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The world has always had magic in it, Christopher. Aren’t you holding a griffin in your arms? The magic grew with the Earth’s first tree; from the tree it flowed into the soil, into the air, and into the water. In the Archipelago they call it the glimourie.”
Some sentences have the power to change everything. There are the usual suspects: I love you, I hate you, I’m pregnant, I’m dying, I regret to tell you that this country is at war. But the words with the greatest power to create both havoc and marvels are these: “I need your help.”
(He would never find it again, that kind of friendship. But once is enough. You need it only once—so that you may know what your human heart is capable of.)
“And it’s all very well being fearless and that, but a little bit of anxiety about insulting everyone you speak to might make you look like less of a thug.”
“The Immortal remembers everything they have seen, in every life: they are the living memory, and the living knowledge,” said Irian. “They have seen all the possible ways of us. It means they can predict a disaster before it begins; they can halt a wrong before it’s committed. They remember what has been done to save life, what has been done to destroy it. They advise regents and ministers and scholars.”
their knowledge into the rock: histories, philosophies, songs, mathematics.” She ran her hand along a diagram gouged into the stone: a planet, bifurcated. “They cut deep, so it will last a thousand years. When, after years, the whole mountain is written, they move to the next.”
stop expecting life to get easier. It never does; that is not where its goodness lies. Or”—and she looked at Irian, at Nighthand—“do not wait for people to be faultless before you allow yourself to adore them. Adore them anyway. Such things are worth more than riddles.”
“But she’ll still be her,” said Christopher. “She’ll still be Mal.” “Will she?” said Irian. “How much of us is what we know and what we’ve seen?”
“You should have more respect for fear. It’s the engine in all your human history, fear. Fear, married to greed, married to power.”
“It is freedom. The only freedom is in absolute power. Without absolute power, you will always be subject to some other man. Freedom is available only to those who are willing to take it by force.”
“That is why great power must never reside in only one person. It must be shared.” Her rough voice was rougher than before. “It must be spread, among as many good women and men as can be found; not because it is kind or polite or fair, but because
