't mention it often, but when she does it's always in this offhand way like it's normal and fine. Dangerous if not addressed with kids.

choose to do what he had no choice but to do.”

that pause, that fearful pause, the moment before things changed.